Anthony Burns

IONCINEMA.com’s “IONCINEPHILE of the Month” puts the spotlight on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema, and once again we get to feature a filmmaker who made his debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Anthony Burns’ Skateland received its theatrical release mid May and it’s slowly expanding in more cities this month. We originally published the following interview during the festival, but we recently added Anthony’s all-time favorite top ten film list.

Without the benefit of a studio budget or name casting, Anthony Burns and Brandon and Heath Freeman capture the ’80s in startling detail. The result: a cinematic scrapbook of a time and place, a visceral visual, and an aural experience that reclaims the decade for those of us lucky enough to have lived through it once. While the atmosphere is time specific, the themes of the joys and pains of growing up are universal. – Sundance Festival Guide

Eric Lavallee: You’re a new name in the filmmaking scene breaking out at a fest that heavily promotes new talents. I’d like to get a sense of where you’re coming from. Can you discuss your filmmaking/directing background (your previous experiences or pivotal experiences) that eventually led to Skateland.
Anthony Burns: I come from a heavy writing background; in fact, besides a few film criticism classes I didn’t enjoy anything else in school. Fortunately, after a magazine I was editing, in Austin, went under I made the move to LA. There I got involved with some strong producers working in television and film. This led to numerous projects including a featurette I co-wrote and produced titled ‘The Smoking Compartment’ in early 2008. The director Taylor Vandegrift, producer Chris Anasatas and I worked closely during the entire process and I was able to learn a great deal on the job in all aspects of filmmaking. After we wrapped I became obsessed, in a healthy way, with directing and the opportunity presented itself soon after to direct “Skateland.”

EL: Can you discuss the genesis of this project – from the credits this appears to be a collaboration with the Freemans. I was wondering how did the initial idea come about, how did this become a story you wanted to tell and how were the screenplay duties shared?
AB: Heath Freeman was the lead in ‘The Smoking Compartment’ and his brother Brandon Freeman spent a lot of time on set during the shoot. A few months later the brothers pitched an idea to me for ‘Skateland’ and I was hooked. We made the move back to Austin and began writing. There were many days when we worked side by side and some days alone. I’ve co-written numerous scripts and I’ve found every partnership to be unique, but equally dynamic and productive.

EL: Can you elaborate on what kind of work went into the pre-production process (how long you’ve been working on this project prior to pre-production and what specifically you did to prepare, and were there specific people involved in this process that are worth signaling out?
AB: From script to wrap was approximately 8 months. Scouting was intense and at times we didn’t think we were going to find our locations, but our final trip landed us in Shreveport and ultimately our shooting home. The script itself was evolving well into production but we went out with it to crew and cast sometime in July. The first draft was complete in a May. In my opinion (hopefully everyone’s) the foundation for a successful film starts with the script. Once you’ve conquered that, if ever, you must surround yourself with talent both in front and behind the camera. And I believe we accomplished that which led to a film extremely enjoyable experience.

E.L: I imagine since you are working with a specific timeline in mind that you had a clear strategy for the look. What aesthetic decisions did you make prior to shooting? Did you or Peter watch films or draw inspiration made in the 80’s or contemporary film’s about the 80’s for some aesthetic choice cues?
AB: Brandon Freeman, the Executive Producer and co-writer, is sort of an 80’s music junkie and his enthusiasm really fueled the film’s throwback appeal. This is also small town Texas, not the glam of the West coast or North East coast so our approach in developing the design was very subdued and conservative. It was 1983, but in East Texas it felt like 1979 and we wanted to capture that.

A handful of 80’s pictures including “Sixteen Candles”, “Pretty in Pink”, and “American Graffiti” were used for reference but the overall ‘look’ and ‘feel’ is very contemporary. Our story is universal in time and place and the aesthetics of the film do dilute that.

Peter and I had the same love for Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “City of Lost Children”, “Delicatessen”, and “Amelie” which probably led to us working together. I remember watching those films, and I still do, without the sound. I love his use of color to tell story. Also, when it came to camera movement (or lack thereof) Takashi Miike, Michael Haneke and Joe Wright were regular names in conversation. They take chances with the camera and we admire that.

EL: What kind of characteristics/features were you looking for your main characters during the casting process? And how did you come to cast Shiloh Fernandez and Ashley Greene?
AB: Our producer team’s Freeman Film and Reversal Films were in LA shopping the script around to casting agents. One of Reversal’s producer’s Victor Moyer’s had a prior relationship with Aquila-Wood Casting who happened to just finish casting “Twilight”. Of course, Ashley is in “Twilight” but not everyone may know that Shiloh was the second choice to play Edward.

Brandon and I spent a few weeks writing at the Hollywood Roosevelt at night (still on Skateland) and casting during the day. When it was all said and done the talent we chose had one thing in common: passion and understanding for the story.

EL: If you could name just one – what stands out as your most favorite experience you had during filming?
AB: I really want to answer the question but every point I’d discuss would be a spoiler so I’d have to answer this after the release. However, I begged for a helicopter to shoot a certain sequence but that didn’t happen.

EL: Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult sequence to shoot during production?
AB: This is a fun movie with a lot of comedy but at the same time it explores heavy issues regarding family and growing up in general. Saying that, each actor had to really bare his or her soul at some point in the film and deep into production it started to become emotionally trying for Brandon and I (that’s a good thing). We are very proud of our cast for their ability to be vulnerable, trust in our vision and give such honest performances.

EL: I imagine circa 1983 is easy on paper and then difficult to find in terms of landscapes. I’m wondering if you guys had your work cut out in terms of finding the landmarks for your narrative? Can you discuss how easy or difficult was the location scouting process?
AB: The most difficult location to find was a skating rink. Both the exterior and interior needed to be unique to our chosen era. At one point we didn’t think it was going to happen in Shreveport or East Texas and began searching all over central Texas and beyond. Somehow with the help of our location team and our production design team not only did we find our spot but transformed it into something pretty rad.

Anthony Burn’s Skateland was released via Freestyle Releasing on May 13th. The film is showing in select cites.