Michael G.
Especially with comedy. There's some drama in our film, but it's really a romantic comedy and with comedy you can really tell from the audience's response whether it's about a joke or timing or whatever. Fortunately, with this film we're getting terrific response. I wanted a foreign film for an American audience. It's written from an American sensibility. So far, it's been great. We look forward to seeing how it goes in Heartland.
The Independent Critic
I hope it goes really well. I'm really anxious to see how Heartland audiences respond to it. I tend to go to a lot of the Heartland screenings for a lot of the same reasons you've mentioned but also from a critical perspective I think it's valuable to see how an audience responds to a film. I do plan to see your film on the big screen. That was one of my first thoughts after watching the film. I thought "I really want to see this on the big screen." I will tell you that Heartland tend to do quite well. It's a very popular film festival here with a loyal following that enjoys taking risks. They've really learned to trust Heartland's instincts about "Heartland films."
Robyn R.
Really? That's great. That's good to hear. You don't always know what to expect, especially when you're going somewhere where you don't really know anybody. (pause) That really was another thing I thought about when I was reading about Heartland. I saw that it was in its 22nd year. I thought about that word "Heart" and they've really put care into everything they've done ... even the e-mails back and forth. They've just taken great care of us. It's not that way at every festival. A lot of festivals are really unorganized and they don't even answer your e-mails for weeks. You never know. All the way around I'm thinking "This is a top notch festival," even the way they've got their schedule online and everything. We're so grateful to be a part of it.
The Independent Critic
I'll be anxious to hear how your experience is at the end. How long are you going to be in town?
Michael & Robyn Simultaneously
We're going to be there for the entire festival.
The Independent Critic
That's awesome.
Michael G.
We're showing our movie four times and we're going to be at each screening. We're going to do a concert before each screening and, of course, a Q&A with the audience after the screenings. Of course, we want to go to other events and meet other filmmakers and see their work and meet other film people.
Robyn R.
I was watching an interview with Tim Irwin and he was talking about how a lot of filmmakers from New York and L.A. say "I want to get out as fast as I can," but then they get here and they say "I want to stay." That inspired me.
The Independent Critic
You know, we get a few celebrities each year - especially opening night or closing night. I have to tell you, though, that the Heartland crowd is truly a filmmaker friendly crowd. I mean, they're human and people love meeting with and mingling with celebrities but the Heartland crowds really do love filmmakers and they love sticking around for Q&As and they're truly into the craft of film and the power of film. We are a filmmaker festival. I really hope you enjoy it. I believe that they will enjoy your film and I think that they will want to talk to you about it. They also love the folks who really stick around for the entire festival.
Michael G.
Well, great. I'm sure we will.
Robyn R.
It's really a lot of fun sharing it all. It's fun sharing the experience of making the film. I really like that part of it.
The Independent Critic
Okay, I obviously have to ask you about Bright Blue Gorilla. (Writer's Confession - I inadvertently kept calling it "Big Blue Gorilla." I even did this in my review and had to go back and edit. Quite graciously, they never called me out!) I looked at the website for Bright Blue Gorilla and it's all very consistent with the theme and the tone and even the vibe of the film. This really, I think, points out a key thing I liked about the film and that was the authenticity. You kind of lived out this idea of taking a risk. I consider myself a risk-taker and I really can't imagine doing what you did - basically selling what everything you owned and buying one-way tickets to Europe and just going for it.
Michael G.
You haven't been through the Los Angeles record deal scene of the 80's. At that time, the late 80's, it was a mess. It was all showcase work. No real musician that I knew of was really making it on the scene except in the bars. We both were involved in that. We both said "Why are we sitting around trying to get discovered? Why don't we just go on tour?" Then, we said "Where do want to do that?" We said "Let's go to Europe." We heard that some other famous people had gone there. We sold everything we had, which was not very much but it was enough to get over there. Right away, we started playing in little cafes. Within two years of landing over there, we had a deal with Virgin Records based on a demo tape that a studio owner gave us because he took pity on us because our demo was so awful. He said "Your tape is terrible and you guys are really good." He said "Come to my studio for free on a Sunday and I'll record four songs for you." We sent it off and got a deal with Virgin. We were showing up to a packed house, getting paid and having a great time. That was really what got us going.
Robyn R.
It's been an amazing journey. We've played in cafes and pubs and always have had the greatest experiences. We were in this one cafe and we'd put our tapes on our table like we always do and our server looked at them and said "Is this you?" and they put them on in the restaurant we were in. The owner knew the person who ran a festival and that's how we got into our first festival. It was just magical. There are people out there who are just very open and they want to see the success of the arts and the artists. It has been like that for almost 25 years now that we've been traveling around. We find people all around who want to help.
Michael G.
There's just people everywhere you go. There's been some change over there, but not everything. There's still a lot of people who really want to keep things stable. The thing over there, especially after the war, is that they want everything to be stable. They want everyone to be stable and okay. There's a lot of dynamics, but it's more stable over there and people are not as destitute over there as they can be in the West. That was our experience. It's a very good environment for the arts.
The Independent Critic
So, explain this to me. Do you come back to the States? Your film is obviously playing in American festivals. It certainly doesn't sound like you've abandoned America at all.
Michael G.
We would always come back between tours. We'd be over there sometimes for 10 months. We would always come home.
Robyn R.
We've never really set our space there. We'd find a place and stay there for awhile or rent an apartment or someone's house. My question is always "How long do you have to be somewhere before you "live" somewhere?" We're usually in travel mode and always in project mode. It's a lifestyle.
The Independent Critic
How did you make the transition from music to film?
Michael G.
That sort of snuck up on us. I was always writing things. I was writing short stories that turned into plays. I won the Eugene O'Neill Play Contest years back. That was an interesting thing. After that, I entered some different festivals with other plays. They won. I won four play contests, I think. I thought "Since I must be pretty good at playwriting, why don't I try screenwriting?" At the same time, I was working at MTV here in L.A. for about a year on The Osbournes and a show with Jessica Simpson where I was on the editing staff. So, I knew how to edit. So, there's editing I've got and I've got screenwriting. I was already a director for certain things like theater and voiceover. So, we thought we'd put it all together with our actor friends.
Robyn R.
Michael and I just said "Let's go back to L.A. and try some things. Let's do our music. Let's try acting. Let's stay in L.A. for awhile." We didn't know what was going to come of it. Then, what was amazing was that we'd gone into a casting agency for a background job and the head of the agency was friends with Matthew Broderick. Michael and I both got a call. They had no idea that we were married, because we've got different last names. They said "The director wants to meet you over at Disney." We thought "That's unusual. A director wanting to meet someone for background." We went over to Disney and Jeff Nathanson, the director, walked around everybody and we started talking and are like "Yeah, we're a band. We've been traveling around Europe." The assistant director said "We've been looking for a pair of musicians. Can you come back tomorrow and audition?" We're like "Sure!" We ended up going back the next day and playing a song. They called us and said "We want you to be in the movie" (Critic's Note - The film was 2004's "The Last Shot" starring Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, and Toni Collette).
Michael G.
We ended up being principals. We weren't background. It was six weeks. We sang a bunch of songs in the movie. We had a scene with Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick. It was a super Hollywood experience.
Robyn R.
Yeah, we had a trailer.
Michael G.
These films are also paid well. So, we were able to buy some equipment of our own for making films.
Robyn R.
We actually bought our first camera from that. That's what got us started.
Michael
Now, we use the artists collective model. We've not really played in major cinemas or had major distribution. We've filmed in people's houses and really just done everything ourselves as sort of an underground arthouse thing. Because we have a reputation as artists, particularly in Europe, it's really not hard to get people who will join us.
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