How My 2nd Year Film Got Into Cannes

By: Stephanie Bousley

After growing up in Japan, the son of a French pastry chef, Nathanael Carton (MFA, Kanbar, Film) anticipated less-than-typical culture shock when moving to Singapore in 2008 to attend New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia. What he did not expect was having the Panavision Award, Cannes, and Italy’s Puglia Experience Screenwriters’ Fellowship on his resume before graduation. How’d he do it?

 

Steph: Nate, okay. We all get told “Make the most of your years at Tisch Asia” the first week of orientation.  You took it REALLY seriously.

Nate:  (laughs).

Steph:  What were you doing before coming to grad school?

Nate:  I was living in England, finishing law studies.

Steph:  But your mind was somewhere else?

Nate:  Well yes. I wanted to go to film school and make films in Japan, where I grew up. But I didn’t want to start from the Japanese perspective. I thought ideally, it would be great if there was an internationally recognized school where they gave you the education, the equipment, and you could meet other students who wanted to shoot where you were shooting so you wouldn’t have to be a millionaire to have them crew on your projects. Tisch Asia seemed to have all of these.

Steph:  Let’s talk about one of your first year projects, a 5-minute documentary called Jonathan’s Home. You shot in Japan?

Nate:  Yes. It’s kind of funny, I was there to DP [shoot] another classmate’s project; he’s American but had spent some time living in Japan, and we flew out together. I was also shooting something else at the time, but on his set I met a French au pair living in Japan. Her story was very interesting and three days later, I made her the subject of my film.

Steph:  Jonathan’s Home went to Palm Springs’ Shortfest and won the Panavision Grand Jury Award: a $60,000 rental package from Panavision, and screenwriting software.

Nate:  I was very surprised.

Steph:  And based on that success, you decided to go back to Japan to shoot your second-year film, Suu and Uchikawa?

Nate: I had decided to go back to Japan. I had been writing scripts all semester long, but I wasn’t convinced about any of them. The plan was to go, shoot a classmate’s project first, fly to China for another classmate’s film, then fly back and make mine. My NYU producer joined forces with a small group of Japanese subtitlers / journalists who were interested in film production, and were helping (for free) with casting and locations in the script; but I still had my own issues with the script we were working on.

I was in Tokyo at a coffee shop with my Singaporean classmate Shijie Tan, and he showed me a group of articles he had put together for [1^st Year’s] Adaptation Project. I started looking at them, and got inspired to write the script that became Suu and Uchikawa. I told everyone helping with production to stop casting, cancel the other locations, and just focus on finding the three characters and one empty apartment I’d need for the new idea.

Steph:  What gave you the confidence to just stop and start over so close to production time?

Nate:  My motto in short filmmaking is never to compromise. If you don’t find the right resources for your script, and you can’t find the resources because you’re lacking of time and money, then change the script. Do not go halfway.

Steph:  I heard you pulled production together in two weeks?

Nate:  Basically yes, only thanks to my friends’ support and our resourceful collaborators. I ended up casting our production designer as the Immigration Officer! I did it because we had a real connection – a relationship. For that role, I knew I couldn’t work with an actor I had met 5 days before, even though that’s what we did with the Burmese character [Suu]. It was hard finding a Southeast Asian actress in Japan. It felt a little silly coming from Singapore looking for that.

Steph:  Given that you had no time for rehearsals, how did you direct the actors on set?

They hadn’t really seen the script we ended up shooting, because I re-wrote most of it right before we shot. I rehearsed and discussed with my cast two to three hours every morning of the shoot. On set, I directed the actors playing “Suu” and “Uchikawa” via the Japanese Investigator/Production Designer. I had her ask the actors unscripted questions during takes, to evoke spontaneous reactions. I think it worked.

Steph:  Apparently, so did the Cannes Film Festival, the Rio de Janerio Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortfest, the Ozu Film Festival….

Nate:  I really didn’t think the film would get any attention anywhere. I just submitted it to festivals because they all [i.e. the faculty] advise us to do that. Even though I got good feedback from the people I showed it to, I didn’t think it would get much festival play; and not Cannes for sure.

I find the focus is always where you do get in. So I’m grateful that the faculty at Tisch Asia pushes us to send our work out. I also sent it to Venice, Berlin, and Sundance; it didn’t get into any of those places but I kept trying because I was encouraged to do so.

Steph:  Just recently, you were one of sixteen total people who were accepted to the Puglia Experience Screenwriter’s Lab in Italy. What was that like?

Nate:  The purpose of the workshop is to trigger inspiration. You travel around the South of Italy for three weeks; meeting people, seeing locations. Then at each location you have to pitch a feature film idea to the rest of the group. We talked to doctors, club-owners, pilots, mayors, engineers, shopkeepers, priests, artists, the military, and ex-mafia boss…the goal was to inspire stories around these characters. You spend about 1.5 days doing this, and then you have a half-day to write your pitch ideas. On the last day we met with about 50 producers from Europe, and were given 25 minutes with three of them at a time to pitch our two best stories. It was almost 7 hours of straight pitching.

Steph:  How did it supplement the education you’d received at Tisch School of the Arts Asia?

Nate:  In a way, it was similar to what we do just by going to Tisch Asia – as in, getting into a culture we’re not familiar with, telling stories and looking within new surroundings. I learned a LOT about what makes a good and bad pitch, which was really useful. And I felt like shit afterwards. (laughs)

Steph:  What are you working on now?

Nate:  I’m working on my grad thesis film, which will be another short shot in Japan. And I’m also working on a feature script. I got into these festivals with my other student films, but I didn’t feel comfortable pitching anything at that point because I found it difficult to fully form a feature film package while still in school. So now, I want to make another short and have my feature idea packaged and ready to go for the festival circuit.

For my thesis I’m really trying to reconcile my impulsive, I guess, instinctual way, of working with story structure and actors with more tried-and-true models of storytelling and directing; the foundation we were given in school.

Steph:  How do you think your upbringing in Japan affected your success as a filmmaker and student at Tisch School of the Arts Asia?

Nate:  My father was a pastry chef. Both my parents are French. I grew up mostly in Tokyo but traveled back to France from time-to-time because he was employed by Japanese dessert companies on a short-term basis. So I guess in terms of coming to Singapore, it was never really an issue for me because I had always been the French guy living in Japan.

That said, I feel like Tisch Asia people are often seen as adventurers, but I don’t see myself as a ‘world filmmaker’ in that sense. I feel uncomfortable making films in cultures where I’m not anchored.

Steph:  How do you foresee life after Tisch?

Nate:  Even after training is complete, I think the process of finding yourself as an artist doesn’t happen the day you walk away with your degree. School gave me a good foundation for this, but I know I have to continue the work.

There are ideas I feel I could shoot tomorrow for sure. But there are even more stories which will require a longer building process, that I’m not ready to shoot now. I don’t know if that’s me being insecure, or if that’s normal. Either way my plan is to continue the growth I started here.

Steph:  What’s the greatest lesson the professors here taught you?

Nate: To go with your gut. I’ve been told that a few times. Short films, they aren’t expensive to make in the big picture I guess, but they are expensive for us as students.  We have to believe in every dollar spent. So to me, not having your gut behind it, I think – why do it at all?

That doesn’t mean I haven’t shot things and halfway through, realize it’s not the right thing. But I’m definitely more open to taking those chances I guess. And sometimes, they work out all right.

 For more information on Nathanael Carton and his film “Suu and Uchikawa”, please visit http://facebook.com/suuanduchikawa