LONG BEACH
– Brian Fischer may not be able to make a serious movie, but he
certainly is serious about his movies.
If you ask the 1998 Gilroy High School graduate about his
favorite film writers, he might tell you about Charlie Kauffman or
the Cohen Brothers
– writers who make you think.
LONG BEACH – Brian Fischer may not be able to make a serious movie, but he certainly is serious about his movies.
If you ask the 1998 Gilroy High School graduate about his favorite film writers, he might tell you about Charlie Kauffman or the Cohen Brothers – writers who make you think.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he wants to do.
“I like thinking movies, but I don’t want to make them like that,” he said. “I’d like to make a serious movie, but it always turns into a parody of itself. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make a serious movie.”
The 23-year-old, who recently graduated from Long Beach State University, is already showing that it doesn’t take a serious movie to get some attention in the movie business. His short film, “L ‘Histoire de Billy Matter,” earned him a pile of top honors at the 2003 Media Arts Festival, which honors the best film work by California State University students each year.
Out of nearly 200 entries this year, Fischer’s film earned first place for narrative, audience choice, best in show and best cinematography – a virtual sweep of the top honors the festival has to give.
“It may have been a record,” Fischer said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
Fischer’s film, a spoof on time travel films, was eight minutes long, and was film in black and white and in French.
“A boy finds a lobster and thinks it’s from the future, and he devotes his life to making a time portal and return it to the past so he can do it over and over,” Fischer explained.
The inspiration for the film came from the movie “Donnie Darko,” a movie about time portals that was released last year.
“I didn’t really understand it,” Fischer said. “(Films about time travel) are always a loop, and it doesn’t make sense. (My film) kind of came from not being able to understand time travel movies.”
The originally wasn’t in French, but Fischer changed it later as a way to get back at his teacher.
“My teacher wanted me to change the end of the film, and it bothered me,” he said. “So I made the movie in French.”
But using another language also served another purpose.
“Being in French, it covers up bad acting,” he said. “People have an expectation of foreign movies being different, so it kind of plays on that.”
Another oddity of Fischer’s film is that one of its main stars is a plastic lobster.
“My roommate has a lot of weird items,” he said. “It just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
The film took Fischer three-fourths of a year to complete and cost $1,500 to make – one of the least expensive of the films submitted.
There were four actors, an eight-man crew, and four people helping with post production, and the movie was filmed in several places around Long Beach, including a park and Fischer’s own apartment.
While Fischer said he was surprised by all critical acclaim his film garnered, he was especially appreciative of the audience choice award.
“The audience choice one was the biggest one,” he said. “There was a lot of Cal State-LA, Northridge and Fullerton students (at the arts festival). There were only four from Long Beach. Everybody was going to vote for their own. I guess some people switched over to mine.”
While he said making the movie was a learning experience – this was the first time he actually got to work with film – Fischer hopes to use the success of “L ‘Histoire de Billy Matter” to springboard him into a career in movies.
He is already working on another film, called “Fellinis’ Donut,” about a man trying to find a donut. The film will be in black and white and will be in Italian
“I guess it’s my style,” Fischer said about creating black and white foreign films. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
Meanwhile, he hopes to put his original film up on www.ifilms.com, a Web site for independent films, but there is a slight problem. A short scene from the movie “Back to the Future” is in his film, and he doesn’t have the rights to it. However, he hopes he can still place it online for viewing because he will not make money by posting the film online.
“I’m not trying to sell it,” he said.
Fischer, who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he was taking general education classes at Gavilan College, said his parents, Tom and Becky Fischer, have been a major support for him.
“My parents have been very supportive, from helping me through college to come to the awards show,” he said.
And, with his recent success, he hopes to make the next step in his budding career.
“My next step is to get myself an agent,” he said. “That’s my goal, to write and direct – every film student’s goal, I guess.
“But I think I have a better chance now.”
