Idea Film Spotlight
Today’s film spotlight focuses on the short film Idea directed by Michelle Tattenbaum.
What is the title of your film and what inspired said title?
The title of our film is Idea. The characters in the film are college students trying to write personal essays and a teaching assistant who is trying to help them make those essays better. On the surface, the title refers to the basic thing all the students need: an idea for their essays. As the story unfolds, it takes on a larger meaning for the TA, and also, hopefully for the audience, about finding meaning not just for an essay but for our entire lives.
Tell us a little bit about the story and origins of your film.
The film is about telling stories, so it contains a few different stories. First of all, each of the five students is telling a story in their essay — something about their personal history, or the history of their family. A Japanese-American student tells the story of his first trip to Japan. A former marine writes about his experience being stationed overseas. And so on. But the film overall is the story the T.A.’s long day of these student-teacher conferences.
The film is based on Itamar’s actual experiences teaching while in graduate school, and it captures what it’s like to have these brief exchanges with many different people. They are remote, but also have an intensity and intimacy that can be overwhelming.
Michelle conceived of how to tell Itamar’s story on film. We both started in the theater, and we’ve been frequent collaborators for years — Michelle has directed Itamar’s plays and musicals all over the country. Itamar originally wrote Idea years ago as a one-act play that took place entirely in a cubicle. When the pandemic hit, Michelle proposed changing the location of the story from an office cubicle to the virtual space of video conferencing, where we were all spending more and more time.
Most importantly, we were inspired to create something that isn’t about the pandemic in an overt way. The script wasn’t written as a response to the pandemic, but its story resonates nonetheless. It’s about struggling to make sense of the confusing, difficult or sometimes even terrible things that happen to us, and of the need for connection with others.
Any films or filmmakers that inspired this film?
We were inspired by In Treatment, which also uses lengthy two-person scenes in its storytelling. The success of that show proved to us that audiences can follow and take in something in this form. And for the interstitial sequences between the meetings, Michelle was really inspired by the work of the Danish painter Georg Achen. In his paintings, you often feel like you are spying on the characters, through doorways, from the next room, and that’s the feeling we were going for in those moments.
What is the goal of the film for you?
The goal was initially to find a way to tell this story for an audience at a time when it was not easy to make things. We made it at a time when it was impossible to make theatre, and extremely difficult to make a film. And yet we were hungry to make something; hungrier than usual, probably because our lives had become so limited. So it was a way to create art under impossible circumstances, telling a story that is about trying to live under impossible circumstances. And, now that we have it, perhaps it can be the beginning of building a portfolio for this kind of work, for Michelle as a director in particular.
What has the journey been like getting the film into production?
Almost everything about this was challenging but also amazing. We auditioned actors all over the world, because none of us needed to be in the same place. We ended up filming actors in three different states. We had to ship everyone equipment and then have tech sessions to teach them how to use it. And all the actors had to be their own costumers, DPs, sound technicians, prop masters, and so on. There was one moment during filming when one of the cast members had to clean up a lot of items in his house, and we all sat there at our desks, feeling helpless, desperate to jump through the screen so we could help him with his setup. Well, Michelle wished this. Itamar was secretly relieved to have an excuse not to help.
One thing you learned from this project?
A lot of what we learned on this project had to do with how to film remotely, and how to work within Michelle’s conception for this particular film. The scenes take place over video conference, which meant filming the actor’s head-on in long single takes as though with their computer’s own camera. But having only one camera angle hobbles the editing process. So, if you’re going to film this way (and give it some serious thought before you do), it helps to work with actors who have a lot of theater experience, and are used to playing long scenes with one another.
While making a film remotely was a fascinating challenge, we hope we never have to do it again. We love being in the same space as the cast and crew.
How can folks find you and your film online?
Our trailer is here: https://youtu.be/zj6NqNwbNKY
The film isn’t publicly available yet, but follow us on Instagram @IdeaTheFilm, and you’ll be the first to know when and where you can watch. Also, you can follow Michelle at @Mtattenbaum and keep an eye on her website at michelletattenbaum.com
Any last pieces of advice for fellow filmmakers?
This project was really joyful at a very bleak time because we were all working with people we love, trust and admire. Whenever you can do that, you’re in great shape.
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