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Dark's Corner
a very important meeting
Thanks to hectic production schedules, my film viewing choices at the 8th annual Florida Film Festival were limited to a precious handful of screenings, none of which I regretted. Out of the short films that I saw, one struck me with its hyper-fast edits, surreal symbolism and absurdist situations. Four corporate types, chinese take-out and a wind-up toy puppy set the stage for director Ben Rock's eight-minute blast "The Meeting." Recently relocated to Los Angeles, this Florida native has a string of shorts, commercial work and stage directing behind him and is currently trotting around his hilarious festival entry to various events around the country. He's a former UCF film student who ran with Haxan crewmembers Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale and Dan Myrick when they were still dreaming of funding. We talked about production and also his involvement with this year's hot-topic indie flick "The Blair Witch Project."
Bing Futch: How did you meet screenwriter/executive producer Jonathan Mangum and who originally came up with the idea to skewer boardroom politics?
Ben Rock: I had been a fan of Jonathan's when he was a performer at SAK theatre. He was always a very inventive performer with an elastic body and face. During the summer of 1994, I was a writing intern on the ill-fated sketch comedy series "The Newz." At the same time, I was a DP on a student film in which Jonathan (and ["The Meeting" producer] Jay Bogdanowitsch, ironically) were starring. I told Jonathan about "The Newz," and he wrote "The Meeting" with the idea of submitting it as a sketch to the show.
BF: Were there any production difficulties while shooting "The Meeting" that stand out?
BR: The biggest production glitch was unavoidable, we had no money to rent a studio space, so I asked my friends at Theatre Downtown to let us build a set in their back warehouse area. This was good in that we basically had free run of the place, but the building is not designed to be a soundstage. When we shot, actors would often have to wait for traffic to clear before saying their lines. There is a silver lining, however. It gave us a ton of footage of them looking nervous and impatient. You can see a lot of that dead air in the film. It helped to set an atmosphere of unease!
BF: The film manages to harvest quite a few emotions and thoughts through tight editing, a succinct screenplay and nicely restrained direction. If you had had $14,000 instead of $7,000, what would you have done differently?
BR: I would have paid the crew. Possibly, I would have built the set in a soundstage. For $14,000, however, there probably wouldn't have been enough to pay the crew and build the set in a soundstage, so the crew would have gotten it.
BF: You did a lot of D.P. work and theater directing after graduating from UCF--how long did it take before the call of Los Angeles ripped you out of the Orlando area?
BR: I realized about a year or so ago that if I stayed in Orlando, I would get more and more comfortable while the kinds of opportunities that I wanted to explore were not available to me. The work that I did after school was good, in terms of learning craft in a safe environment. I also was given a ton of opportunities to direct film shoots, which would have taken longer out here. That being said few people are looking to hire directors out of Orlando, and the kinds of projects that are being offered are limited. It was hard to leave, though. I love it there! I grew up there! I plan to come back a few times a year, and Jonathan and I are actually working on a script right now which has many Florida locations.
BF: Has the L.A. scene been kind or indifferent to you? Do you find that opening doors in that town is easier or more difficult for a transplanted filmmaker?
BR: I was only here two months when "The Meeting" played at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival at the DGA theatre. So I would say LA has been pretty cool. You have to be patient in a town this big, but that's not to say you should sit around and wait for the city to discover you. If you're willing to work for free, there's a lot of opportunities to direct.
BF: Do you foresee a day when central Florida actually supports a large number of indie filmmakers? Or is that getting too much hope up?
BR: With the whole digital frontier, where you could be set up to shoot and edit feature-length programs for under $10,000, the roof may blow off. There are many people who hope that this will revolutionize filmmaking. If and when it does, indie films will be able to be made anywhere. What Florida seems to be missing, in terms of indie production, is a solid base for indie financing. The local economy does not depend on filmmaking for revenue, and the people who could make film happen are already doing it in places where it is more understood and profitable.
BF: You served as production designer for "The Blair Witch Project", how did you hook up with Haxan?
BR: I went to UCF with all the Haxan guys, actually Gregg and I went to VCC's film program a year before we went to UCF. Gregg had produced my first film, "Vapor Man" and for some time, he lived a block away from me in downtown Orlando. One night I was visiting him and he told me about the whole Blair Witch legend, ending it by telling me about three friends of Ed's who had disappeared while investigating it. Then he told me the footage had turned up and he and Dan and Ed were going to examine it and the blood drained from my face. I said "You guys are gonna die!" Then he told me it was all a hose. The Blair Witch was fake, and it was all this idea that Ed and Dan had been kicking around for a few years. He told me the "method" they were going to use to film it, and it was the coolest thing I had ever heard.
BF: What kind of stuff did you do for the film?
BR: The first thing Gregg had me do was research and writing for the trailer we made to attract interest to the project. A year later, Gregg and I went to Maryland to shoot the film. It was the best and most fun experience I have ever had doing anything, much less making a film. My biggest contribution to the film is probably those infernal little stick-men you see everywhere. They were based on ancient runes. I also helped to design and implement some of the scenarios in the film, though that was mostly Dan and Ed.
BF: What are you doing for sustenance and what are your newest projects?
BR: I just finished working for Haxan again, co-writing a special about the Blair Witch for the Sci-Fi channel (it's nice to know they stick with their friends). Additionally, I am directing this play, "Golden Elliot," in Hollywood and Jonathan and I are working on a script right now. When I first got out here I found temp work that paid more than I ever made in Orlando within a week. There's a lot of schlepp work out here if you need a job quickly.
BF: What's your motivation for making films?
BR: I like the job of directing, the process of making a film. When it works, it really works. I enjoy collaborating with actors, writers, and editors (though I edited this one). The process reveals quite a bit about everyone you work with. This is especially the case in theatre, where the final show is a pure collaboration between the actors and the director. Even when it doesn't work, you learn a lot. You pull something from the experience. It eats you alive while it is happening, but you stay there anyway and plug away as best you can because you know that directing is a privilege. "eyn a iei pvee en ipenpp
A native of Los Angeles, Bing Futch moved to central Florida in 1993 and immediately began performing. Since then, he's been actively involved in the local scene both as an artist and as a member of the media. Currently, he can be seen and heard playing Appalachian mountain dulcimer around the state with the band Mohave. Send flames and fondles to www.darkstudios.com or bing@ink19.com and you can also subscribe to The Dark's Corner Mailing List which is the official mailing list for this column. Send press kits, music and legal drugs to: J.O.B. Entertainment Inc. P.O. Box 560727 Orlando, Florida 32856
