Interview: Javier Badillo (writer/director) and Nat Marshik (writer) of Lupe Q and the Galactic Corn Cake

ROFFEKE: What do you find as the advantages and challenges of working with a co-writer as opposed to writing alone?

JAVIER BADILLO: It depends on the compatibility of the temperament and personality of each writer. In our case, I discovered Nat’s working style suited me just fine, so we became an excellent collaborative partnership. To be more specific on how we work together: after we’ve done the initial beat-sheet and structure, we usually chat about the scenes at length, openly, and without any edits. If we make each other laugh, or cry, or feel excited, we know we’re on the right track and we write the ideas down on a piece of paper. After that, I go into our screenwriting software and translate all our brainstorming into the proper script format, and add dialogue suggestions and rough action staging. Then Nat comes in the next day and rewrites what I wrote, improving the dramatic tension, polishing the dialogue, and generally making the whole thing better. Then we repeat the process until we’re satisfied, and move on to another sequence. Much better, more efficient, and more satisfying than writing alone!

ROFFEKE: What lifelessons did you learn from your abuela (or any other member of your family) ?

JAVIER: I learned to be humble and grateful for everything I have, and everyone I know. My grandma was a strict matriarch who loved her big family very much, and we owe her for a large part of our upbringing. Our parents had to work often, so me, my brother, and all our cousins would stay at our grandma’s house, under her care.

ROFFEKE: You are/will soon be shooting the feature length version of "Lupe Q and the Galactic Corn Cake". What did you do in the short film that you will NOT do in the feature film? What did you NOT do in the short film that you will do in the feature film?

JAVIER: The short film is focused mainly on the relationship between Lupe and her abuela, where we see Lupe resisting her abuela’s corn cake (arepa) cooking lessons. However, on the feature, we will focus more on Lupe’s relationship with her bandmates Toro and Pachi. We will also see Lupe’s abuela and Pachi’s mom playing important roles, but the main plot, and most of the drama and comedy, is centered around the coming-of-age awkwardness and secret crushes of the three teenagers, as they (incompetently) attempt to save the world from an alien invasion. In the short film we see Lupe suddenly battling a giant monster in what seems like a spaceship, without any setup or explanation, for comedic effect – but in the feature we will follow the band from the moment they discover their unexpected ability to destroy space monsters with their punk rock music, all the way to the moment they infiltrate an orbiting space station to rescue their parents, and have a face-off against a gigantic alien creature called the “Great Worm”.

ROFFEKE: Nat, you have written poetry chapbooks. What skills from writing poetry come in handy as you co-write screenplays?

NAT MARSHIK: I would say that poetry, in contrast to novel writing, forces you to be very economical with your words. And this is a skill that is very important in screenwriting. Every line of dialogue carries weight. The process of screenwriting is distilling big ideas into their short form.

ROFFEKE: In 2022, your crowdfunded first feature "Roads of Ithriyah" won a Leo Award. What advice would you give filmmakers who want to crowdfund their film?

JAVIER: Involve your community! If you work part-time jobs, like I do, involve them in your creative endeavors and fundraising efforts - you’d be surprised how many people are curious about filmmaking and want to help you succeed. Crowdfunding can be rewarding in more ways than just to raise money - it’s a great way to share your love for filmmaking with everyone. And it’s an excellent way to hone and practice your movie sales pitch, which is a skill that can be improved, and will serve you throughout your filmmaking career.

ROFFEKE: Optional question: Without getting too political, how are you feeling about the results of the recently concluded US elections? How do you feel about the coming months and years? How will your filmmaking/writing be affected?

JAVIER: I feel both saddened and disappointed that the US political landscape has slipped further into the far right. It has created a climate of fear and mistrust that is dividing families and friendships. Their political opposition isn’t doing much better either, platform-wise. I just hope that kind, educated, regular people “on the ground” organize themselves, resist the rising wave of hate, and protect each other until it passes. As an artist I can’t help but be affected by it, and it compels me to write characters and themes that explore the feelings of helplessness and frustration that people bottle up inside. Ironically, I feel a strange and unfortunate familiarity with all this that sends a chill down my back; my birth country Venezuela is currently suffering from an advanced stage of economic turmoil, with a populist dictator spewing far left inflammatory political rhetoric – and I see parallels developing in the United States, on the opposite end of the spectrum. I just hope the US doesn’t end up like Venezuela.

Logline: Aliens. Punk Rock. Corn Cakes. In space, only grandma's latin cooking will save you.

Synopsis: Lupe doesn’t care about her abuela’s cooking lessons, she just wants to rock with her badass punk band. But when Lupe finds herself battling an alien monster with her band, her abuela's lessons will remind her that punk rock is more than just loud music, and connecting with her Latin roots may just save their lives.

 

Interview: Listening Raven - screenwriter of "REZ" (Question 2)

ROFFEKE: In 2016, you wrote a stage play that ran Off-Broadway in New York City and have written many other plays. What do you enjoy about writing screenplays that you find challenging when writing stage plays, and vice versa?

LISTENING RAVEN: Wow, good question! I like how with a stage play, actors can get up on stage and read the dialogue days after putting it on paper. That's the case with a stage play-type-format. That's huge. Its cool how something will come out that you didn't know about your dialogue. And then there are times a good actor will read it and you realize you laid a big fat egg.

If that's never happened to you, you're lying. Everybody's written some bad stuff.

And then there's times an actor will read something that turns out great.

Stage plays however have to be on one set. I love flashbacks and jumping to different places. Screenplays allow for that freedom.

Screenplays are a visual art. I feel the writer can inspire the director to some degree. Great directors are awesome. Then the camera, light, sound people along with folks putting down the little railroad tracks as I call them.

Sometimes when writing a stage play, I wish it were a screenplay. And then when its a screenplay, I wish it were a stage play.

When two actors are engaged in an amazing moment, the stage allows for more time. The difference between a 12 second exchange is so much different than an exchange that goes on just 24 seconds. Screenplays should move a little quicker when it comes to dialogue. You have to show the audience with images and quick cuts. Stage gives the writer more time to elaborate with dialogue.  

You can lose your audience in a matter of seconds in a screenplay.  The audience these days want things to move along and move fast. Especially in a comic exchange.

That's just how it is.

In a stage play, the audience knows going into the theatre there is going to be a lot of dialogue. You're not going to have realistic looking bombs, explosions, car chase scenes and people jumping off buildings, into a pool of fire, and coming out to chase down the bad guy in slow motion.

But, if a great actor(s) are engaged in a stimulating conversation with engaging dialogue, it works in a screenplay or stage play.

***

Look out for Listening Raven's answer for Question 3: "Your portrayal of women in "Rez" is non-stereotypical, does not show them as being "voiceless, or silent...an object of desire, and victims of violence...without agency" (Illuminative's "The Time is Now: The Power of Native Representation in Entertainment", page 26) Did you purposely set out to portray the women in this more positive and realistic light or was it just a happy accident?"

You can read his answers for Question 1 HERE

Interview: Zeke Hanson - Director of "Jazz and Roll" Rockumentary

ROFFEKE: The filmmakers of the Rockumentary "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" filmed 1600 hours of footage which was cut down to 2 hours 20 minutes. How many hours (or minutes) of footage did you film for this 10 minute documentary about the TriTones? What criteria did you use to include or not include footage in the final cut of Jazz and Roll?

ZEKE HANSON: That was a monster of a documentary. I remember when they did that, and it's still hard to wrap my mind around that incredible amount of footage. I think TriTones was about 2.5 hours, give or take. What does or doesn't make the final cut is always the storytellers dilemma. My goal is always to be in a situation where I have to cut good footage, because I have too much that I like to make it work. But that's not always the case. For The TriTones it was different. They were minors at the time, and it was almost the end of their school year, so there really wasn't a possibility for me to shoot practice room or the jam sessions that they were talking about. It was more of capturing a moment in time, so that no matter what they all end up accomplishing down the road, this was something that they did and that they could use to look back on.

ROFFEKE: How did this project come about? Did you reach out to the TriTones or did The TriTones reach out to you? What challenges did you face while making Jazz and Roll?

ZEKE: I was actually working on another series at the time. (Step Into My Studio, on SDPB) and was interviewing Drex's (Trombone player) dad. During the interview he was sharing stories about a band his son was a part of and said it might be a fun story if I wanted to check them out. It took a bit for me to finish up some other projects, but I was able to make it to one of their last shows that summer.It was an uncertain time for them as the majority were graduating high school and leaving the regularity of the group. I'm glad I was able to see them play. It's one of those projects that came about by being present in the conversation, not just the interview.

ROFFEKE: Your other project - which is quite different from Jazz and Roll - is called "The Missing and Murdered". What inspired you to work on this? What lessons did you learn from that project that you (may have) applied in filming Jazz and Roll?

ZEKE: Yes. It is quite different. When I started on The Missing and Murdered, I didn't really understand what I was getting into. I was working on another feature documentary at the time, and was told that if I rode along on the Missing and Murdered ride, that it might help get other interview participants for the other project. At the time I had never done a cross documentary state trip.  Not on my own and certainly not periodically from a horse. It was a long shoot and I had to negotiate a lack of electricity to make it work. I think the lesson that I learned from that, that I take with me for every project is that there will always be obstacles. Part of telling any story is accommodating the struggle to make it. It can be a frustrating journey, but the story has to reveal itself sometimes. You can't just force it. How any filmmaker handles that is part of their style.

ROFFEKE: Your thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and the future of filmmaking?

ZEKE: Oh. Good. I think art has been kicked around and bullied for its entire existence. You can always find people who are willing to take credit for other people's work. But now you see people who are taking credit for something that isn't even real. Art should be felt, not simulated. In my opinion, fake intelligence is a steroid. It should be treated the same way as any asterisk is used in a sporting event or record book. Heavy use of anyone else's work isn't homage, it isn't creative, and there is a word for it. Plagiarism. It culls from existing art to "create" something else. There's nothing new about it. Just heavy filtering. For some of my other documentary research, the immediate incorporation of AI into search engines has actually made it more difficult to find what I'm looking for. Why use artificial, when we are all capable of using the real thing?

ROFFEKE: Your advice for aspiring documentary filmmakers?

ZEKE: You have to have that sick to your stomach feeling.That need to create. Filmmaking is a tough business. Not because of the storytelling, but because of the business. It'll come at a cost, and not always just financially. It costs time, resources, and focus. It'll beat you down and chew you up. But it can also take you around the world and introduce you to people and places you would never otherwise see. I can't imagine doing anything else. For me, documentary filmmaking shines a light on the community of the world. It isn't always pretty, but... if you don't share it...then who will?

Director's Biography:
Zeke Hanson is a film producer, documentarian and author.

"Jazz and Roll" Synopsis:
A little bit rock'n roll, a whole lot of jazz fusion. Hear from The TriTones about what music means to them, and why they can put their musical twist on any genre. 

Interview: Listening Raven - screenwriter of "REZ" (Question 1)

ROFFEKE: Your screenplay "REZ" has many moving parts that work well together. How long did it take you to write it? What's your writing process like? Are you an outliner or a seat-of-the-pants-er?

LISTENING RAVEN: First off, thank you for your observation and sentiment that REZ is, many moving parts that work well together. That is extremely observant and complimentary.  

Never actually put together a written outline. Maybe I will next project, maybe not. I wish I could. But, then again, maybe there was one that just took place somewhere other than documentation. Maybe in my head floating around.  

Writing to me is not pencil & paper. Or computer in the contemporary sense. It's day dreaming. We all do that. We all daydream. As a child, many thought my wondering off in my mind was a medical condition that required some medication to resolve. Thank the powers beyond us my handlers never put me on those drugs.  

We see things when we don't think; or try not to think. Thought, ideas, concept come to us. From where, I think I know, but I can't prove it. Then write it down in no particular order.

It can be a single sentence. It can be pages of non-sense. No matter. See where it goes from there. That in and of itself is meditation. That is being one with God; The Great Spirit. The place beyond us. Have many friends that are atheists. And that is their choice.  

That said, these folks are incredible dreamers, some of them, just as some believers can't write a grocery list to save their lives. The best atheistic writers I know can go places in their minds they can't explain. Nobody knows for sure what they're going to dream tonight. There is so much that is unexplained. But meditation is peace and out of peace can come order.

So you have a bunch of thoughts written down.

That's great and they are valuable. Anything you take the time to write down is worth saving. If not for the public, yourself. If you're like me, you'll look at stuff you wrote down years ago and feel embarrassed, ashamed and down right sick at how incredibly stupid you were, and still are. So what.

Eventually, if your passion is in it, something precious will surface.  

Then comes the editing. You can do this yourself. And/or get input from others. But, BE CAREFUL of those who will destroy these thoughts. Sometimes these critics will give you great advice. But, once you mull it over, you will know.  

In my case, I've spent tens of thousands of hours writing regarding many projects. They were followed by just as much time editing, cutting the parts that went on too long. And by too long I mean the parts that don't appeal to the audience. When you see your stuff performed in front of an audience, and the body language of those in the crowd is that of, Please get me out of here, that makes a writer ponder.

It also sucks.

I've sat in the back row for one act plays when there was feedback time.  I heard one lady say about one of my works, If that character pontificated for another second, I was going to pull my hair out and scream out loud.

I was not all that happy. Then, upon further review, she was right.

REZ was actually in New York City's Off-Broadway in the summer of 2016. The stage play went by the name of, “Last of the Caucasians. It was written under my legal name, Erich L Ruehs.

The name gifted to me by my brothers & sisters as a child long ago is Listening Raven. That is now the name I write under.  

This was some time ago, and a story for another day I chose not to share with the public. It's when I not only found out for a fact about my dirty blood, but leaned to embrace it. And the Raven that always showed up during our story telling hours was real. It took the form of a real creature we could all see. And, as Forest Gump would say, That's all I have to say about that.

Last of the Caucasians was on YouTube for some time, but alas is not there anymore. Don't get me started about the internet. *Actually, during my re-write of these questions, I think LAST OF THE CAUCASIANS is back on The YouTube if you search:  Last of Caucasians Erich L Ruehs. At least its on The YouTube for now. I don't really understand these search engines.

(ROFFEKE Note: You can watch it HERE)

But, it's about the re-writes. Thousands of hours; literally. And that's cool. Writing is life. Never write because you have to. Write because it gives you life.

LAST OF THE CAUCASIANS, the stage play, turned into REZ, the screenplay.

Lots of hours. Many days ran into afternoons which would turn into nights. Followed, naturally by daybreak next day. The first draft for REZ was around 185 pages long.

More weeks and months were joyfully spent getting it down to 95 pages. You will feel as if there is assistance from somewhere else when you write and edit from the heart.

Study the little things. Just meditate on one line, even one word. If a sentence can be said with five syllables, instead of seven, that's a victory. If that takes you days to edit, take those days. I don't count words, I count syllables. Each is a musical note.

When you realize there's something on page whatever, and it can come back as a reference point to another page, grab it.

Then there's something said on the later pages that could be introduced in a subtle way 30 pages back, that's a victory.  

Read your own work hundreds of times.  Read it thousands. Something is going to come to you for the first time. And then you still might have it wrong. And if you think that is a struggle, it isn't. That's living on the pages. That's where you live at that moment.

So how long did it take me to write REZ?

I guess a really long time. Thousands of hours followed by thousands more.  I would guess around 10,000 hours on LAST OF THE CAUCASIANS (The stage play) combined with the metamorphization into REZ (The screenplay.)

During these two project, which one could say was the same project, there was other writing going on. Other stories or just free-flow-writing. I do some free-flow writing at the end of this interview, Mildred, which was inspired by your questions.   

One writing secret I have is to print out a hard copy of my play/screenplay. I say secret because I'm not writing for money or people to notice me. I wouldn't charge people to learn my technique. Somebody asks, I share. Many good people have shared their time with me and I'm proud to do the same.

Anyway, my secret is having a hard copy of something I wrote. Even if it's one page, it can be pulled out when on line at the grocery store, or anywhere else. Make edits and/or add to what was written down.

Then put in on a computer copy. And then make edits and/or add dialogue to that computer document when it's on the screen.

Then, print out into a hard copy and do the same.

Then, put those changes into the computer version and do it again.  

Go back and forth a couple hundred times, I don't know why, but you'll discover things on the hard copy version you won't see on the computer screen and vice versa.

Each gives a different perspective in a subtle manner.

I'll have a hard copy with the words printed out and a pencil in my hand and something in hard copy form just JUMPS out at me. Then circle something and point it to another place on the page. Or some other page. I'll line the pages out it a room and look at how the flow goes and look to one page to the other.

Then put the edits back on the computer. The computer version will reveal a different perspective. You can zoom back and forth on the computer in a different manner in which you edit with papers on the ground.

I love papers in my hand, or on the ground, or pinned to a wall or old barn outside. There's this movie with Russel Crow and his mind and he puts stuff on a window, or something and the thoughts bounce back and forth from the written stuff on the window to his head and then back and forth again.

I can't relate when folks think he's crazy. He's not crazy. He's the only normal one in the movie.

Or, sometimes you'll get something right the first time. It could be that the first thing you write down is the best, especially with one important line of dialogue.

There aren't really any rules but passion, hard work and honesty. And thousands of hours.  

***

Look out for Listening Raven's answers for question 2:
ROFFEKE: What do you enjoy about writing screenplays that you find challenging when writing stage plays, and vice versa?