David Lawrence's debut feature Disney Shot Kennedy was shot-in-Atlanta featuring a bevy a local talent—with significant contributions from artists, actors, and musicians. Though the film recently world premiered at the San Antonio Film Festival, its hometown debut will we be Friday, August 27th at 8:30 pm at Eye Drum.

• The Long Ironic Road: Disney Shot Kennedy writer director David Lawrence "needs irony to feel comfortable"

Tell me a little about yourself, and how you developed this project.

My mom is a painter from Venice Beach, California and my dad was a colonel commander in the Navy. I’m Irish, Scotch, and Southern so it’s probably no wonder I write stuff that champions rebellion. But I also grew up in the era of "The Simpsons" so I can’t go “full Braveheart.” I need irony to feel comfortable.

The project started in college. I knew I wanted to make a feature, but didn’t have any money so I tried to conceive of the smallest film possible which was three guys on a Saturday night sitting on a sofa just shooting the shit. But once I started writing it, I started having characters get up to do whatever and it just kept growing. It didn’t become Disney Shot Kennedy until I realized that was I was actually writing was a record store movie, and since that had be done and done well I figured what if they worked at a little newspaper and talked pop culture all day.

I am intrigued by the collaborative nature of the film—discuss the co-op in which all the participants share ownership, how you secured the local locations, and the fusion with local artists, musicians, and such.

Alchemy.

It was a trial for sure. I was in LA writing for Disney when the economy tanked. I had just gotten a call from my boss that they were putting an idea I had into production, and literally four hours later he called back and said Disney was cutting the company by a quarter in two weeks and they were shutting down our department. I saw the writing on the wall, all of LA was going on lockdown, so I moved back to Atlanta and folded t-shirts for seven bucks an hour.

I started talking to friends like myself who were just breaking in and then had the door slammed in their faces, and I realized there was a technically skilled labor force that wasn’t getting any work, so I just called everyone I knew, told them I’d cover room and board, and give them a percentage of future profits. It was enough to get the cast and crew. I’m just thankful to have people willing to work on something I wrote. I couldn’t make it without them, so being egalitarian just made sense.

• Courtesy atlanta.metromix.com
• Criminal Records brought street cred to the shoot

All the other stuff locations, music, etc. was just thousands of emails. People liked the title so that got them to at least read what I was doing, the fact that I was local definitely helped, but the big break was Eric Levin, the owner of Criminal Records, and R. Land saying yes to me. Once they were on board, the locals scene kinda relaxed and let us do our thing.

With so much Atlanta focus on the film, how did the Philly band The Extraordinaires get involved?

It’s interesting because they fly the Philly flag very proudly, but Atlantans LOVE their music. I heard them on Pandora when it first came out, and the music just clicked with me. Jay Purdy, the lead singer, and I grew up with incredibly similar perspectives. I wrote them and heard back from their manager that it sounded cool, and we were off and running.

You have a background in stand-up comedy and writing for a major Hollywood studio, so why the shift to micro-budget features?

I needed to get something made.

Stand up in LA is miserable and cut throat. Everyone fights for stage time, and if you can get 3 mins a month you’re lucky. That’s not the environment I came up in. My home theater was Bob Wood’s Relapse Theater on 14th. There was a big underground stand up scene there a few years ago. We were all broke, all young, and all fans of each other. We lived at that theater and people were doing really innovative smart stuff. If you were having a good set you could stay up there for twenty or thirty minutes.

When I decided to do DSK I was feeling really rebellious against the Hollywood system. I knew if I was going to do this as a career, that I was always going to have to deal with someone else’s opinion and I wanted to make sure that I made one film just for me. What I wanted to see, what I thought was funny.

As someone who has made a living as writer, how important is story? What are the advantages to breaking the rules?

I think it depends on your goals. DSK looked to a lot of films that had very minimalist stories like Stranger Than Paradise and Slacker. I was more concerned about the moments, rather than the plot as a whole. The story is there, but it’s subtext.

• Orion Classics
• Moments like Madonna's pap smear in Linklater's Slacker inspired DSK

My editor/writing partner & I just finished this psychedelic thriller story I started a couple of years ago and the plot structure is very complex. Knowing how Memento or The Usual Suspects works on an abstract structural level teaches you how to wield the storytelling tricks and devices you need. Then you can utilize or subvert the techniques you’ve learned to take the audience through your story.

It’s the combination of well crafted moments and solid story structure that makes for great stories.

What do you think the future holds for independent film? How important are festivals to your strategy? How do you see this film making money in the market place?

I think we are going to see more films like DSK come out in the next ten or so years that have internet collaboration at their core. There are a lot of people who worked on this film that I’ve never met or been in the same room with. My editor and I were in different states. Five years ago that just wasn’t possible, but it is now. But you still need a hook, and it still has to be good.

The festivals are a tough road for a micro-budget because you have to justify someone’s investment into your tiny little movie, but if you see your film and the festival circuit as a publicity vehicle to get your name and work out to the public it makes way more sense to go make that little weird movie and see what happens.

• Radiohead
• Pay Want You Want. No Really...

Direct distribution is the way to go for us, unless a little distro label decides to scoop it up. We are planning on using the Radiohead model for high quality online downloads. Pay what you want, support true indie filmmaking, hope you enjoy what we did. It's beginning to prove itself a viable option for turning a profit.

What films inspire you? What are some comparisons you like? What are some comparisons that make you cringe?

Top five are Fight Club, Jurassic Park, The Burbs, The Shining, & The Game. Obviously those are way different than my movie, but when Hollywood is done right there’s nothing better. I also went and saw Exit Through the Giftshop about fifteen times. If it's authentic, if someone really dug what they were doing, then they usually have a fan in me. That goes for any artistic medium.

DSK has been compared to something Wes Anderson would have done in film school. I see why. I limited the color palette, and the dialogue is stylized. But that’s not “my style,” it’s just what was right for this particular project. I don’t think I have a large enough body of work for anyone to pin me down yet, and the work I'm doing now is a huge departure from DSK.

What is your favorite conspiracy theory?

I had a professor in college that broke down a national news broadcast once. It was a three hour block and every single story was “something bad is happening somewhere else, and someone else will take care of it... but it could happen here.” And for three hours every commercial was either for a medication or financial product. His theory was that they (the eternal THEY) pump you full of fear and helplessness, and then sell you what appear to be remedies.

There’s also a Youtube video of Bjork taking apart a television and telling a story about a Danish poet that told her the human brain has trouble putting together all the pixels on a tv screen, and it shuts down your ability to analyze what you are watching.

Is the choice to screen at Underground festivals a deliberate choice? Is the Underground moniker important to you?

I definitely wanted to have a screening in Atlanta. Jean Pierre Junet called Ameile his love letter to the locals Paris, and I had that on my mind when I designed the production. I don’t really care for the audiences at Atlanta Film Festival, and I don’t think that crowd would enjoy the movie. I’m just thankful that Eric Panter and the AUFF gave us a vehicle to screen it for the town.

There are a lot of “underground” festivals popping up, and I think it’s great. There should be a counter culture to the festival circuit which has gotten pretty corporate.

We applied to a bunch of festivals and it’s not so much the ones we didn’t get into as the ones we did. San Antonio likes true indies and the crowd was really receptive. I’m looking forward to AUFF. And we recently got an Official Selection at the NYC Friar’s Club Festival which is a strictly comedy focused festival, and it’s nice to be recognized by that culture. We’ve been requested to a couple more, but that isn’t official yet.

Steely Dan (who attended my alama mater Bard College) once said, William and Mary won't do. Did it do for you? Will you ever go back to your old school?

There is something about William & Mary’s perspective that teaches you to analyze the world well, to find the truth and then laugh at it.

• William And Mary
• Another fella who went to Brian's Old School

I’m certainly not putting myself in this group but Jon Stewart, Patton Oswalt, Bill Lawrence- all W&M grads. I can’t imagine having gone anywhere else.

I’ve been invited back to speak by my old faculty, but I need to be further down the road before I go back and act like an authority on anything.

Disney Shot Kennedy will screen at Eye Drum on Friday, August 27th at 8:30 pm. For information and tickets, click here.