A film by sabi
Friday, November 21st, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how wonderful and unique my experience was working with Kevin and Zak on the movie, “White Knuckles”. Unlike the other work I’ve done in my 15 years of professional acting, I was able to tell my part of the story exactly the way I wanted to.” Clyde Tull
A seasoned actor and gifted artist named Clyde Tull plays the retired gentleman/stranger Reuben that appears late in White Knuckles – a film by sabi. Julie encounters Reuben in the hospital sequence in the third chapter of the film. Originally, the character of Reuben was written into different scenes and was part of circumstances that were to affect both Julie and William’s story. But as the last act of the film was crafted on set organically (as the story was unfolding) the written concepts of Reuben were changed by the director for what was happening in the moment / on set with Clyde – and what was necessary for Julie in the final sequences. Both Clyde and the director Kevin Shah worked together to create an entirely new character (conceptually) for Reuben– one that has resonates with audiences in ways neither could have predicted.
The words of Clyde Tull (on the process of White Knuckles):
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how wonderful and unique my experience was working with Kevin and Zak on the movie, “White Knuckles”. Unlike the other work I’ve done in my 15 years of professional acting, I was able to tell my part of the story exactly the way I wanted to. This was the first time I did not have to memorize someone else’s words and attempt to make them my own. My dialogue with my scene partner, the wonderful actor Martie Ashworth, was created in the moment, based on a story outline and clear objectives from our director, Kevin. During the shooting, I noticed that I was just as committed to facilitating the director’s intent as I always was, but I was not burdened with having to remember and recite lines.
For me, this process was both liberating and joyful, as it allowed me to follow my impulses and make the points I wanted to make in the order I wanted to make them. With neither of us knowing exactly what the other one would say or do, Martie and I interacted more authentically, responding naturally to the ebb and flow of the scene. It felt more like a real conversation than anything I’ve ever done. I also remember the speed and efficiency of the process. As I recall, we had two cameras, one on each of us. After our discussion with Kevin, we shot one long take and a couple of brief close-up/retakes, and it was done. Very efficient use of time.
I really enjoyed that afternoon of shooting, and every time I have a script to learn, I think about it. I hope other directors and producers will use this process in creating their projects.” - Clyde Tull
The director asked Clyde to contribute some thoughts about what didn’t work / or could potentially be a pitfall with such a process, in addition to what is detailed above. Clyde, always responsive with insight - offered the following:
“Kevin, as I considered negative thoughts about the process, I could only came up with one. It’s not a negative thought about my own experience, but rather a negative thought about the process, a potential problem perhaps. It is this: directors and producers who are brave enough to use this process need to be careful to pick actors who are truly comfortable with it. There are fine actors who, due to their training and their personality, are only comfortable with a script. In other words, not all actors can improv well. They may freeze up or go way “off message” and thereby waste a lot of valuable time. Actors doing this work need to really know the story they are telling and be willing to tell it in their own words.”
Sabi wishes to thank Clyde Tull for his thoughts, words, and contributions to White Knuckles. The character of Reuben created through an interdependent process of collaboration was a hit at the cast and crew screening of the film. The entire family of White Knuckles wants to thank you sincerely for all of your artistic work and sabi looks forward to working with you again.
a film by sabi
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
As we come closer to our private preview cast and crew screening, I’d like to share with you some thoughts on the concept of INTERDEPENDENT FILMMAKING, and specifically how it applies to White Knuckles.
White Knuckles was born out of a deep desire to explore a story with a group of artists through the collaborative medium of film – and to explore it as much as possible while the story is happening – while it’s on its feet in production – while the characters fully inhabit the actors. The means of accomplishing this would be a team of artists that could invest themselves personally in the shared vision of the project, and could work as a unified whole that could shift, adapt and adjust whenever the story changed based on the flexible nature of capturing dramatic improvisation. This could only be accomplished by maintaining a collective atmosphere of safety and trust with the crew, filmmakers and the cast. An atmosphere where the actors could feel like they can fully explore their characters without any judgments or self-direction. A creative space where the actors can go deeper in the improvisational present moment, and the filmmakers and the crew can support and guide them along. A truly interdependent process where there are no idle hands on set – a place where everyone is involved, and each member on the production is truly critical.
With White Knuckles, we wanted to see what would happen if we wrote a script and then took it away at some point during production – when the film begins to breathe on its own. We wanted to see “what happens with the characters” and we wanted to see “where will the story go?” It was in a large part about curiousity. Though we had a screenplay that would be great to shoot - we thought that perhaps guiding the improvisation initially, we could fully let go later and produce real surprises and true-to-life dialogue and moments that could not have otherwise been planned. To do this in a drama that goes to the places White Knuckles does - it took the safety net of the rest of the cast and crew to make this work. Really, it took each other – and every individual working together as a unified whole to make this real “Interdependent” film happen.
There is a point in every soulful, artful film production where the actors seem to fully inhabit the characters, sooner or later. On set, sometimes this happens early – other times certain key aspects of the character emerge later depending on the circumstance. But ultimately – there is a collaborative search for truth that makes ‘a film by Sabi Pictures’ – and if the film is honest (as I believe White Knuckles is) than perhaps it will be blessed to find its audience.
It is a rare group of talented filmmakers that converged to create White Knuckles. And what we have in this film, is in my humble opinion, a true example of interdependent filmmaking. As filmmakers - we all simply wanted to be able to let go of pages and pre-conceived notions and rather listen very closely to what comes out of (and what comes from within the soul) of the character. We wanted to hear an authentic voice, and wanted to see the story that was the deeper, more meaningful, more real version (than the duplication of the intentions on the page). We want to see the sum that is greater than it’s parts – a piece of real art emerging from our collective creative contributions together.
This is ultimately the collective desire of a collaborative group of artists working on an Interdependent Film. Interdependent Filmmaking is the kind of filmmaking where one uses “us” and “we” and “our” more often than they use “I” when describing the process of making that film. We think that White Knuckles is unique because of the interdependent nature of the shoot. The WK website’s “Creative” section details examples of how many of us together collaborated on this film, and there will also be some behind the scenes posted to get a look at the faces that made it happen.
As with every interdependent film, there are so many hands on the work that it is hard to summarize or describe the process of each member that took part – but each person’s contribution made the film possible. And though the credits on the film will generally reveal every person’s name that contributed – there are so many more roles that were filled by each member than can possibly be listed.
Calling White Knuckles and interdependent film is a way to say Thank You – to acknowledge that the film could not be possible without the entire interwoven web of creative contributions, a network of interdependent people, that all get behind one idea. It’s a beautiful thing when it works, and it is the most fulfilling kind of filmmaking. And Interdependent Filmmaking is the evolution of the art form, in my humble opinion. I’m honored to have been a part of this process at Sabi Pictures. Sure it is an ever-changing and an ever-evolving process with each new story - but the unique way of making each film bears one thing in common between everything we’ve made: there is simply no room and no time for inflated egos when a group of artists want to venture into the great unknown of making a film together. There is only room to learn from one another, for true collaboration, for support of each other under any circumstance, and for the collective desire to see the story through to the end no matter what. We had a very talented group of individuals that came together to bring you the interdependent film White Knuckles – as well as Heart of Now. We guided the stories to the end rather than pushed them, and what resulted from the process thus far may move you, and perhaps even surprise you.
Kevin K. Shah
Director
Monday, September 1st, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
August 26, 2008
Dearest Kevin,
Am I too late to send my thoughts on the movie? Can you ever forgive me? You are always on my mind and in my heart, it’s just that sometimes I physically don’t have it together. But I am doing much better. I seem to have more energy in the evenings. Mornings are challenging. But it is one of my goals to improve on that. My life has changed in so many ways since hearing of the cancer, I can’t begin to tell you, but I’m sure you can imagine. It seems everything has changed. So, such is life…it’s full of change. We just have to make the best of it and believe that everything is good.
I miss everyone in the cast and crew of your fabulous film. Even if I am too late to have this printed, let me say a few things
just so you know.
I will speak in the 3rd person in case you have time to use it.
“Working with Kevin Shah was a gift from the heavens. I have acted in my share of films and television so I can honestly say that starting with Kevin the director, and including the entire cast and hard-working, diligent crew — my experience was comparable to the best of the best. And I think it is evident when you see the end product. The movie reeks of professionalism with every take. I particularly loved the style in which Kevin chose to direct the actors–as we improvised while loosely staying with the script. It made for a very stimulating and unpredictable exercise and one in which I would love to experience again. I thought the beauty of the film was in it’s honestly displayed in every moment. I found myself mesmerized by these peoples’ lives, feeling at times, a sparkle in my eyes and a smile, and at other times, great sadness. I also enjoyed the music and shots of nature’s scenery, which added mood and texture. It takes a sensitive director to allow that to happen and a crew that was in every way, a part of the transformation. Kudos to Kevin for manning the ship on the ocean from where so many treasures were found.”
Please keep in touch, Kevin, and I promise to do the same, especially since I’m back online. When you get a chance, I’d love to hear from you.
You’re the best.
All my love,
SUE GAETZMAN
Sue Gaetzman plays Dora in the film, Julie’s best friend and the catalyst for the idea that Julie gets in her mind on how she might be able to change her situation with her husband William. It’s Dora’s dark humor that leads Julie down an unexpected path that sets off the chain of events of the rest of the film. When Julie sees how happy Dora is since her husband passed away, she can’t help but wonder what her life might like if William suddenly disappeared. Dora is a multi-layered character, on one hand she enjoys her new found freedom, on the other hand – her experience with her husband’s passing has brought a price. But in her joyful, sincere way – Dora is there for Julie throughout the film, and we get a glimpse into her deepest secret before the end.
Sue Gaetzman played Dora with honesty and courage, she brought to this character layers upon layers, and made her come to life on screen in the most realistic way. Sue and I discussed creating a character that would be likeable despite her dark humor, a woman that clearly is happy with her new life, and wants to share that joy with her best friend whom she sees is stuck. Sue and I talked about how Dora couldn’t simply be a “device” in this film – that although she is a catalyst, she is a human being with her own feature length story – and we wanted to treat her this way, we wanted to feel the presence of Dora in her absence – we wanted the audience and Julie to wake up to possibilities whenever she appeared on screen.
We also talked about drawing from personal experience if possible and if appropriate, and we discussed improvising the lines at length before we began shooting, including incorporating personal feelings of what it’s like to lose a loved one into the picture. Sue’s naturally warm and flirtatious personality endeared the entire cast and crew to her – and her little quirks come out in the most unique way in her portrayal of Dora. To say she’s created a spitfire of a character would be an injustice. Sue Gaetzman’s Dora is a forest fire, and ignites the screen with every scene she’s in.
Our thoughts, prayers and best wishes for continued healing is with you Sue from myself and everyone here at Sabi. Godspeed a full recovery (and a screening of our film which we will attend together).
Monday, August 25th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Darkness and Light - Behind the Scenes of White Knuckles (2008) - a film by sabi
DARKNESS AND LIGHT:
The character of Julie (played by Martie Ashworth) in White Knuckles – a film by sabi
Martie Ashworth, an incredibly talented artist and an elegant and warm older woman, is truly as vibrant as ever in the autumn of her life. She has a sweetness that is hard to describe, other than it makes you feel welcome. The character that Martie plays (Julie) is similar in a lot of ways, but she also has moments where she is cold and deliberate – and incredibly dark in her choices, and in her deeper intentions.
BALANCE
The important thing to Martie Ashworth and I, in our discussions of imagining this character before we began shooting, was to portray Julie in a balanced way to the audience. That first and foremost, what happens in the story is not entirely Julie’s fault, though she can certainly bear the blame (as can William). It was important to be with Julie in the first half of the story, to have sympathy for her and her situation, and then have these feelings shift as we get deeper into the tale.
But Julie to Martie and I is a woman that ultimately gives up on her husband, a woman that finds no other way out but to destroy – something that initially Martie could not relate to from personal experience – so she had to imagine it. Of course, we all know what it’s like to be in a dead end relationship – but what is it like to begin to kill someone? Martie Ashworth, in her character work with Julie began to imagine the character having momentary daydreams of William’s car going off a cliff, or she imagined Julie getting joy out thinking about what her life might be like if William was suddenly gone. She imagined what extreme measures she’d have to do to make him change.
Martie shared a few of these aspects of what was going on in Julie’s head, and also in a bio that she created before we began shooting - and much of it comes across on the screen without words. And as the story progresses, there is a sense that something inside Julie has grown terribly cold, and Martie (despite the warm, loving person she is in real life) took us straight into these dark places with this character.
DARKNESS
Though the character of Julie is at times the victim in this story, she is also the villain – as is William. Neither of these characters can be blamed for their actions, nor can either be praised for their efforts – rather it’s a chain sequence of events that were planted long ago that are now coming to fruition in Julie’s darkening heart. And though she means well, Julie is doing something destructive – the worst one human can do to another. And by doing so, she creates a question in our mind and hearts – how/why could she do this?
Martie delicately keeps this going throughout the film with the character of Julie – depicting the character as often receding into the dark corners of her own consciousness (creating a bubble). There are times when Julie is so in her own world, we feel that she’s in complete denial about what she’s actually doing to her husband. And she is.
CHANGE
Ultimately, Julie is a woman in the desperate need for a change, and Martie brought to Julie a genuine sense of a longing for joy again – a woman that clearly has experienced love in the past, but has found it dying of neglect after so many years. She also truthfully depicted a woman that has given up – that has found any more effort “too late” and is resolved in continuing to destroy simply because it’s not ‘more of the same’.
EXPERIENCE
I recall early on during production, Martie and I were discussing trying to better understand this character, and being able to relate to her through our own personal past – and this was important to the creation of White Knuckles since I personally do not know what it is like to feel stuck in a 40 year marriage, or to want change so bad you can kill.
However, we discussed what it was like feeling helpless in a relationship, and we discussed what it was like being depressed. We explored times when we felt so angry we could wring someone’s neck. Martie was completely open to the process – and we also discussed at length feeling stuck in general, and desperation to get out of something. Relating to our personal past, while imagining Julie’s next thought & motivation was incredibly helpful in finding what kinds of honest beats were needed in the story to ultimately string the improvisation together. Though much of the framework for improv was supplied in the screenplay - the ending was brought about by the character work that Martie and Larry did for the story of Julie and William, and the screenplay was not needed. In many ways, it was for us in this particular film, the process of using the foundation of personal experience to help us tackle the multitude of options that the character could take. And because there is a part of both of us that is in Julie, Martie and I treated the character with extra love and respect (and tried not to judge Julie) throughout the process – all in an effort to play and depict Julie as honestly as possible. Even in those most difficult and remarkable scenes at the hospital.
LIGHT
Martie Ashworth as a human being - separate from the character of Julie, still brought to the soul of Julie something that I couldn’t have planned for, and that wasn’t on the page – she brought a light, a beacon of hope throughout the film. This is all Martie. And the light that Martie provided for this character simply by being who she is (her aura, her presence) helped accentuate the hope that the conflict between her and William will resolve itself peacefully. Larry has a similar illumination. It keeps me watching even in the darkest hour of the film.
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
Over the course of the next year, we will be submitting White Knuckles to the following film festivals for consideration:
- AFI
- CANNES
- SXSW
- SUNDANCE
- SLAMDANCE
- TRIBECA
- BERLIN
- SEATTLE
- TORONTO
- NEW YORK
- VENICE
- LOS ANGELES
- TELLURIDE
- NEW DIRECTORS
- AUSTIN
- ROTTERDAM
- CHICAGO
- SAN FRANCISCO
- VANCOUVER
- SYDNEY
- GO WHITE KNUCKLES!
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
by Zak Forsman
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
by Kevin K. Shah
White Knuckles was born out of a deep desire to explore a story with a group of artists through the collaborative medium of film – and to explore it as much as possible while the story is happening – while it’s on its feet in production – while the characters fully inhabit the actors.
The means of accomplishing this would be a team of artists that could invest themselves personally in the shared vision of the project, and could work as a unified whole that could shift, adapt and adjust whenever the story changed based on the flexible nature of capturing dramatic improvisation. This could only be accomplished by maintaining a collective atmosphere of safety and trust with the crew, filmmakers and the cast. An atmosphere where the actors could feel like they can fully explore their characters without any judgments or self-direction. A creative space where the actors can go deeper in the improvisational present moment, and the filmmakers and the crew can support and guide them along. A truly interdependent process where there are no idle hands on set – a place where everyone is involved, and each member on the production is truly critical.
With White Knuckles, we wanted to see what would happen if we wrote a script and then took it away at some point during production – when the film begins to breathe on its own. We wanted to see “what happens with the characters” and we wanted to see “where will the story go?” It was in a large part about curiousity. Though we had a screenplay that would be great to shoot - we thought that perhaps guiding the improvisation initially, we could fully let go later and produce real surprises and true-to-life dialogue and moments that could not have otherwise been planned.
To do this in a drama that goes to the places White Knuckles does - it took the safety net of the rest of the cast and crew to make this work. Really, it took each other – and every individual working together as a unified whole to make this real “Interdependent” film happen.
There is a point in every soulful, artful film production where the actors seem to fully inhabit the characters, sooner or later. On set, sometimes this happens early – other times certain key aspects of the character emerge later depending on the circumstance. But ultimately – there is a collaborative search for truth that makes ‘a film by Sabi Pictures’ – and if the film is honest (as I believe White Knuckles is) than perhaps it will be blessed to find its audience.
It is a rare group of talented filmmakers that converged to create White Knuckles. And what we have in this film, is in my humble opinion, a true example of interdependent filmmaking. As filmmakers - we all simply wanted to be able to let go of pages and pre-conceived notions and rather listen very closely to what comes out of (and what comes from within the soul) of the character. We wanted to hear an authentic voice, and wanted to see the story that was the deeper, more meaningful, more real version (than the duplication of the intentions on the page). We want to see the sum that is greater than it’s parts – a piece of real art emerging from our collective creative contributions together.
This is ultimately the collective desire of a collaborative group of artists working on an Interdependent Film. Interdependent Filmmaking is the kind of filmmaking where one uses “us” and “we” and “our” more often than they use “I” when describing the process of making that film. We think that White Knuckles is unique because of the interdependent nature of the shoot. The WK website’s “Creative” section details examples of how many of us together collaborated on this film, and there will also be some behind the scenes posted to get a look at the faces that made it happen.
As with every interdependent film, there are so many hands on the work that it is hard to summarize or describe the process of each member that took part – but each person’s contribution made the film possible. And though the credits on the film will generally reveal every person’s name that contributed – there are so many more roles that were filled by each member than can possibly be listed.
Calling White Knuckles and interdependent film is a way to say Thank You – to acknowledge that the film could not be possible without the entire interwoven web of creative contributions, a network of interdependent people, that all get behind one idea. It’s a beautiful thing when it works, and it is the most fulfilling kind of filmmaking. And Interdependent Filmmaking is the evolution of the art form, in my humble opinion.
I’m honored to have been a part of this process at Sabi Pictures. Sure it is an ever-changing and an ever-evolving process with each new story - but the unique way of making each film bears one thing in common between everything we’ve made: there is simply no room and no time for inflated egos when a group of artists want to venture into the great unknown of making a film together. There is only room to learn from one another, for true collaboration, for support of each other under any circumstance, and for the collective desire to see the story through to the end no matter what.
We had a very talented group of individuals that came together to bring you the interdependent film White Knuckles – as well as Heart of Now. We guided the stories to the end rather than pushed them, and what resulted from the process thus far may move you, and perhaps even surprise you.
Kevin K. Shah
Interdependent Filmmaker from White Knuckles
