Miles S. Crossman

This is a short film shot in Goa, India. It was inspired by several trips I have done. The first was a trip to Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam I did in 2019. An Italian who ran the hotel I was staying at told me about a Japanese businesswoman who went there, got really drunk, and, deeply embarrassed, gave him a tip the next day. As I had been to Vietnam, I wanted to try someplace new. As I was writing this in 2024, I was trying to think of a similar tropical place near the beach. Then I remembered a trip I had done to Portugal 3 years earlier. There, I went to an Indian restaurant and was surprised to see beef and pork on the menu. So I began to learn more about Goa. As a former Portuguese colony, it had an interesting background. So, I started from there: a Japanese businesswoman goes to Goa. That’s how the story came out.

My vision for this project was to do something new. I had never shot overseas before and, with a lot of film production leaving the US, I figured this was a valuable skill to have. I also did a lot of preparation. The shot had multiple rounds of storyboards before we even cast the lead roles. For my lead actress, I had 3 rounds of auditions. I did a chemistry test with the actors I was looking at for the project after I cast my lead actress to make sure we got the right guy. There was a lot of planning involved in the production. I knew we only had 3 days to shoot halfway around the world so we had to get everything nailed down beforehand.

This was the question I was looking forward to answering the most. This is my first film I co-wrote. Melissa Pennel is a published author who I met by chance at a birthday party our kids were invited to. It was great to work with her to make our script better. If you think one of the characters says or does something that really gets to you, that’s her. It was freeing to have someone to help craft the vision of the story while I was freed up to focus on the nuts and bolts of preproduction. I couldn’t have made this film without Safdar Rahman. He is a producer based out of Goa. Thanks to him, I was able to make this film. He got all the equipment we asked for and he got us permission to film in everywhere from churches to flea markets. He also found us a waterfall, even though it was out of season. Jeff Allard was my American producer. Thanks to him, I was able to navigate the rules of using SAG actors overseas. Sean Carroll was my Director of Photography. He was my right hand man in India. Before the shoot, we storyboarded the shots together. He kept me sane while we shot halfway around the world with little to no rest and made sure all the technical elements of filming were taken care of so I could focus on my actors. Alec Douglas, my editor, and my entire post production team made all the footage come to life. We got him involved before we flew out to India to shoot. Things happen on a shoot but, if you plan ahead, you can make sure everything works out for the better.

Before I shot in India, I got some advice from a filmmaker who had shot there before-find a good producer. Any sort of international production is going to be difficult. We had to get visas to come there, permission to shoot at outdoor locations. Getting the camera we wanted-an Arri Alexa 35-was difficult as it had to be driven all the way from Mumbai. At one point, I had to reapply for my visa because I forgot to list my middle name along with my first name on the application. We overcame this by having a great crew on the ground in India.

My favorite scene is the moped scene in the Indian countryside. It was a small line in the script and Sean and I didn’t spend that much effort storyboarding it. Safdar told us he found a stretch of road we could film at. Sean, Varun Sanda, our 1st AD, and I got in a van with the Arri and met our actors at the location. We drove down this stretch of road for a few minutes. From the van, I yelled direction at Miho and Mathieu while Sean and Varun made sure to capture the footage. Filming the scene, I knew this was the movie. I captured still is what we used for the poster. It was an amazing experience, filming on the road in the Indian countryside, no permits, and with a skeletal crew.

If I was to do things differently, I would have done more rehearsals with my actors. As mentioned, I did do a chemistry test for both Miho and Mathieu. However, we were so busy getting travel and other logistics ready we didn’t do any formal rehearsals. I think both actors’ chemistry really comes across on screen. Miho has also won several awards for her performance. However, having more rehearsals would have made the shoot go even smoother. I learned that, no matter how busy you are with other tasks, always make time for rehearsals. 

I was asked this question on my last shoot from one of the crew about to go to film school. The advice I gave is: write. Writing is the most aspirational part of the filmmaking process. You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to get the money to film at exotic locations or if you’ll have to cast someone wrong for the role just to get financing. With writing, you can focus on what works as as story and what doesn’t. You set up the building blocks of a great film. So many people like to focus on technical equipment or on technique. If a film has a story with major flaws, the camera type or where it is placed won’t save it.

Bringing out an actor’s performance starts with casting. I’m blessed with an excellent casting director in Sarah Kliban, who I have worked with on my last 3 projects. We did three rounds of auditions for the main character of Akiko. It was in that process I discovered Miho Saito embodied the character. Over 200 men auditioned for the character who became Kevin. We did 3 rounds of auditions, the last one being a chemistry test with Miho. Mathieu Szymokowiak sold everyone on the role. Originally, the character was written to be an American. However, Mathieu was so good we changed the character just to get him. They say 90% of a movie is casting. It is said in sports like soccer and basketball, a coach can make a player up to 10% better and up to 30% worse. I believe the same numbers apply for directors and their actors. You can work with your actors to fully realize their character. I have been photographed reading Directing Actors on set so I believe in the techniques Judith Weston teaches. However, if you cast wrong, no director can get a great performance out of the actor.

This was my second time working with my composer Ayaka Nakamoto and my third time with my sound designer Eric Carbonara. Eric had been to India before so he had some notes before even watching the footage for how he wanted to handle the sound. With Ayaka, I knew I wanted live instruments, so we brought in a string quartet. We filmed a lot of the film without sound so they got to really play around with sound effects and with the score. I think they did a brilliant job.

Far too often people don’t give criticism. We worry about how someone might have their ego bruised by someone saying something mean. However, films are expensive. People’s careers are on the line. I like to encourage people to speak up as soon as possible if something isn’t working. If an actor doesn’t think a line of dialogue is working, they need to tell me and my writer in preproduction. If they wait till the day of the shoot, it’s unfair to everyone to have to change it right there. If a producer thinks the film is too long, we need to know while we are still editing, not after picture lock. Filmmaking is a team effort. If the team isn’t on the same page, it won’t work. You should get feedback as you can. You should make changes from the feedback. However, nowadays, getting good feedback is getting harder and harder to find.