From Patrick’s film…’The Barking Horse’.

With the Emerging Filmmakers Project coming up this Thursday September 20th, I got together with the man responsible for putting this on each month at The Bug Theater, Patrick Sheridan.  Patrick is a Denver based filmmaker who has more than 15 short films under his belt, a 2000 graduate of the Vancouver Film School’s Writing Program, he’s also Co-Manager of both Group 101 Films Colorado and the Colorado Actors and Screenwriter’s Assembly (CASA) and currently the Director of Marketing at The Bug, he also teaches film acting classes here and at the Film Acting Academy.

The Emerging Filmmakers Project (EFP) has been showcasing Denver’s locally-produced movies and documentaries since 2002. Screenings are always held the third Thursday of the month. The EFP is a great place to meet and network with area filmmakers, actors, writers and many of the talented folks who work behind the camera!  A spirited Q & A with the filmmaker follows each movie where you and your fellow audience members get to tell the filmmaker exactly what you think of their work! – from the Bug’s website.

Patrick has a film of his own I watched and you can catch it next week in Boulder at The BolderLife Festival: http://www.bolderlifefestival.com/films-summaries/shorts-program-1/

Patrick’s film from this year, titled  ’The Barking Horse’ is a short film, that rocks your world and you don’t even know it until its passed before you.  It hangs in your brain, sits there and has coffee with your psyche and plays solitaire with your subconscious and all the while you thought you knew everything.  Well, you don’t.  And isn’t that a wonderful thing?  Patrick’s movie ‘The Barking Horse’ will help you realize this, all that you don’t know, its pretty tricky how it does that.  I wanted to know more about this film and this filmmaker…so here goes:

HFT:  So it’s from a poem you wrote in 1988 – what was the inspiration originally?

PS: I realized that most of the unhappiness in my life was self-inflicted. I come from a long line of alcoholics and have a tendency to sabotage good things in my life – jobs, relationships, whatever. So “The Barking Horse” is really a confession of sorts that most of my problems were of my own doing.

As for the movie, I’ve always wanted to do something visual with the poem and I always envisioned something simple yet abstract (while not getting in the way of the poem). That wasn’t asking too much, was it? It sat in my desk for years until I finally felt like my filmmaking abilities were good enough to do it justice. Even so, it was kind of made by accident. I had committed to making an “art” film for the Indie Film Underground event and had decided to do a short movie based on a different poem. I wasn’t able to pull together home movies from various family members to make that movie work so I started to think about whether or not I could pull off doing something with “The Barking Horse.” All I knew was that I wanted to shoot it as if I were shooting a series of still shots. I really didn’t want much of a crew because I simply did not know when or how I was going to shoot everything. I was directing local actor Christine McQuillen in a different project at that time and she became very interested in helping out with “The Barking Horse.” Along with being a fantastic actor, Christine is also a very accomplished photographer. More importantly, though, she had a dog and a horse so we decided to make the movie. We were the entire cast and crew and we had less than a month to make it.  I’m very happy with how the movie turned out.

HFT: LOVE the typewriter, the Baileys, and how you added to each scene with different significant pieces; fish bowl, books, wine, fan, and I love the bare feet then the shoes. I do not know the significance of these items and I don’t want you to explain them, that’s the fun of being an audience member to this film, but, were those items carefully chosen? Very purposeful?  

PS: For the most part, yes, the items were carefully chosen as things that represented shared experiences and the kind of things that accumulate in one’s life, often at the expense of personal relationships.

HFT:  I loved keeping my eye out for them and how they changed in each shot.

PS: That was actually kind of fun. We very specific about what items we added at different stages of their relationship. We wanted to see if the audience would notice new items popping up or items being moved as the physical location of the “couple” on the stairs kept changing.  

HFT: Anything else you want to say about the items? 

PS: The items Christine supplied had tremendous personal meaning to her. Many of the items once belonged to her grandmother, whom she admires greatly. (laughing) Christine likes to point out that most of the crap I brought I picked up at Goodwill the morning of our first day of shooting. It’s true.

HFT: LOVED the ‘house a home’ line at the end as this is something all humans are looking for. Very beautiful.  

PS: Well, that ‘s the thing, right? We’re all looking for a place where we feel like we belong. Most of us eventually come to discover that it’s not the place that matters. It’s the people we share our time with that is important. 

The surprising thing about “The Barking Horse” has been the number of people from all over the country who have called me to tell me how the movie affected therm. One woman called to say that after watching it she was able to forgive her alcoholic father. A man called to say he reached out to his estranged son after watching it. I’ve had people calling me in tears to tell me that they’ve never seen anything like it. It even inspired a poetry film festival in Boulder – The Spoken Word Cinema.  It’s been quite unexpected and very humbling. It’s one of the main reasons we cut short a more traditional festival run and made it available to anyone to watch.

HFT: Tell me your approach to film making as you have a very distinct style. 

PS: Thank you. I guess it’s constantly evolving. I gravitate to stories that are about regular people in unusual circumstances. I try to explore the many layers of life that are often complex and seemingly unconnected and then reveal them in a way that doesn’t feel complex or unconnected. I never spoon feed anything to the audience and I trust that they will bring their own biases and expectations into a viewing. I love it when somebody gets something from a movie that I had no idea was in there.  

I’m exploring new ways to tell my stories in unique and interesting visual ways. My movies have always had a lot of substance, but I think I’ve finally started to figure out my visual style is as well. I think it’s really important for filmmakers to have a unique voice, a compelling story, and an unusual visual way of presenting the movie.  There’s too much clutter out there and there are a ton of really good movies that have been well-constructed. You need more.

HFT: Do you think being a writer affects how you make a film? 

PS: I think so. On the upside, good writing is a must if you’re going to have any chance at making a good movie. It’s almost impossible to overcome bad writing. But the trap for writers, and I’ve been very guilty of this in the past, is that we often forget that movies are ultimately a visual medium. The script for my first feature film “Jimmy Said” (due out later this year) made for a very entertaining read. It probably read more like a novella. Not necessarily a bad thing but we’ve spent a lot of time cutting out dialogue we didn’t need because the other elements in the film were doing the job.  For me, the process has gone beyond “show, don’t tell” to a much better understanding of what the audience “sees” and what that means to them. My next feature, “Stalled,” is still in pre-production as we figure out how to pull off a unique visual presentation of the story in a budget-friendly way.  We plan on shooting it in the Spring of 2013.

HFT: Are you a writer first THEN a filmmaker? Or do you SEE a film in your mind then write it?  

PS: I’m still a writer first, but when it comes to screenplays I’m learning to hold off writing the script until after I see a completed movie in my head. Then it’s more like transcribing what I see in a way that allows others to see it, too. One of the few upsides to being a screenwriter is that we get to see the movie first. We can cast anybody in it and there are no budget limitations. I’ve optioned six screenplays to out-of-town producers over the years but it’s been frustrating to have them all die in development Hell. That’s one of the main reason I’m determined to make movies on my own terms.

HFT: Do you write for others? Would you direct a script that someone else wrote? 

PS: Yes and yes! I currently have two write-for hire projects and will start a third one (a Western!) when I finish the first two.  I’ve been lucky that a few short films I’ve written for others directors turned out remarkably well, notably “The Necklace” by MaryLee Herrmann and “The Strorage Unit,” which was Christine’s directorial debut. I’m attached to direct a project called “Stranded” but we’re still developing the script (it was originally a short film but I’ve convinced the producers to turn it into a feature).  We hope to begin shooting that next Fall.  And to be clear, I’m not at against selling any of my scripts to a Hollywood studio!

HFT: What else? 

PS: I run the Emerging Filmmakers Project down at The Bug Theatre (3654 Navajo St., Denver 80211). We’ve been screening locally-produced movies on the third Thursday of each month since 2002. We’ve shown more than 800 movies over the years.  it’s a great networking event and it’s a ton of fun.  And I teach film acting classes at The Film Acting Academy of Denver. I believe film acting is ultimately about being yourself when the camera rolls and trusting that amazing things will happen in the absence of anything planned ahead of time.   

Thanks for having me and sharing “The Barking Horse!”

Link O Rama for cool stuff about Patrick, The Bug, his other films and this project: