Today we speak with Elliot Kotek, screenwriter of the short film LARRY, screening this year at the 2011 Newport Beach Film Festival. Kotek is not stranger to the festival, has attended and participated for years. He co-produced the phenom 140 FILM, that screened last year, following 140 filmmakers in 140 locations worldwide at the same time shoot 140 seconds of footage to demonstrate how connection through new technology. The film is directed by Jill Carter, whose heartfelt short NINETY-ONE also showed at last year’s festival. In this short LARRY, a young woman wakes up from an all-nighter to find a mysterious man in her bed. Who is he? How did he get there? What now?
Q: How did you hear about the Newport Beach Film Festival?
I've been moderating panels and Q&As for NBFF for five or six years now, having first come down as a journalist. One of my favorite festivals for sure.
Q: Tell a little about the story of your film and the production of it.
Little Larry is a short I wrote when I was living in New York and studying dramatic writing at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, we had to use a ticking clock in a piece of writing, so i wrote about a guy who was always on the precipice of disaster and didn't know it. Although he thought he was always getting away with stuff, there was always something incriminating left behind. My idea was to shoot it twice, once with a male in the lead "Larry" and once with a female in the lead "Little Larry" - Jill Carter, being superwoman, jumped in and made the Little Larry version in Toronto faster than I could get my act together here in LA.
Q: Tell a little about yourself and your story in filmmaking.
Changing the lead actor from male to female led to some hilarious discoveries by Jill and Hanna Miller, the lead actress, great moments that you'll see in the film.
Q: Your take on the performances of the lead actors, (set backs, triumphs, impressions, good surprises, etc.)
Jill had each of the actors tell a joke at the auditions and sent me the tapes. It was the perfect way to cast this movie, given that the film has virtually no dialogue.
Q: What do you do when not making a smash indie film?
I'm the editor-in-chief of Moving Pictures magazine, have written for The Hollywood Reporter, MovieMaker, Inside Film, Little White Lies and a bunch of film magazines. I've done a bit of everything but I guess the nutshell is that I just love the medium, and love writing. "140," which I produced with Frank Kelly (and directed a segment of) premiered at NBFF last year, as did another short, "ninety-one" that I co-produced with Jill. I have another couple of films being finished that I'd love to bring here next year!!!
LARRY screens Friday, April 29 at 3:30 PM in the Triangle Square Theater 7.
Visit the link below to WATCH the trailer or PURCHASE tickets for the film:
http://newportbeach.slated.com/2011/films/littlelarry_jillcarter_newportbeach2011
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