BM000_2: HEADCASE "NICOLAS MARIN" - EYE WITNESS
by Isaac Deleon
art by Isaac Deleon
What can you say about a guy like this that he won't want to tell you himself? After releasing his short film
EYE WITNESS, a quiet take on his own channel surfing tendencies and what he would program if he had the power. In a world where that were the case, which may or may not be a small fantasy of his,
EYE WITNESS
might serve as a guide for all of us. A black & white slasher, two untrustworthy men, Cain surreally murdering Abel. All for our entertainment. And just when he was about ready to move on from this responsibility, he found himself thrust into a conversation with the project's DP. This is how it went.
Isaac:
This is your first post-grad release, what made you want to make it an anthology?
Nicolas: How it came about was just because I had a shortage of ideas. I guess I
didn't have enough energy to flesh out a full script, but I had all these ideas. One was a conman bleeding, another one was a black & white slasher. Initially I had the idea to make the black & white slasher a full short, but I didn’t really like the script. There was a lot of time travel elements that just didn’t work out.
ID: Yeah, I remember when you pitched the idea, I was like “this is cool, but it just sounds like a showcase on Nicolas Marin writing; which, funny enough, a lot of times is incomplete.” But you thought to turn all those incomplete ideas into something complete. And then the whole channel flipping thing I guess just turns it into something of a critique on the person watching or something.
NM: I was traveling a lot and I’d be in hotel rooms, surfing like a TV guide. It was just interesting because you don’t know what’s on.
ID: That’s always one of the cooler parts of being in motels or whatever. Like now, all my browsing is done on Google, I’m just looking for a specific thing I want to watch and what streaming service has it, versus the surprise of catching something I wanna watch in the middle of the program or something.
NM: Yeah and essentially I’m a person who likes wholesale stuff and getting the most bang for my buck. So, I wanted to give everyone like a bunch of different styles and all these things that portray, like, who I am as a filmmaker. Even though, if I started production on that movie today I'd do these a lot differently.
ID: Tying into that, not a lot of people know this, but we shot a good chunk of this and RAGTIME
during the same week. Like, five days straight, two completely different styles so-
NM: That was like the genesis of Brainmaker, weird enough.
ID: I think that week we were just stretching our potential styles altogether.
NM: Yeah, like even parts of EYE WITNESS, has shit in it that was shot much later and that can be seen.
ID:
True, most of that was shot over a year ago. Which I think is a positive thing about being a low budget filmmaker because it takes so long to do things that all that time in between like production and deliverable, your style, tastes, and skills evolve so much.
NM:
I mean even right now, two days before this movie is supposed to release there’s so much I want to add to it.
ID:
I mean that entire movie has been changing since day 1.
NM:
I think we were changing the script hours before getting on set.
ID:
I was in costume making revisions, yeah.
NM:
Even the Michael Beaudo video for Kimochi was like planned out on set.
ID:
Who directed that? Like the way it was shot and everything?
NM:
I think that was me. The slow zoom and stuff, that sounds like something I’d do.
ID:
Okay. Just so everyone knows I still got DP credits.
NM:
Which you did operate the camera and I suppose give direction since I played a part in the video.
ID:
I remember being like, “Dude, y’all aren’t fucking fighting, let me go in I’ll fight ‘cause this sucks.”
NM:
Me and Luis almost threw up.
ID:
I’ll get my round later. Back on track though, I didn’t really plan any questions, but I guess this needs to end on something more significant. Do you think you’d ever take one of the incomplete shorts and turn it into a full story?
NM:
I would love to take everything in that movie and blend it all into one movie, like all the elements and moving parts aren’t separate, but all interacting together. I mean, even talking about it right now, I’m thinking of things to change when I get to my computer.