A most recent earner of the Cinema Crazed’s coveted Indie Spotlight, “Desert Wedding” is a wonderful short drama about a materialistic woman on the verge of marriage who suddenly gets a lesson in appreciating what’s really important in life while you have it. Simultaneously, it’s also a commentary about the fuss and chaos women work themselves up in during weddings, so intent on sparing no cost, that they forget why they’re getting married in the first place, and director Alexandra Fisher provides a gripping dramatic short film that conveys this interesting undertone rarely ever put to the screen. Multi-talented, and multi-lingual, Fisher sheds some insight in to her hectic life and tells us about the experience making her short.
So what inspired such an interesting premise for “Desert Wedding”?
Many of my friends are currently getting married, so I’m attending many, many weddings these days. I love what they stand for: the union of two people who have decided to spend the rest of their lives together. But I’ve witnessed so many brides freak out over the tiniest details on their special day.
I’ve found that often the details of the wedding end up overshadowing the actual meaning of the event that’s taking place. Granted, we can all get caught up in minor issues that in the greater picture really don’t matter. But I wanted to tell a story that reminded us of what’s really important in life.
Do you think women tend to lose sight of the reason for weddings with all the preparations and materialism?
Absolutely, yes. But I think we can all get caught up in minor details and forget to look at the bigger picture sometimes. For example, how many times have we all nearly blown our tops when another car steals a parking spot we were waiting for? But in the bigger picture, does it really matter? In the context of weddings, I find it terribly sad when people lose sight of what’s important on a day that’s supposed to be a celebration of two people’s love. Weddings aren’t about conveying a perfect “princess” image or throwing a perfect party for one day. They’re the first step towards marriage, which is a lifelong commitment between two people who love each other.
When we leave “Desert Wedding,” Marissa seems to be a changed person. Was this left ambiguous or has she completely changed her outlook on life?
Well, I guess you’d have to tell me whether you think this is ambiguous or not! Seriously though, I most definitely think she’s a changed person. How could she not be after going through everything she has? I would like to think that she will approach her marriage to Trey very, very differently. I think she just feels very fortunate to have someone she loves and who loves her back. Hopefully her future union will reflect that notion.
Where did you film “Desert Wedding”?
We filmed “Desert Wedding” in Antelope Valley, which is located about an hour and a half from Los Angeles.
The actual desert location was only a couple of miles down the road from the deserted church you see at the beginning of “Kill Bill”!
And what was it like filming in the hot temperatures?
It actually wasn’t all that hot until the last day. Our biggest battle wasn’t really with the temperatures but with the winds! It was INCREDIBLY windy! We’d rented large tarps to help my DP control the light. But the wind made it very, very tough to rig them safely. The daily rigging and breakdown therefore ate up an enormous chunk of our shooting time. But aside from the winds and the related complications, the filming in the desert was toughest on Dayna, the actress who plays Marissa. She had to keep on changing in and out of the massive wedding dresses to keep them clean. (Yes, we had more than one!) Because the film is also so physical, she would get hot and tired very quickly.
Can you tell us about the other short films you’ve directed?
The first film I wrote and directed was “Good Morning”, a two minute short about an older woman who wakes in the morning and enjoys listening to her husband’s heartbeat only for it to suddenly stop. I shot the film as part of an exercise at UCLA, for which we were given 400 ft of film (approx. 10 minutes worth of film stock) and four hours to shoot. The next film I made was called “Ice Cream”, a six minute short about a five-year-old girl who steals some money from her mother in order to buy herself an ice cream. Both my first two films have virtually no dialogue in them; I was interested in telling stories entirely visually and figuring out how far I could take that. It was actually the best lesson I got in terms of storytelling. Both those films did very well on the festival circuit; “Ice Cream” even won a few awards.
My third film was “Parthenabe”, a nineteen minute short about a caretaker named Parthenabe, who looks after Albert, an old man with dementia. While Albert’s daughter travels and pursues a blossoming career, Albert and Parthenabe share a unique friendship, which is threatened when Parthenabe’s health starts to deteriorate. “Parthenabe” also played on the festival circuit and, to my complete surprise, won 1st place at the Student Emmys. I was so nervous when I accepted the award; I honestly thought the Academy had made a mistake! My fourth and final short is “Desert Wedding”, which I only finished a few weeks ago.
Can you tell us about your history with theater?
I grew up in Switzerland, where I acted in several plays throughout school. I left Switzerland after high school to study drama at the University of Bristol in England. The focus of my degree was on theatre and I was involved with many, many plays. Since I’d mostly acted in Switzerland, I started out the same way at Bristol. But I quickly learned that acting wasn’t really for me. First of all, I wasn’t good enough and secondly, I’d always been utterly traumatized every time I had to go on stage. It got really bad at Bristol.On the days leading up to a performance, I’d stop eating and sleeping and would cry in my bed at night. It was awful.
I found I was much more comfortable hiding behind the scenes and crafting the story we were trying to tell. Looking back, it seems funny to me now that I started out acting, considering how much I hated being in the limelight (which I still do by the way)! Exposing myself in front of lots of people makes me very, very uncomfortable. But I must say that I’m very grateful to have done it, because it’s given me a much deeper understanding of both acting and actors, which in turn has helped me enormously as a writer and director. I produced a couple of plays while I was at Bristol, co-directed here and there, and worked in all kinds of capacities on a slew of other plays. It wasn’t until the very end of university that I started working with films.
What’s your approach towards screenplays?
I’m a very organized person. Some of my friends call me anal and I drove an old roommate of mine crazy with all my organizational habits. But funnily enough, it seems I’m completely disorganized when it comes to my own creativity. Most of us can’t really determine when creativity hits us, which is certainly the case for me. And this can be very, very frustrating. I can sit at my desk for days on end and nothing is happening. I’ll stare at my blinking cursor for hours, try to write, delete everything at the end of the day, and curse the heavens aloud. But then, suddenly, as if out of nowhere, it comes. But of course all the hard and seemingly unproductive labour (in other words the blood, sweat and many, many tears) in between is necessary for me to get to that point. My best ideas usually hit me out of the blue.
Most of the time, it’s an accumulation of things that I’m witnessing in my everyday life, most of which I’m not really consciously aware of until my idea suddenly emerges. It’s suddenly as if I finally understand what I’ve been thinking all this time. When I start writing, I’ll usually go through many different drafts of a script, during which I get very discouraged. More often than not, I’ll give up in the middle and write something completely different. But again suddenly out of the blue, I somehow manage to figure it out and return to my original idea. I’m afraid it’s really not any more structured than that. I wish it were, because it certainly would save me a lot of pain and agony!
What genre do you feel is your niche?
Most definitely drama. I’m interested in real life problems and issues.
Have you entered “Desert Wedding” in to any festivals?
I’ve just started sending out the film; I only completed it about six weeks ago! Since I’ve only just started sending out the film, I haven’t heard yet from any of the festivals. But I have my fingers tightly crossed…
Do you have another profession or job when you’re not making movies?
I only just graduated from UCLA with my MFA in film directing. I’m writing a feature while working for the Sundance Writers’ Lab, for which I read and write coverage on scripts.
What advice would you provide to other indie fillmmakers looking to get their movies off the ground?
Hmmm, that’s a tough question. I think the best advice anyone ever gave me was to only work on projects that I love, projects to which I have some kind of personal connection. A professor of mine always says that the difference between the people who make it in this business and those who don’t is how they handle despair.
Getting a film made is such a long and labour intensive process, during which we have to face so much rejection. But it’s impossible to handle the rejection and despair well, if you don’t love and believe in the project on which you’re working. Unless you’re really in love with the project you’re writing, directing, producing, whatever it is, it becomes very hard to keep pushing.
So what are you working on next?
I’m currently writing a feature. It’s a relationship drama about a married couple, whose marriage falls apart when the husband is very seriously injured.
Thanks a lot for your time, Alexandra.
My pleasure.