Zak Forsman is a writer/director/producer/editor. Zak and his creative team Sabi are prolific. They are currently working on a number of shorts and a few feature films (White Knuckles, Eloquent Graffiti, Heart of Now). Strong proponents of DIY filmmaking; Sabi’s work is organic, stylized and improvised.
Zak is also the editor of the New Breed. If you haven’t checked out the new extension of the WBP make sure to pay a visit and sign up to the feed. New Breed covers a variety of projects as they make their way from script to screen.
What’s your background?
I’ve been making films since i was a kid. My parents bought a Hitachi VHS “Cam ‘N Cord” and my fascination with making movies has been a constant source of fulfillment ever since. I soon teamed up with Kevin K. Shah the summer before seventh grade and we made a short called “The Nerd”. I remember my father being very critical of its execution and renting Casablanca and Beau Geste for me to study. Twenty years later, at the age of 34, I’m still subconsciously seeking my father’s approval and Kevin and I are still making movies together at Sabi Pictures, the company we officially co-founded in January of 2006.
What are you currently working on?
HEART OF NOW – Devastated by her boyfriend’s sudden withdrawal from their relationship, a young woman with a profound longing for a sense of family descends into a physical and mental spiral that thrusts her back to the emotional wounds cut a decade ago. Using the screenplay as a guide, the filmmakers and principal cast collaborated to organically shape the characters, endeavoring to explore the story “in the moment” through guided improvisations.
TRAILER LINK http://www.vimeo.com/2664996
HEART OF NOW – a film by SABI – TRAILER from Zak Forsman on Vimeo.
How do you approach filmmaking?
I think the most concise way to introduce what is unique about our process at Sabi Pictures to first talk about the “a film by” credit that is conventionally attributed to the film’s director. We thrive on creating a highly collaborative atmosphere for all the artists contributing to our productions – giving us all a freedom to explore and the permission to fail, without judgement. There are no “mistakes” with regard to the creative journey on a SABI production. We encourage and foster a framework that involves guided improvisation and creative participation from the crew. To illustrate this, we credit these motion pictures as “a film by SABI” – which we define as the entire family of cast and crew that came together to create something bigger than any one us.
In working with actors, I consider myself less a director and more of an interpreter. Ideally, the actor takes on an ownership of their character to the degree that they know them better than I. So it is my responsibility to guide them, but also to trust the nature of the choices they are making. The actors are going to some potentially painful places so the crew understands the importance of maintaining a creative and non-judgmental atmosphere. And as with most things, my best direction has been preceded by listening, observing and understanding how the scene is emerging before opening my mouth. I incorporate a high level of improvisation to refine each scene on set. We work from a fully realized screenplay, but will often throw the dialogue away and work from the underlying objectives and intentions to shape the scene. This method has captured very natural and real performances that make for a compelling experience.
Finding the right crew is essential to this process. We spend the entire three month pre-production interviewing candidates to find those rare individuals eager and ambiguous enough to do any task well without letting their ego trip them up. We all know how destructive ego can be and there is no room for it on our sets. Film productions are often a very tense environment, but we’ve managed to avoid that convention for the most part by being very careful about who we work with. Often, it’s the younger, hungrier aspiring filmmakers that make for the best team. I’m proud to say that most everyone we’ve brought on board to join the Sabi family has also become a very good friend.
Where are you in the process and explain your next steps or goals for the project?
HEART OF NOW’s editor, Jamie Cobb, has mined through fifty hours of guided improvisation to construct a solid first cut that run 2 hours and 9 minutes. The next phase is to begin soliciting feedback from trusted collaborators in an effort to bring the running time down to a manageable length. At this moment, cartoonist Chuck McBuck is illustrating a series of vignettes following some of the characters on ancillary stories that relate back to the body of the feature film. This comic will live online as precursor to the films release. And I’m putting together a soundtrack album from the musical artists involved on the project. Our plan is to focus on designing a deluxe DVD in preparation for a festival run, as well as a theatrical component, followed by licensing to foreign territories at film markets like AFM. I’ve recently assembled an advisory board to help define this strategy.
Biggest thing you wish you knew before you started and that you’ll definitely bring to your next project?
When I shot Heart of Now (late 2007), I had zero understanding of the independent film world beyond what I read in Filmmaker Magazine and on IndieWire. Since then I’ve learned to manage my expectations for the festival circuit and to understand the value of incorporating a full distribution and community building strategy into the fabric of the film’s creation. I am doing this now with my follow-up, ELOQUENT GRAFFITI.
What are you working on next?
ELOQUENT GRAFFITI is a nano-budget feature I’m directing this summer about two couples navigating urban and emotional terrain in the hours following midnight on New Year’s. Shooting on the Nikon D90 throughout Los Angeles, we are focusing an unwavering eye at the struggle and ramifications of making life-changing decisions for the better, as painful as they may be. We released an award-winning short prelude entitled MODEL / PHOTOGRAPHER that has garnered much praise and interest.
What are some of your favorite films and / or directors? In other words what type of work inspires you?
I greatly admire the works of Hou Hsiao Hsien, the Dardenne Bros, Kieslowski. Andrei Tarkovski’s book “Sculpting in Time” continues to inspire me. Some specific films include Breaking the Waves, Lilja 4-ever, Raising Victor Vargas, Elephant, Gerry, Werckmeister Harmonies, Uzak, Half Nelson. In short, anything and anyone who aspires to some form of transcendental humanism, inspires me.
Tags: I Fucking Hate You, IndieFlix, Sabi Pictures, workbookproject, Zak Forsman
