DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: Adam Bowers

 

Adam Bowers is an independent film maker from Dunedin, Florida that made a big splash in 2010 with his critically acclaimed slacker comedy New Low. Praised for intelligent, quick and witty dialogue, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010. The film has achieved a well-earned cult status and Bowers is now poised to make a new movie called Paperback, which will be funded by online fundraising website, Kickstarter.

INVISIBLE VANGUARD: The soundtrack for New Low sets a tone that I find to be an accurate representation of life in Gainesville, Florida. How did you come about selecting the music for the movie?

ADAM BOWERS: Oh, I’m glad you feel that way about it. That was kind of my goal with it, capturing what life was like down there. My other approach for everything in the movie was just trying to use as much of what I liked as possible, so New Low is basically just a big mash-up of everything I was into at the time (that Gainesville sub-culture, the bands on the soundtrack, Woody Allen movies... That sort of stuff).

IV: The quality of the writing in the film is impeccable. When did you start writing the movie and did you find it difficult to make the script into a reality given the budgetary limitations that you must have had to overcome?

AB: That’s really nice of you to say, thanks. I didn’t have much trouble turning the script into the movie, partly because I wrote it knowing I was going to go straight into making it in that DIY, no-budget way, which is how I’d made things up until that point. So I would be careful not to write anything that I didn’t think we’d be able to pull off. I think it helps a lot, too, that the movie is so dialogue-driven, because that’s something you can make interesting that doesn’t cost anything.

IV: The film has some pretty compelling characters, how did you go about casting? Did you intend to play the main part of Wendell all along?

AB: I’d actually made a 40 minute student film version of the movie the year before, for an independent study course at my college, called New Personal Worst, where I played Wendell, Jayme Ratzer played Vicky, and Val Jones played Joanna. I’d wanted Toby Turner for Dave, but he wasn’t available then, so I cast a friend of a friend named Chris Ramenda who was great. But I knew really early on who I wanted for those main roles, and most of the other roles I cast with people I knew. A lot of them came from the college improv group I was a part of called Theatre Strike Force. But as for me playing Wendell, the character was written so much in my own voice that it felt unlikely that I’d be able to find someone who would get it in the small pond that is the Gainesville acting community. So, I just thought it’d be easier to play him myself.

IV: Did the fact that you played the dual role of actor and director slow the shooting of the movie?

AB: I’d say it made it easier, actually. I had to do a ton of stuff on the movie outside of directing/producing, and I was just very OCD about trying to improve the script and everything, so I was kind of just swallowed by the movie for awhile, and that made it so I knew the script front-to-back. So, there weren’t really any times where I would need to take a minute before shooting and learn my lines or anything, because I was just already so zeroed in on it. Not to mention, playing Wendell meant one less person I would have to try and wrangle to the set every day.

IV: The film played at the Sundance film festival in 2010, what is your favorite memory of that experience?

AB: My favorite memory of that is probably going out to dinner with my family after the premiere and just being able to pause for a second. The whole thing, though, was an amazing, nerve-wracking, on-another-planet sort of experience. Sundance is a great organization that really cares about independent film, and I feel very lucky to be welcomed into that community.

IV: The climax of the film might seem a bit abrupt to a lot of people, it’s really up to the imagination of the audience to figure out what happens to the characters next. Have you thought about making a sequel to New Low at some point in the future?

AB: Ha, I have heard it catches people off-guard. I don’t know where it would go, though, after what we see in the film. To me, the ending in the film is the only one that makes sense that I would consider to be a “happy” ending. I think the ending of the film is hopeful, and without spoiling anything for readers who haven’t seen it, I think making things go another way would have meant something sadder for the characters.

IV: I just read today that you are trying to get a new film project going via Kickstarter. Any idea of when you would get started shooting the new film?

AB: Yeah, I just started a Kickstarter for a new film. Actually, to answer your question about the “sequel” to New Low, I look at this movie as a sort-of sequel to that film. It takes place in Gainesville, and there are two characters in it that are very much like Wendell and Vicky from that film, and I think they could be seen as a logical progression of what they would be like five years from the events of New Low, what their relationship would have become. We’re planning on shooting this new film in September. I’m really excited. Please consider backing the Kickstarter, or sharing it with family and friends, so we can make it!

IV: Have you given any thought to what you would like to hear on the soundtrack?

AB: I have, actually. Without revealing too much, it will have a similar tone to New Low’s soundtrack, but I won’t be doing quite the same thing. There will definitely be at least a Gainesville band or two involved, though, that’s for sure.

IV: Can you give any additional information about the project?

AB: Something I’m really looking forward to with this project is working with the team I have lined up. It’s being produced by Andie Bolt, who’s a producer/comedian, and a friend of mine out in LA, and Roger Beebe, who is a UF professor of film and the owner of Video Rodeo, the store my character works at in New Low. It’s being executive produced by Adele Romanski, who’s done a lot of great indie films the past few years, including The Myth of the American Sleepover, The Freebie, and Black Rock, among others, which are all great if you haven’t heard of them. And the director of photography is Jay Keitel, who has made a number of absolutely beautiful small indie movies, like Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine. So, I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out.

IV: If all goes well, when can we expect the release of the new film?

AB: We’re hoping to have it done for festivals in early 2014, with distribution to follow ASAP. The more vocal fans are, the quicker we’ll be able to get it to you guys.

IV: Thank you so much for your time Adam, I look forward to seeing what is sure to be a long and fascinating career for you.

AB: Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that.

You can donate to Adam’s Kickstarter account by clicking  here.

Interview by: Tobias Gaia

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy author who published his first book, Elantris, in 2005. Since then he has released several more successful books, including the Mistborn Trilogy, and The Way of Kings, the first part of an estimated ten-book series. In 2007 he was given the honor of completing the Wheel of Time series after the original author, Robert Jordan, passed away before its completion. Mr. Sanderson co-hosts a podcast at the website Writing Excuses, and teaches a creative writing class on fantasy and science fiction at Brigham Young University. Even with all that on his plate, he was gracious enough to set some time aside to answer a few questions for us regarding what psychs him out as a writer, how he plans to avoid “epic sprawl” and sagely advice for new writers trying to squeeze their way into the epic fantasy market.

INVISIBLE VANGUARD: I am curious if professional writers ever get psyched out by their own works. When you are working on an epic series, such as The Stormlight Archive, do you ever have moments of doubt in your ability to see it through to completion? Does it ever feel overwhelming that you have so many volumes ahead of you to write?

BRANDON SANDERSON: That's not the part that psychs me out. Length doesn't do that to me, particularly when I have a series well planned and I have a feel for how each book is going to be distinctive. This really helped me with the Mistborn series, for instance—when I planned it out, I planned each book to have its own identity. That kept me interested in them.

No, what psychs me out is that sometimes something just turns out really well, like The Way of Kings, and then I immediately start thinking, "I have to do that again, and I don't know how I did it in the first place." Writing becomes a very instinctive thing.

Most of the time when I talk about the process of writing, I'm analyzing what I've done after the fact. The truth of it is that right in the moment, right when you're sitting there working on a book, a lot of that stuff isn't going through your head. You're just running on instinct at that point. So it's easy to get psyched out when you're not sure if you can ever do it again.

IV: Do you feel that each new book you release should be better than the last? Is that something you think about while writing, or do you just do the best job that you can and hope that your works improve naturally over time with your skill?

BS: It really depends on the project. Yes, I want every book to improve, but that's a bit of a platitude. It's an easy thing to say. It gets a bit different when you sit down to think about it.

I followed The Way of Kings with The Alloy of Law. Is The Alloy of Law a better book than The Way of Kings? No, it is not. The Way of Kings I spent somewhere around ten years working on; with The Alloy of Law I had a couple of months. In the case of a book like that, I sit down and say, okay, there are things I want to learn in this process. Different books are going to have a different feel. Now, there are people out there who like The Alloy of Law better than The Way of Kings—it's not a better book, but there are people who will enjoy it more.

When I sat down to write Warbreaker, I said I wanted to get better at a certain type of humor. And I think I did get much better at that, in that book. Is the book itself better than The Hero of Ages that came before it? I do some things better, but it's hard to compare a standalone volume to the third book in an epic trilogy. They're going to do very different things.

So it's hard to say "better book"/"not better book." I think "always learning and growing" is a better way to put it than getting better with each book.

IV: Writing an epic series over many years will surely gather you many fans and many haters. In the case of Robert Jordan, it seems like bad reviews and fan backlash mounted up with each new volume as the series went on. Is that something you are concerned about? Do you try to figure out why people responded that way to that series and work to avoid a similar situation with your own, or do you just disregard the naysayers in general?

BS: Of these things that you've asked me questions on, this is the one that I've spent the most time thinking about. It is an interesting phenomenon. Each Wheel of Time book sold more copies than the one before it, yet each one up through book ten got more and more negative reviews. They start out strong, then a few of the books have balanced numbers of reviews, and then they start to take a nosedive—even as the sales of the books go up and up.

The same thing has happened with my own books—as they have grown more popular, they've gotten worse and worse reviews. It's very interesting. You can watch a book like Elantris, which when it came out had more or less universal acclaim, partially I think based on expectations. People read it thinking, hey, there's this brand new author, it probably isn't that good—hey, this book isn't half bad! And then they go and write reviews on Amazon. There are a number of early reviews there that say, wow, this wasn't half bad! This new guy is someone to watch!

As you gain a reputation, more and more people pick you up by reputation—simply hearing "This is a great book" and picking it up, rather than looking into the book and deciding it's a book they will like. That's going to lead to more people picking up the book who it's just not a good match for. I think that certainly is part of it.

I do also think that there is epic series sprawl; there's a legitimate complaint against these series like the Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. I think the fans still like the books, but they have complaints about how they're happening. George R. R. Martin and Robert Jordan are really doing some new and unique things. Robert Jordan didn't get to read any ten-book epic fantasy series of that nature; he had to do it on his own without a model to follow. I think that as we go forward in the genre, hopefully we're picking up on things—we're standing on the shoulders of giants, and hopefully we will figure out how we can do this without necessarily sprawling quite so much, which I think is part of the problem. There's this push and pull in epic fantasy where we read epic fantasy because we love the depth of characterization and world building, and yet if the author does too much of that in every book, then we lose the ability to move forward in a central plot. That can be very frustrating.

I will say that when I was able to read the Wheel of Time from start to finish, having the complete story, that feeling that it wasn't going anywhere in places just wasn't there. That feeling came because you would wait two years for a book, and then when you finished it you'd have to wait two more years for the next book, and because of the nature of the epic series you're just getting a little tiny sliver of the story. So that part of it is just the nature of the beast, but I think we can do things to mitigate that, and I will certainly try.

IV: Lastly, what advice can you give to new and unknown authors with limitless ambition who want to write epic fantasy and/or sci-fi books? From my own personal research, it appears that agents and publishers do not want long word counts from new authors. Is it best to start simple with shorter stories and work your way up to your true love: the epic, or should you just go for it and write as much as you deem necessary and pitch your grand masterwork as a whole?

BS: There are so many questions in there that are going to be very situationally dependent. If you have not already written a few novels, I would say absolutely do not write your grand epic yet. You won't have the skill to do it, and it will disappoint you. I've run across a lot of new writers who this has happened to. They want to do their own Wheel of Time, but they don't yet have the skill to achieve it. I tried this myself and learned this the hard way.

That's not to say that it's impossible to do, but I strongly recommend to most writers to try a few other books first. Standalones or something, to really get your head around the idea of characterization and plotting and narrative arcs before you say, okay, I'm going to tell a story across ten books instead.

If you are confident of your skill, and find that you are just incapable of writing anything else? Writing is the most important thing. If something makes you not write, then it's usually going to be bad advice no matter who it comes from. So then I suggest just writing and loving what you're writing. If you can somehow style your book as "a standalone with sequel potential," then that's probably a better way to go.

This is not just for publishers and agents. New readers have a built-in skepticism toward a new author who is trying something that massive. I've found that a lot of readers like to try the standalone to find out what kind of writer you are, before they then read your big series. Having a couple of standalones has been very useful for me for that reason.

At the end of the day, just write what you love. Yes, editors and agents say they want shorter books. This is because historically it has been proven to them that authors trying to write books that are too long for them bite off more than they can chew and the book spirals out of control. But the draft of Elantris that was the first thing I sold was 250,000 words. That's a full 100,000 words longer than what everyone was telling me agents won't even look at. So by empirical proof: They will look at a longer book if it works for them. So write what you love—if you can get into your head that you're going to do this professionally, and that you have years to learn how to do this, then that's going to help you. Taking the time to practice with shorter works will help you get ready to write your epic. But if you just can't do that, then go for it.

IV: Thank you, Mr. Sanderson, for your time and insightful responses, we really appreciate it and wish you well in your forthcoming endeavors!

For more information and the latest Brandon Sanderson news, check out his website /http://www.brandonsanderson.com/.

BAND INTERVIEW: Murder By Death

     It's tempting to say that if this were a fair universe, Bloomington, Indiana's Murder By Death would be a household name in American music, but anyone who knows their distinct brand of dark and eclectic music knows that, like Tom Waits' oeuvre, it's probably just a little too weird for broad public consumption. Like many artists of their stripe though, they have developed a strong following in rock and roll's murky underworld, and those who know the talents of Murder By Death tend to know them very well indeed. Their musical ability is unassailable, and in their decade as a band they've shown themselves more than capable of capturing any mood or atmosphere they choose, it's just that what they choose seems to be on the stranger side of things.

Past albums have allowed listeners to meet zombie children, doomed sailors, dangerous women, wanted men, all manner of thieves, brigands, outlaws, and even the devil himself. All the wild things that roam the deserts, mountains, and plains of the American subconscious are there populating their country-tinged rock and roll.

September 25th will mark the release of their sixth LP, entitled Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, and bassist Matt Armstrong graciously took some time out to talk to Invisible Vanguard about their new album, new band member, and the new approach to marketing that Kickstarter has provided....


INVISIBLE VANGUARD: Murder By Death has built their reputation on delivering consistently strong albums that each have a distinct flavor. How will Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon stand apart from your previous efforts? Are there any particular themes that went into this release?

MATT ARMSTRONG: Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon will certainly stand out sonically from all of our other releases. I think that's going to be the first thing people will notice when they hear the album. Thematically it isn't really a concept album, but there are some recurring ideas. A lot of it involves the idea of thinking you're in a nice, quiet town, but it turns out there's a seedy underbelly. Think "Twin Peaks" or "Blue Velvet" without the backwards talking and gas-huffing.

IV: It appears that the Kickstarter campaign has been a great success. Does it feel different to have fans give directly to you, rather than through standard sales? Has it changed the way the new album was produced or marketed?

MA: In certain ways it feels the same because so little of our income really comes from labels and things like that. We've always relied heavily on selling merchandise directly to fans either on tour or online. That being said, the Kickstarter campaign was a bit of a different animal. I like that it allowed people to choose their level of involvement. On one hand, a fan could come to our show and buy a record from us for twenty bucks, or that same fan could check out the Kickstarter and decide to spend X amount of dollars and get a really cool, unique prize. We've always tried to be accessible to people who support us, but with this campaign it's like "Do I want to buy a shirt and do shots with the band at the show or do I want to save up and have the band send me postcards once a tour?" So I guess maybe it's not that the marketing is super-different so much as it's way more involved and extensive.

IV: Will the new album have a standard release as well as the Kickstarter?

MA: The album will still have a standard release. The Kickstarter was primarily for the vinyl editions and as a means to dish out the cool prizes and adventures.

IV: You've offered some fairly crazy treats for backers on your campaign, how did you all decide on those? More to the point, how did you convince Dagan to get a fan-chosen tattoo?

MA: Some of the ideas had been around a long time, such as the house shows/playing a wedding/etc. We've always wanted to do those kinds of things but it has always been tricky to schedule because of tours or finances or whatever. We figured this way we could let it be known to anyone that cared that we are open to these ideas. As far as the tattoo goes, Dagan just has a thing for funny tattoos, so that one was a no-brainer. We're going to have to record 15 or so covers because of the Kickstarter, too. People often ask us why we don't cover certain songs, and this gave us the chance to say, "Well, what do you want to hear? Let's do it!"

IV: How has the addition of Scott Brackett (previously of Okkervil River) to the lineup changed the way songs are written and/or performed? Does it alter the band dynamic to a substantial degree?

MA: Adding a new person to a band always changes things to some degree. A new person means a new set of skills, a new social dynamic, and another opinion. We're really lucky to have Scott because he's really talented at a lot of different instruments and he fits right in with the existing group dynamic. Having a really talented person who's a jerk can really screw things up for a band. He adds cool touches to old songs and has lots of great ideas for new songs. It definitely adds to the live show and recording.

IV: This will be your sixth LP and first for Bloodshot records. When you're writing for a new album now, do you guys approach it differently than you did ten years ago?

MA: In a sense, yes. If you do this kind of thing long enough you're able to look back and see what has and hasn't worked for you. Hopefully you learn from your missteps in the past and hopefully you've grown as a player. One major difference that comes to mind is that in the past everyone was trying to play all the time. Sometimes it takes you a while to know your place. That old saying about never missing a chance to shut up is very pertinent to writing music. After a while you learn how to lay back when you need to, so when you do play something it matters.

IV: What's next for MBD? What goals do you have in sight for the band?

MA: There will obviously be touring. We love to travel and still have a lot of the world to see, so we're very much looking forward to getting to some new places. We'd absolutely love to do soundtrack work as well. Hopefully we'll get a chance to get into some of that soon.

IV: Anything else you want people to know?

MA: We are so lucky to have such great fans. Thank you all for making our shows amazing and for all the support for the Kickstarter. We really couldn't do this without you.

Thanks to Matt Armstrong and all of Murder By Death! Check out their website for tour dates and make sure to preorder Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon.