Film Courage: What movie are you making actually right after this interview? Marty Lang, Screenwriter/Director and Assistant Professor of Film at the University of Central Arkansas/Director: So once we're
finished I'm gonna be driving to Agoura Hills where I will be directing my
second feature it's a film called stay with me it's a drama and it's a story
about a woman who's suffering from mental illness and it's about her best
friend and her boyfriend and how they deal with the lead-up to and the
aftermath of her taking her life so it's a it's heavy subject matter it's not a heavy
film although there are some certainly emotional moments in it
I met the the writer the co-writer of the film was an intern of mine when I
worked at Cal State Northridge and he was just set on making an
independent film once he graduated and he bugged me for about six months and
eventually I joined him on the journey and he said we can shoot in my parents
house you know I can get equipment for free we can work with students that are
graduating from CSUN film program and eventually I came around on it and we
decided to put the the team together and I hired a group of actors that had
graduated from Chapman University's acting program so those are all of our
actors we had like I said our crew is all CSUN film graduates and a couple
Chapman students that I used to work with and we're halfway done we it's a 13
days shoot and we finished day seven yesterday so I'm on my way out there to
work on day eight today and we'll have it done by next Monday and then we're
gonna go in a post and I'm hoping by the middle of next year you know what we'll
have the film done so having made Rising Star movie in Connecticut and different time
different state different world probably what same things are you taking with you
or leaving behind set up set of skills or you know expectations there's no
expectations on this movie when we made rising star that was the
most important thing I had done in my life up to that point and I pressured
myself accordingly this time there's no pressure one because we're making the
film for next to nothing our entire budget it's gonna be under ten thousand
dollars so that's a big part of it that's a big help but also you know this
is not this is not something that I'm looking at as a lynchpin in my life to
kind of carry me into another state of being you know as a filmmaker I've
written and directed a feature already so I know I can do it now it's just a
matter of how good can I do it so it's a very different mindset on this one and
it's it's a very different process with the actors I've find myself a lot more
collaborative on this as far as actors getting input you know on their lines
and on the performance the crew members that I'm working with them a lot more
collaborative with them this time whereas with rising star I had a very
specific plan that I did everything I could to stick to it's a lot different
now and and honestly I like it a lot more
this this kind of collaborative approach I think definitely helps and it starts
with with Adam Maimon my co-writer and my producer he really is the energy
behind this film and I'm so I sort of joined for the ride and that's something
I've never done before every other film I've made it's always been my Genesis
and I sort of carry everything from nothing and create everything from
nothing but now Adams really the driver of this and I'm sort of along just to
kind of help Shepherd it through and bring my network with me and bring my
connections and in my experience and it's really been a great it's been a
great time so Adam came up with the idea we met for pizza
last August almost a year ago this week actually and he had an idea for a film
that takes place in two timelines that's what he wanted to do
and I said okay well what are some of the things that you want to talk about
what are the things that you want to explore and he said you know I'm
interested in LGBTQ issues and how 20-somethings are dealing with identity
I want to talk about mental illness I want to talk about grief and grief was
what stuck with me because my mother passed away two years ago and that was
sort of like okay well why don't we think of something that ties around the
death of someone close to someone else and that was sort of the beginning of
the evolution of what ultimately the story turned into so we we kept that
sort of two timeline idea the film takes place in two separate timelines the
first one is the lead up to the young woman taking her life and the other one
is the aftermath of it but the film cuts back and forth between them so as to
give the impression that you know grief is a never ending process and it sort of
permeates every part of your life so that's that's kind of where we're at and
once we get into post-production we're gonna we're gonna play a lot with you
know time and what you see and how things are juxtaposed president versus
past and then stuff like that and I think it's gonna be a good film you and
Adam you met for pizza and then how soon did one of you begin writing taking
turns we we outline the film together over about two weeks and then we split
up scenes to write I wrote most of the timeline to stuff that happens after the
young woman takes her life because of my experience dealing with the death of my
mom there were a lot of events that I wanted to put in there that I had gone
through and in situations I had dealt with and then Adam handled the first
timeline sort of the lead-up to it and then once we combined everything we just
started tweaking together I would do a pass he would do a pass then we did I
think eight tracks before we landed on war shooting did you have a table read
with the actors or no no time for that no we actually didn't even cast we had a
very interesting process for this our other producer woman named Sarah DeLeon
she's also a talent manager and one of her clients had read the script and
loved it and really wanted to be in it so I said this arrow I'm happy to meet
with her you know we'll talk about it so I met with her very smart young woman
her name is Laura Fox really had really deep insights on the character of Katy
the woman who takes her life and really connected with her and experiences that
she had had and when I met with her it wasn't a casting session it was just
sort of almost like an interview and when we were done I thought okay this
was the first moment where I sort of jumped off the the regular path or the
path that I took on rising star where I had to control everything I said I'm
gonna try something different on this I'm gonna cast her not even seeing her
perform outside of her real and the films that she had already worked on and
stuff like that I watched those was impressed with her work I said okay I'm
gonna and I offer to the part and I said listen I need your help can you find me
actors that you've worked with that fit these parts that you have good chemistry
with and she ended up finding us the other two leads in the film and we've
been working together and everything has been flawless and I was terrified and
any director that you talked to would probably look at me with a hairy eyeball
and say you're out of your mind for doing it that way but when you're making
a film for this little money you can take chances and you can try different
things so now I have three actors that are a hundred percent dedicated to this
movie like incredibly dedicated they all have an existing relationship so the
chemistry is already there it's not something I had to create and now we're
off making this film how smart looking at it now I you can say it was
it was a bit of a risk when we did it but it's not just people she knows it's
the chemistry that that's where it's really gonna show on screen you know
just because it could be someone from acting class hey I want to get you but
to know that if she stopped seeing scenes with them and they know each
other they've gone for coffee afterwards whatever yeah that's gonna translate
they they were all friends so when we did our first actual rehearsal by an
hour into it they're all hanging out on the couch they're all lying across each
other's laps they're all laughing and joking and telling stories they've all
worked with each other before two of them were former roommates oh wow so it
was yeah it was one of those kismet moments where you know all right we've
got three people you know it would take ten years of work with me of casting to
try to find three people with this kind of chemistry so really it really worked
you