Pete Chatmon, Director/Podcaster/Author: I try and temper creativity with being very deliberate
and so I watched a lot of filmmaking friends before me
go to Sundance, get a similar call and not have the next project.
Film Courage: Pete, I understand the first movie you wrote and directed go into Sundance?
Pete: Yeah, I guess it's the first one that I put out to film festivals. It's a short film I
did called 3d. It was my senior thesis film coming out of NYU Film School so it's like
if you were an undergraduate film and you were like crazy enough to say “I’m a director,” this
was the path. I did a 24-minute short film that I wrote, produced, and directed. I had
to raise $24,000 to make this film. It was a different time because we had to shoot on film so
everything was, people who have never shot on film have no budgetary appreciation for what that
meant. The example I often use is that we had to do an answer print. When you used to develop film
photographs you develop and then you get the negative back in the little pouch with the photos
and you could continue to develop that negative again and again if you needed to and so that's
how we were making films. We had the negative but we had a work print and so we would cut the work
print but save the negative and then when the work print was finished, we'd cut, well not us, there'd
be a negative cutter with white gloves and glue who would cut the actual negative that ran through
the camera and then cemented back together to match the locked picture from the work print. Then
that cemented negative that it runs through the camera all the film that I run through the camera
now cemented together in the configuration of the film that's from that's the print from which the
that's the film from which the prints get made and so anyhow that cost four thousand dollars
for the negative cut and now you could I've made shorts for that amount of money and so anyhow that
that film starred Dorian Missick who I was an actor I've met during my NYU days and
it's gone on to be in four or five of my projects starred Kerry Washington right at the beginning of
her career fresh out of George Washington she was graduating same year I did Al Thompson
myself and it went to Sundance in about 30 festivals around the world
and so did you actually think that you could get into something were
you thinking this is well just it's a wild card that's the thing I think over time what
it's nice to know for me it was nice to know that there were these potential outlets
for a project but I never did the projects for those outlets so it was always enough for me to
finish something that was the point now that's not removing the reality that I am aware that these
outlets exist but it's like this filmmaker zen balancing act of like if I put all my weight on
acknowledgement from some outside group then if I don't get that well what is that going to do
for me emotionally on this end will I feel like I failed will I feel frustrated will I become
embittered so I didn't expect it I knew it could happen and when it did happen I felt like I had
achieved something that was pretty difficult and so I was very happy about that but that's been
that's been the journey of the whole career like how do you navigate what you want from
what's achievable and what can you guarantee about this work that you do so you don't find yourself
becoming one of those people who are just angry at how the industry has not recognized them
for what they think is great work what was the submission for you at that time
what I have a pretty good memory it was probably like 45 and it was probably like 45 I didn't have
but that was that was always part of your budgeting too like how much are we going
to put aside for film festival submissions but it was either it was either 35 or 45 dollars
I'm pretty sure and so no Kickstarter, no Seed & Spark, no Indiegogo at that time
no no and how did you raise that you said $24,000 24 000. so I raised the portion from someone I had
interned with I raised the portion from my mom a small portion I raised a portion from
just knocking on doors and hey remember remember you put those braces on me
well you look like you might have a little bit of money so it was by hooker crook I worked
and it took it took a long time to put it all together the film sat around for a while until
post-production money could be raised did you go to Sundance with the film I did yeah yeah I did
okay so when you packed up to leave Sundance what was your mindset thinking like okay now
things are really going to change for me right yeah I think that that's the thing right you
get into this place where you you like almost everything I've said to you I could I could then
shake the etch a sketch and erase it all because you try and temper yourself with this healthy
view of expectations and then you get into the thing and you're like okay maybe this is it now
and so yeah I think at that time I was definitely hopeful and
expectant of certain things to come out of it because I had watched other people have
a have a particular journey after going to Sundance and then you got back home and so
you're in New York City or New Jersey in New Jersey okay yeah and and what happened
so get back home I get a phone call from Lynn Auerbach who worked at the Sundance institute
she was interested in seeing if I had a feature or anything like what was my next project
luckily I did and so I passed that feature script on her I've been very strategic because I often
I try and temper creativity with being very deliberate and so I watched a lot of filmmaking
friends before me go to Sundance get a similar call and not have the next project and they say
oh we'll reach out when you finish that script but like if you take eight months to reach out well
the likelihood that they've reached out to a new batch of people who had a great film
at another film festival is high and I think you just want to when that doorbell rings you want to
answer the door as far as I'm concerned and so I got her that script it wasn't really ready or
perfect in any way had fade in and fade out and about 113 pages in between and so she read it
she was like well I don't think we're gonna I don't think this is gonna be the one but
get me another draft that was all I needed so we did that dance for maybe a year and a half
before they were like well look we're not going to
select the film but we'll introduce you to a bunch of producers in LA and set you up with meetings
and so that was the evolution of that what did that experience teach you so the experience of
going to Sundance and then coming home and then the phone not ringing like off the hook
well in the book I talk about after that screening at NYUs film festival and and again taking a lot
of that expectation of certain acknowledgement that I had at Sundance and bringing it back
home to to the university we had a film festival that was designed to screen all the work of all
the students that finished the project and so they would have a craft award and they would have
like a Wasserman finalist so top three undergrad films top three grad films and
the film didn't get recognized in any way whatsoever in any of the categories and
I and it had been advertised though as a film to see or look at how how well our slate of films is
doing here are these six films from this year that went to Sundance including 3d etc., etc, and so
after the awards came and went I had a meeting with the dean at the time or the chair rather
and I was like look how does this happen it's crazy to me this is righteous indignant me at what
22 years old it's crazy to me that you're using the film to promote the festival and how well
the work is in the festival but then with these awards it's like crickets or whatever and
he explained to me that well in the past we've had a film win Sundance then come
back and not be acknowledged in the way we're talking about so I was like all right
and I didn't win I get it and my takeaway from all of that was I can either be upset about this which
it's clearly becoming evident that i'd be standing on very un-firm ground with this anger
what I'm taking away from this is that I've never made I never took the opportunity to
build a network of people who are aware of me as a student to watch or someone that they had had
a more personal relationship with and so coming out of that both Sundance and NYU film festival
I was pretty committed to never having that happen again and so building a community of folks who
would be aware of me and know my story and be clear on where I wanted to go with my career
and that's how I built my production company rinse repeat I think that's how I got into
television directing which was not just like a I decided to do it and and it happened it was very
deliberate and took a lot of time and a lot of relationship building and so much like the phone
call job there was this great takeaway from from those two film festival experiences that
I think I'm not where I am today had I not gone through them and so did you actually
go on meetings did you fly out to la oh yeah during that time you did I went out to
I went out to NYU I went out to LA in June of 2002 and I had I don't know maybe 15 meetings set and
I stumbled my way through these meetings I did the best I could I don't looking back I probably was
full of passion but maybe not didn't know how to run a good meeting present myself in like
meeting form and the takeaway from the trip was well it looks like the film is maybe a little
too mainstream for what the Sundance institute was looking to do and then on the flip it looks
like it's a little too indie for what these more mainstream producers at the time in 2002 are
looking to do and let's just pause and say it's a vastly different landscape for content in 2002
it's like you had you had movies made at studios or mini majors and then you had like two or three
indies that fought through and made it out it was a it was not this world where you see all these
independent films and you could put them out on whatever platform you want or you could make them
for cheap enough that you could self-distribute them through your website or something and so
yeah I brought that back and said well I'm gonna if it's not gonna work for either of
these two demographics or buckets or whatever we want to call then looks like I'm gonna have
to raise some money on my own and that was that was my that game that be that became my focus
after that trip and so not indie enough for Sundance how does that happen what
well I think it changes with the times like I think every festival slate if you look at any
festival year to year there's a theme that happens just that reflects the times and I think in 2002
the the the premise and the execution of the film was not
necessarily like leaning toward the types of character exploration that might have been
more of the of the day as far as like this is what an indie film is going to do and all
and all of these things are like shifting terms so that's another thing for like filmmakers to
to always remember like these things can shift they and blow in the wind they change with
with the times I've done tv shows where one year they say we will never hire a first-time director
when I was in route when I was trying to get my first jobs and then two seasons later people I
know are getting their first ever episode of tv on the same show and things things are free to
change but it's like just knowing like it's all so malleable it's also nothing is set in stone
so do you think that if you had been the same age then now and gotten into Sundance that it would be
more difficult because you talked about building a network well there was no social media back
then yeah no no Myspace even right so yeah it was nothing right email was your social network right
AOL yeah “you've got mail” right right right so do you think it'd be more difficult or do you
think it was actually easier then because there were less people trying to do it that's a great
question so I think it was easier then I would say it was not easier than while there may have been
it may have been more difficult to it definitely was more difficult to make something
and now that means there are probably fewer things being made
but conversely I think because the barriers to entry are lower now and it's been
there's been a democratization to like getting in the game you've got fewer things
being made in the past with poor execution and then you've got more things being made now but
with people who have the opportunity to execute well because it's not like their first thing ever
what and I remember when I when I saw like friends brothers like from my year of high school like one
friend's brother I'm thinking specifically was like in middle school it was doing like green
screen stuff what it's like I hadn't even done it yet I was like 24 I’d never green screened
anything yet and this kid's in middle school green screen and stuff so you you take that and you just
move along the timeline of like now that person's 22 with a short film that the like the possibility
for that short film to be so much more well executed than what I was making I think is high.