What a week on BEHIND THE LENS thanks to two incredible live guests, TYLER CORNACK and RYAN KOCH, talking their new film BUTT BOY, while two more fabulous filmmakers, CHRIS ROBERTI and JOSH ITZKOWITZ, talk their latest film SAME BOAT in an exclusive prerecorded interview. What I love about these filmmakers is that not only are both films in the vein of dark comedic sci-fi , but each has a heart, an underlying moral compass, and a writer/director who is also the lead actor with a writer/producer collaborative partner!
First up is our prerecorded exclusive interview with writer/director/actor CHRIS ROBERTI and writer/producer JOSH ITZKOWITZ talking about their new film, SAME BOAT. In over 33 years as a film critic, I have never described a “sci-fi” film as sweet, but this one certainly is. And the guys are an absolute delight with great candor and a wicked sense of humor on display throughout our conversation! Listen as we talk about the film’s original idea of time traveling assassins with a mission to go back through time and eliminate those individuals who do “bad things” that hurt the planet and humanity. and in this case, they come back to stop an attorney who in several years creates a loophole in the law that allows pollution to blanket the globe; plus, the challenges (and fun) of shooting surreptitiously within the contained environment of a cruise ship over the course of two back-to-back cruises on the same ship with the same rooms, the collaboration between Chris and Josh, casting and chemistry, Chris’ navigation through his first feature directorial and, of course, my hopes for a sequel with vampires at sea.
SAME BOAT is available now on digital platforms.
And then, get ready, because writer/director/actor TYLER CORNACK and writer/producer RYAN KOCH are up talking about their film BUTT BOY! Talk about fun!! Another terrific pair of filmmakers who genuinely love their craft and storytelling. Think dark comedy plus science fiction (plus high production values and beautiful rich cinematography courtesy of William Morean) equals hilarity with BUTT BOY! Who would ever think that a simple prostate exam for our “protagonist” Chip would open up a world where items big and small end up in the “bowels” of hell” so to speak, and turn into a noirish crime thriller. Tightly scripted and well crafted, the film moves at a brisk pace thanks to editor Austin Lewis. Listen as Tyler and Ryan talk about the genesis of the story, the story structure and their decision to not draw out the main plot points but still craft a slow burn, the importance of playing the characters straight (critical with Tyler’s performance as “Chip”), designing the visual tonal bandwidth and color palette, Tyler’s wearing of both a directorial and lead actor’s hat, shooting in the actual 1960’s Batcaves used for the “Batman” television series, and so much more!
BUTT BOY is available now on all digital platforms.
