By Allan Aguilar // shakeseliot@yahoo.com
Bernard Badion is a filmmaker currently based in Mar Vista, CA. His short film, Sounds We Have No Letters For, will be screening at the next Houston Asian American Film Showcase on July 9, 2016. I had the great privilege of being able to watch his film and interview him to get a deeper understanding of his experience and perspective on making the film.
Buy Tickets Now: The Houston Asian American Film Showcase
JULY 9 - 7:00 PM // 800 AURORA ST - HOUSTON
FAAIM: How did the concept for this film evolve?
Bernard Badion: I was doing an internship at an agency and on a slow day I was doing these writing prompts online to just get me writing. There was this one question about how I thought it would be like to live in a dystopian future. Which led me to think about how dating would be in that alternate way of the world. This also reminded me of an odd couple I overheard at dinner the other night with my wife. They were on a first date that made me feel awkward just sitting next to them. So I took those two characters and put them in this weird dystopian future of dating and SWHNLF was born.
FAAIM: The two actors (Eugene Cordero and Julia Cho) play off each other rather well. How did you come to cast them for this film?
BB: It's true that this business is all about who you know and I just happened to know both of them before the project. Years ago Eugene was my Improv teacher at UCB. He was always so funny in class and always killed when I saw him perform. Also I took note of him because he bumped into me one time and asked me what I wanted to do in my career. He was a busy guy and he took five minutes to ask me about me. It's a small thing, but I always remembered it.
Julia was kind of the same way. I met her at an event a couple years ago at the Japanese American National Museum because I was sitting next to her. She was very nice and asked about what I was doing in LA (nothing fancy at that point). I think she was coming off of being on House or something big like that. I kept in touch with her over social media and when I had this role I dropped her an email.
FAAIM: To me, it seemed this could have been a tricky film to write, if only because you're somehow blending the meet-cute with feminism and dystopian tropes. Were there any difficulties in writing the conversation between the two characters for this film?
BB: In the beginning, I'm not thinking about meet-cutes or any tropes. You're right though, looking back on it that is what the movie turned out to be, but I feel the most work I did for this film is to try making it work on the page. I knew I needed to keep it cheap based on my budget so I thought I should try to do a walk-and-talk romance like Before Sunset, but with Asian people! Which is hard because the whole movie rests on two people talking. That's why I felt that the cutaways were important. It would illustrate the relationship the characters are having/wanting in real life. So yeah, it was a tough script, but once I got the first draft I'd say 80% of it never changed.
FAAIM: What were some of the other challenges you faced in different stages of the filming process?
BB: Shooting for two days, you're very limited on time. You have to prepare for everything, but problems will always occur. We shot all the inserts on a stage at LMU so that went pretty well until a neighboring stage had a fogger set off the fire alarms. That killed an hour of filming and forced us to start day 2 a couple hours early.
At the Pho restaurant, I had a two hour window to shoot in there (thank you Pho Show owners!) so I planned to be there 30 min early and load in when the customers left. The only problem was that the car that had our camera in it went to the wrong Pho restaurant. They got there with only 40 minutes to shoot, so I quickly looked at the script and scrapped 4 shots. The actors nailed their performances in, I want to say two takes. Kudos to them for being on when they had to.
FAAIM: I read that you were involved in improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade. Does your experience in improv inform what you want to express through film?
BB: I loved my time at UCB! I feel I grew so much during my time taking classes and performing around town. The number one thing I learned there was the infamous 'Yes, and..." rule. It just means that to keep a scene going and developing you never want to negate the people in your scene. You always agree and add something new to the scene, hence the 'Yes, and...". Also the idea that you can take any three ideas and then find a way to connect them all in the end (Harold form) blew my mind. So yes, UCB and a lot of what I learned there very much informs what I write and create.
FAAIM: Being Asian-American with experience in the industry, is there any kind of momentum you sense of Asian-Americans becoming even more prominent and less stereotyped in film and television in the future? And if so, what do you feel will be necessary to maintain this momentum?
BB: You know it feels like there is. The whole “John Cho in every movie” thing was fun and got a lot of traction. It feels like every day I read a new diversity article from some publication or blog, which is great, but actors, writers, directors, producers, and so forth don't come from thin air. I think it all starts with every person out there battling with the question "Do I pursue _____ (insert financially stable job in a great job market)?" or "Do I keep going with _____ (creative job in a field they have zero contacts or family history with)?". It's tough and it's something I wrestled with a lot. I made the decision to pursue writing/directing because I was so miserable in the couple corporate jobs I had. Nothing made me feel better than writing a new project or creating something on a set. That either makes me passionate or an addict. Probably both.
Along with the creative jobs, we just need more people in rooms where people decide who gets hired for what. More Asian-American network execs, agents, managers, producers, and so forth. I know you're out there and when you get there, please give me a call!
FAAIM: Do you have any future projects that you'd like to share that you're excited about?
BB: I recently wrapped up directing I Won't Miss You, a short film starring Joy Regullano and Kelly Sry. We're out to festivals now and can't wait to screen it for everyone. Check out the trailer! http://www.nuno.media/i-wont-miss-you
I'm always writing scripts. My last script, Thank You For Being Racist, is a comedic TV pilot centered around a Filipino man in his late 20s/early 30s who lives with his two very catholic parents and works at a sports radio station under a racist boss. I'd love to make it one day, but who knows? A feature I'm working on is based on my experience doing PCN's (Pilipino Cultural Nights) in college.
I recently won a grant for a project that I hope to start soon, but it's still a little short on funds. There may be another project I do with Eugene, but that's also up in the air. I like that one though, so I'm hoping I get everything together to get that on a screen ASAP.
Right now I work for a new Netflix show titled One Day At A Time, so that takes up all my time along with my newborn and my wonderful wife.
Buy Tickets Now: The Houston Asian American Film Showcase
JULY 9 - 7:00 PM // 800 AURORA ST - HOUSTON
Bernard Badion's website: http://www.nuno.media/
Follow him on Twitter: @bernardbadion