Interview with director Matthew Fletcher (LUNCH)

Matthew Fletcher’s film from Puerto Rico “LUNCH” played to rave reviews at the November 2016 Under 5 Minute FEEDBACK Film Festival.

Matthew Toffolo: What motivated you to make this film?

Matthew Fletcher: I saw a competition for films under 140 seconds “Everyday A Moment”, the Nikon European Film Festival 2016. We wanted to win the technical award for “best use of kit”, however we didn’t win. This is why you see a Nikon camera in one rotation.

MT: From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

MF: Around 3 months, (Nov 2015 -Jan 2016)

MT: How would you describe your short film in two words!?

MF: Spinning Cat.

MT: What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

MF: Every rotation of each scene and location had to be an exact length, the exact length and circumference of the last and continued scene. This film had to be 140 seconds or lower, so I decided to push the film exactly to 140 seconds so calculations had to be made.

Roughly the first half of the film had 7 second rotations of the torsos and food until we transition up to the 4 second face shots, how many of each do we film? Lunch also consisted of purely atypical scenes that didn’t fit the 7 or 4 second slots so those were taken as a variable in the calculations.

MT: What were your initial reactions when watching the Los Angeles audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

MF: “This is so weird… everyone really likes that cat eh”

MT: How did you come up with the idea for this short film?

MF: I was messing around my mini steadycam rig in the kitchen and started to spin around my brother while he ate grapes.

MT: What film have you seen the most in your life?

MF: Casino Royal.

MT: What is next for you? A new film?

MF: We are involved in filming a new feature film for director Paul King (Looters, Tooters and Sawn-Off Shooters 2014, Blood Feud 2016) at the start of 2017, and in spring 2017 we will be raising funds to film and release our (Comedy) second feature film (The first feature being “DeVoid” 2016, on Amazon Prime).

And after that we will be filming our third feature in autumn 2017.

 

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Interviewer Matthew Toffolo is currently the CEO of the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival. The festival that showcases 20-50 screenplay and story readings performed by professional actors every month. And the FEEDBACK Monthly Festival held in downtown Toronto, and Los Angeles at least 2 times a month. Go to www.wildsound.ca for more information and to submit your work to the festival.