…Making movies, especially when you’re independent, is a really tough job! If I had to stop each time I was disappointed by something, I wouldn’t be speaking with you today…
Bitch, Popcorn & Blood – teaser from Fabio Soares on Vimeo.
Our Hubble penetrates through worlds so far and so close … along this chaos of crazy consuming and alienation. We try to discover true tones that can bring together. We desire to realize who we are and what we do and why. We don’t need in borders, centers, provinces, metropoles, colonies… Just words just a dialogue… Stop. I detect a light. Zoom. Focus. Meet … Fabio Soares!
Hi, I’m Fabio Soares, from Paris, France. I grew up in a modest workers’ family, my father is Portuguese and my mother Spanish. I was poor but happy! My parents always helped me the way they can and today I understand how precious it is to have such a great family.
After my childhood, I had many casual jobs to pay my art studies. I always knew I wanted to make pictures, that’s the passion of my life! I can’t live without creating images, on a movie or just every day as a visual artist.
I worked 10 years in advertising as Art Director, for several big communication companies. It was really great! I met fantastic people, worked for international brands as Johnnie Walker, Orange or Absolut Vodka, and even won awards… Everything was perfect, but something was missing: I needed to create my own stories and pictures! One day, dunno why, I decided to make my first movie…
We use our know-how method of three projections. Today projections are TRIGGER, BRIGHTSIGHT and FEEDBACK.
PROJECTION # 1 “TRIGGER”
I don’t really know, it has always been inside me I guess. When I was a teenager, my main passion was movie posters. I had movie posters everywhere in my room: on my walls, my door, even on the ceiling! I used to go to bed watching “Fight Club” movie poster above me! I was too poor to go to movie theatres, so, with my brother Miguel, we took an unlimited pass in a video club next to our flat. It was really cheap and I spent my free time watching all kind of movies! I was so happy… I don’t remember wasting my time: I enjoyed each movie, I even loved very bad ones!
I was just sure about one thing: I wanted to be a graphic designer and make movie posters! So, later, I studied Art at an Art School. Then, during a summer, around 1998 I guess, I worked full time, as a waiter, to buy a small camera. A very cheap one but it was so expensive at this time… I made my first movie with some friends. It was so fun and intense!
Time passed. 10 years later, after saving money from my job – Art Director in Communication – I was able to make my first “serious” short film: Woman With No Name. That’s the real start of my filmmaker life.
Nowadays I consider myself as really lucky: I live through my two main passions: design and films.
What film is a gold standard for me? So many… “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (or any Sergio Leone film starring Clint Eastwood) is always a pleasure to watch! It reminds me a lot of souvenirs. It’s still a masterpiece in his tension in the final scene… I don’t remember a movie that gives me the same feelings. It’s probably the reason why my first movie was a western!
I enjoy Asian Cinema a lot too. From “chambara” (samouraï movies from the 60’s) to modern or weird movies. The timing is very different – slower – and silences are sometimes more important than dialogs.
They know how to do more with an ultimate simplicity.
In fact, I enjoy many things: action, horror, drama, old, new, good, bad, from everywhere… I’m a very curious person: I enjoy discovering new and old things. I love when things are simple, straight to your feelings, without effects. Thelma & Louise is maybe my favorite movie: the simplicity of a true relationship, like life.
My favorite Director is David Lynch. He creates all his universes, goes deep inside. He doesn’t care about the rules and deliver you something special each time. I would love to meet him one day!
PROJECTION # 2 “BRIGHTSIGHT”
I don’t think about disappointments. Making movies, especially when you’re independent, is a really tough job! If I had to stop each time I was disappointed by something, I wouldn’t be speaking with you today. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to make it happen, but “almost” is not enough to stop you if you believe hard in your project, dream and crew.
I don’t know any “normal” day when I work on my movies. Every day is a unique experience. On our last movie “I Will Crush You & Go To Hell”, we had to change the main actress one week before the shooting in Spain. Everything was planned since 4 months and it was impossible to move the schedule. This was a really tough call, as a good casting needs time… We cast a new actress (Petra Silander) and had to change her lines as she was very different from the first actress. We worked 5 days nonstop before the shooting and at the end it was much better than the original script! So, as you see, everything is an opportunity even if sometimes, you don’t feel like it on the moment.
PROJECTION # 3 “FEEDBACK”
For me, the best satisfaction related to filmmaking is when you screen your film. That’s a very basic thing, but you work so hard just for a couple of minutes on a screen… I’m always glad to anyone who pays attention. Sometime you work one or two years, but at the end you know that it’s worth doing it, it’s an incredible feeling to see people enjoying what you do!
I love festivals! It’s a great way to spread your movies and get audience feedback. Digital makes it easier. Nowadays you have a lot of festivals everywhere in the world and it’s quite easy to submit your work. You have very good festivals and bad ones. For example, there are many “private screenings” festivals without an audience, officially considered as festivals. For my part, I don’t consider a festival a place without a public audience! Let’s be honest, at the beginning you are happy with the selections, it’s such a tough job to make a movie… and suddenly you realize that no one saw your movie, except a couple of unknown persons. Now, when I submit a movie to a festival I ask for all the details: the location, the audience, etc. The most important is to get an audience (big or small, no problem) and know their feedbacks!
With a friend, Magali Souart, we have created a festival in Paris this year: Excuse My French. A festival dedicated to independent short films! In Paris, we are still very old-fashioned: the city doesn’t support independent cinema that much, even if people love it. So we created this festival and it was a blast! We received incredible movies and the audience loves it! The second edition is already on his way for 2018.
Aliaksandr Martyniuk,
columnist, director of SMCFF