Noam Kroll is an LA-based filmmaker and a well-known proponent of micro-budget filmmaking. Ivan Malekin was lucky enough to interview Noam about his new feature, “Disappearing Boy”, which he filmed with no crew. In this interview Noam reveals exactly how and why he made a film this way, but also talks about the benefits of micro-budget filmmaking and his creative and work philosophies in general.
IM
I'm amazed that you pulled this off as a one person crew, I think it's a little crazy, to tell you the truth. We shot a feature late last year, and for most of it was myself and my partner Sarah were the only crew. Some days we had an production assistant as an extra pair of hands, but we were absolutely exhausted at the end of each day. When it was done, we were pretty much burnt out. So the fact you would have done this all by yourself is just amazing to me. Would you do this again?
NK
I definitely would. And I think it's funny because I totally hear what you're saying and like I've had those experiences too, where I've had small crews or done things just with a friend and then felt exhausted. And I think I've done it enough times that by the time I made this film, one of the intentions I had for it was that it would feel sustainable.
Read MoreThis week, the first volume of our Life Improvised series was released as a single anthology on Tubi. It consists of ten episodes of what began as standalone micro-shorts about the moments that make up human interactions and relationships. It is 49 minutes long and the episodes are grouped by themes: loneliness, a first date, betrayal, and change.
When we initially began filming these small short films three years ago, we had no thoughts of creating an anthology, or to even make enough episodes that such a thing was possible. For us, it was a way to explore small ideas between the bigger projects we do, to work with new actors, to experiment, even shoot in new locations. We released them on YouTube and that was that.
But releasing an anthology of Life Improvised made me pause and reflect on the power of time and consistency in filmmaking. If you do this long enough, if you create new content often enough, over time you will have a career as a filmmaker.
Read MoreIn 2022 we have been paying attention to an aspect of film distribution we have largely ignored for several years beforehand: film festivals.
We have had rejections of course. With many festivals receiving thousands of entries, there will always be rejections. But we have also found some success. Machination has picked up several awards at film festivals for Acting, Directing, and Sound Design. Cats of Malta has been selected for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, New York Cat Festival, and other festivals we cannot reveal quite yet. Our latest Life Improvised film, The Dance, screened at Kinemastik International Short Film Festival in Malta last night.
But this handful of success has come at a cost of almost $1000USD so far in festival submission fees. Could this money have been better spent elsewhere? Like running Facebook ads for the release of Machination? Have we gotten enough return for our funds? In short: are film festivals worth the cost and effort?
Read MoreGood, Fast, Cheap. Pick only two.
How often have you heard this adage? Maybe you have even said it yourself, especially if you have worked in the corporate video world and have dealt with clients who expect blockbusters on b-level budgets.
It is a popular and often hilarious meme, and an educational Venn diagram illustrating a reality check. If you want something fast and cheap, it won’t be good. If you want something cheap and good, it can’t be fast. Sure, you can create a great video or film with little money, but the trade off for not spending big is you’ll need to spend a lot of time and patience to achieve greatness.
But I am here to tell you that good, fast, and cheap is indeed possible in filmmaking. As micro-budget filmmakers, if we were to believe otherwise, we would be crippled with doubt before we even attempted to make a film.
Read MoreThis week, I finished yet another edit pass on Machination, our pandemic inspired horror / drama that follows the plight of a character named Maria suffering from mental illness in the face of a world pushing fear. It is running at 62 minutes, minus opening and closing credits.
When the first cut clocked in at only 60 minutes, we went back to the drawing board and wrote new scenes to be filmed. We called back the lead actor Steffi Thake and even recruited new actors to play additional characters, young versions of Maria and her brother Yorgen, which we meet in dreams and flashbacks in the story.
We had this idea in our head that we wanted the film to run for at least 70 minutes. For some reason, 70 minutes felt like a feature to us whereas anything under wasn’t quite there. But why did I feel this way? Wasn’t 70 minutes still on the short side? What is the length a film needs to run to quality as a feature film?
Read MoreIf there is one phase to sum up the year in film at all levels, be it Hollywood or the independent and micro-budget filmmaking scene for the year of 2020, it would have to be ‘geeze, never saw that coming, mate’.
With the Covid-19 pandemic beginning to spread worldwide as early as February and still raging now to varied degrees across the globe, film distribution and releases, both in cinema and through streaming platforms went through a major shift, and the playing field between Hollywood and independent filmmakers was almost levelled out as nobody quite knew what to do.
This was due to most cinemas in North America shutting down earlier in the year (unfortunately some went into bankruptcy and closed their doors permanently), causing big budget Hollywood films that were planned for release like Black Widow and the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die to be pushed back until 2021. Also halted or delayed were anticipated films which were to move into production at the beginning of 2020, such as Mission Impossible 7 andThor: Love and Thunder.
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