Combine the lyrics and melodies of The Shins with Fisher Price musical toys and you get the Brooklyn Brothers. Ryan O’Nan’s directorial debut, “Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best,” opened in theaters on September 21 and was released on Time Warner Cable Movies On Demand yesterday.
The film is about Alex (O’Nan) and his new bandmate Jim (Michael Weston) who go on a musical road trip and struggle to find success with a new unusual sound using children’s instruments.
O’Nan and Weston spoke with The New School Free Press about his work and the collaborations behind the film.
NSFP: A Writer/Director’s first film is often really personal. Is that the case for Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best?
O’Nan: I was exploring a way to define my own struggle when I was trying to be an artist or when I saw my friends were trying to do the same thing. It’s not necessarily about art but pursuing something you love. And that kind of dichotomy, where part of me would be totally insecure, had open ears for the critics and I was just ready to give up. The other side was like “fuck it, I don’t need to listen to any of them.” So I took those two parts of myself and split them in half and made two characters then have them battle it out in this arena.
NSFP: What was the writing process like for this film?
O’Nan: I know some writers who hate it but I love it. The acting process is hard because you’re the medium. If your improv sucks, it’s you.
Weston: I feel like if your writing sucks it’s still you. It’s not an immediate thing that you produce in front of people. You have time in your own isolation to create it. You have peace in it. I love that process, the
solo-ness of that journey. Then, it can become something as collaborative as a film.
O’Nan: So collaborative. It’s almost hard to really say “I’m the complete author of this,” because there are so many elements and so many great artists that are part of making this film.
Weston: I do find it to be painful sometimes, those moments in between when I can’t find a solution but I do find that it’s when you get your best ideas.
NSFP: What drew you to work on this film? [To Weston]
Weston: The script. I love that the character, Jim, that I play is just full of life and he has this passion even in the midst of his real fears. Within that character and within the film itself there’s warmth and there’s a great sense of humor about all the ups and downs of life that leaves you with this great sense of hope. As I was reading the last page of this script, I had this fusion of self-empowered hope.
NSFP: Are there any mistakes that you made while shooting this film that you wish you could go back and fix?
O’Nan: I would probably get more coverage. I had a very strong vision about how I wanted things to be and look. A lot of times that’s great but what happens every now and then is that you get into a scene regardless of how many times you’ve written it. It’s subject to change constantly.
Weston: That’s where you control the tempo of the film. I’ve always wondered this about auditions. People want to hear things the way they wrote it but that has nothing to do with what happens later on.
O’Nan: For example in the scene with Wilmer, he was so funny. He would do it slow and deliberate. Because I didn’t have any other angles, I had to cut out parts I did not want to cut out just to speed up the pacing.
Weston: Then again, in this 18-day shoot you can’t get all those
angles, you don’t have time. It’s more spontaneous. You had to be ready and it brings more out of you.
O’Nan: Limitation breeds creativity.
NSFP: How did you cast the film?
O’Nan: The casting was awesome. In my process I do very little auditioning. I cast someone that I know could kill the role. The only ones who auditioned were the kids and the hillbilly characters.
NSFP: Any advice to aspiring filmmakers?
O’Nan: Go make shit! There is no excuse. If you have something to say make it, don’t spend 50,000 dollars on a short.
Francia is currently a Culture & Media major student about to graduate. She hopes to write for a cheesy sitcom or television series one day. Her hobbies include binge watching shows on Netflix and drinking wine.
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