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Issue #60 – Mentor News
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
Every year in March, hundreds of bands and music artists (not to mention hundreds of thousands of music fans) converge on Austin, TX to attend South-By-Southwest (SXSW), recognized as one of the biggest indie music festivals on the planet. But Austin isn’t just about live music: it’s also home to a burgeoning film scene, and as an extension of this fact, SXSW also holds its own film festival, drawing filmmakers from all parts of the world. In fact, Film Connection mentor Daniel Sollinger of Los Angeles, CA screened no less than two of his films at SXSW this year! He checked in with us a few days ago, and we thought we’d share some of the conversation with you.
Daniel: Well, Knock Knock was like a little horror film that we did. It’s like 11 minutes… They have like a midnight shorts program, and Knock Knock is part of that. Ktown Cowboys is an indie film. It’s sort of like Entourage set in Korea Town, basically…We shot it over 20 days back in last November.
RRFC: You had a Film Connection apprentice working on that with you, didn’t you?
Daniel: I did. A Film Connection apprentice named Faruk Begovic helped with Ktown Cowboys.
RRFC: Have you gotten a chance to meet any people down there at SXSW that you’re a fan of?
Daniel: Yeah. It’s funny because with all these festivals—Sundance is the same way—what’s great about it is [there are] a lot of people that I know who [are] out of Los Angeles that we don’t really connect with necessarily in Los Angeles, but you run into them at these festivals…I came out of a thing the other day. Right down the sidewalk was this agent that I know and we do things with. It would take me six months to organize a face-to face meeting with him, whereas we just stood there on the sidewalk in Austin and talked for a while. It’s really great for that kind of stuff.
RRFC: Are you scouting for any potential future musicians to work in any of your films while you are down there?
Daniel: Well, it’s interesting that you ask that, because a friend of mine who I ran into here is a composer, I’ve used him on a few movies, and he introduced me to a person who’s a music supervisor. I am actually I’m in pre-production for a movie that I need a supervisor like right away to help me with a particular issue…Basically I’m going to end up hiring him after meeting him here at SXSW. It definitely happens.
RRFC: Any other projects in the works you want us to know about?
Daniel: I have a movie called LA Slasher that going to be coming out in movie theaters on May 1. I hope people will go and see LA Slasher. Film Connection students helped me with that one, for sure…Kurtis Huntsinger was on LA Slasher…[also] a guy named Kyle Durack.
RRFC: Enjoy your time down there!
Daniel: Yeah, it’s awesome.
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