“It’s ok to light fireworks for kids and then leave, right?”
Every year, LakeFrontRow talks to the filmmakers behind some of our favorite entries from Madison’s 48 Hour Film Project, which challenges teams to write, shoot and cut a short film in the span of one weekend.
The 48 Hour Film Project can be a chaotic race to the finish for many teams, which is why Overdue feels so appropriate to the competition. Joh and Eli Steenlage subvert that deadline tension in their “holiday film,” where a young woman (Gwen Beatty) has to return an overdue copy of Independence Day before the store closes for the 4th of July and her membership expires. Beatty’s Samantha breezes her way out of bed, across town and, eventually, into lighting some sparklers, but the stakes are about as low as possible
The pair’s contrarian approach to story results in an entry that both subverts tension and ratchets up the impending smallness of losing your video store membership. It’s a promising entry for the brothers behind Fern Productions, and after taking home three awards at this year’s competition, Joh and Eli talked with me about making their first 48 Hour Film Project, casting strangers, and director’s cuts.
You’ve uploaded a director’s cut to Vimeo. What’s the difference between this and what you screened at Sundance?
Eli: I am a bit of perfectionist, so I wanted people to see how we intended it, but we were very happy with what we originally turned in for the 48 Hour Film Project. We didn’t want to change much, but there were a lot of little things that we wanted to improve. In our original edit, we did forget to include an important shot of a can of oranges being taken out of the cupboard. We had shot it and it’s important because it ties the required can opener and final shot together. Also, the timing of the editing is very important with the fast style we used so we wanted to tighten some of that up.
You mentioned that doing the 48 Hour this year was a last-minute decision. Had either of you done one before?
Eli: We had not. Our team is mostly made up of working parents with little kids so it’s hard to find the time and energy to make films these days. I thought this would be a great opportunity to give us a deadline to make a film. A couple years ago, Joh, my wife Jess, and I made a feature-length no-budget film called Photostoria and it about killed us. Collaborating with some great new people on the 48 Hour film was a kind of testing ground for making other shorts and hopefully will lead to another feature over the next couple years through Fern Productions. Our goal is to keep our films connected to the Midwest and tell unique stories through original filmmaking.
So, the 90s, eh?
Eli: Basically, this just came from making the videotape element work in context. We also wanted to go for a little of a nostalgia factor. It did add the complication of having to dress our actors in period 90s clothes but it all worked out since we won Best Costume. Which was a total surprise.
The drum kit as your score is fun and propulsive, which is ideal since you’re running around all the time anyway, but it also doubles as a soundtrack that doesn’t seem anachronistic to 1997.
Eli: Yeah, we were fortunate enough to have Nick Riley record some original music and when we had the idea for a foot chase scene, a few of us on the team thought of a kind of kinetic drum solo. Jeremy Holiday, who was in charge of sound among other things, recorded a great selection of drum and guitar tracks that added a lot of energy to the film.
How’d you get Gwen Beatty? She’s great, and I imagine a big reason behind that Best Acting award.
Joh: Gwen is a friend of a friend, and I knew of her through her strong and entertaining social media presence, but I had never actually met her, and she certainly didn’t know who we were beforehand. Gwen is actually foremost a very talented writer, (check out the online publication MoonsickMagazine.com) but I also knew she had done some acting. I was very impressed with her personality, intelligence and confidence and we decided to reach out to her. It turns out she was perfect for the project and was amazing to work with. And you are correct, I give Gwen credit for the Best Acting award. We’re really hoping we get to work with Gwen in the future.
Eli: Gwen was a total pro to work with. She had never met any of us in person and was game for anything we threw at her, which was quite a bit (jumping fences, bike riding, playing with fireworks). Her only request was that we weren’t murderers luring her to Madison. Without a lot of direction, her performance brought emotion and comedic timing to our script.
2015 was the year of hilarious kid actors in 48 Hour Film Projects. Asher Steenlage for the win.
Joh: Asher is Eli’s son and my nephew. While writing on Friday night, Eli suggested we include a scene between Asher and Gwen. I have to admit I was skeptical at first both from a story and a best-use-of-time perspective, however I’m really happy with how it turned out and it’s one of my favorite parts of the film. I really like how their personalities play off each other.
Eli: Yeah, I had the idea for a scene where the main character talks to a kid but treats him very much like an adult. Almost all of our team has little kids, but it ended up that my son was most available and he is a bit of performer in general. He was a good sport with the filming until we had to do at least 10 takes to try get the sparkler to light. It’s ok to light fireworks for kids and then leave, right?
You don’t draw attention to the Jim Spanwell character reference, and I love that you chose the 4th for your holiday — because let’s face it, that genre’s tough. The required criteria is sort of just in the background of this smaller, funnier story. In the best way, it seems like Overdue was defined very early on in the process.
Joh: Initially we had a pretty good debate about which holiday we should use. A cold weather holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas just didn’t seem right given it was summer. I think we settled on the 4th of July because we thought it would be easiest to integrate visually and with the story. We didn’t feel the need to make a statement specifically related to the required elements, but it was nice that we were able to integrate them as natural elements of the overall story. Jeremy Holiday, who was also one of our major behind-the-scenes contributors, had a great idea for playing the Jim Spanwell character so we just let him run with it and it turned out great.
Eli: Our team member, Mikey Krueger, came up with the videotape return idea early on and we thought we could take that in a lot of directions. The Holiday genre did kind of throw us a little but we started to think of some great visuals using fireworks and thematic connections to “independence” for the main character. The first thing we did on Friday night is buy a bunch of fireworks at an outlet store. They were the last thing we shot so it was kind of like a celebration. With both Jim Spanwell and the holiday genre, we didn’t want them to take precedence over just telling a solid story.
And Four Star Video’s involvement?
Eli: After we thought of the genius idea of returning a “videotape” we remembered that most video stores are closed these days. Since I am fairly new to Madison, I had just read an article about what a treasure Four Star Video is in town. We contacted them to be involved and they were willing to help support local art. Lewis Peterson, one of the co-owners, even agreed to appear in the film as the store staff member, and he nailed it. We just had to keep all of the DVDs on their shelves out of focus.
If this were the 72 Hour Film Project, what would you have done differently?
Joh: I think when it comes to independent film projects with little or no budget, there is always a need for more time and resources. We did all the shooting in one day, and in the final edit I counted at least 85 cuts over the 7 minutes. That’s a lot of shots! We had to work really fast and didn’t have a lot of time for multiple takes. That being said, I think working fast can add a lot of energy to a shoot and keep things fresh. We took our time with the important scenes, but we would have never finished if we were doing 20 takes. Of course working like that requires a cast and crew that are talented and on point, and our cast and crew were great!
Eli: This is the main reason for the director’s cut. My wife Jess, Jeremy, and I edited the film and there were so many little things that we wished we had time to polish and tweak. I tend to be overly ambitious in my films with the time and resources available and Overdue was no different. Considering the fast cutting and large number of shots we used for a 7 minute film, a 72 Hour Film Project would make a lot more sense. But with that much time I probably would have tried to add a car chase or set it in space.