Film Courage: How many hours do you write every day?
Emrhys Cooper, Writer/Director/Actor/Producer: At the moment not enough. I'm waiting for my next
strike of inspiration to happen quite honestly because my life has been unfortunately, there's
a lot of admin still going on with The Shuroo Process. We're starting a podcast in the new year
and I'm the kind as I’ve said my process of writing is once I've decided on the next thing I'm
going to write I will probably take two or three months off longer to write it but I'm not quite
there yet I'm still we're still promoting The Shuroo Process Idyllwild Pictures is my production
company we've just recently sold a podcast called Historical Homos with Zachary Quinto Around the
World in 80 Gays because a lot of history has been straight-washed and it's going to be really,
really interesting we're doing 48 episodes with stitcher so that's something I'm heavily involved
with from as a producer and that'll be really fun so we're going to be doing that next year
we've got three or five three or four other films on our slate that I'm producing on
but I haven't actually figured out what my next directing job will be but I I'm okay with that
it's I don't want to push that because it's so challenging directing that I have to really want
to do it and I'm waiting for I'm waiting for that story to bubble up but I do think next
year it's gonna come I already have some ideas I just haven't committed to them yet and I think
i'd like to finish this The Shuroo Process journey which we're so close to finishing and maybe take a
bit of time to decompress and then figure out what what I'm what story I'm burning to tell was that
something you were aware of is how much waiting you would be doing when you came here in 2008
I don't feel like I'm waiting that much because I always I do enjoy life I think it's really
important to have balance and have other interests I love doing lots of other things that aren't in
the entertainment industry I love surfing I love snowboarding I love traveling I love
camping I love nature there's a lot of things I enjoy I love working out I still love dancing
because if it was just entertainment I probably would feel like I'm waiting around a lot
but yeah the post-production uh in the sure process was the hardest thing I've ever done
I thought the filming was hard but post-production was just really hard we started in New York
and then unfortunately my very dear friend and one of the investors passed away who I was living
with are we shared in the apartment so that just threw me off the older crib it was just really
really upsetting and I had to move out of the apartment and I had to start all over again in LA
and then covert happened and then it was just the world turned upside down and I was just like what
the hell our editor got sent back to Australia with the film footage and it was just like
it was a disaster and it was very frustrating
but I think I had to go through that it was one of these things where I didn't really
know how to navigate post-production and now I have a much better idea so I'm kind of
grateful for the challenges in a way even though looking like looking back on it was
an absolute nightmare but I'm kind of grateful I had to go through that because now I have a
much deeper understanding and knowledge of the whole post-production process the tax credits
the coloring the sound design all those different elements that I didn't really understand I had
to just I had to almost teach myself on the job so if you approach it as a director again
what things do you think you'll implement like getting more coverage of something or knowing
like you can't necessarily always fix it in post sort of the cliche saying that I would 100 have a
post production supervisor on from the beginning whilst shooting so then you can prep the footage
and have everything ready for post don't bring the post-production and also the post-production
supervisor should be looking at the budget because a lot of the time the line producer
won't necessarily put the right amounts of money and allocate always because they kind of once the
the movie's finished the line producer normally leaves and then you've got your
post-production supervisor and most of the time you've not got enough money for post
so if you have a post-production supervisor from the start you're gonna have a much
smoother journey and like shooting the movie is only the third of the process so if you have a
post-production supervisor and I've got a great one so I'm gonna use them again if you'll have me
I just think it'd be a much smoother journey you'll be much more organized and yeah a lot
I've heard a lot of people have a nightmare on post and it's unfortunate a lot of people take
advantage of filmmakers in post because they know that you have to that you're you're kind of stuck
so it's a very unfortunate situation because a lot of indie movie makers
end up getting they have an amazing product and then post they don't have the money to quite
finish it to where the standard they should be getting it we were so lucky we got great people
color we've got amazing sound design we're amazing composers I really did luck out for the budget
we we got really good people involved so I'm so grateful that
I just we just managed to get people that believed in the film and a much higher level than what we
probably would get for that budget we got very lucky maybe it was because of covid I don't know
how do you decide which movie ideas to work on and which to throw away good question
for me I'm kind of turned on by movies that
talk about areas of life that aren't normally spoken about as much
and that I feel people need to know about so
I'm interested in talking about areas of life normally that I've experienced myself that I think
I have a good understanding and that's why I should be getting behind them I haven't got
to the point where I'm doing sci-fi and like things like that that I just don't necessarily
think I'm there yet I'm not saying I'm not ruling anything out because I think that as a director
there could be a time where I'm like oh I've got this idea and I'm going to go with it but right
now I think my skill as a filmmaker is sharing things that I've witnessed or experienced myself
so if if the idea is something too contrived or something I feel like is I'm just trying to be
commercial and trying to make money then I just it has to feel authentic it has to feel very real
to me if it feels manufactured or inauthentic then I'm not going to go with it
do you remember some of the first movies that you saw aside from James Bond where you felt that they
pushed the envelope and that you really got a good look into a certain world that maybe audiences
some would be shocked by some would rejoice in because they were speaking the truth so one of the
first movies that I remember being blown away by and wanting to be a filmmaker I didn't even know
what directing was but I watched the evil dead when I was maybe 11. and I remember
just being like blown away by it just the it was so wild and like out there and
exciting and scary that I thought that's what I want to do and I didn't kind of know how I was
gonna do it but I remember thinking wow like that's creating something like that how cool
but at that age I think I was probably 10 or 11 I really didn't know much about that but then I
think I got a camera and I started making my own little like Blair Witch style movies and stuff
yeah so I was there for the invite and inspired by Sam Raimi that was one of the first filmmakers
and then Stanley Kubrick I remember watching the secret garden that was the first movie I saw on
the big screen jurassic park I saw and I was just blown away by it so yeah as I said before my life
was not that exciting in Devon [England] but going to the movies was the most exciting experience
I had like all month and it didn't happen very often but I looked forward to it.