Brett Simon: Flyover Filming

Movie Meltdown - Episode 448 

This week we wrap-up Flyover Film Fest as we sit down with director Brett Simon to discuss his latest feature Better Start Running. Brett has devoted many years to studying film, art practice and creative writing as well as teaching film history, film theory and video production at UC Berkeley. As well as building a successful career as a commercial and music video director for bands like The Killers, Hoobastank and Queens of the Stone Age. So listen as we discuss everything from his early days as a movie fan all way up to directing his first feature film, Assassination of a High School President starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton. Plus we hear stories about coming to shoot his latest film in our own hometown as well as bringing along his cast including Analeigh Tipton, Alex Sharp and Jeremy Irons.

Plus as we ponder just how the more they drive - the less they travel, we also mention… the Cinematheque guys, Snow Patrol, Michelle Gondry, I’m the log cabin guy, the old model is dead as far as I can tell, time-management skills, Tarantino starting a zine, when the digital video cameras were not inherently pretty, naturalistic Noir, weekend warrior filmmakers, curious about everybody’s story, karmic retribution against filmmakers, the late 50s 60s French New Wave, putting less on the technical and more on voice… and more on perspective… and more on finding your own vision, that is the one part of your job that is uniquely yours, you go in… and you pitch your vision for it, Brick, the one constant in filmmaking is that things will go wrong, the dirty secret that I learned, the video store is your film school approach, the home video market was the sort of backstop that funded these things, Spike Jonze, he really kind of melded into our world, the beauty of filmmaking is like at the end of the day whether you are the most experienced or the least experienced it’s this weird alchemy where like… none of us really know until it plays to an audience, Twin Peaks, I'm constantly at that place where I'm going what is going to be my day job, Kafka, Eugene Meatyard, he’s a real bon vivant, the last people to have a busy signal, a syllabus of films that I needed to see, a budget a time and a place, Alfred Hitchcock, before the invention of the bulb, you don't even need the theory or the language to understand the visceral reaction, DIY, the films of Atom Egoyan, trying to move us more toward TV series, how to structure without structure, very video images and how to do it when no one’s expecting you to do it.

“...resilience and grit, at the end of the day, maybe the most important thing a filmmaker needs.”

For more on “Better Start Running”, go to:  http://betterstartrunningmovie.com/

For more on the Louisville Film Society, go to: http://www.louisvillefilmsociety.org/