In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman chat (virtually) with Julia Trueblood and Karin Trachtenberg! Julia is an actor and producer; Karin is a theater maker, filmmaker, and director. Julia and Karin’s film “Three A.M.” was featured and won the ‘Heartstrings’ Award in Creative Guts’ film festival in June 2024. In this episode, we discuss how Julia and Karin are telling stories from their perspectives as women and mothers and supporting women in film. Both took time off from their work to start their families, and for Karin, going back to theater was her doing something for herself after prioritizing her kids. Today, they’re working with mostly all-women crews, in a super collaborative way. We also talk about the challenges inherent when you’re wearing many different hats and why film festivals are an important way for filmmakers to share their work! Check out their films “Pumpkin Pie” and “Three A.M.” at the links below! Pumpkin Pie: www.instagram.com/pumpkin_pie_film Three A.M.: www.facebook.com/p/Three-AM-100087678037399/ Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Be friends with us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/CreativeGutsPodcast and Instagram at www.Instagram.com/CreativeGutsPodcast. If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman chat (virtually) with Julia Trueblood and Karin Trachtenberg! Julia is an actor and producer; Karin is a theater maker, filmmaker, and director. Julia and Karin’s film “Three A.M.” was featured and won the ‘Heartstrings’ Award in Creative Guts’ film festival in June 2024.
In this episode, we discuss how Julia and Karin are telling stories from their perspectives as women and mothers and supporting women in film. Both took time off from their work to start their families, and for Karin, going back to theater was her doing something for herself after prioritizing her kids. Today, they’re working with mostly all-women crews, in a super collaborative way. We also talk about the challenges inherent when you’re wearing many different hats and why film festivals are an important way for filmmakers to share their work!
Check out their films “Pumpkin Pie” and “Three A.M.” at the links below!
Pumpkin Pie: www.instagram.com/pumpkin_pie_film
Three A.M.: www.facebook.com/p/Three-AM-100087678037399/
Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Be friends with us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/CreativeGutsPodcast and Instagram at www.Instagram.com/CreativeGutsPodcast.
If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:01] LHL: I'm Laura Harper Lake.
[0:00:02] SW: And I'm Sarah Wrightsman.
[0:00:03] LHL & SW: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[0:00:18] SW: Hello, listeners. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Creative Guts.
[0:00:22] LHL: On today's episode, we're interviewing Julia Trueblood and Karin Trachtenberg. Julia is an actor and producer, Karin is a theater maker, filmmaker, and director. And Julia and Karin's film, Three A.M., was featured and won the Heartstrings Award at the Creative Guts Film Festival in June of 2024.
[0:00:42] SW: With two guests, we have a lot to cover before we jump in. Just to note that this episode was recorded virtually. Without further do, let's jump right in to this episode of Creative Guts with Julia Trueblood and Karin Trachtenberg.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:01:01] LHL: Julia and Karin, welcome to Creative Guts podcast.
[0:01:04] KT: Thanks for having us.
[0:01:04] JT: Thanks for having us.
[0:01:05] LHL: This is very exciting because you are really amazing filmmakers, but you've also been featured in the Creative Guts Short Film Festival, which was just such an honor. It was so amazing to have – we didn't really know what kind of films would be submitted. To have some filmmakers of really, really high caliber who are producing just amazing work was such an honor. It's so great to meet you in real life.
[0:01:33] JT: Thank you so much.
[0:01:35] LHL: For folks who don't know anything about you as creatives, do we want to start there with you both each giving introductions of yourselves?
[0:01:43] KT: I'm Karin Trachtenberg. I was the director of Three A.M., which is a film that's screened at Creative Guts. And Julia and I have paired up again for a second film. And my background is very much a theater maker. I've been doing theater for probably 40 years. I have a real affinity for the classics, from Greek theater, Shakespeare on up, but I've also done a lot of work with new plays. So I'm excited about that as well. I've just finished a tour of a one-woman show that I wrote and performed in. And actually, Three A.M. was the first film that I've ever directed. That's a whole new creative avenue for me that I'm really enjoying.
[0:02:42] LHL: That's amazing.
[0:02:44] JT: And I'm Julia Trueblood. I'm primarily an actor, both theater and film. I decided to produce Three A.M. because I just loved that story. And I had seen it on stage actually about 10 years earlier as a short play and it always stuck with me. And then one day I randomly thought, "You know, I'm going to see if I can track down that playwright and see if they're interested in having that story turned into a film." And they were. I was able to find them. They were all on board. I've got Karin involved. And then as she mentioned, we've produced a second film together. But I've also worked in numerous indie-type films and shorts around the area and as well as acted in theater and done some writing for both film and theater as well.
[0:03:31] SW: That's great. Will you tell us a little bit about your sort of like origin story? How and why? When did you know you wanted to go into theater, acting, film? And how did that come to be?
[0:03:42] JT: Yeah, for me it happened kind of later in life. By that, I mean mid-20s. That sounds ridiculous in retrospect. But it felt late at the time to start to get into it. And one of the first things I did was take kind of this Meisner theater intensive, which is where I met Karin actually. And this was – I don't know how long ago that was, but it was quite a long time ago, probably more than 15 years ago at least.
And then from there, I just fell in love absolutely with acting and kind of pursued it as much as possible. I've taken time away to start a family and then came back a few years ago and that was around the time that I had this idea to do Three A.M.
[0:04:23] KT: I've really been involved in the art. I think my first play was first grade. We did Goldilocks and the Three Bears in French. I had this fiery red teacher and her husband actually was a set designer. So I remember we had this fabulous backdrop. I've always been involved in the arts. I mean, I was a theater major. I went to drama school in London. I then ended up sort of segueing into – I got my degree in expressive therapy. I was using the arts in a psychiatric and psychoeducational facilities. And then ended up working for the Arts Council. I've been involved in the arts in many different ways. Working at the Arts Council, of course – and I did a lot of grant writing and doing projects.
Interestingly, like Julia, once I had my kids, that changed. I wasn't doing any theater or myself. And until that class we took together at Meisner, I went back, got back into acting then, basically because I was taking my kids to their mommy and me class and my daughter's little ballet class and sitting in these waiting rooms going, "What am I going to do for myself?" So I started taking class. It was that Meisner class and that's where I met Julia.
And so since – actually, I'm going to say that was like 2008 or something. And so I've been doing – then my kids finally got a little older where they could get off the bus themselves, the more and more work that I started doing. And now they're adults. And so I'm pretty much doing this full time. And I think that's what we really bonded on in terms of Three A.M. Because Three A.M., as soon as I read it, "Yeah, I get this story," because it's about two mothers who are just worried about the state of the world and how to keep their kids safe. And I think we need more stories from a female perspective, as well as from even a mother's perspective.
Our second film, while it doesn't deal with mothers, it's also two women sort of confronted in a deep conversation, like having a dialogue. And what we like to say is it's [inaudible 0:06:58] tested. So the women in both our stories are not talking about men, or a man on their life. We have other things as well that concern us.
[0:07:13] LHL: We love that.
[0:07:15] JT: And to talk about it.
[0:07:17] KT: And the other thing is that both stories, like Julia was really attracted to Three A.M. and she had seen it, it was a short play. I feel like Julia and I, that's our background that is theater training. And so that was a short play. And actually, our second film, Pumpkin Pie, is also a short play that we then had to adapt. I know when Julia came to me and I read the play, I said, "This play is great. But it's a play. Now we have to make it into a film." Because in film, it's more visual, and less dialogue, and less talking. You have to think about what are the visual images and actually take out a good amount of the dialogue. You don't need it in film.
And then to figure out as opposed to theater where it's one set. You're on a stage, one set, how to make it move visually. How are we going to move the story along? It's not just going to happen in one location. But of course, when you're low-budget like us, you can't have all kinds of locations. Right?
[0:08:19] SW: Right. Right. Where was Three A.M. filmed? Was it sort of your own home? -
[0:08:25] JT: Mostly at my house and in my neighborhood.
[0:08:29] LHL: That's great. I love it.
[0:08:31] JT: With our second film, we were able to like branch out a little bit. But yeah, first time, it was like, "What's available to us? What can we make work?" Yeah.
[0:08:38] SW: I love that.
[0:08:39] LHL: And what's the size of your crew with both films?
[0:08:42] JT: That also grew with the second film. We had – I'm trying to count. Unless you know, Karin? I think we had maybe a crew of six to ten on the first film. And then how much did it go –
[0:08:54] KT: I think it was less than ten on the first film. And I think we're probably about 12 on the second. I think the other thing that Julia and I are in agreement about is to pay everybody. And, of course, we can't pay them what we feel they're worth. But we do pay everybody, from the PAs to the actors so that our crews have to be lean. Some of these independent films, if you look at the credits, there's like huge credits because they're getting – they have all these people that are doing things for free. And then you have to have more people. Kind of involve more people. We keep it kind of lean. But we definitely learned from the first film, yeah, that we needed to be a little less lean. We needed a little more support in some areas.
And I think, I know that I learned a lot. I feel like the production values of our second film are elevated a bit from the first. As I said, the first was also my first time directing. Sort of jumping in like, "Okay." We learned a lot. And also, our films are primarily almost 100% female, our crews.
[0:10:08] SW: Cool.
[0:10:09] LHL: Let's hear more about that. Is that a very conscious decision? Is that just sort of how it happens to be? And then what is it like working in that environment?
[0:10:17] KT: That was absolutely a conscious decision. We decided to do that in the first one and even more in the second. And I'd like to hear Julia's perspective on it. From my perspective, it makes for a much more collaborative and less hierarchal working environment. And it's just kind of cool to have all women. I mean, the stories are very female-centered. And so I feel like women are going to bring their creative perspective, the DP, and the lighting, and the sound. It's just been really great. And I feel like there needs to be more opportunities anyway for women.
I'm a little bit frustrated with these women's festivals. Because the women's festivals, most of them, I've only encountered one, they'll say, "Well, there has to be at least one woman or two women in a lead creative role." It can be a male director and a male writer, but if it's a woman character, or one woman directing, but the producer. To me, that's not enough. That's tokenism. Let's work with more women. And the women we've worked with have been, I think, fantastic. What do you think, Julia?
[0:11:31] JT: Yeah. Oh, they've been fantastic. For me, I think the connection to the story was much stronger from some of the women we talked to when we putting the team together, especially Three A.M. By the time we did Pumpkin Pie, the second film, I think our network in the film world had grown so much that I already knew these women and their work, and I already knew I wanted to work with them. And it was just great to know from the tech side, the crew side, these really strong, capable, accomplished women are really doing this in the field. And it was like no question that that's who we want to work with.
[0:12:09] KT: Yeah, we are members and strong supporters of the Women in Film & Video New England Organization.
[0:12:15] LHL: That is fantastic. That is so wonderful to hear. Very, very powerful to cultivate that environment, especially with these stories that are going to be touching everybody, especially women. And I'm curious, when you're acting in these roles, but you're also very personally feeling these stories, how is that from acting in something else that isn't quite as focused on that?
[0:12:43] JT: That's a great question. I mean, it's the ideal when you can act or work, I guess, in a production at all, where you feel so strongly about the message in the story and you're just, "This needs to be made be made," and you're all in. You can always find, I think, as an artist on a project, something that you like about it, someone that you like working with, something that makes it okay. But there's always this asterisk around it. But when it's something you're fully invested in, it brings it to a completely different level.
[0:13:15] LHL: I can imagine. I can imagine you just feeling it. And when you have those maybe harder days with the production, I feel like it helps energize you and help you charge through it. I'm wondering about the timeline of these productions as far as from the conception of it, to planning it, to implementing it. And then the editing, and then the marketing of it, and applying to festivals. And I guess I just want to hear about all the magic of all that it takes to make your films.
[0:13:42] KT: Well, it's interesting. I did a seminar once with a woman who was talking about budgeting, and she said that, "Well, you have two choices. If you have a lot of money, enough money, you can do something quickly and well. But if you don't, you can't do it quickly and well, right?" Because you're not having anybody who's – you can't have your editor is in full-time. You know what I mean? Full-time, 40 hours a week in the studio and the time it takes just to do the pre-production kind of work. That was an eye-opening for me because I had been in many films and I was always like, "Why is it taking so long to finish the product?" And now I know.
I mean, you've got the whole pre-production side. And then the filming is actually the shortest part usually because you're paying people a day rate. So we try to get it done in two or three days tops. And then when you go into editing, that was a huge learning curve for me in terms of how much time it takes. It's like you're whittling away. It's on a piece of wood or stone to get to the final product.
And then there's, of course, the color grading, and the score, and all the things that go along with it. And as a director, I've relied a lot on the editor, Julia as a producer, always to get feedback, their thing, and the DP. There are things that I miss that somebody else sees. For example, in Three A.M. we're like practically down to the final cut. And we didn't realize – you could see the production assistant pop her head up. We didn't even see it. And somebody else was like – the DP was like, "Oh my God." And then we couldn't unsee it, of course, to have several people's eyes and ears on something. And then you have to sort of sleep on it and come back to it again and again and again. And in some ways, you could keep working on it, right? Almost. At some point, you have to go, "Okay, it's never going to be, you know, 100%, but this is as close as we got to like get this done." I think that's what we're at with Pumpkin Pie, right? We got a couple more days.
[0:16:02] JT: Yeah. Pumpkin Pie, we filmed last January, and we're going to show it for its first private invited screening this coming January. So about a year. And I'd say it took us a few months to identify a script we wanted to do, adapt to the script, do pre-production, right? Overall, probably a 15-month timeline on this one.
[0:16:25] LHL: And what's the runtime for that film?
[0:16:27] KT: It's 10 minutes, 30 seconds. Yeah, Three A.M. was just over, what, 11 minutes? And probably we could have – I think for Pumpkin Pie, we were more conscious of, "Let's really make the editing really tight." Yeah, so I think that was our focus for the second film. The second film was a little bit lighter than Three A.M. But I still think the stories we seem to be drawn to are character-driven stories where two people have sort of come together. And through their dialogue, they transformed their perspective in some way.
For me at least, I want to see some kind of character development and that the characters start off having one perspective and that changes by the end. They've gone through some kind of a realization or transformation through rubbing up against each other.
[0:17:29] LHL: Which is pretty powerful to do, or amazing, to accomplish, I should say, in a short film. It's not a feature-length film where you have multiple scenes and you can show the passage of time. I mean, you can do that in a short film, I suppose. But I think when there's just one or two scenes, you really have time to learn and understand where a character's coming from and then have that growth, I mean, that's kind of amazing.
[0:17:54] SW: It is. It's really amazing.
[0:17:56] KT: And that's why we've worked with theater writers. They can do that. A lot of people write these 10-minute plays. And I think screenwriters, actually less so, unless they're really good screenwriters. But playwrights, yeah, that's what they do. And that's what they excel in. And I think that's why we've chosen both times to work with playwrights and adapt it. Yeah, because they understand the structure, the beginning, middle, and end structure. And I'm traditional in that sense. I also want to see a beginning, an arc, and a beginning, middle, and end structure. And I think that is something in watching other short films. I'm like, "Where's the beginning, the middle, the end? I don't know." And some people love that, more experimental. But I'm just a little more rooted in that kind of, I guess, traditional storytelling.
[0:18:58] SW: I'm curious if there are challenges that are inherent to when you're wearing a lot of different hats. You're directing, and you're producing, and you're filmmaking, and you're acting. If you're also the director, are you approaching acting differently or vice versa? When you're wearing a lot of different hats versus you just have one role in a production, are there challenges there?
[0:19:22] JT: There definitely are. And I'll let Karin speak to her side. But actually, we were gonna have Karin play one of the parts in our second film, but then she said, "I can't." And it was a smaller role. But she was like, "You know what, I'm not going to direct, and act in it, and produce. It's too much." But even with that, we are wearing multiple hats. And even this time, our cinematographer also was a producer. So three of us both having more than one hat.
In a sense, that's good. Because on the shooting day, it could be like, "I'm not a producer today. There are two other producers here. They can do it." Or in certain parts, we can kind of cover for each other. But I would say in the editing, as an actor, it is hard to not want to be like, "Oh, I hate the way I acted that moment. Can you pick a different clip? Can you do that?" Because that's not what it's about. Luckily, Karin, will just be like, "No. I don't think that's good how it is." And I trust her. But that does come up and it's hard not to.
[0:20:23] LHL: And it must be hard to watch yourself over and over and over and over.
[0:20:26] JT: It's awful. It is terrible. It really is. It's hard. And like Karin said, sometimes you have to take a break from it and come back. I have to do that quite a bit.
[0:20:34] KT: Personally, I don't know how people can direct and act in the same film. It's a completely different mindset. When you're acting, you have to be in the moment, relating in the moment, and not thinking about the bigger picture. And as a director, you have to always be thinking of the bigger picture. Yeah, I was like, "I'm not even going to be an extra. I have to be behind a camera and managing all that, seeing what the camera's seeing. No, I don't even want to be an extra."
But the other thing is when I only have to act, I did this film in May, all I had to do was memorize a scene and go in. And I was like, "This is a vacation. I can relax. I don't have to worry about where the food is coming from, or are we on schedule, or the weather, or the sound. I'm just going to have fun and do my thing." I'm enjoying acting more and the sort of less responsibility of acting. I just need to know my lines and come with my costume and let everyone worry about everything else. As well as also, there's a financial piece and the money. Yeah, there's so much involved in the directing and the producing.
But I found that I really – that's where the second film I was going to act in and I said, "You know what, I just want to direct again because I like that, all the work that goes into it and the collaborative nature of it. And, again, the editing at the end and everything that I'm learning." And, also, working with actors." I don't know anything about the technical side of filmmaking. I work with the DP and I don't know what camera she's using or what lens. What has to happen with the lighting? Thankfully, Maddie's fantastic, right? And she takes that on.
But I do know how to tell – I know the elements of storytelling. I know the story that I want to tell. I know the beats that have to happen. I know how to talk to actors, right? That I would want a director to speak with me. I see the image. I see the movement and the action. And then I rely on the people whose technical skill it is to bring their creative.
Maddie, who's a DP, she's seeing what she can do with the camera and what the lighting can do. And we work very well together because her attitude also is the acting comes first. Not every filmmaker. Some filmmakers are very technical, so they don't really know how to talk to an actor or understand – the acting doesn't always come first for them. Maybe it's the lighting and how something looks. Yeah. So for me, it's always about the acting. And actually, it always comes down to the writing. That's where it starts. Theater, film, everything, I feel the writing has to be substantive.
[0:23:42] LHL: When you're adapting plays to film, so you're having to kind of rewrite that for film, are you working with the original playwright? Are you writing it? Do you have another individual involved in that? How does that transformation work?
[0:23:57] KT: I've basically adapted both and then run my ideas past the writer because both writers have not really been filmed. They sort of said, "Okay." They sort of gave us some freedom to do that with the understanding that I'm going to change that. And even in editing, once you go to the editing, you realize, "Oh, we don't need that line." Things get edited out just in the best interest of telling the story.
I actually really kind of enjoy that part. How are we going to take it from the stage to film? How are we going to open? And also, the openings and closings, which are very different in film and theater. But the meat of the conflict and the relationships, that's the playwright. And the meat of the dialogue is the playwright.
[0:24:50] LHL: It's amazing to me that there's lots of different types of art forms, but some, like film, take 15 months, years to create with so many people. It's a collective. They're all coming together. And then, boom, you put it out there. So all of that work is seen then in 10 minutes. That's sort of, one, amazing. But I guess my next question is, how are you getting your art out there? If you're an artist, you're putting stuff in a gallery. If you're a chef, you're putting it on the plate in front of somebody. If you're a musician, it's on Spotify. With films, especially short films, what's the mechanism for bringing it to people to affect their hearts and impact their minds?
[0:25:36] JT: It's limited for short films in the indie world, right? So that's why it's so great that people have film festivals. Like Creative Guts had that one. And I hope you continue to. Because, especially – I shouldn't say especially in New England. That's just my experience. But around here, there is quite an active film community in the indie kind of side of things. There's a lot of people producing shorts or maybe mid-length 20-minute type films.
We've been able to travel to a number of the film festivals in New England that Three A.M. was in. And so we get to experience each other's films. You get to know the filmmakers a little bit. Then there's a community building, right? And then it becomes, "Okay, there's a built-in community who's going to be interested in our next film." We've already kind of made these relationships, right? And of course, there's the festivals. And this time we're having our own screening to just make sure that everyone who worked on the film gets a chance to see it in front of an audience.
There is some chance that if a tree falls in the forest, it doesn't make a sound, right? Are you only affecting the people who were involved? That's not the goal. Hopefully, it'll continue to get exposure. Three A.M. I feel like did get a fair amount of exposure. And we got a lot of feedback from audience members who were moved by it. We hope that future films will have the same impact.
[0:26:58] LHL: I mean, it's award-winning, right? Got your award right there. From us, at least. It's a little something, But yeah, we had an audience, I think, of about 95 to 100 folks, I think, at the Red River Theaters. That was a big milestone for us. And so it's such an honor that we were connected through that, too.
[0:27:18] KT: Are you doing it again next year? Are you having another festival?
[0:27:21] LHL: It is our intention. Yes. We are planning on it, yes. As long as everything falls into place, hopefully. Yeah. And then if so, that'll be announced very early spring.
[0:27:34] JT: Well, we'll have another submission.
[0:27:38] LHL: Yay.
[0:27:38] SW: Yay. We've seen Three A.M. and probably some of our listeners have too. Could you tell us a little bit more about Pumpkin Pie?
[0:27:47] KT: Oh, yeah. So Pumpkin Pie is basically a two-hander. It's really a dramedy, I would say. The whole premise is it takes place in a bakery, a woman, the bakers, and the bakery. And it's Thanksgiving morning. And she gets this frantic customer, even though her store is closed, of course, for Thanksgiving, who needs, frantically, urgently needs to bring a pumpkin pie to her family Thanksgiving dinner. She'll never outlive the recriminations from her family if she doesn't bring that pumpkin pie. Of course, there's no pies left because they've been sold out. And they end up having a dialogue about just how difficult it can be. How stressful these family gatherings can be. Yeah. And I want to tell you how it ends, but –
[0:28:41] SW: That sounds amazing. I can't wait to see it.
[0:28:43] LHL: I did get a peek at the trailer that was sent. I had a little bit of a impact on that. And I was like, "Oh, man. This is going to be another one that's just going to hit me right in the heart strings. I know it."
[0:28:55] KT: We filmed in a bakery. There's a guy who has this bakery. Well, he only makes breads. It's called Bread Guy Breads. Insane how good – home-baked bread.
[0:29:04] SW: I totally know him in his bread.
[0:29:06] JT: Oh, they're so good.
[0:29:07] SW: I totally know Bread Guy Bread. Yeah.
[0:29:10] JT: So delicious.
[0:29:12] KT: This is the funny thing. We had to do this in January. That's the only time he closes his shop is right after New Year's for a week, because everyone's resolution is not to eat, right? So much bread and gluten. But after about a week, they're back to it. And we were filming and people were coming by all excited thinking, "Oh, it's open."
[0:29:37] JT: We actually had to have someone stand outside and be like, "It's really closed. There's no bread." And people were really upset they couldn't get his bread. Very upset.
[0:29:45] LHL: That is so wild that it somewhat matches the theme of your film.
[0:29:50] JT: Yes, we thought so too.
[0:29:51] LHL: Access to baked goods. That's funny.
[0:29:57] KT: Yeah. And so it was really fun. We had this BU student who did the production design. The challenge was his bakery was really quite masculine, the colors and the way it was set up. So we had to sort of feminize. That was her job, sort of feminizing the bakery, which I think she did a really nice job with. And just lighting wise. Because bakery is sort of fluorescent. And we had to move it. So we started in the front of the bakery but then it moves back into the kitchen when they really get into sort of the nitty gritty of stuff. That was really fun to do. And we are eternally indebted to Bread Guy Breads for letting us.
And this is the funny thing too. So he has a daughter who was in high school who was really studying lighting and theater lighting. We ended up hiring her as a PA.
[0:30:57] JT: She was fantastic. She was great.
[0:30:58] LHL: Amazing.
[0:30:58] KT: And she was great. She was just like right on it.
[0:31:03] LHL: What a great experience for her and you.
[0:31:06] SW: Yeah. What a great coincidence. I love it.
[0:31:10] JT: Yeah. He's a good supporter of the arts.
[0:31:12] LHL: So you just mentioned a little bit of a challenge, transforming a space so that it's really, really suitable for the film. Can you chat briefly about other challenges that folks who aren't in the film industry or theater industry might not know about what it takes to make a film? Like what do you wish people knew?
[0:31:29] KT: So this is my thing too about working with women. Women are usually like to be prepared. The thing about doing a film is 100% you can guarantee you're going to come up against obstacles. You just have no idea what they're going to be. My attitude is let's plan out everything as well as we can so that we're not chasing something down that we could have taken care of days ago because we are invariably going to come up against something that we don't anticipate.
Also, my theater background. I do like to rehearse. Not as much as theater. But I'd like to get into the location and rehearse in the location. And for this one, we actually – the DP and the lighting person were there at the rehearsal so they could figure out what we wanted to do with the space. I've been on a lot of shoots where everyone just shows up that day. I mean, they've talked about it, but they haven't actually been in the space. What happened to us? Of course, we had a snowstorm. Snowstorm of the year.
[0:32:36] LHL: Of course. Of course.
[0:32:37] SW: That is the challenge of filming in January.
[0:32:38] KT: And a power outage.
[0:32:40] JT: The power outage was interesting.
[0:32:42] LHL: Oh my god.
[0:32:43] SW: Oh, man.
[0:32:46] LHL: Life's curveballs, man.
[0:32:50] KT: But there was a lot of last-minute back and forth, and then the weather. And, fortunately, I had my husband on the shoot. He did the food because he has a background in restaurants. During this whole snowstorm, and we're there all day, and the snow is piling up, he was outside shoveling everyone's car.
[0:33:14] JT: And he had also cooked us a full Thanksgiving dinner because it was needed for a part of the shoot. But then because of the snowstorm, we didn't film that scene. So then he had cooked basically a full turkey and all the fixings that just, unfortunately, had to be frozen and we never enjoyed. They looked great, but we never got to eat them.
[0:33:36] SW: I hope he got a film credit.
[0:33:40] KT: Yeah, that was pretty extreme, but people really pulled together. Yeah. And we really got it done. We ended up having to another half-day shoot, which we hadn't anticipated. But yeah. And so I'm really about doing as much preparation as you possibly can, because you are absolutely going to come up against something that you had no idea. I mean, I did a shoot once. It was a student shoot. We're on location and then realized, "Oh, there's construction going on."
[0:34:15] JT: Yeah, I was going to say that you don't have control of like what's going on outside. In our case, the bakery, right? There are other businesses. So people were pulling their cars in and out to go to these other businesses, walking by the window. And that's really hard for us to control. Obviously, for continuity, you don't want suddenly one car to disappear, some other cars there. That's something that I don't think people think about. In a closed Hollywood set, obviously that's all controlled. But in our world, that type of stuff is not controlled. We have to kind of work around it.
[0:34:45] SW: Right. Exactly. And that's great.
[0:34:46] KT: Weather. Because we had that in Three A.M. as well, because we had an outdoor and it was cold. There's wind. And actually, the other thing in Three A.M. was we were doing this one shoot and there was a big picture window, and like the window was so dirty, right? You didn't see it until we put it. So that slowed us.
[0:35:04] JT: In my home. Yeah.
[0:35:06] KT: Yeah, her home. I'm sorry. But who cleans their – you know what I mean? Or fix their window? And so it slowed us all down. And so for the bakery, because we also had a big – the day before, I was there, I had the Windex and the paper towel the day before. And I'm like, "We're washing all the windows."
[0:35:32] SW: Hey, in Three A.M., it's realistic. There you go.
[0:35:36] KT: So true.
[0:35:41] SW: That's funny.
[0:35:42] LHL: I think it's time for rapid fire.
[0:35:43] SW: I know. I think so too.
[0:35:44] LHL: All right.
[0:35:45] SW: We have several more questions.
[0:35:49] LHL: What other artist has influenced you the most? An artist in the broad sense of the term.
[0:35:54] JT: Right now, I'm super into David Tennant. So I'll just stick with him.
[0:35:57] KT: Reese Witherspoon.
[0:35:58] SW: Love it. What is your comfort film? It doesn't have to be your favorite, but a film that brings you comfort.
[0:36:06] JT: Goodwill Hunting. Christmas too.
[0:36:11] LHL: Especially this time of year, right?
[0:36:11] JT: Yeah.
[0:36:12] LHL: What is your favorite color?
[0:36:14] JT: Green.
[0:36:15] KT: Purple.
[0:36:16] SW: What's your favorite scent?
[0:36:18] JT: I have no sense of smell.
[0:36:19] SW: Oh, that's a fun fact.
[0:36:21] KT: Lavender.
[0:36:23] LHL: What is your favorite sound?
[0:36:24] JT: Quiet in the morning.
[0:36:27] KT: A stream.
[0:36:30] SW: What's your favorite texture to touch?
[0:36:32] JT: Fur of a dog, especially.
[0:36:34] KT: Sheepskin.
[0:36:36] LHL: Most inspiring location you've traveled to.
[0:36:38] JT: Probably Penang Island in Malaysia.
[0:36:40] KT: Greece.
[0:36:41] SW: Oh, yeah, good one. Yeah. What's the last new thing you've learned?
[0:36:47] JT: Well, my son's teaching me a lot about Pokemon.
[0:36:52] LHL: Got to catch them all.
[0:36:53] KT: Okay, the last new thing I've learned is really how much protein I need to be eating.
[0:37:04] LHL: Whatever it is, all of us are not getting enough, right? That's what I hear. And this is our clincher question. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:37:16] JT: I would start acting earlier and I would – yeah, and then stick with it.
[0:37:22] KT: Create your own projects.
[0:37:23] LHL: Excellent advice.
[0:37:23] SW: Yeah. Great. Great all around. And you two are excellent at rapid fire.
[0:37:28] LHL: Some of the best we've ever had. Because we say be quick, and then people are the exact opposite.
Well, thank you so much for being on the Creative Guts podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you both.
[0:37:42] JT: Thank you so much. This was great. It was so nice to speak with you both.
[0:37:47] LHL: And we're excited for Pumpkin Pie to be submitted to our next film festival, hopefully. And many more to come in the future. Hopefully, we hope to do this annually. If that's the case, maybe there'll be even more in the future.
[0:38:00] JT: Great. Yeah, absolutely.
[0:38:01] LHL: Thank you again so much for being on the podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure having you both. And with that –
[0:38:08] ALL: Show us your creative guts.
[OUTRO]
[0:38:15] SW: Another huge thank you to Julia and Karin for joining us on Creative Guts.
[0:38:21] LHL: It was a long time coming, but I'm so glad that we finally got to chat with these two because their film was so powerful at the film festival, I could just feel it in the audience. And hearing about how it was made, how other things are made by them, it really is amazing.
[0:38:38] SW: Yes. Yes. And you mentioned that it spoke to you even though you don't have kids. It spoke to me, and I do have a kid. And it spoke to me thinking about how I used to be a teenager.
[0:38:48] LHL: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:38:50] SW: Being the mom of a teenager must be really hard, I know. Because I was a teenager once.
[0:38:55] LHL: That's the power of art right there. And having their perspectives, especially on mostly female crew.
[0:39:03] SW: Yes.
[0:39:05] LHL: Working in those environments of like pure collaboration. And I just think that it is really powerful to have these women making sure that there are paid opportunities for creatives involved in filmmaking and really putting those voices and those stories out there. It's so needed, so much more. Karin mentioned that some places are trying, it's performative, they're falling flat. And at least these two are just hitting hard with this. It's just amazing.
[0:39:35] SW: Yeah. And the film festival was such a cool way to meet filmmakers and creatives in New Hampshire. Just so cool. And then to get to connect deeper with some of them. And film isn't something that I have any expertise on. I like learned a lot from this conversation with them.
[0:39:51] LHL: Yes. I think it was just amazing to hear their perspectives. They really complement each other in such a lovely way, as creatives and in the interview. And so it was just an absolute pleasure to dive into their minds. And I think it's really amazing when creatives have dual roles in projects, too.
[0:40:11] SW: Yes.
[0:40:11] LHL: It was nice to dive in to talk about that too.
[0:40:13] SW: Yes. So I was going to bring that up, too. Because I feel like sometimes on Creative Guts, we ask questions that either we kind of know the answer because we know the guest or we kind of have a guess what the answer is going to be because most people answer the same way. And that was a question specifically, like how do you balance when you're like a director, and producer, and actor? That I didn't really know what the answer was going to be for all. They were going to say like, "Oh, it's not hard at all. It's fine." But, no. It was a really enlightening and interesting answer.
[0:40:42] LHL: Very much so, yeah.
[0:40:43] SW: Very educational episode. Very, very cool. The emphasis on women and mothers, and Karin getting back into theater because she wanted to do something for herself after prioritizing her kids for so long, it was beautiful.
[0:40:57] LHL: I cannot wait to watch their next film. And I very much hope that it is submitted to the film festival for Creative Guts.
[0:41:04] SW: Same.
[0:41:06] LHL: And I hope that they get shown in all these other festivals too. I think that's what's just so amazing about it is, to put so much love into a project, you want to make sure that folks are going to see it. It's going to have access out there. And so I think it's going to be a tremendous film. And especially having one film under their belt in regards to this format of the way that they work, I think it's just going to be such a cool experience.
[0:41:31] SW: Yeah. The synopsis. I was like, that sounds so good. I can't wait.
[0:41:36] LHL: I honestly didn't realize, especially Three A.M., that it was based on a play.
[0:41:41] SW: Me either. I did not know that until tonight.
[0:41:45] LHL: How pumped was that playwright when and someone's like, "Can I just make a film out of it?"
[0:41:51] SW: So cool.
[0:41:51] LHL: It's like, "Gosh, that sounds amazing." Your art is being elevated even and appreciated even further. And you get to collaborate even more and have more people be touched by the themes and topics. That's got to be a compliment. So cool.
What a great interview. Julia and Karin, it was so inspiring to have you on. Thank you again for being a part of the show.
To check out more about the work that Julia and Karin are creating, please go to the links in the episode description to learn more as they have quite a few for their multiple projects and their own personal websites. Check out the links in our episode description and on our website, creativegutspodcast.com. You will find us on Facebook, and Instagram, and LinkedIn @creativegutspodcast.
[0:42:37] SW: This episode is sponsored in part by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. Thank you to our friends in Rochester for their support of the show.
[0:42:44] LHL: And though we're not recording there today, we want to give a big thank you to Art Up Front Street for providing a space for Creative Guts to traditionally record in.
[0:42:53] SW: If you love listening and want to support Creative Guts, you can make a donation, leave us a review, interact with our content on social media, purchase some merch. Whatever you're able to do, we appreciate you.
[0:43:03] LHL: Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Creative Guts.
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