UCLA graduate directing students codirect full-length feature film, an L.A.-based relationship drama, for thesis project
UCLA graduate directing students Kyle Laursen, left, and Eric Martin, right, are the co-writers, directors and producers of their full-length feature film “Acting Like Adults.”
By Spencer Pratt
Aug. 29, 2011 1:19 a.m.
Cast and crew work on the set of “Acting Like Adults,” a film codirected, written and produced by UCLA graduate directing students Kyle Laursen and Erik Martin.
Directing a full-length feature film is not normally in the repertoire of a graduate film student. However, graduate directing students Kyle Laursen and Eric F. Martin are clambering above university standards and jumping into a realm typically tackled by large-scale Hollywood production studios.
The film “Acting Like Adults” is about a young couple participating in a scavenger hunt that takes place in Los Angeles, for which the grand prize is a diamond engagement ring.
“It’s really about two people who are trying to figure out what they want their futures to be … if they want them to be together or not, and dramatizing that inside of a single day,” Martin said.
Laursen and Martin finished shooting the film on Sunday after three consecutive weeks of filming.
In addition to the film being completed as a full-length feature, “Acting Like Adults” will also satisfy their thesis requirements in the directing program.
Laursen and Martin are not only unconventional in their desires to direct a feature film at the university level. According to Laursen, the graduate film students are also the first to ever actually combine their thesis project into a feature film.
Paul Reisinger, assistant director and third-year graduate student, said that co-directing enhanced the skill sets of Laursen and Martin.
“In a lot of ways they complement each other, because Kyle is very emotional in terms of how he relates to actors, and Eric is very strategic and rational in how he thinks in terms of storytelling,” Reisinger said.
The union between filmmaking and money is a necessary yet often conflicted marriage, and the two directors said this relationship heavily influenced the production.
For Laursen and Martin, their decision to shoot a feature film instead of a short film was rooted in learning from peers and financial considerations.
“We’ve been here for three years, and we saw a lot of people make really expensive thesis films, like 25-minute thesis films “¦ for up to $100,000,” Martin said. “And it didn’t seem very cost-effective “¦ so we thought why not challenge ourselves “¦ and do it in a low-budget way.”
Martin said one of the ways in which they were able to keep costs down was by shooting in public parks in Los Angeles. However, the aesthetic provided by the backdrop of the city was also important to them.
“First, we wanted to represent Los Angeles in a way we see it; some of the places are on campus, some of the places are in Westwood. Then we realized we wanted to show Los Angeles to be diverse,” Laursen said.
Some of the locations used in the film include Hancock Park, Griffith Park, Drake Stadium and the parking structure of Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. For inspiration not tied to the urban geography of the city, Martin said they looked at a pre-millennium Los Angeles-centric film.
“”˜Swingers’ is one of the movies that we looked at a lot in bringing this together because it was a low budget movie that was made by a bunch of people who lived in Los Angeles,” Martin said.
According to Martin, “Acting Like Adults,” had more than 50 filming locations and 20 characters, which was something that he had not dealt with before.
“The other three short films that I made here, I made a really strong effort to set them all in one location … (and) keep them as simple as possible so that my entire focus was telling a story with actors and a camera,” Martin said.
The film was also a stylistic departure from the types of films Laursen had in his filmography.
He said his first three films experimented with style, tone and genre. For example, Laursen said his previous films were shot at night to allow experimentation with lighting. This film, however, is shot during the day.
“I don’t know that relationship dramas are the types of movies that Kyle and I want to make, but they fit the bill for what we are capable of doing right now,” Martin said.
Besides adaptability, Martin said that part of the reason they set out to make the film was so that they could test their perseverance.
“The whole intention behind the project was for us to set up this monumental challenge, and see if we could make it through,” said Martin.
