People On Sunday 2010

So, the official announcement of teams has been made and the formation of our creative collaboration for People On Sunday 2010 is:

Jens Nolte (left, in purple shirt) and Lucas Mireles (the other guy)

Hopefully we don’t punch each other in the face to many times as we go through this process. Wait for the updates and see.

- Lucas

Some Assembly Required

Since watching ‘People On Sunday’, we all have been tirelessly working to mend and mold our own perfect stories for this wonderful collaboration. Some of my own tireless work has been done just thinking about how certain stories can ‘hand-off’ the narrative to a completely new story. How a seamless transition of protagonists and plot can be done without an instantaneous eruption of hatred brought about by the audience’s disbelief in your ability to tell a story.

Its a gamble, yeah, but its also an experiment. So how can it work?

“This is tricky.” I thought…To tell 3 stories within a 20 minute time frame that all interconnect…hmmm……why would I want to embark on this subjectively perceived tragedy-in-the-making?…..well, because its hard to do that’s why.

One of the films I saw in my undergraduate education really changed the way I see and feel about stories that can connect and flow. And that film is Richard Linklater’s “Slacker”

Richard Linklater's "Slacker" (1991

Watch the Trailer here.

THIS is what I want to do….not retell ‘People On Sunday’ nor reproduce a German version of ‘Slacker’.  I want to make a narrative that allows us to navigate through different stories, feel for each character by recognizing a little bit of ourselves in them and try like hell not to be boring.

That’s a pretty tall order.

When I pitched this to my amazing German collaborator and cinematographer Jens Nolte over some Kolsch, he took a drag from his hand rolled cigarette, looked me straight in the eye and said “You know why I like your story?….Its simple and beautiful.”

Thanks Jens.  Every director needs some love sometimes.

Now we just have to figure out how to fucking make it work.

- We’ll keep you updated,

Lucas