GUEST OF HONOR - behind the scenes

so it was October 2014 we had just wrapped short I made it go Popeye the pizza man and I think I was on the high of wrapping a film wanting to make the next film and somehow I found this article online about Hitler's taste-testers camera speeds bounce beats Sena take to heart the idea of people possibly eating their last meal of their life what would you talk about at that table I think it's just really ambitious to try something like this where it's it's black and white its period all in German well first of all what struck me was that I've never read anything like it it was just so tight it was this very contained piece that felt larger than the sum of its parts the themes just really jump out in this one and just how he's shooting it the way he's going about it everything felt so perfect and these women were soldiers every meal three times a day where does this strength come from I often wonder and so I have the utmost admiration and respect for on we're on yeah cool so I met Justin probably about eight years ago I've worked with Justin it's been over ten years ago when he picked me up at the airport and he grabbed my bags Justin and I got to work together this past summer I met him when I was in high school I was the gaffer and he was the second AC so one of the amazing things that a film set offers is the time to remember how all the dots are connected of how you met her and him like I was a PA on a TV movie when I met Rachel and I cast a B Stephanie's sister on a film I made riffraff and one of the things that's really cool about this film is the connection with film riot I've known Justin for a really long time he actually sent me some of his short films way way back in the day early film right days just sending me short films to check out and you know he's one of very few people that stuck out to me that I need to keep an eye on this kid as he grows and that led to me when I got a little more serious about not just making sketches and making short films I made a phone call number 14 and it was just man this guy's so talented so I just reached out to him and we need to do stuff together and we stay connected and well it worked yeah months later he flew me to Texas to do proximity and then eventually he came and worked for film riot was fantastic to have him and he really boosted the show and just how we operate even and we just became very very close and I was able to see firsthand his work ethic you know his mind his artistry and it was just something that I just wanted to be a part of sex tics yeah it's when he originally hired me I said I don't care if you stay here for two years or ten years I just want to help you be a filmmaker you know it's just the filmmaking community when you have those types of friends and connections it really becomes family lifting each other up do you know he helped me do the things that I want to do and reach my goals and you know I want to do the same for him when Ryan and Josh became involved with guest of honor it was such a burden off of our shoulders we were able to get a couple of partners on this we got aperture lens Pro and DD mics with everything that we do we reach out to sponsors that make gear that we really like or you know just have the same sort of outlook that we have and aperture ones Pro n DV at all are very indie minded love the indie community so they were an obvious choice to go to for this and they saw the vision for it really dug it and they wanted to be a part of it so they helped make all this happen for someone who funds all their films themselves and who can't do that forever because I'm not rich at all it was an amazing gift guys with their power decided to use that power for somebody with less power but it goes beyond the film industry it just speaks to good human beings I'm just really believing Justin as an artist and as a person I don't know that I've met a better person than Justin or somebody that deserves it more than Justin so like any film but especially this one finding the right location was absolutely vital thankfully I met Matt Wynn's who runs the river place which is a soundstage and event venue as soon as he handed me the script and I read through it I knew that it had to happen here it took a while it was a process to find the right space for him but we have a hundred and three thousand square feet under roof and lots of different spaces and we were able to find a great location so originally I was gonna build a set there but that quickly became too expensive so Matt showed me some other spaces and some other rooms and that led us to the Baker room and we opened the door it's this very simple room it was under construction the carpet was ripped out it has this like two shaded paints and between this wood trim and it was exactly what I wrote all I'm gonna do is put some stuff on the wall and put a table and call it good and funny enough why it was called the Baker room is because the televangelists in the 1980s Jim Baker who had his TV studio at this soundstage at that time the BTL television network presents [Music] the room that we shot guest of honor in was his old dressing room the hallway from the soundstage to his dressing room or Silvio walks it's lined with rocks why I don't know one of the big reasons for shooting at the river place was the fact that I would never have to company move the ability to shoot the cafe scene in the church lobby and the ability to shoot most of the film in Jim Baker's dressing room and then out behind the building are the woods where we did the whole scene that's like the only way that we shot on the schedule that we had there's a combined 30 years of lighting experience in the air making this happen for us right now so just knowing that we're in we're resting on some strong beautiful shoulders it's really putting my mind at ease our main set was lit with a 6x6 soft box that contained a black/white Grif where we bounced in eight quasars two quasars per side we were able to turn off to taste depending on camera angle we had a two-team skirt around the sides and then we diffused all of that with unbleached muslin lighting a movie in black and white is little misleading these days because you're really lighting it in color still and then in post changing it over black and white unless you choose to go with the film and we're shooting on Alexa for us it was really more of figuring out in the transition with the LUT how we could color stuff during the shooting that would add to the mid-tones and into the darkness and also because of the time period of the piece it was chosen to give it a little bit more of a gritty feel by not being his Beauty lit we're still softening our lighting but we're choosing to put it in kind of a harsher zone on the face so we looked at Silvio and some of the girls and figured out what would not necessarily make them unattractive but just the right spot to add to visually what's going on script itself the lights that we use in the ceiling on the wall were aperture maybe twenties you know it's an unnatural feel to have lights specifically spotting in the background but you'll see even in historical stuff that there's usually something highlighting things that are important to people and so for Silvio's character we felt that in this location it's kind of a little shrine and that was something that interested justify the way that I shot the opening scene was how do I reveal each piece of information in this world so here's this food here's who it's about oh here's what's also about okay so stakes are really high [Music] if you ever comes home sitting Everton dish what's the rights and a few sorry makers are Thomas can Samantha I'm calm Sean s kinda mark and Joseph Oh [Music] doctor my Aviva was Elizabeth yes [Music] [Applause] justin is so organized it's crazy all the shot lists you know like he had everything storyboard it out he has drawings of it of everything action Justin's a director with a strong vision and what comes with that often is a strong sense of camera direction a strong sense of composition and a strong sense of lighting what that creates is an environment of precision and efficiency so when we're developing shots together it's it's a joy for me to work with the director who knows exactly where he wants to go and how he does it because when we can build on those foundations it's when we're in the moment and live that we can start to strip them away if we need to when justin and i have collaborated in the past it's been from a static camera so when we've looked at things together in the future we've always talked about what camera moves matter and one of the things justin brought to the table right at the top was zoom shots [Music] what and there was moments to use a day mentality [Music] there were moments to use Steadicam I've been seeing his short projects for years and I've always wanted to be a part of one and he said hey I got one shot and I was like oh man [Music] those aren't always featured elements of the things we've collaborated on but we also knew that a core of this project would also be from a still position as observers [Music] let's go back to one stepping one more you know sometimes that you get an argument and you say something well you know sometimes later we think oh man I woulda said this this is exactly what you wanted to say now and it's exactly what you would say in five minutes or - well there's no questions I didn't know for yeah thought about everything what's your favorite color blue okay it's blue it's now green it's not yellow it's blue love that thank you [Music] what's your favorite color [Music] Justin understands the actor he's not just a technology I mean he knows his equipment too but he primarily has a way to not just convey his vision to the actor but he has a way to get into the actors head and uses certain methods which I found unique and very interesting to you know plant seeds in the actors head for example like scene 3 with Steph making her take off her shoes and socks and wearing wet socks because I don't think anything is more infuriating than walking around or doing life in wet socks for frets I knew that in scene 10 I wanted to make a booklet of just some really jacked up images because I wanted to show him what was in his mind [Music] [Music] when you see a gun and that's one thing but when you see the mind that's holding the gun I think that's much scarier than the gun [Music] it was very unique in at times and an inspiring Hobbit which garden hoppers I [Music] think a lot of great directors do whatever it takes to connect with their actors and I think Justin's not adverse to putting himself in situations where he might look like a fool to the rest of the crew but in the end he connected with an actor in a serious way something I will say about Justin that I that I I've always appreciated you know and it was a big reason why I just I believe in him as his voice in this particular way that he approached a story all of his short films you can look at and go I haven't seen something exactly like that before just has just got a very interesting perspective on people and on life and he's got a very specific vision for when he wants to tell a story you know there's a lot of people just trying to make something that they think other people will like Justin could not care less and that's what I love about him it's not a negative thing it's not a lack of empathy it's the abundance of it because he's just looking at humanity as a whole through his eyes and there's so much love behind everything that he does that it's not this whole I'm just trying to be you know controversial or something I don't think that's a part of his thinking you know I just don't think he cares about any of that it's here's my story here's how I see the world and this is something I gotta say there's a reason everybody keeps wanting to come back and work with him works in the past and you know what makes him so different as a director as opposed to other filmmakers you can't help but love to work with somebody like that because we all get better it's the tide rising and all the ships are rising with it whoa Mic Check Justin warn you I'll be right [Music] okay yeah that's enough of that although you're talking to me I'm gonna do just like this to the audience before I met Justin I had a lot of hair that's one bald you know these short films [Applause] [Music] if you can work on this kind of content and still feel like you're having a great experience I think that speaks volumes to his ability as a director so I don't know what it is about me but wherever I go I usually end up having a conversation or listening to a person that is quite bizarre coming from a person who is weird I meet some weirdos one day it could be a Native American guy that is telling me that he's an exorcist and the next day it could be a lady at the post office telling me that I should receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit have you someone prayed for you to receive the baptism yes very good so my life is kind of like a Coen Brothers movie people see a Coen Brothers movie and it's just like why was that random scene with random dialogue in there and I'm like that's actually in my life but when I met Freda that was like the first time a weird scenario where I talked to a stranger where it actually led to something beautiful it was really an ordained meeting because the circumstances were just so off the wall so one day I go to this barber shop in the mall it's an all-black barber shop that I got to have an appointment at for but there's this girl that's in my chair with my barber at 4:00 and so I think oh maybe he's behind whatever no worries my granddaughter did a project of st. Baldrick's fundraising for the Children's Cancer Research and part of it was to shave your head and so the whole family said we'll donate will donate but don't shave your head well of course she went ahead and did it and Justin is sitting in the waiting area under the TV and it's blaring she's like starts talking about ESPN and now they're just yelling at each other and I was like I'll they kind of make a living you know arguing about sports and blah blah and I admired his socks and she tells me she's from Boston and we talk about Tom Brady and she asked me if I believed that he deflated the footballs and asked her if she was there in Boston when labor'd played and so then he said what do you do and where do you live and I did the same and he told me that he was a filmmaker it ends up with her sharing with me that she moved to South Carolina and her husband of almost 52 years passed away from cancer and I shared with her how I lost my brother to cancer and so we struck up this deep conversation and the fellow who was cutting Jenna's hair came by and he said Justin I'm sorry I'm running late and he said don't rush and she shares that she's a Holocaust survivor and all I'm thinking is oh my god you're the lady that I wrote the timing led to me sharing about guest of honor and at first she was kind of blown away that a young person would remember anything well warts you related and we just made this wonderful connection we exchanged you know email and we kept in touch and he said would you be willing to play the last frame is Anna in her older years and she has never acted before she is not an actress she's just this amazing spunky hilarious poignant lady was almost 80 [Music] all day on set I'm just like I can't live better this is so crazy and all it happened was because it was just like the end of the film where she's in a public place and she probably wouldn't be talked to by anybody [Music] justin has the most amazing kind heart and such a deep compassion he just touches my heart deeply we involved this amazing project because it's really important to get the emotional stories [Music] [Music] you know it's been 80 years since the Holocaust someday it's gonna be like studying live civil war it's gonna be without any emotion the story will be there but the generation of people who went through that like they're kind of most of them are passing away or have already passed away and so those stories in some sense sorry I feel kind of emotional about it I feel like they're gonna get lost so I think it's really important to tell these stories because I feel like like they can't be lost they can't be missed [Music] on behalf of all the victims and the survivors thank you [Applause] you

Channel: Justin Robinson

Views: 11,034

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Id: Dq72CrLnnpg

Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020