Father & Daughter Film Report
INTERVIEW
with
Ian Truitner
Writer, Director, Producer of
TELEIOS
1.) What stage of your life did you become interested in working with films?
At 5, seeing Star Wars in the theater was my first conscious memory. I was hooked from there.
2.) What gave you the idea / What event led you to making of TELEIOS…?
It was a combination of digging out an old script I wrote when I was just 19 called Remote Outpost, along with an article about human genetic modification. I've always wanted to do a sci-fi, but making a competent one is not easy on a small budget. I was fortunate enough to be working for a production company that had a small sound stage in North Hollywood, so then it was a matter of moulding a project that could feasibly be shot all in one location.
3.) What was the most difficult thing (other than money) you had to deal with in
producing a film?
(Either filming-wise, organizational-wise, business-wise, editing, etc....?) Handling the logistics of shooting in a tight space with multiple set rebuilds and limited time. We had to be very creative to convey a sense of scale despite none of our sets being longer than 25 feet across.
4.) What did you learn about yourself personally by being in the film industry? by making this film?
I've been in the industry for some time, so I harbored no illusions about the challenges one faces when producing or selling a film. This is one of the reasons we made a sci-fi this time, because this genre sells better than most sans a big name cast. So far we've done quite well with festivals and international sales, so our plan this time seemed to work.
5.) What advice can you give others who wish to make films?
Look at it like becoming a doctor. Make it at 10+ year plan of training, experimenting and learning. If you can pull off something decent that people want to pay to watch before 10 years at it, you're way ahead of the curve, but don't expect it to happen sooner.
6.) What have you done to get your films ‘out there’? How do you feel distribution of films are changing?
Festivals and a sales rep who goes to the major film markets (Cannes, Berlin, AFM). For better or worse, it's still an archaic system. It would be nice to see a disruptor that allows filmmakers to connect directly with audiences without so many middlemen, but we're still waiting for that to happen.
7.) Where do you see the future of films heading? As an industry? As content?
There are two types of films that can make money. Huge studio films with $100MIL+ budgets and tiny microbudget films that are so cheaply produced they don't need to make much to recoup cost. Sadly the economics for everything in between has cratered. Fortunately we have some of the most compelling content ever made in the form of TV series, which has helped fill the void.
8.) Any examples of unexplainable forces or Twilight Zone moments in the
making of this film?
Not on Teleios, but on my first film, which was shot at Howard Hughes old studio, young female art PAs would have doors shut and lock them in rooms. We think Mr. Hughes was up to his old tricks.
9.) In your own words, what makes your films unique?
We've seen films about AI and films about human genetic modification. We haven't seen one with both while addressing the hierarchical inevitability that would occur when these three different forms of humans, normal, AI and genetically modified, all existed at the same time.
That's what Teleios is about.
