Filmmaker Jake Solomon talks to Fest Track about instinct, logistics, approach, editing and intent in regards to his film: "The Last Thing Lost" playing the Documentary Feature section at the Deep In The Heart Film Festival in Waco, Texas.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:26 How did this sort of story formulate in your mind,
00:29 as far as what you wanted to do?
00:30 Or was it more instinctual?
00:33 It was almost completely instinctual.
00:35 So the first time I sat down to interview him,
00:39 I didn't know any of the stuff that you just referenced,
00:42 as far as being an outcast, being a part of the Khmer Rouge
00:45 and leaving, and then wanting to fight back,
00:48 and going back later to rebuild communities.
00:51 I kind of just knew what he was doing now.
00:55 So as far as representing that, there
00:57 was the way we kind of hopped between timelines
01:02 is because I didn't want to tell the story chronologically.
01:04 I felt like there was too much of just
01:06 like an onslaught of information and not enough verite scenes
01:11 to kind of break it up.
01:12 It would've been all just kind of like him just saying,
01:14 like, and then this happened, and then this happened,
01:16 and this happened.
01:17 So I tried to break it up with some of the students.
01:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:22 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:26 No one knew how the Khmer Rouge would rule Cambodia.
01:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:33 The Khmer Rouge returned to kill me.
01:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:38 I had to find a way to escape.
01:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:43 Could you talk about the visual, too?
01:46 Because the story has to reflect the visual.
01:47 That shot behind him walking is very specific.
01:52 Yeah.
01:52 Could you talk about that?
01:53 So his-- you're kind of talking about like the metaphorical
02:00 representational shot.
02:01 So yeah, we spent an evening on him.
02:03 He has some land out there.
02:05 And we knew that we had a lot of information to cover with him
02:10 that we would not be able to cover with actual coverage,
02:14 right?
02:14 Like, this is parts of his story.
02:16 So we were like, we need to get some stuff that kind of is
02:19 representational emotionally.
02:21 And we went there, and it was--
02:23 the dirt's really red.
02:24 It's just very a red country.
02:26 It's a very warm, red country.
02:27 Like, the soil's red.
02:30 The food-- like, you just got this warmth from it.
02:32 So we wanted to go, and we almost passed Gwano,
02:36 like the deep dusk sunset.
02:38 And the color was a little bit crushed by that projector.
02:40 Like, it was not that saturated and dark.
02:42 But it was-- after doing the interviews,
02:48 it was knowing that we would, in the edit,
02:50 have a lot to cover.
02:52 And we were like, OK, what can we do creatively that
02:55 has a feel to it of some mystery?
02:58 So we can kind of unravel and build up
03:00 towards seeing him stare the camera dead in the eye,
03:02 but also have some stuff that's more
03:06 representative of this journey that he had that was--
03:08 you didn't know if he was going to make it,
03:10 or he had doubts about what was going on.
03:12 And my DP who was there with me did a great job of capturing
03:17 some of that stuff.
03:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:20 I end up in Wisconsin.
03:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:25 I always thinking about my home country.
03:32 One, two, three.
03:35 [LAUGHTER]
03:38 One, two, three.
03:40 After the war, the system, the school system,
03:43 and every system, were very hard, very hard to set in again.
03:49 And the damage is done for generations.
03:52 Utterly devastating.
03:57 It just made me want to do something against that evil.
04:04 So you were over there for three weeks?
04:05 Three weeks, yep.
04:06 OK.
04:07 That's a lot of material.
04:08 That's a lot of material.
04:09 So it's just finding out and seeing--
04:11 because the school, it's about educating people,
04:14 but it's also about reflecting the journey.
04:17 Both Roger and Suri, could you talk about that
04:21 and finding those story beats?
04:22 Did you find it fairly early on?
04:24 Did you find it in the editing process?
04:25 Found it early on in the sense of not during pre-production,
04:33 but during production.
04:35 And Roger, he joins me in Cambodia,
04:39 but he came about a week after I'd already been there.
04:42 And at this point, I thought it was about the schools.
04:46 I didn't think it was character driven.
04:48 I thought it was more just a topical about Cambodia.
04:50 And then I went to Roger, and I was like, hey,
04:53 I think this story is actually about Sarith.
04:55 And the schools are one part of it, but Sarith is the story.
04:58 And he goes, yeah, of course.
04:59 I'm glad you figured that out.
05:01 I was like, if you knew, why didn't you tell me?
05:05 And that's just who he is.
05:08 He's an interesting guy, doesn't want to be in the spotlight.
05:13 But he has a strong sense of right and wrong.
05:16 And how things should be.
05:18 So he knew that Sarith was the story,
05:20 but we figured that out.
05:22 And it was very important to him that the story wasn't
05:25 about him either, and that he wasn't
05:27 a savior of any kind or whatever.
05:28 So when I was finding my story beats for him,
05:30 it was important to me to honor his desire to not be seen
05:35 as like, oh, and then Roger came in and helped save the day
05:38 by giving Sarith money.
05:39 It was very important to him that I was accurately
05:41 represented, that Sarith was the driver of this,
05:43 and Roger was a co-pilot.
05:46 And so I was trying to keep that top of mind weaving
05:48 in his story and his journey, and really
05:53 making sure the balance of our time
05:55 was spent with the right people.
05:57 But also having him be a lens for which American viewers
06:02 to kind of have context, to see the world
06:06 through a more familiar lens.
06:10 Someone who had never been to Cambodia
06:11 and was going there and really feels familiar.
06:16 He's like someone that you would run into in the street.
06:19 Just like a curmudgeonly old, wise, psychologist,
06:23 hippie guy who you can feel like you know.
06:27 And I feel like he has great insight into why he helps,
06:32 and what people need, and how he came there in a way that's
06:36 more relatable than someone that's like a genocide
06:39 in a third world country that I've never even heard
06:42 of this event, can feel very detached from our experience.
06:48 And so I think help Roger kind of gives
06:49 a little bit of a bridge.
06:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:54 What can I do?
06:55 My plan was to work with the education somehow.
07:01 [CHILDREN PLAYING]
07:05 We start with that.
07:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:09 The feel of the film to me, I think music's
07:31 an important part of it.
07:32 And before this, this is my first film.
07:34 And before this, I was doing client work
07:36 that was three to five minutes.
07:38 And it was very important to me to, with that light,
07:41 with the touch, to try to incorporate the balance
07:47 like between verite--
07:48 you know when you're doing a three minute client video,
07:49 you're kind of wallpapering that thing with music.
07:52 It's not as important the cadence
07:56 of keeping an audience invested for--
07:59 I mean, this is a short feature.
08:01 It's 43 minutes.
08:02 But for me, it was huge.
08:04 So the balance really became finding the moments
08:09 of heart and emotion, using music as a tool,
08:14 but not a crutch.
08:15 Like to me, it was important to find where it could really
08:18 elevate the emotion, but not just having it
08:20 through the whole thing.
08:22 And again, that's why I did the timeline.
08:26 Because I started kind of chronological.
08:28 And I was like, this is not working.
08:30 All the stuff we actually shot is in the third act.
08:33 And we have 2/3 of metaphorical footage.
08:35 It just doesn't work.
08:36 So that's how we got to the timeline
08:38 and trying to incorporate as many elements as we could
08:45 balanced rather than having it really segmented.
08:48 And yeah, I think that's how we-- and I cut a lot.
08:55 Like I mentioned to you before, but it's 43 minutes,
08:59 which I didn't really know was an awkward length
09:01 for programmers to try to work with.
09:03 But I feel confident that this--
09:05 when I watched it--
09:06 I hadn't watched it in a couple months.
09:07 And I watched it yesterday at our screening.
09:09 I'd still cut more.
09:11 There's still 30 seconds or a sound bite where I'm like,
09:14 we don't need that.
09:15 But before, I was at the "Kill Your Darling" stage.
09:19 And I probably had an over an hour cut.
09:21 And there were scenes that it pained me to cut.
09:24 Because you love them when you're a filmmaker, when you're
09:26 doing whatever.
09:26 If you're-- you have things you fall in love with,
09:29 but they're not serving the story.
09:30 You're like, ah, but I love this.
09:32 And you've got to cut it.
09:34 So that's how I--
09:35 I hope it feels balanced, people.
09:36 I hope it feels like a journey that isn't too long.
09:41 Because I felt like we cut it down to where I felt like,
09:45 this is where it should be.
09:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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09:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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10:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:11 (light music)