Dylan Wood

Absolutely! It’s a short film called, The Walking List. Honestly, it was a snapshot of my life at that moment in time. I didn’t realize it when we were writing or filming it, but over the months I have been able to look back and realize it was my way of processing the new world I had been thrust into.

I was struggling to find my place and what I could do as a disabled man in this world. I was also struggling through a nasty divorce, both of those subjects ended up being pivotal in this movie. So, apparently, I am not as creative as I think I am, but I really love how this turned out so I will take it, regardless.

The most important part of this movie for me was to show as accurate a representation of what life is like to suffer with a disability and fight to continue living and not just roll over and give up. I didn’t want some cookie-cutter Hallmark version of what living with a disability looks like. I really wanted to show some of the nitty-gritty details that are difficult to process and even more difficult to live with.

I did quite a bit of research on MS, I have a friend who is a doctor and he really helped out with that. Some of the advice that he gave directly impacted how we filmed and how it was written in the first place. Accuracy to the disability and how it affects people was always the first thing on my mind. Hopefully, we accomplished that goal!

I wore a lot of hats for this movie! I was one of the directors and the only producer and writer. I for sure met with my cinematographer, John Wee, who was also my co-director and a huge help throughout this whole process. We had long discussions about how to film it and how we would affect the audience by the choices we made with framing, coloring, and blocking.

Co-directing is definitely a challenge, but one I happily accepted and think it led to a better film than I could’ve made without John. It is definitely difficult to have to discuss and, at times, argue about what you think the film should be. I do truly think it is a case of iron sharpening iron, however, and, if done correctly, your movie will come out so much stronger! Ours sure did!

You just can’t be afraid to make your opinion known, but you also have to have the humility to accept a better idea than your own. I remember the very last scene of the film was a source of contention between myself and John and a couple of other crew members. I wanted to get rid of it, they wanted to keep it. They explained their position and the emotional weight that they believed that scene carried. I completely disagreed, but I respected each of them and decided to listen to them and kept the scene in the movie. I have had quite a few people come up and tell me that was their favorite part of the movie. So I will admit it, I was wrong and they were right and I’m happy I listened to them. That to me is collaboration in a nutshell.

The biggest challenge I had is a common challenge I face with most of the films that I have made, scheduling. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I love working with the best talent in Idaho. It’s a great idea and you come away with a great product, but scheduling? It’s like the seventh layer of Hell, sometimes!

At this point in my filmmaking journey, I am on the low side of indie filmmaking and cannot provide much compensation for the talented artists I employ, right now it is a labor of love for them. I’m hoping to get to that point where I can fairly compensate all of these incredible artists, but I’m just not there yet. This does make scheduling even more difficult, I can’t just tell them to be somewhere when they land a paying job and I am paying them with nothing but exposure.  My cast and crew were so talented, that that became a scheduling issue multiple times. Just the life and journey of an independent filmmaker!

I was really proud of the way that the marathon scene turned out. That was probably the most difficult shoot I’ve ever done, because we filmed in a very busy public area. I also had a decent amount of extras who were there for nothing other than their love of making films. They were all amazing! I was very conscious of their time, however, and that added even more internal pressure.

I was up the entire night before just thinking about everything that could go wrong! I had scouted out the location, knew the shots we needed, was working with a fantastic drone operator, Chris Phillips, for overhead shots and I added a 1st A.D., April Matson Grady, for that day. Adding April to our crew for the day was probably the smartest thing I have ever done as a director.

April is such a professional and kept everything rolling on a very, very difficult day of filming where there were plenty of distractions and potential hiccups along the way. She handled it with grace and there is no way that we could’ve done it without her! The scenes turned out amazing!  I’m incredibly proud of the entire team for working through the difficulty inherent with indie films and making something great out of the day!

The thing that springs to my mind immediately is to always double-check your schedule! I had planned out our shoot dates weeks in advance and thought everything was great! However, after our first shoot, I learned that I had planned a shoot date on Super Bowl Sunday. I’m a diehard basketball fan all the way, never been that interested in the NFL, so to me, it was not a big deal. However, it was to some of our cast and crew, so we ended up having to reschedule for a couple of months later.

We were initially set to premiere at a certain local film festival and this change in filming dates made us go into scramble mode. Due to some incredible determination and work ethic by the amazing Katie Two Dogs, she was the actress who played Jessica, one of our main editors and she even ran camera one day, we were able to finish on time. We snuck into the festival by the skin of our teeth, which was completely my fault for scheduling a day on Super Bowl Sunday. Looking ahead at potential “holidays” is definitely something I have done better since then.

There is one film that has really shaped my entire filmmaking journey ever since making it. It was supposed to be just a small, fun film, a Superman fan film, The Day Hope Died.  I wrote, produced and was the lead in it. It consumed about half a year of my life and I would gladly do it again! If I were to die tomorrow I would be surprised if The Day Hope Died was not on my gravestone in some way or another!

That film garners such emotion from people, even to this day. There was an honesty, simplicity and bravery to that film that I try and inject into any of my projects. Being as honest as you can is a superpower for a filmmaker. I have zero desire to make some cool and sexy film!  I’m always looking to make something honest and, hopefully, inspiring. After making a film like, The Day Hope Died, I don’t think I can ever go back to making a breezy, non–emotional movie. So it definitely inspires me even four years later.

Find your tribe. You cannot do this alone, at least if you want to make something of quality. You need to find reliable and talented people. I stumbled into that by being an actor for years and getting on every set I could. I have probably been an actor on approximately 100 projects. During that time I was able to make friends with crew members and really judge who I wanted on my sets and how I was going to be as a director.

I would definitely recommend trying your hand at acting, even if you have zero desire to be an actor. So many directors are so intimidated by actors that they won’t even speak to them It’s super helpful to remember that they are people just like you and probably as insecure, or more so, than yourself. Also, you can get on so many more sets as an actor than you can work as a director. Working with other directors is so helpful! You can pick and choose what you take from every director you work with. It doesn’t even matter if the project is any good, the learning experience is more than enough payment.

TLDR; Find people you can rely on and get on as many movie sets as you can. Learn from everybody you meet. Have a great attitude that people want to work with in the future.

I’ve been acting in projects for over a decade, I definitely have a feel for actors and really respect the process. Up to this point, I have tried to have conversations with them before the shoot and let them take over during production. I don’t like to give notes or feedback unless I feel like they are very far off the mark. I just remember as an actor wanting to give my version of the scene and see how that worked before I was given any notes to change by the director.

That’s how I prefer to work. I recently had a conversation with one of my actors and they told me that they wish I had been more involved in their performance. What I viewed as giving space, they viewed as I either didn’t know how I wanted it to be played or I didn’t care enough to get involved. Neither one of those was true. 

I would have absolutely hated a director to be as involved as this actor wanted me to be. It would’ve hurt my performance and made me feel like the director didn’t trust me. I’ve been directing like every actor is me and has the same process as me, and that is obviously just not true. So, all of that to say, actors are people and every person needs a different style of management to flourish. You can’t just have a one-size-fits-all attitude with actors or crew members. You need to adapt and be the director they need you to be. That’s the next step in my evolution as a filmmaker, listen to the people I am directing and do my best to be who they need me to be. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m very excited for the challenge.

I really love the music that Anthony Parry created for this movie! Because he is so talented and easy to work with all I had to do was tell him the feel I was going for and what instruments I wanted in that certain section and he would give me amazing music! It only took a couple of quick conversations and he completely got it! That’s why you always try to work with the best, most talented people you can find. It inevitably makes your job so much easier.

For the sound design, again, just getting great people involved helps immensely! Philip Terry is a sound wizard and would always get me clean audio. I think the most amazing thing about working with Phil is that you rarely have to hold for audio! Anyone who has worked on films knows how rare of a thing that is! Complete pro who kills it on every set.

Interestingly enough, I was given criticism, and some amazing feedback, about the script from an actor who did not accept the part. The original version of the script was very, VERY different. Nearly a completely different story. I had approached this actor to be one of the leads, and he had some major issues with the script which he voiced to me.

This is pretty unusual to do, and at first, I was a little insulted. His comments really got to me, however, and forced me to change almost every aspect of the script. I believe it became a much stronger piece of art because of this interaction. The really funny end to this story is that he disliked the rewrite even more. I loved the new version of the story and ran with it. Here we are now because of that decision!

Just goes to show you that if you are going to be an artist you have to be willing to take feedback and criticism from everybody. However, you need to check with your own heart and mind to make sure that the feedback actually resonates with you. It’s a really hard balance to find and I’m still not perfect about finding that balance, but trying to get better about it. Leave your ego at the door and get to work.