Phil attends CINEQUEST 22: Phil interviews FORGETTING THE GIRL director Nate Taylor-March 4, 2012

During the Cinequest Film Festival, audiences can interact with filmmakers, actors, and actresses and really get to know how their films were made. At this year's festival, several filmmakers are present with their films to discuss the the whole movie making process. One of these talented people is Nate Taylor, whose film FORGETTING THE GIRL had it's world premiere this past Friday at the Camera 12. I was fortunate enough to conduct an interview with Taylor this past Sunday night before his next screening of his film.

Phil Castor: Now I saw the film play this past Friday night to a sold out crowd. How did you feel about that? Obviously you been wanting this for a while and your first showing is a sold out crowd. You have to very very happy with that.

Nate Taylor: It was unbelievably fulfilling. We worked many, many years on this film and finally to show it to an audience and have such a reception and have people react so strongly it was just the ultimate validation as an artist and that's the nectar we suckle on to keep going. That why the next project has to be even better cause you want that validation again.

PC: How long was this process? You mentioned at the Friday night screening it took a very long time.

NT: It's been years. I couldn't even track it anymore. It's taken such a long time. It took two and a half years just in post production cause we were hobbling through on nights and on weekends and holidays and whenever we could get a few free moment to try make it happen. It's been a long haul. And hopefully the next one's not going to be quite so long. Two or three years would be great (laughing).

PC: Now what really sold the film was the cast. You had such a fantastic cast. Where did you find these actors? One of them, was of course, Lindsey Beamish from John Cameron Mitchell's film SHORTBUS which actually played here at the Camera 12 years ago.

NT: We were incredibly blessed to have this cast. It was THE perfect cast. I couldn't have done it without these people. We had two amazing casting directors Ann Goulder and Gayle Keller who done REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, HAPPINESS, and WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE. They had a really good track record of cool indie films. Plus Anne Teutschel helped out as well. She was our third Casting Director and she got us Anna Camp. We spent a couple of months bringing in the coolest indie actors you can think of and did a bunch of call back, matched them up with one another, spent a lot of time working with them, making sure their listening to each other and sort of then said "OK I guess we're gonna go with these." (laughing) There were a lot of good one to choose from so it was hard, except for Christopher Denham (Kevin). He came out like a bolt of lightening. I've never seen anything like it. He has this magic in him that I was like, "I need that guy."

PC: How long was the actual film schedule?

NT: It was a really brutal. We shot the whole film in eighteen days so it was five and a quarter pages a day, blazing at twenty-four locations so it was a lot of moves. It was really fast but we had rehearsals. We had two weeks of rehearsals so everyone knew what they were doing, we had and idea of where we were going, so we would do four takes, maybe five takes then move on to the next. It was pretty rough for the cast, but they held in there.

PC: You mentioned during the Friday Q&A that your wife also helped out on the film. What was her role during production?

NT: My wife Talya Taylor (who is expecting their first child in May) was our makeup department head and our whole glam department, hair and make up, were her best friends. So it was really nice. The whole department had a good time. My wife also invested in the movie and also helped us produce it a little bit. And she kept me sane through the whole process. (laughing) She also had a couple of cameos in the film. She was one of the head shot girls and she's walking on street in another.

PC: After this experience here at Cinequest, are you taking the film to other film festivals?

NT: This is our very first festival. The screening you saw was the very first time anybody had seen it. It was our world premiere. So after this we'll be going to New York and Houston next. And we're hoping to go to Europe and hopefully we can get distribution and then everybody cam see it.

PC: After Friday's sold out screening and your nearly sold out screening tonight, you must be very happy with the film's success so far.

NT: I'm thrilled! It's so exciting to be here at Cinequest. It has such a good vibe, such good people, such a good community and then to have them screaming into the film and watching them is exciting. Word on the street is that people look very excited and are talking abut the film. It's unbelievable. We had an article in the Metro newspaper. It's the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.

PC: So do you have any new projects in the works?

NT: I have two projects in development right now. One of them is a children's film that I'm doing with Peter Moore Smith, the writer for this film.

PC: Wow that's a complete 180 from this film! (laughing)

NT: (Laughing) And I have a solo script that I'm working on that's an urban fantasy set in New York City that, visually, will melt your face off.

PC: Excellent. So I'm really looking forward to seeing all your future projects. 

NT: If you like this, the next one will blow your mind. This was our warm up movie, to get our feet under us. Get to know what we're doing and then in ten years: epic fantasy trilogy starts. I've got some big stories to tell and I'm really looking forward to getting out there.

PC: Wow! I'm really looking forward to seeing those! 

NT: Dude, you have no idea! (laughing)

Nate Tayor is a talented and gifted filmmaker on the rise, and to those of you who haven't seen FORGETTING THE GIRL yet, you are in luck. The film will be having its final screening this Tuesday, March 6th at 2:30pm at the Camera 12. To purchase ticket for the screening, visit the Cinequest website by clicking here and make sure you see this amazing film! And thank you Nate for participating in this interview. Can't wait to see the film again!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!