MSU theater senior Nathaniel Nose has been making movies since he was 16 years old. His first feature-length film, "Unruly Nights," premiered in Lansing in October 2004. Nose's second feature length film, "Talent," will have its public premiere beginning Friday at Celebration Cinema, 200 E. Edgewood Blvd. in Lansing. Nose wrote, directed, edited and produced the film.
Nose and English senior Natalie Poston, who coproduced and acted in "Talent," took some time to sit down with The State News to talk about the film.
State News: What is the film about?
Natalie Poston: It's the kind of film you can watch over and over and not get tired of.
Nathaniel Nose: The premise of the movie is that there are two actors that are so horrible that auditors stop letting them go to auditions, and they end up staging auditions in public. It's about pursuing a dream and the dream can sometimes be enough; everybody has the right to pursue their passions. I cannot imagine a person between 15 and 35 that won't die laughing in this movie.
SN: What sets this film apart from other comedies?
NN: About 60 percent of this film is reality. These are real guys shot in their real houses with their real girlfriends, but it's not a reality show. It's a new genre — docucomedy. The great thing about documentaries and reality TV is there's an element where you feel like you know this person. You watch Tom Hanks on TV and you're like that was a great performance, but you don't feel like you know him. In a documentary you're given a window into the life of this person and you get this feeling from the movie.
SN: What challenges did you run into while filming?
NP: Usually it's so hard to get places to let you film. It's nice in East Lansing places like Woody's Oasis and STA Travel and Douglas J are excited about us doing it and want to help. Playing yourself can be one of the hardest things to do, and there had to be insane trust between Nathaniel and the actors to say what they wanted and trust that Nathaniel can edit it into a story.
NN: The biggest challenge I think was trying to tell a cohesive story with two actors who felt that saying whatever they wanted was the best way to tell a story.
I wrote a set script, which I really wanted to adhere to, but I told everyone I want this to be totally real, if a line doesn't feel natural change it, so say whatever you have to say. So we replaced the written dialogue when we had something better and it ended up being about 50 percent improv and 50 percent script. The great thing is, is that people won't be able to tell which is which — it's seamless.
SN: What do you hope people take away from the film?
NN: All I want from people is for them to walk out and say "God, that was a funny movie," not "that was a good effort by student filmmakers." It has more funny parts per minute ratio than any motion picture released this year.
SN: How do you feel about the finished product?
NP: I've worked on a lot of projects, more than I could count right now, but this is the best one I've worked on and the most efficient — I've never seen something happen so good, so fast.
NN: Nothing of it smacks of student film — it seems like something you would see on TV. I would go as far as to say that it's better than anything you'd see on TV. What's so insane is that the movie originally started out as a joke. Everyday it was kind of like "is this really going to happen?" And then we went from conception to completion in two months. I'm just so proud of everyone involved in it.
