Movie Hardball – Interview with David Spaltro

Features, Top Story

A few months ago, I was contactsed by David Spaltro, writer/director/producer of …Around about possibly posting something on his film. While my loyalties are not for sale to just anyone, after watching his film I told him I would love to help him in any way I could. The following is the culmination of numerous conversations I held with David over the course of the past few months. I hope you all enjoy it, and if any of you live near Hoboken I strongly urge you to go show your support for his film, and all the films, at the Hoboken Film Festival starting this Friday, May 29th. At the bottom of the column are a couple link for further reading on the movie and the film festival. On with the questions:

1. How much of …Around is autobiographical?

…Around is very autobiographical, but not just in a word-for-word, chronological and scene-by-scene way. The film is less a biopic and more a valentine, sometimes bittersweet, to a certain time and place in my life and the people I knew. The character of Doyle is very much a weird snap-shot of someone I was at 18-22 and, in some ways, still am. It’s only been in recent viewings and screenings that I’ve stopped being desensitized and the film really has begun hitting me in new ways. It was always more about conveying a feeling and honoring some memories then “telling my story”.

2. …Around has been selected as one of the main features for the Hoboken Film Festival on May 29th and is also scheduled for a digital release sometime in June/July. With both dates eminent do you feel you have done all you can do with this particular project? Are you ready to move on? If so, what other projects do you have on the horizon?

I don’t know if you ever really let it go. It’s always going to be this huge part of me; as a personal story, my first feature film and the whole journey with it, it’s just my baby. Truth be told, I’ve been ready to move on for a while now and with the release of the film, having already done a lot of the press circuit and grass roots campaign, I’ve decided to make this Summer my real final chapter closing on …Around. I’ve protected it, kept it afloat and now it’s out there, I can let it be whatever it’s going to be. I’ve written something new I’m still working on as a possible follow-up called Things I Don’t Understand that I’d love to shop around and get some money to shoot this upcoming late Winter in Brooklyn. Ideally I’d have to attach a few bigger names, but also I’d bring back a few of the faces from …Around I want to work with again and have written roles specifically for. I’ve also been making contacts with a few agents and producers out in California and there is a real chance of me heading out there at the end of this Summer, even begrudgingly saying goodbye to NYC for a while. I’ve found myself transitioning a lot from my normal life this past year and the people, even ones I love dearly, involved in it. It may just be time now to take the next steps and see what’s on the horizon for this new journey in my life.

3. …Around has a very distinctive New York feel to it, but it doesn’t romanticize New York the way many films do. What do you think makes your film stand out most as a more realistic representation of New York life?

I think it just has to do with me living here for the last decade and growing up not too far away across the Hudson. I’ve been everything from a student, to a worker, to a vagrant and in-between in this city and have seen it’s many colors and shapes. I think a lot of people who don’t live in NYC or the image that’s projected is this grand metropolis with the landmarks and busy people moving around in it. That’s all true and fine, but what I’ve discovered as I’ve made this place my home is all the different parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens; the communities, the memories and moments stitched into every block and subway stop, even when the places and people have changed or filtered out. The last few years I’ve been all over the world, seen castles and cathedrals, mountains and beaches, sunsets and sunrises over them all and nothing compares to this place. Eight million people struggle in concrete caverns, try to connect and survive, to make a home and all their stories are important and unique and beautiful in their own ways. You’re never at a loss for inspiration. I love it. And when I said before about the film really trying to be a love-letter or honoring memories and moments, the real flavor of being in this city and knowing it inch by inch is something that was always part of the agenda anyway.

4. After graduating college, you spent time in Europe and Asia. Any interesting stories from those journeys you plan on turning into films?

Though there’s been talk of doing a possible TV version of …Around, I don’t ever see myself doing a real sequel. The natural one, chronologically, would be Doyle tossing his few possessions in a bag that doesn’t belong to him and heading out to backpack through Europe like I did in the Summer/Fall of 2005. If my memory serves me, he’d have some good stories; working in hostels, bartending in Portugal, hitchhiking, running from gangsters in Prague, playing cards for money in Belfast, fibbing his way onto a Finnish pirate ship and sailing through a perfect storm in Norway, and a million other ones.

Asia was a great and strange experience, a culture shock, and a chance to really remove myself and sit down and write …Around which I did when the monsoon season came and I was stuck inside for a few weeks. I also use to ride a motorcycle down to the Incheon harbor in Seoul, South Korea and sit and watch the sun set and meditate. It was peaceful. I think the experiences, the places I’ve been, and the people I’ve met I’ll carry with me and use in my work, as any good creator should, I don’t think I’d ever use the …Around characters to tell those stories.

5. Would you ever consider remaking …Around with a bigger budget? If so, would you do anything differently?

Nope. I don’t feel …Around would work the same on a much higher budget. It would have been nice, and I know my line-producer Lee would have had an easier time, if we had the original 1-2.5 million I was trying to raise to do it more comfortably and have more time and breathing room. I think part of the not having money and time, while occasionally hurting us, actually pushed us to do better work and be more creative. We had to. I also think it matches the scruffy charm and aesthetic of the main character and of the story itself. I’d never remake …Around, not for all the money in the world. It is what it is and I’m quite proud of it and the work of those involved in it. It was a story I had to tell and it was this great, low-budget and crazy summer camp experience. On a bigger budget there would also be more complication and people trying to control the ship, I might not have a freedom to cast those I wanted. People had mentioned if I had a bigger budget I’d have gotten bigger or different actors and that’s not true. In fact I was offered a small amount of money to recast two of the lead roles and I turned them down. I wanted to work Rob Evans and Molly Ryman and the rest. I believed in them, I trusted they believed in me and we pulled it off without any of the magic fairy dust of Hollywood.

6. You told me that you funded the production of …Around with a number of maxed out credit cards, was it worth it?

I don’t regret it. It hasn’t been easy and not even in the most obvious reasons you’d think. In life, if you want something a lot of times I feel it’s “put up or shut up”. I was prepared to shoot this film on a cell phone camera if it came down to it, nothing was going to stop me. When I met with Lee Gillentine who helped me produce it and budget the film and he made it seem feasible, that’s when I really locked down and decided to just toss the cards and go through with it, no turning back. I don’t regret it at all. I’m proud of the film, happy to have had the experience even when it was bleak or painful. I love the people I met and worked with and hope the film and experience is something they’re proud of and will always remember fondly.

7th Inning Stretch. Let’s talk directors: Name a few of your favorites and the reasons why.

I take inspiration from a lot of sources, but a few I’d name check are Martin Scorcese–the master, a great visual story-teller who uses shots, editing and music in such a creative and energetic way. It and his stories are just visceral, you can feel them pumping in your heart. Joss Whedon–who’s only directed one film (a great one) but his story-telling working Television and writing scripts is just phenomenal. His transitions and characters and metaphors are inspiring and original and beautiful. Wong Kar Wai’s dream-like images and flow. John Carpenter/George Romeo–who’ve been lumped as horror directors but should also be noted as two of the best independent filmmakers, doing a genre amazingly well and still putting in endearing characters and telling stories that work as social commentary. Woody Allen, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch. Spike Lee–who’s works, even ones that aren’t that good as a whole, I respect his voice and his style, the love of cinema and this city that he infuses in them.

8. Which director’s style would you most like to channel? Why? Which director’s career arc would you most like to follow? Why?

I think the two directors I’d most like to have a career arc and style similar to are Billy Wilder and his, in my mind, modern day double Danny Boyle. Wilder and Boyle to me make amazing films, just perfect in terms of writing, cinematography, acting, etc; but they’re all so different. They jump genres but maintain consistency in quality of telling the story. Wilder could do a farce like Some Like It Hot but also churn out a thriller in Double Indemnity and the great dark romantic comedy and favorite film of mine The Apartment. Boyle can do Trainspotting, an original take on the sci-fi epic like Sunshine and then Slumdog Millionaire and while all are very different they still have his thumb prints on them. I’d like to try my hand at all things, so long as the story and characters are there, I think it would be a fun and fulfilling career to have as wide a playground as those guys did.

9. Anything else you would like to add?

The only thing I’d appreciate you add is how much of a family and group effort this was. From Lee Gillentine, the line-producer, helping keep the ship afloat under financial-time constraints, hiring the great crew; to our AD Grant Desimone who saved the day every day, April Cary, our costume person, who handled everything with no time or money and just the actors. Rob Evans, Molly Ryman, and Marcel Torres without whom I could never tell the story.

For more information about …Around please click here.

For more information on the Hoboken Film Festival please click here.

Special thanks again to David for his time and cooperation throughout the process. Good luck to you and here’s to your future success.