Interview: Will Bakke of “Believe Me”

Posted on September 22, 2013 at 3:59 pm

I really enjoyed talking to Will Bakke of Riot Studios about his new film, “Believe Me.” I’ll post information about the movie’s release when it is available.

Tell me a little bit about this project.

I’d love to. Well, “Believe Me” is the story of four college seniors who start a fake Christian charity in order to make the money that they need for tuition for college. In the process of throwing this big fundraiser to tell people that they’re donating wells in Africa, they end up being asked to be the keynote speakers for a summer-long evangelical tour. And so they kind of get little into their heads and they decide to sign on and do it and just sort of study the Christian culture in order to get away with it. I think people would sort of expect some big altar call at the end but this is a very different story and we’re excited to tell it.

Where did the story came from?

Michael Allen and I have actually produced two documentaries together before we wrote this. We were in college when we made “One Nation Under God.” He and I and two buddies of ours road-tripped around the United States just asking people what they believed about God. We were both from Dallas, Texas. We kind of grew up in the Bible belt and realized that our faith, we only had it because our parents had it and because that’s what we were kind of raised to have. And we just wanted to get out of that bubble and just find out what other people believe and really challenge our own beliefs in the meantime. And as a result of that, it kind of brought us to make a second documentary called “Beware of Christians.” Michael and I and our other buddy Alex Carroll who jumped on board with us created that film really as just a way of solidifying what we believe and how that would shape our lives and what we would lack, especially in college. I think both of those films really were kind of the jump-off point for “Believe Me.” We made these two films that were probably labelled as Christian films, because we’re Christians ourselves but it was about us. And so we were excited to take a look at the industry and kind of see the ins and outs of it and we just realized how many funny things there are about Christians out there and so the idea of “Believe Me” came out of this: what if somebody really wanted to take advantage of that? What would Christianity look like to an outsider? That was kind of a starting point for the film.

What were some of the challenges of going from documentary to feature film?

There were a lot of challenges. When we made the documentary, we had a couple of notes written down on like a napkin on what we wanted to do while we were Europe or while we were touring around the United States. There was no real planning to it beforehand. With a movie like this, we spent about two years writing the script and polishing it and just working out every character arc, every story arc, every theme to the movie and two years of writing transitioning into directing for me. And there’s a lot of people involved. It was no longer just me holding the camera running around filming as much as I could and just throwing a story together at the end. We had a very precise story that we wanted to tell and it was a lot of people involved so it was a completely different experience. It was so rewarding and humbling and I was very excited. We actually just wrapped yesterday at 6:00 AM so I’m still winding down from the experience as you can imagine. At some point you start to feel like everyone is playing with paint brushes when you’re directing because it’s such a collaborative effort. And I loved it for so many reasons because I didn’t have to be thinking about what writing was like or exactly what the camera shots were going to be because I’d worked that out beforehand with my director of photography so on the day that we’re shooting, my mind was just fully into the story and fully into the characters and I had just this incredible team behind it that was making everything look ten times more amazing than I could have ever imagine. So it ended up being a surprise, just being able to really focus on just one aspect of filmmaking which is the directing side and much less the technical aspects because those were already worked out in pre-production.

Do you consider this one a Christian film and who do you think is the audience for it?

With this film specifically, Christianity is the backdrop to the story but I would never label it that. We didn’t want it to be that. We weren’t shooting for that. We believe this story is all about the idea of truth which is an universal theme which we’re very excited about because it doesn’t matter really where you’re coming from on the line of faith whether you’re for it, against it, whether you have it, whether you’re a part of a religious culture or not. Anyone can walk into this movie and get it and really understand the desire that we’re going after. It’s all about the idea that truth is relative and that what works for you works for you and what works for me is best for me. We start to see that there are a lot of different characters that are really good people that live with that mentally; they kind of get in their own way. And when those different wants and needs clash, it’s compelling as a viewer to see that. And so it’s not a Christian film. We’re pretty excited to tell people that just because we don’t want to have any kind of pre-conceived notions in people’s minds coming into it . One of the tough things about being labelled that is a lot of times people believe there is going to be some sort of agenda to the story which we don’t have. We just really want to tell a compelling story. There’s no secret motive or agenda behind it. Although, we are guaranteeing a 100% conversion rate with this movie; I hope that’s not confusing at all. We promise there is going to be conversion. We’re not positive on what religion it’s going to be on by the end of the show but we’re promising a 100% conversion-rate.

What effect do you think it has on people to try to live up to other people’s expectations?

It’s not so much I think for these guys to live up to expectations as much as I think it is based on themselves as a whole. They just committed to becoming the speakers on this major evangelical tour and as a result, they had to sort of adapt and they ultimately don’t want to go to jail for what they’re doing. I think a lot of it has to do with beliefs and why do you believe what you believe. It is because someone stood up on the stage and told you that something was true or is it because you have investigated and researched and really looked into what someone says and is claiming and for me alone, with this movie it’s just so interesting because Alex Russell, we was the star of the movie “Chronicle” last year. He plays the lead in our movie and in the film it was so interesting to shoot with him because there’s just some amazing scenes where he is preaching up on stage and all the credit to him because he’s an incredible actor but he just sold it so well that it made the rest of us kind of look back and be like, it’s really freaking me out how well he can sell this. And I know personally that Alex Russell doesn’t identify himself as a Christian. I think he’d be comfortable telling anybody that, he actually has. But you know, it’s very interesting to see just the words come out of someone’s mouth that seem so compassionate and so compelling and yet at the same time, isn’t what they believe.

That’s why they call it acting.

Exactly. So it really made me rethink what my youth leaders taught me back in the day. Like, ah, I wonder if they were really genuine in all of this. That’s just what gets serious about it when it has to do with religion and faith and putting your chips on something that could change your entire life, not knowing if it’s coming from a genuine place or not.

When you were writing this script and you were working on, as you said, the structures and the characters and all that, what were some of the resources that you relied on? Did you look at other movies? Did you look at books about script writing? What did you do?

We read plenty of books on screenwriting. I was a film student at Baylor University and took screenwriting courses. It was a great education in terms of like what it looks like to tell a good story and I think for the two years that we were diving into script; story was the most important thing to us. And like I said earlier, without having an agenda, that’s what we wanted to make for ourselves in the first place is compelling characters, compelling stories, even tell the stories of characters that don’t line up in the same world-view as us. We love the idea of college students just getting in over their heads and how they react. It’s just such a pivotal time of life in the way that’s going to shape you later so we love playing in that sort of age range.

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Profile of Judith Viorst, Her Lulu Musical and Her Alexander Movie

Posted on September 5, 2013 at 3:57 pm

The Washington Post has a wonderful profile of my dear friend Judith Viorst, whose Lulu and the Brontosaurus is being turned into a musical and whose Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is being made into a movie starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner. There are already two short filmed versions, one animated, but I can’t wait to see a full-length feature. I love what she says about her characters:

“Most of the characters I have in my children’s books are grouchy or annoyed about something, or are calling each other unfriendly names,” she said. She was sitting back in a chair in her living room, her brown hair tucked behind her ears and her legs crossed, speaking between sips of iced tea and bites of M&Ms. “Like my own kids, they’re not honeys and sweetie pies and little angels. They’re kids. Sloppy, dirty, stinky. Lulu, I pushed the envelope a little further, I think, than I have. But I really liked her.”

Me, too!

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Writers

Interview: Jerusha Hess and J.J. Feild of “Austenland”

Posted on August 22, 2013 at 8:00 am

No movie this year made me laugh more than “Austenland,” based on the novel by Shannon Hale. The film has Keri Russell as a Jane Austen fan who visits an immersive Jane Austen theme park/experience. It was a lot of fun to talk to writer-director Jerusha Hess and actor J.J. Feild, who plays the brooding but dashing Mr. Nobley — and who played Mr. Tilney in the version of Austen’s “Northanger Abbey” that was shown in the US on Masterpiece Theatre. This is the first directing gig for Hess, who co-wrote “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre,” and “Gentlemen Broncos” with her husband, director Jared Hess.

Tell me a little bit about the place where the movie was filmed and what it was like to be there?

JJ: It’s one of the great British estates. I’ve filmed there three times!

Jerusha: It’s called West Wycombe. And there’s even a lord named Lord Dashwood . It’s very steeped in Austen. It’s been used in many films, but not in its entirety and we shot the inside and the outside and used every nook and cranny. The inside is very gaudy. It’s a little naughty inside. There’s a lot of portraiture.

JJ: Slight sexual innuendo with the portraits there, but that’s the home of something called the Hellfire Club, which is a very, very old society in Britain, that was known in Charles II’s time, but it goes back beyond that and who knows what else. It’s the home of that society that supposedly no longer exists, but I have heard that Prime Ministers and Cabinet members are still members.

Jerusha: We used that gaudiness to our benefit.

Tell me a little bit about the wardrobe.

Jerusha: The costume designer, her name is Anne Hardinge. She’s done “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” She’s really comedic costume designer, which was right up my alley. She was a joy to work with. She was like fabulous Geena Davis. She was just floating with her red lip and kind of fabulous.

JJ: Mostly with her costume designed just looked good.

Jerusha: She just couldn’t wait to get her hands on Jennifer Coolidge and design these gowns that matched the curtains and the bedspread. Yes, she had a lot of fun with it and we all did, because a lot of just a very straight regency costumes that we just rented from the houses, but some of it we got to make and have fun with.

The dress that her friend made was very funny, the idea of someone who really does not know the period and is just piecing something together, with good intentions but awful results.

Jerusha: The cheap, renaissance get on that.

I also loved it when Keri Russell’s outfit just felt apart when you were carrying her around there. I thought that was very well done and surprisingly shocking.

Jerusha: It was shocking to see a leg! You’ve never seen a leg in these stories. We made it a little saloon girl. We played up on many elements because everything is just very covered and the tights are very thick and heavy. And then to have it all fell apart, absolutely, we wanted to see the leg!

It was also very shocking to see the scenes by the pool, where you see some of the men in modern clothes, but Nobley was still in his full period dress.

Jerusha: Yes, absolutely and Martin because we couldn’t reveal too much. That was really fun to just have guys in the pool with the wig on.

How did you and “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, who produced, and this book by Shannon Hale all come together? Tell me about Stephenie Meyer and how she got to be involved.

Jerusha: Stephenie was a friend of Shannon Hale previously, because they’re both girls in the writing world and Mormon girls to add to that. They were buddies and they always talked about making a movie together. Apparently, when I came on it became real which I laughed at. I was just another girl adding to the mix. There was a time where we went on a little trip together and we just like giggled, like, “It’s going to be so fun to make this movie and think about all about the handsome men.” We were just such chicks making a movie. She was great. She’s powerful woman. I met Shannon Hale through some friends and family. I was interested in her book called Princess Academy, which is just a very sweet, Newbery-nominated fairy tale for young readers. She was like, “Oh, actually I have something else for you.” She gave me Austenland. The next morning, I’m sure I called her and I was like, “Let’s make this movie.” It is so fun. It just felt so girly and great and a great vehicle for the weird Hess comedy.

The weird Hess comedy has mostly been more boy-oriented.

Jerusha: Absolutely and very young boys. I was just ready to make a movie for the girls. It was just really fun to write for a girl. It was really indulgent and sweet. The whole movie feels indulgent, doesn’t it? It’s such a romp in England. And our experience in England was that. It was a delight. I had never even been to England and I got to spend five months there in a beautiful estate and just party with these gorgeous men and women and poke fun at their beloved genre, which they all loved. We teased it, but it’s so gentle, that you’re still swept away the whole time.

What’s the difference between playing a real Austen character and a fake Austen character?

JJ: One is a comedy and one is not. Playing this part in “Austenland,” for me it’s the man who doesn’t want to be there, who’s there by accident and he’s feeling deeply embarrassed.

Which is very Darcy.

JJ: Exactly. Then you just take the world of British costume drama and trying to send up as much of it as you can.

Why is that such a perpetual romantic fantasy?

JJ: It’s the outspoken, funny, poor thinking woman who can actually soften and tame someone like Mr. Darcy. It’s the fantasy that perhaps some men are misunderstood.

What was the biggest challenge that you had as a first time director?

Jerusha: It was just so cushy — like the time frame. I had 41 days to shoot. I had amazing comedians at my fingertips. I had this very cool Director of Cinematography who shot all the Stanley Kubrick films. I had all the staff at my fingertips, amazing talent and I’m like a nice to a fault whoever wanted to raising me up, like, ‘We’re going to make you look really good.’ I don’t have to do much. What I was surprised at and the challenge was that dealing with an ensemble cast who are in scenes together everyday all day, that is a challenge. It’s a challenge to make sure everyone get as much coverage and attention, it got just kind of competitive. I loved it because it made it funnier, but the improv went nuts. People were like, “Oh wait. I have something better to say.” “Now, I’m going to say…”

JJ: We needed six cameras.

Jerusha: It got hard to juggle the funny on set and then even harder in post-production.

Fortunately you had the credit sequence where you could throw in some of that stuff, which was great, great fun. I thought that was just too sweet. What about you, what was the biggest challenge of doing it for you?

JJ: Keeping a straight face. It’s not easy to have a grouchy face in front of Jennifer Coolidge and Bret McKenzie and Georgia King and it’s just hilarious. Jennifer Coolidge’s improvisation could be very physical or one line. James Callis when he started talking, he would talk an entire roll of film out. I don’t know how you can extemporize that amount of dialog, because he doesn’t prepare it. It’s just sort of flows. He’s extraordinary.

If you could enter a theme park of a book, what book would you pick?

Jerusha: I would do Winnie the Pooh. We would live in the tree house. We would hunt for honey.
JJ: I just got a new son and my childhood was made magical by Narnia, so if I could take my son to a wardrobe that would be it.

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The Writer’s Room on the Sundance Channel

Posted on August 20, 2013 at 8:00 am

Oscar-winning writer Jim Rash (with Nat Faxon he co-wrote “The Descendants” and “The Way Way Back”) hosts one of the best new shows on television, “The Writer’s Room.” The writers and key cast members of Breaking Bad, Parks & Recreation, Dexter, New Girl, Game of Thrones and American Horror Story tell the stories behind the stories that keep us coming back week after week. Highly recommended.

And while we’re on the subject of writing, check out this interview with Marc Norman (“Shakespeare in Love”) from my friend Robert Elisberg.

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Television Writers

The Author Who Tried to Disappear: A New Documentary About J.D. Salinger

Posted on August 14, 2013 at 3:59 pm

One of the most influential writers of the 20th century was J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye. He spent the last decades of his life living quietly, almost reclusively, writing but not publishing anything more from 1960 to his death at age 91 in 2010. A documentary called Salinger will be released on September 6. Through the use of exclusive video, images, news clips, and other memorabilia, the Salinger site subtly gives clues and hints to what happened to J.D. Salinger. Users are encouraged to explore and discover hidden content for themselves. The site includes two famous magazine covers featuring Salinger – TIME Magazine (1961) and ESQUIRE Magazine (1997) – as well as the only photo ever seen of Salinger on his bed, in his bedroom.

The documentary features interviews with 150 subjects including Salinger’s friends and colleagues who have never spoken on the record before as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen. Additionally, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal and Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank talk about Salinger’s influence on their lives, their work and the broader culture. The film is the first work to get beyond the Catcher in the Rye author’s meticulously built up wall: his childhood, painstaking work methods, marriages, private world and the secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.

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