Indie Interview 13: Brett Butler – CONFUSIONS OF AN UNMARRIED COUPLE
It’s been one year since indie interviews became a regular part of TheFilmChair.com. Instead of focusing on a new filmmaker for this month’s anniversary edition, I thought I’d revisit the filmmakers who started it all: the Butler Bros.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect with the Butler Bros. newest feature Confusions of an Unmarried Couple set to debut at Toronto’s Indie Can Film Festival at the end of this month. Here to discuss his growth as a filmmaker over the last year is Butler Brother Brett in this month’s indie interview.
The Film Chair: Confusions has a considerably smaller cast than the previous films you have done. Why scale back?
Brett Butler: We scaled back because our confidence had grown as filmmakers and storytellers. When you are doing a two-hander such as this, the worry is that the audience may lose interest in the characters or want to get away from them, but they can’t, there is nothing else to fall back on. So we had to be sure in our ability as storytellers that this isn’t going to happen, and our growth in that field gave the confidence to do that. We were no longer trying to appeal to a particular audience, but instead just trying to be the most honest we could in painting a portrait of a very real couple
FC: The conversations are also a bit different this time. Are the characters you and Jason create maturing as you are? Hell you mention marriage in this one.
BB: I think Jason and I are maturing as filmmakers, but I don’t think our characters are. This couple is far from mature. They are insecure, scheming, indulgent, self-serving, confused people. I think as a writer I was able to delve deeper into each characters personality and details more than before. I believe by doing a simpler story with less people we were able to create much more complex and real characters.
FC: It’s an intimate film, brutally intimate. What were you trying to accomplish by showing these intimate details of this relationship?
BB: For me as film fan, the films that always appealed to me were the ones where I could relate to the characters the most. So at the start of any screenplay, the hope is that the audience will be able to see themselves in our characters and situations. This story was by far the most intimate and personal one that we’ve done, and with that, ideally the most involving. When I write, it is because I feel I need to get something out of my system. Each time I start the goal is to go further then the last time, to be more honest, so in the end the experience will be more cathartic. I always love the idea of looking behind closed doors, so after being involved in a few long-term relationships, this is where I was at, and this is what I needed to say, this is the door I wanted to open to people. When people watch this film, hopefully they can relate to it, if not the situation, or even the characters, perhaps the emotions
FC: In my last interview, I talked with Jason about directing the films. This film you are both credited as directors, just like in Bums. Here, however, you have a bigger role than you did inBums. How did you guys approach directing this film, with you as the main actor?
BB: It was very collaborative between Jason, Naomi, and myself. With no crew except for Ryan Noel on sound, we were able to be very open at all times with what anybody felt. The biggest thing, as always for us, is rehearsal, going into any shoot we want the characters completely flushed out and the lines to be embedded in the actors’ brains. Jason and I discussed exactly how we wanted the film to look and that was to match the story. We wanted it to be raw, intimate and uncomfortable. All the day’s events were shot handheld by Jason to give the documentary feel. The testimonials were the only thing shot on sticks, and it was done with the old hi-8 camcorder to give an amateurish effect of someone plopping a camera on a tripod and asking questions, not really thinking of how it is going to turn out, but simply worried about getting good responses. We really wanted to nail it when it came to getting all the aspects of this film in sync with each other.
FC: I was intrigued by the music. Ryan Noel is credited with the original music. How did he get the job for this? What was it about the music that made it the music for Confusions?
BB: The beauty about surrounding yourself with talented people is the collaborative possibilities. Ryan Noel is a good friend, musician and filmmaker we’ve known for a long time. We knew we didn’t want much music in this film, but we did want it to be interesting and powerful when we did use it. So even before we shot the film, we approached Ryan and told him the story for the film and asked him to write a few songs for it. Then we showed him the first cut, and he personalized the songs even more. For the scored parts, it was very similar. We told him what we were looking for, gave him the artistic freedom and he came back with some possibilities. We narrowed it down from there. It was an awesome experience to be able to have music written precisely for your film, and Ryan did an excellent job. It was the final piece in getting all the parts together on this film to add up, to what we deem our most realized piece.
FC: So you’ve completed a trilogy of “slacker” films. Are you planning on branching out?
BB: We are actually starring in and collaborating with Ryan Noel on his first feature, The Notorious Newman Brothers. It is a gangster mockumentary and something very different from what we have worked on before. After that we have a couple screenplays in the works, and we definitely plan to dig into new territories. We just want to keep rocking and rolling and making better pictures.
The Butler Bros. feature Confusions of an Unmarried Couple premieres Nov. 26 at the Indie Can Film Festival. For more information on the film visit www.SubProd.com.
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