The "In Memory Of My Father" Pitch - The film is about a group of emotionally immature twenty-somethings making their best efforts at dealing with the death of their father and the responsibility that is now imposed upon them… that being an externally influenced imposition to become something resembling an adult. The father is loosely based on a hypothetical version of Robert Evans and he has bribed his youngest son to document his death under the assumption that his legacy will have some sort of historical importance. The film chronicles the day that he dies as his three equally self-absorbed sons host the wake which resembles something closer to a Hollywood party attended by more strangers than friends. The film is composed of a character driven ensemble with three major intersecting story lines (one for each brother) that lead you through the beautiful chaos and absurdity of a family taking themselves too seriously, while dealing with the significant life change that comes with the death of a father, resulting in a portrait of this man’s life, regardless of the fact that he goes nearly unnoticed and unmentioned throughout his entire wake.
INTERVIEW with director CHRISTOPHER JAYMES:
Will this be your first time at CineVegas? Any other film festival experience?
CHRISTOPHER: Yes, this will be my first time. I’ve had some festival experience in the past, not much though, to be honest… most recently IMOMF was selected as 1 of 15 work-in-progress pieces to screen 20 minutes at the IFP Market in NY. Prior to that, a film I produced and starred in called It’s Alright Ma played in a handful of festivals including LAFF, and prior to that, as an actor I had a film called Some Girl with Giovanni Ribisi and Juliette Lewis play at a bunch of festivals.
When you were 14 years old, if someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, what would your answer have been?
CHRISTOPHER: An actor was always the underlying dream unfortunately, which has now evolved into director, though my main focus at fourteen was Scuba Diving which I was doing excessively because my real driving desire at the time was to work with dolphins. Though, I was also pretty intent at that time to become The Smiths, not Morrissey necessarily, but The Smiths as a whole. It was also the year I had my first girlfriend and she broke my heart because I was disgustingly obsessed with her, so most of that year I spent in a suffering daze actually.
How did you get started in filmmaking?
CHRISTOPHER: My start in film making was with my friend Chris Nunciato. We had a video camera and spent most of our 15th and 16th years making the most atrocious “edit-while-you-shoot” movies, usually at least 5 per week, things like mock talk shows about teenagers on laxatives, basically a bunch of entertaining nonsense. This habit continued off and on until my late twenties.
Along the way, I had become a pretty competitive skate boarder and because of it got offered a Foot Locker commercial which got me into SAG and from there I started acting in TV shows. A few years of being on sets as an actor evolved into working with my friends as a script supervisor and an editor and that just kept going until I began making IMOMF.
How did you get your film started?
CHRISTOPHER: The film was initiated by the executive producer David Austin. We had been friends for awhile and sometimes he would hire me to help rewrite a script that he was working on and so forth… anyway, one day when I got back from a three month trip to South East Asia he told me he was going to sell his house and that if I could come up with an idea to shoot in his house prior to selling it, he would help pay for it. It used to be one of Samuel Goldwyn’s old mansions and it reminded me a lot of Bob Evans’s house, which I was spending a lot of time at due to the fact that my friend Milo was living there and working as Bob’s assistant.
I was at the Fine Arts Theater on Wilshire going to a revival screening of Bunuel’s Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie and the first few scenes stimulated a few thoughts which juxtaposed nicely alongside the stories of my recent past which gave me the core idea for the movie. I wrote the script extremely fast, brought it David and he liked it, and we were off.
How did you go from script to finished product?
CHRISTOPHER: Whewff!! I could spend weeks writing trying to answer, but basically to keep an overwhelmingly extensive story short…
I had written the script specifically for all of the actors except two who were recast, we had the entire house designed, set, and lit and then rehearsed at the house on and off for about six weeks prior to shooting. The shoot was very efficient and smooth which was a blessing as we had absolutely no cushioning budget for errors. A few months later, we had a weekend of additional shooting without any of the actors, just some newly cast kids to shoot Super 8mm footage from the past and that was that. The house was sold and reshoots were no longer an option.
After beating my head into every obstacle I could find and having no luck as a human that successfully raises money, I finally brought the film to Alan Oxman (editor of Welcome to the Dollhouse) who runs a school in NY called the Edit Center. They teach students to edit using the footage from a real film. They had recently completed Tadpole and Chelsea Walls, so it seemed like a good start. I spent three months there while the students assembled a rough cut of the film.
From there I came back to LA and started from scratch with a very thorough knowledge of the footage and worked for a short time with Kathryn Himoff (editor of Pollock). She got another job so again, I started from scratch and ended up cutting the film with Eric Michael Cole who is an actor in the film and now a Co-Producer as well.
I had a friend in Vienna with a production company and post house called Interspot and he was out here shooting some news coverage of the Oscars. One day, he popped into the edit suite, saw twenty minutes of the film and said, “I love this movie. I don’t need to see any more. Bring it Vienna, we will finish it there.”
We did all of the online editing, coloring, and temp sound work there which gave me about a five month vacation in Vienna which was amazing, came back to LA, hired Tom Ozanich (post sound on American Beauty) and he finished the sound, and here we are… years later!!
When you were in pre-production, did you find yourself watching other great movies in preparation?
CHRISTOPHER: Well, a little bit, though I didn’t have tons of time. After I had given the script to the cast and crew a few people kept comparing it to FESTEN (Celebration) which I hadn’t seen so I went out and got it. I was a little nervous while watching it, as there were a lot of similarities to what I had written, and not to mention that it was done so well that I was a little intimidated. I quickly let it go and moved on and our film has only a few similarities at this point, so it’s not a worry… but, other than that… what was I watching?? Strangely, the film I was watching the most at that point in time, was Sheltering Sky. It would play constantly on my TV while I was working, don’t know why as it is absolutely nothing like IMOMF in any manner, but I had a sort of addiction to it for awhile. Also, Magnolia was something I was watching occasionally.
How have things changed for you since your film started playing on the festival circuit? If this is your first acceptance into a film festival, describe what that's like and your thoughts about CineVegas.
CHRISTOPHER: Since this is the world premiere of the film, I haven’t really got to the point where I’m having the festival experience I think. My life consists mostly of doing endless amounts of Photoshop work, tons of printing, dealing with joyous technical issues and conversions and encoding and press kits and art work and invitations and hotel rooms and trying to make sure everyone is taken care of and will have a good time in Vegas.
The festival staff has been surreal. I’ve never dealt with a group that is so thorough and responsive since I’ve been in the industry. It’s amazing. Trevor Groth, Jen Jurgens, Mike Plante, and Marcus Haurer (the staff) have become my newfound therapists and are actually making the experience something that I am a part of, which has never really been the case with festivals in the past for whatever reason. They tend to slowly give out information about the event, like in the beginning of a new lust filled relationship where each day the other person opens up and you become this blundering idiot because you can’t believe the person actually likes YOU… that’s sort of what it feels like I guess.
When you were shooting the film, did you have CineVegas (or any other film festivals in general) in mind? Have you been turned down by other festivals? If so, which ones and what do you think could be improved with festivals in general.
CHRISTOPHER: While shooting the film, especially since it’s my first film I think the obvious thought in everybody’s head is always Sundance, Sundance, Sundance and that’s how Trevor saw the film. He’s the director of programming at CineVegas and the Senior Programmer at Sundance. He loved the film, wanted it to play at Sundance, but from what was conveyed to me, it was very close amongst the final selections and in the final days we slipped off the board, so he immediately offered the CineVegas slot. The worst part was that we had been accepted to a few festivals that played prior to CineVegas and I had to pass on the festivals while all I wanted to do was play the film. But after talking to everyone involved we thought this was the way to go with the film and it was lucky that we did as there is no way we would have been as prepared as we now are for CineVegas.
In terms of festival improvement, the key thing is this in my opinion. It’s a catch 22. The festivals need money to function and by nature, independent film makers have absolutely no money when they are in the final stretches of completing their film… so?? Every day I watch another festival submission deadline pass and my hearth aches that I cannot afford to submit to another festival at the moment. If you think about it, the average entry fee is $50, $75 for Toronto!! Over $100 for Berlin and Edinburgh!! Then you have to send a DVD or VHS, a press kit, info about the film, printed materials that cost money, then you have to pay for shipping… each submission ends up costing the film maker (with no money at all at this point) somewhere close to $100 each. It’s not practical and it’s unfortunate for everyone. There are forty festivals I have passed up on in the past three months that were on my list, but what can I do… that’s $4000??
Have you seen any independent films recently on the festival circuit, in theaters or on video that influenced you? Or anything that you would just like to give a shout-out to that audiences should be seeing (or given a chance to see?)
CHRISTOPHER: The truth is for the past year I’ve lived basically in a small closet soaking myself in radiation from computer screens and high powered electronic energy waves that are slowing disintegrating my mind and body. I haven’t been to a festival since I’ve been working on the film and actually miss most of the films that I’ve wanted to see. I really loved The Sea Inside and Motorcycle Diaries, but in terms of films I’ve been watching recently again and again are 2001 and Dog Day Afternoon.
What´s the one glaring lesson you learned while making this film?
CHRISTOPHER: There’s a billion lessons on various levels every moment. The key ones would be to work within your means and your resources. Don’t wait for investors because even when they’re saying yes, they really mean no. Try to avoid receiving favors as often as possible because favors get done on the time of the favor-ee which isn’t always conducive to your sanity. But mostly, when your world is about to be completely destroyed and demolished, try not to take yourself so seriously… ride it out, everything comes around, just not on your schedule.
Your film deals with the dying of a family member. Where do you fall in the recent debate over Million Dollar Baby?
CHRISTOPHER: Funny, over the past few years I’ve been developing a story about a human’s right to die, so there’s really no question in my mind. It is your life and if you find yourself in a position where your idea of living is no longer a reality or an option, then no other human should have the right to dictate your fate. Obviously, that can be interpreted as a touchy statement, since we have many moments when our reality isn’t living up to our “idea” of life but I think there’s a pretty obvious difference between mental disabilities which are fleeting and physical disabilities which are not.
If a studio said "we love this, we love you, you can remake anything in our back catalogue for $40million" - what film, if any, would you want to remake?
CHRISTOPHER: I’m afraid to say it because somebody might steal it, but there are a few films that I’d like to make. All are foreign films that I would like to make a modern English language film, I’ll give you one of them, but by reading this statement anyone who does it must include me in the process if they decided to do it, this is binding by law, of course… The Fire Within by Louis Malle. Funny, it’s not really a $40 million dollar type of film so I’d be really impressed if they said yes, but let’s see, what would be more suitable for $40 million… Maybe either Jules and Jim or a live action version of Dumbo.
Two parter - name an actor you'd KILL to work with, and then name an actor in your own film that you really think is destined for great things.
CHRISTOPHER: Actor that I would KILL to work with would be Javier Bardem or Anjelica Huston. I think a lot of the actors in my film are destined for great things, but it’s hard to imagine making a film without Judy Greer in it.
At what point will you be able to say, "Yes! I've made it!"
CHRISTOPHER: I will say “yes, I’ve made it” as soon as I can pay off all my credit cards that paid for this film. When that’s done, I won’t say it anymore, and then if I’m blessed I’ll have thousands of fleeting moments saying it, which are quickly followed up by the thoughts “oh shit?”
A film is made by many people, including the director (of course), but you'll often see movies that open with a credit that says "a film by" ? Did you use that credit in your film? If so, defend yourself!
CHRISTOPHER: Ha! Yes, I did. It just sort of found it’s way there, I guess it’s because it’s mostly on my credit cards, and after awhile when you’re jumping from computer to computer from Photoshop to Final Cut to Avid to Pro Tools to stapling things to Fed Ex to the Apple Store then back to Staples and all this after all of the usual stuff, it just becomes a reality. But it is a bit funny, I agree.
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