Interview: Joel Miller (part 2 of 3)
Former roadie Joel Miller reflects on art and commerce in his debut feature The Still Life. He discusses the making of the film, his thoughts on the business and his police encounters with TheFilmChair.com
FC: With the locations, with the graveyard scene and the exterior of the art gallery, did you use effects shots, like for putting the name of the gallery on the wall?
JM: You got it. The name of the gallery. The gallery is actually a hair salon. The name, “On the Verge,” I made up. How did you notice that? He did an incredible job.
FC: I have a friend who does visual effects, so I have an eye open for it.
JM: That’s the shot with all the cars driving through it and the one shot where all the graphics guys are like, “This guy’s amazing.” You know how much time this took. You can freeze it as the cars drive by. The only one mistake is, in the cemetery, all the gravestones are all fake, but they came from a real cemetery…It’s kind of funny because that scene is like Mafioso grandma, because her husband is just off too the side with all the rocks.
FC: Did it make it easier to do it with the effects then? Was that kind of the idea?
JM: No. It was tough. The idea was that it would look like it was a cemetery, and it didn’t happen…But I had to do something to make it say where we are …I needed a scene at the cemetery, and my buddy hooked it up for my. My buddy added all the gravestones, which was really neat. For me it was like, “God. What else can you make up?”
FC: You’re in L.A. You get all these cameos. You get Kato Kaelin. You get Terry Moore. Does that help when you are trying to get distribution for it, the DVD release? Was that easier? Was it easy to get them being in L.A. compared to somewhere else?
JM: No. It was damn hard work. They don’t care. Actors want to act, but they’ve got agents and managers who keep us away from them when we have no money. If you can get them a script that’s really well written…In The Still Life, they are very well-developed characters. Whether you like them or not, there’s a lot of thought involved in creating this. A lot of women roles that you see in films left, right and center, the female roles are not developed characters. When women can get a script where they are getting to really act they are all over it. Once you get a couple people, you can have a snowball effect, and you can really hit it up.
The Still Life
featuring the film
and the soundtrack
Available Aug. 7
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