The Raindance Film Festival was as brilliant as ever, and we have an exclusive interview with Mark Potts, director of one of the festival’s films, Cinema Six.
1. What made you want to be a filmmaker?
– It was probably a few things. First, The Blair Witch Project. It’s embarrassing to admit, but that got me into it initially. My friends and I took my dad’s Hi-8 camera and made a parody of it. It was a little over 2 hours long. I edited it with VCRs and honestly, I cannot really remember how I set it up. It was two VCRs connected to a television and the camera and somehow it worked. But from there, my high school Spanish teacher encouraged my friends and I to do a public access show, and we did that. Then, I started working at a movie theatre, met Cole, and it just clicked. That theatre was my second home and I loved being there. And the feeling I got being there and immersing myself in films and just escaping life made me fall in love with cinema. I wanted to give someone else that experience, that escape, and some relaxation.
2. Tell us about yourself
I’m currently living in Los Angeles but am from Oklahoma. My partner in crime, Cole Selix, and I met in Enid, Oklahoma while going to school together and working at the movie theatre. We started Singletree Productions in 2006 and have made, literally, 100s of shorts and four features (most can be seen on singletreeproductions.com, even the first three features.) I am married to Hailey Branson-Potts, who works at the Los Angeles Times and she is a million times funnier and smarter than I am but don’t put that in the story because then she’ll be a dick about it.
3. You were co-writer and director of Cinema Six. How did you find directing your own work?
Cole and I have been directing our own stuff for years, so it isn’t too difficult for us now. If anything, while directing, we discover all the things we missed while writing and it creates this odd paradox of feelings where we feel like good directors but bad writers. But a lot of that is because Cole and I are always changing stuff, trying to make it better, trying to make things snappier, funnier, more emotional. And that’s why we asked a lot of the guys who worked on it to come aboard because we trust their opinions and tastes and wanted them to help make us better.
4. Tell us about Cinema Six.
Cinema Six has been around for about nine years. Cole and I first started talking about it while working in the movie theatre back in 2003. Of course, at that time, the script was really just un-connected scenes of us messing with customers and complaining about customers and being jerks to customers. Since that point, Cole and I have moved multiple times, gone to college, gotten married, had kids (Cole has two awesome kids, I have a pug) and have gone through some big changes which all can be seen in the version of the film now. It’s a love letter to the cinema and a commentary on growing up and just doing whatever you have to do to be happy.
5. What was the hardest thing about making the film?
Oddly enough, there wasn’t anything too difficult about making the film. The two biggest things were the budget because we were very limited and finding the perfect movie theatre. We needed a theatre that was older, not that flashy, and still ran film. It’s hard to find film theatres, which makes me sad. For me as an actor, the hardest part was remembering lines. I don’t memorize lines, which is terrible. Brand Rackley and John Merriman, the other two leads, are as professional as you can get and they were always prepared even as far as to tell me my lines. It was embarrassing but also humbling to know I had two friends and actors that cared enough to do that and not give me too much shit for it.
6. Where did you get the funding?
We received our funding from Reilly Smith and some of his family and friends. They chose to believe in all of us and I will forever be in their debt. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t pray to God we make their money back. They deserve it because they took a chance on some young filmmakers who just wanted to talk about growing up and tell vulgar jokes. I can never thank them enough.
7. How did it feeling getting into Raindance?
It was shocking and awesome! I was dumbfounded by the news and still kind of am. I am incredibly upset I couldn’t make it as well. But, we did make a special video Q&A that we hope people stay and watch. It answers a lot of questions. Not really.
8. What advice what you give to others filmmakers?
The best advice I have is to keep making things. Just keep making, even if it’s bad. We made many, many bad things. We still do. But we’re always making something and you learn something from every video and every mistake. Watch movies, read screenplays, make stuff.
9. You co-wrote the script, can you tell us about your writing process.
Cole and I have written scripts together for over six years. Our process is pretty solid now. When we get ideas, we talk about them for a long time. We throw around jokes and scene ideas and if we still love it months later, then we feel like it’s worth writing and trying to make. This process has weeded out many, many ideas and I love doing it. Just talking things through and seeing what sticks. When we’re at a point that we want to write it, we’ve talked about it so much that it really just needs to be put on paper, so I write it all out, then we get to ripping it apart and fixing it.
10. What’s next for you?
I’m hoping to start another feature next year. I have a few ideas and none of them are like Cinema Six, which excites me. They are all funny, but much, much darker.
