As we get nearer to the festival, we will be featuring the various filmmakers whose work will be screening throughout the festival.

Introduce Yourself: My name is Laerke Drews, and I am a student of film.

How did you become interested in filmmaking? I had never considered being a filmmaker before I took a class in filmmaking in high school at the age of 18. I had wanted to be a lawyer or a researcher, but when I began working on my fist timid student film project, a whole new world of possibilities seemed to open itself to me. Ever since childhood, I have had a great appreciation of art, but I had never before considered becoming an artist myself. Though I love painting, sculpture and the novel, I always thought that it must be frustrating for the artists that their work is exposed to, and appreciated by, so comparatively few people. But when I made my first film, I realized that films can be art as well. And whereas the other arts, that I love, play a comparatively minor role in most people's lives, film is the most appreciated and most dominant art form today. So, that which made me become interested in filmmaking, is the fact that art is very important to me in my own life, and that by making films, I can create art to myself as well as to an audience, who can actually use and appreciate the art that I create in their everyday lives. That, to me, is very motivating.

Tell us about your inspiration and vision for the film: With 'Laura – in Action', I wanted to create a film in which (1) the protagonist is passive, and (2) a central part of the plot unfolds within the protagonist's mind—all of this without the film ever ceasing to be entertaining to watch.

(1) 'Laura – in Action' tells the story of a passive girl who learns how to act. At a first glance, this premise seems incompatible with an exciting, causal plot, simply because passivity is boring. But passivity is a widespread phenomenon: very many people who seem to be active, actually avoid acting towards their real goals because acting requires that one takes chances and risks. Passivity is thus as widespread as it is harmful, and difficult to rid oneself of—and for this very same reason it is intriguing when someone succeeds in taking action. 'Laura – in Action' is thus an attempt to dramatize the passivity and the happy circumstance that it is possible to act.

(2) The decision to act instead of being passive is a decision that takes place within the mind of a human being. But to show a person who is merely deciding something is boring on film—unless the audience understand exactly what the decision is about. Therefore, I wanted to let the audience have access to Laura's thoughts and feelings. To achieve this, I used the technique of mixing real life action with animation, and because I wanted to communicate Laura's emotions and thoughts clearly, comprehensively and visually, I choose the style of classic cartoons, which traditionally dramatize their stories clearly and visually through physical action. By making Laura a cartoonist, I wanted to make it probable that her thoughts would materialize as cartoons, thereby tying the outer circumstances to the Laura's thoughts and feelings. My intention was thus to create a film where the protagonists' inner life is as concrete, and as visually expressed, as her 'real' life.

What were some of the biggest challenges in making and completing the film? I wish I could say that the only challenges in making the film were the artistic challenges of making the film just right. Luckily there were plenty of such challenges, and lots of wonderful, brain wrecking work had to be done to find the very best solutions in a great many different areas.
However, the greatest challenges unfortunately came from the low budget of the film. But these challenges are inevitable in low budget filmmaking, and while they must be accepted as a fact, they are not important. What's important is the film itself.

In the spirit of Jackson, what's your favorite Western? High Noon (1952), because of its beautifully effective simplicity.

LAURA IN ACTION, writen and directed by Laerke Drews, will screen in Student Voices III at 4:45P, Saturday, June 7th at the Center For the Arts, Studio 4 and Sunday, June 8th at 10:15P at the Center for the Arts, Studio 4.

As we get nearer to the festival, we will be featuring the various filmmakers whose work will be screening throughout the festival.

Introduce Yourself: My name is Brad Isaacs. Woody Allen, Milos Forman and John Schlesinger are the folks whose movies inspired me to direct. I think every director has his/her Cuckoo's Nest or Midnight Cowboy, stories told so powerfully it makes you want to do something of equal influence. Good luck.

Tell us about your inspiration and vision for the film: I wrote my script after taking a five-month road trip. My old dog Duke and I drove through the South, by the many apartments, houses and schools where my childhood was spent. Although I had (and still have) very loving parents, they were young and not ready for parenting at some level. They split when I was a tyke and my youth was spent bouncing back and forth between them and two years at a military academy during my fifth and sixth grades. Anyway, during the car trip the part of my childhood that was rudderless and lonely was fairly overwhelming. So I wrote a story about it and made up the rest.

What were some of the biggest challenges in making and completing the film? You need a lot of serendipity to get a 'small' movie like this made. Then you need even more serendipity during the filming and post process for your movie to be any good. I got some great breaks and some shitty ones, just like everyone else. I look at the final cut now and see lots of things I could've done better. But I also see moments that are truly magical. Most of that credit goes to the cast.

One thing I do know is that with our schedule and budget, the movie wouldn't have had a chance if we didn't have two amazing kids playing the leads, Cayden and AnnaSophia. They understood the story, disappeared into their characters and were brilliant. Any critical or financial success this movie achieves is because of them.

In the spirit of Jackson, what's your favorite Western? Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.

HAVE DREAMS, WILL TRAVEL, written and directed by Brad Isaacs, will screen Friday, June 6th at 4:15P at the Teton Theatre.

As we get nearer to the festival, we will be featuring the various filmmakers whose work will be screening throughout the festival.

Introduce Yourself: Hi there, I’m Preston DeFrancis. I’m originally from Wheeling, West Virginia, but I’ve lived in Los Angeles since I came out to the USC School of Cinematic Arts for my MFA in Film/TV Directing. I’m really excited that the Jackson Hole Film Festival is giving me a chance to visit such a beautiful part of the country.

How did you become interested in filmmaking? For as long as I can remember, watching and making film and television have been what I am most passionate about. As a young child, my favorite books were about movies, and I started taking piano lessons because I wanted to learn to play movie themes. It seemed natural to me to want to be a part of the filmmaking process. Unfortunately, there is virtually no film industry in West Virginia, and I felt that my dream was out of reach. Instead, I went to college to study a technical field. While an undergraduate, I was inspired by film professors and film professionals that I met to pursue filmmaking as a career; this led me to pursue my graduate degree in film.

Tell us about your inspiration and vision for the film: I have always been fascinated by the idea that different people can perceive a single event completely differently. I decided to explore that idea to humorous extremes in THE BIG PRODUCTION. The heightened nature of the comedy gave me the opportunity to allow each character’s personality to color their viewpoint so much that each one tells his or her side of the story as a completely different film genre. I loved the idea of having a single film that contains literally five genres. We were determined to make each genre distinct, each with a unique writing style, lighting scheme, and soundtrack.

What were some of the biggest challenges in making and completing the film? As a young filmmaker, mastering one style is difficult, let alone five. Yet we really tried to make every aspect of each genre true to that genre’s conventions. For instance, we actually shot the Sitcom portion of the film with multiple cameras and added a laugh track. We went so far as to shoot on four entirely different media: 35mm film, Super 16mm film, high definition video, and even standard definition video. Dealing with the different needs of each genre and format was incredibly difficult, but also an incredible learning experience and is, I think, what helps to make the film unique.

In the spirit of Jackson, what's your favorite Western? Clint Eastwood’s revisionist Western Unforgiven has been my favorite since I saw it as a teenager.

THE BIG PRODUCTION, directed by Preston DeFrancis, will screen in Student Voices I at 7:15P, Friday, June 6th at the Pink Garter Theatre and Sunday, June 8th at 9:45P at the Pink Garter Theatre.