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Zak Forsman originally from Pittsburgh but now in Los Angeles, the director of the movie ‘I Fucking Hate You’ talks about making movies. That movie despite the title is in fact a love story and I enjoyed watching it the actors were really good and natural for the part they were playing.
Zak Forsman is an American independent filmmaker whose emotionally-charged work is known for highly authentic performances and beautiful compositions. His work has been praised by Ain’t It Cool News as “Brilliant” and “Absolutely Gorgeous.”
His stories depict compelling human threads in a poetic and minimalist style. Zak has directed two shorts films, “I Fucking Hate You” and “Model/Photographer” which have won several international audience, jury and festival awards. He is currently developing two new features for production in 2010 and 2011 and serves as editor of the New Breed blog at The Workbook Project.
His wish is simply to provide a safe environment for the actors to explore the hopes, longing and loneliness of their characters in an effort to capture their humanity truthfully, and without judgement. Considering himself less a director and more of an interpreter, Zak nurtures a family-like atmosphere on set through guided improvisation and radical collaboration to elevate each artist’s creative contribution to the project.
The hope is to realize an understanding of the film that could not have been discovered alone. Further, for the stories to resonate in very real and unexpected ways with an audience starved for meaning in their motion pictures.
FILMOGRAPHY
I Fucking Hate You (2009)
Heart of Now (2010)
Eloquent Graffiti (2011)
Sabi Pictures is his production company which he founded with his friend Kevin. He likes a high level of collaboration in his movies. Zak explains that he like to let the actors improvise as the make the movie.
We also discuss what got him into movies and how he got to discover film makers such as Tarkovsky after being into war type movies inspired by movies like Platoon.
Zak is always itching to get the camera working on set filming something. Planing to write two screen plays in 2010. He will be working with people involved with Sabi Pictures.
He uses the SAG ultra low budget (Screen Actors Guild) agreement to determine the money spent on his movies.
Zak told me about the way he likes to use the casting process, letting the actor play off each other and see how the work together and how they can take direction .
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In my ramble at the start I talk about going to Girona and shooting video in a squat inhabited by some hippy types. They invited me in to see the graffiti they had in there place.
This morning I got my Shure SM58 microphone which I connected to the Canon Vixia HF100 via a converter cable going from XLR to 3.5mm jack. Works a treat and I am pleased that I will be able to get better audio with my shooting video. It will do until I can get a wireless lavalier mic. Although I do have a clip mic I can use with my Zoom H2 audio recorder.
I comment on a couple of cameras that I would like to try out. A JVC HM100 and the Sony NX5 which is only just becoming available now.
A still from ‘Death warmed up’