Only Love: Interview with Animation Director Lev Polyakov

Lev Polyakov

The Squeerelist - Your short movie Only Love treats harsh and violent topics to a background of goofy characters and light-hearted tunes. What is the message you’re trying to send by making those 2 opposite worlds run into each other?

Lev Polyakov - Goofy characters turn out to be the most dangerous... Even the goofy guard because of his earnest love towards the dictator. I chose light-hearted music that seems to contrast with the gruesome things that occur on screen, to give another angle from which all the violence can be viewed... Instead of casting pity on a particular side with the aid of serious music, the sillier music makes both sides and their grand desires look equally ridiculous.

You came to New York City at an early age with your parents who immigrated as Jewish refugees. Your movie is set in a totalitarian regime with strong authoritarian figures. How much of this story is based on your personal family experience?

My great-grandparents and grandparents were among those who were either killed or sent to concentration camps during Stalin’s reign of terror. My parents, especially my mom, also endured a relative amount of punishment during the Soviet Union.

As a child you tried out acting then turned to the animation field of this Film industry you seem to be fascinated with. Why the change of heart and the choice of a less traditional filmmaking specialty?

For me, acting, directing films, drawing, and writing, are all pretty interrelated. While it takes time to learn how to do each well, the knowledge from doing one are a bit like college credits that end up counting in any of these other accredited universities. Now, for example, I’m going to be directing a live action film, but I’ll never close my mind to doing any of the above mentioned things.

You seem to be very attached to a somewhat traditional drawing technique and seem to avoid Computer-Generated Imagery. What is the reason for this commitment?

The thing is, I have no commitments. I do what I feel like at the moment and what suits the story.

There is a recurring character in your movies – this little hamster seen in your music video My Heart Belongs to You. I feel like there is a story behind this, can you tell us more?

After being inspired by Colin Huggins’s amazing song for the video, I thought about a dictator who lived all cramped up in the teacher’s cage who ends up dreaming about falling in love with her, but it wasn’t appropriate, so ended up going with his pet.

Dreams and nightmares are at the core of your movies. Are those a fear, an obsession of yours or simply a source of inspiration?

I don’t have much nightmares, but I get lots of inspiration from the occasional day-mare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4VoLC3GtM

Any advice you want to share with the indie animators out there ?

Don’t lose your sense of humor.

Find out more about Lev's projects at:  levpolyakov.com

Only Love (2008)

Sleeping With the Enemy

Only Love is not your typical animated short movie. It deals with a plethora of ever-darker topics. The main character is a dictator using terror to rule his land and engaging in a constant fight against his nemesis - the leader of the rebellion. Nightmares occupy the plot and become the stage of the leader's issues. Lev Polyakov - the multi-tasking creator of this tragicomedy - makes two opposite worlds collide in his short. He balances the very dark and violent story with goofy characters and playful tunes. Only Love's very strange universe is filled with flying body parts and torture scenes. Polyakov has a traditional-ish 2-D style which is ironically quite refreshing in this era in which CGI - Computer-Generated Imagery - is King. Another ironic point the director makes is to use the Peace sign as the symbol of a totalitarian regime. His universe is completely imaginary and this include the language that is mainly made of aggressive grunts. Even if the storyline is somewhat violent, the universe reminded me of my childhood as the dictator's soldiers look similar to The Beagle Boys from the Scrooge McDuck books. Just like the Beagle Boys, those soldiers have bad intentions. But in Polyakov's story, they are much more wicked and the result is a fine short animated film non-suitable for children.

1 reason to watch it: the traditional 2-D drawing technique 

Read my interview with Lev here!

Watch the whole movie here!

Wild Girl Waltz (2012)

Fear and Loathing in Western Mass

Writer and Director Mark Lewis takes us to the back roads of Western Massachusetts for this comedy with character. Lewis chooses to explore the friendship and dumb decisions of two best friends - Angie and Tara - who take drugs in order to escape their routinely boredom for a few hours. Dazed and Confused, the two compadres find a baby-sitter in Brian - Tara's boyfriend - who is stuck taking care of the girls until they come down from their high. To a background of country music, the movie makes us travel through rural New England with the three amigos. Wild Girl Waltz focuses on friendship and tiny bits of romance. I feel like the goofy comedy is just a cover to address real-life young adults' issues. Angie and Tara are stuck in their rural hometown. Out of college and money, they have nowhere to go so they decide to get wasted for a moment to mentally escape their reality. The two female leads are hilarious and naturally impersonate the wasted characters. The story flows around their offbeat personality. Wild Girl Waltz is shameless, sarcastic and is just the comedy that girls have been waiting for too long.

1 reason to watch: the catchy leading duo

Read my interview with Writer/Director Mark Lewis here!

Wild Girl Waltz: Interview with Writer/Director Mark Lewis

Marl Lewis on the set of Wild Girl Waltz

The Squeerelist - Why did you make the unusual decision to choose 2 female leads to support your story?

Mark Lewis - I really wanted to do the small-town version of a "hang out" comedy, like Clerks or Dazed and Confused, but most films like that are very male focused. I felt by making the leads female it would be an interesting flip side to what people usually expect from these types of stories.

There is a background of romance in Wild Girl Waltz but it doesn’t take over the main topic which is Angie and Tara’s friendship. It is really enjoyable as the opposite often occurs in movies. Why was it important to you to show this special relationship as the core of the plot?

Two major reasons: First, I wanted to make the antidote to the typical male-bonding comedy, where you have two male leads that get all the funny lines, and they're saddled with a ball busting shrew of girlfriend that acts as a buzzkill that sucks the fun out of everything. Second, I wanted to do a female buddy comedy that didn't revolve around a wedding or them fighting over a man or some other romantic comedy cliche. I designed this story to let the women have the kind of comedy adventures that the guys get in a Kevin Smith or Judd Apatow film.

When you make a movie that is supported by - and only by -  3 main characters, the audition process is quite intense and stressful. You have to find a cast that has chemistry and you can't go wrong or the whole plot collapses. Tell us more about what you went through with this part of pre-production.

This is where time and patience are crucial. This script is all dialogue-driven. So, when you don't have masked killers or special effects to fall back on, casting is 100% the most important element. I gave myself close to five months of pre-production that was dedicated to internet searches and just going through one demo reel after another, looking for flashes of magic. When I found someone I was interested in, I had them do a video audition. After that, it was a roll of the dice and hoping that the chemistry from auditions would transfer to the screen.

Where did you find a gem and a riot like Christina Shipp - who plays Angie - to star in your movie?

She was a friend of one of the actors from my previous feature. She had done some commercial work that really blew me away with how natural and funny it was. And I figured if she could create a unique character in 30 seconds of screen time, imagine what she could do with 80 minutes. Actually, that was the case with all three of the main leads. I'd seen examples where they all managed to elevate material they were working with. That's what I look for: someone who could take what I wrote and make it even better, as opposed to just reciting it like a robot.

I feel like your movie addresses current middle class issues through the eyes of a young adult generation under a comedic cover. How personal is this story?

Very personal, but I didn't want to beat the audience over the head with a message. It's an entertainment first, but if you're looking for it, there is more under the surface about the monotony of the small town, 40-hour-work week existence, and the need to escape it. Even it's just for an afternoon.

Your plot is set in the New England countryside. It feels more like a bashing of the boring way of life of rural USA than its celebration. Do you have mixed feelings about home?

A bit. The older I get, the more I realize that the "nobility of the struggling American worker" really is a bunch of crap. Most of us are working towards something better or dreaming about something better. Even if it's just playing the lottery. There are a lot of broken dreams be it through lack of talent or lack of luck. And that discontentment runs through Wild Girl Waltz. Sometimes you just get high, get goofy and do some crazy stuff to forget about the big picture and dread of the future.

You shot your film in 8 days with a $10,000 budget. What were the specific challenges to take into consideration in order to complete your feature film in such a short period of time and on such a low budget?

Primarily, scheduling and casting. Finding locations that were visually interesting, but in fairly close proximity to each other helped with the scheduling. And casting actors with great talent and good attitudes helped in that we could blow through major scenes in three takes or less and move on to the next. If any of them were unprepared or didn't know their lines inside and out it could have taken twice as long as it did. Also, I fought the impulse to do extravagant camera moves or shots that were overly fancy. Those can be time destroyers. So, I really just concentrated on performances and the farm country locations that opened things up and were unique to the eye.

Any advice you'd like to share with the independent filmmakers out there?

In terms of a first film, I'd say: Aim high, but also realistically. Making any film at a micro budget level is a challenge, so I'd really avoid anything with heavy action sequences or a huge number of extras. It's way too easy for it to come off looking cheap. Also, don't underestimate the physical toll it takes on the body. We shot eight days in a row, and usually, by day three fatigue starts kicking in and it's real easy to get sick. You don't want an actor being fine for scenes four and six, but having a head cold in scene five. I know a lot of filmmakers like to turn their sets into a party atmosphere, but a little discipline improves the final product.

Learn more about Wild Girl Waltz at http://www.wildgirlwaltz.com/

Emile Hirsch to Play the Late Great John Belushi in Biopic

Read my Cinema Chords article here!

Steve Conrad will write and direct the second John Belushi biopic – Wired, starring The Shield‘s Michael Chiklis being the first one in 1989 – this time with Emile Hirsch becoming the Saturday Night Live comedian and Blues Brothers showman. Known for his intense dramatic roles – Into the Wild, Milk – Hirsch also has comedic skills up his sleeves as we’ve witnessed early in his career wooing Jack Bauer’s daughter, Elisha Cuthbert, in The Girl Next Door.

Writer and director, Conrad also knows how to juggle both comedy and drama in the same film. He proved it with The Weather Man and more recently with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

This untitled Belushi biopic is based on the book by the comedian’s widow Judith Belushi Pisano whilst Belushi’s friend and Blue Brother Dan Aykroyd will be the movie’s executive producer so it certainly looks like we can expect the movie to deliver a close and personal take on Belushi’s life. So early in pre-production, it’s hard to know what Conrad will focus on. Will he explore the dark side of Belushi’s fame or will he emphasize the comedy genius? One thing is sure, whatever direction Conrad takes – probably a mix of both comedy and drama as he’s used to do so –  we believe this part will fit Hirsch like a glove.