Silla: I was invited to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later I ended up living in the U.S. for 9 years.
Q. "Mr. Calliphor" was a short film you wrote and directed which won 1st place at the 1996 Boise Film Festival. What was it about?
Silla: It was about a buzzing fly that was trying to make it into the light, but its negativity and criticism toward others trapped it in a room. It was really a fun film to make and learn with.
Q. I've heard that you have completed principal photography on a documentary about the fall of Communism in Estonia. What can you tell us about this project? When might people be able to see it?
Silla: True, I filmed during the summer of 1995 in Estonia, and also collected the historic archive footage for the documentary. It all seemed like a miracle. I found all the people I had planned for the interviews and recorded great stories at the setting of the Choir Song and Dance Festival. I think of it as the Estonian "All Thing" -- symbolic of an ancient outdoor temple ground where at least half of the nation gathers over every 4 years.
I chose the subject of Estonia being a pioneer in breaking away from the old USSR in 1987 because I was literally an active part of it when it was happening; it was my heritage. It was a time of awakening, a time of large gatherings of people, who would sing songs that had been forbidden since the time of Soviet occupation, and also new songs that rang through to the heart. Free speech for all in that little place was the way when the rest of the world was kept in the dark about what was actually done there.
Eight years after I did the filming in Estonia I was still planning to work on the documentary, but during during a move to a new apartment in Estonia my footage just disappeared. A large bag with 15 hours of footage was gone. I had the NTSC version still in KBYU building vault where we were editing with Mike Hutchinson as PBS desired to see a fine cut, but I don't think it exists any more. If someone finds it I would be most grateful and will definitely finish the film.
One of the reasons I haven't completed this work may be that it took a long time to find the money to transfer the PAL video to NTSC after I had shot it. The PBS series "P.O.V." finally took interest and they got transferred. Tom Lefler arranged for the transfers to get done, and Sterling Van Vagenen set me up in KBYU. At times I felt like I let them down. I was about to graduate, the editor had to leave, and I was also spending time on setting up a production company in Salt Lake City. It is sad when you have been excited about something, you have had an opportunity that should have been used but it didn't work out.
Q. Anybody with a perfunctory knowledge of film history appreciates the influence of Russian filmmakers on the artform. I can think of not only Eisenstein, who was one of the most important figures in the history of film, but also influential filmmakers like Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko, and Dziga Vertov. What about specifically Estonian filmmakers? Are there any whose work you admire?
There are. I like a lot of Estonian films. They remind me more of American films then the Russian ones. They are not so deeply philosophical and some are actually rather entertaining. I personally feel that Estonian films would do well in American cinema. If someone would like to try me, I to bet that dubbing a Soviet occupation era Estonian film into English would turn it into something hilarious -- something that school kids would memorize and repeat the lines from. You may think: "Well, that's unlikely. School kids don't like old foreign films that are black and white." Trust me. Young people would love these films. I particularly enjoy the work of a comedian director Sulev Nõmmik. As far as I know he directed only 3 films: "Mehed ei nuta" (1968; "Men Don't Cry"), "Noor pensionär" (1972; a.k.a. "Young Pensioner") and "Siin me oleme" (1978; "Here We Are"). "Here We Are" is a musical comedy that probably means to as much to Estonians as Monthy Python means to the British. Arvo Kruusement's "Kevade" (1969; "Spring") is to me a classic that I wouldn't miss if it were released in theaters again. Elmo Nüganen's "Nimed marmortahvlil" (2002; a.k.a. "Names in Marble") is a historical drama about how young Estonian schoolboys lost their lives in war fighting for Estonian independence in 1919. Priit Pärn's animated films are interesting. I hope this gives you an idea of what Estonian films are like.
Q. Which directors, from the United States or any place else, have influenced you as a filmmaker?
Silla: I don't think that a director could say or show anything in a picture that is not like him or herself. I am a very visual filmmaker, if an image causes a feeling to resonate, which is what Merchant Ivory's "Howard's End" does for me, then I am satisfied. I don't believe that the visual can come to the director or photographer without the screenplay being written to compose a moving picture. When I read a screenplay, and I can see it framed in my mind's eye. I can tell if it works with my style. I am sure there are many screenwriters whose work I like, but Berry Berman and Tom Shulman are a few that I would like to learn more from. Night Shyamalan is a director I would like to learn from. Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" has probably influenced me the most because of it's lesson to live a selfless life. I have been selfish at times to the point where I couldn't let go of situations where I didn't belong and things ended up in a disaster. To help me be better I like to have a reminder of how to serve others. The film "Patch Adams", which is based on a real person, also does this for me. The choice of the score at the end of this film sums up for me what he's like: "I got strength to the soul, I got faith of the heart, I'm going where the heart will take me. I got faith to believe, I can do anything. It's been a long road. Getting from here to there. And when I see. . . "
Q. Who are some of your favorite authors? If you had to choose one book to adapt to a feature film, what would it be?
Silla: I look up to people who have been authors of their lives, people who have honorably left their mark behind against all odds. Foremost among these I would say are Abraham Lincoln, Dale Carnegie, and Henry Ford. One book is quite hard to pick, but I recently read Eric Flint's 1632. I would like to option it -- if somebody hasn't already done so by the time I'm able to.
Q. How long have you been working in the film industry?
Silla: I have been working on movies for 6 years now, learning about making films and about how the industry works. I've worked on Hollywood studio films helmed by other people, and I've completed a few short films of my own. I've been trying to get things in place so that I can direct my first feature. In many ways the odds are against a foreigner, but I would encourage the international directors to follow their contrasting vision and international directorsdomestic producers to take advantage to in pursueing it the proven industry model if they have the financing.
Q. What are you working on now?
Silla: I am in Estonia looking to finance a low-budget ($160,000 USD) English language feature film. After a fairly extensive search I have found the perfect, dynamic screenplay that I had hoped for. It is a contemporary fantasy written by Mike Snyder. The working title is "The Unicorn." My first response to him after reading and analyzing the photoplay was this: I was overwhelmed! I have seen the unicorns, I have seen the film in my mind. If the audience loves the writing as much as the writer loves the audience and the characters, it brings a resonating feeling. The story makes you want to echo its feeling of hope to people who haven't felt this kind of hope for a long time. When I read this script I thought it was sublime and at the same time so powerful. In the end, there's a way in which you really believe in these unicorns, and you look at other people and think, "I believe in you, too." This motion picture deserves to be made well. It can be made well if the whole production team feels united in the cause to live in this magic during the development and production. Whoever works on this will have to have love in their hearts, or they can mess up the whole thing. Whoever reads this must cry and laugh, or they should not touch it.
Q. What can you tell us about the plot of "The Unicorn"?
Silla: It is about hope. The moral of the story is shown in Lee's song to her daughter Josie: "A song about faith...and trust...and love...and unicorns."
A premise would read probably something like this: The story begins with a 13-year-old named JOSIE, who encounters and then befriends a unicorn cub, CODY, at the mesa near the home where she lives with her aunt BONNY and her uncle CALEB. Josie, something of a tomboy, a daughter of a local Country Western singer LEE Calder, inspires the TV journalist, BILL Collingwood, to come and search for the fabled Cody, and to eventually bring with him a record producer, YOAKUM. Trust in honorable men is restored to the heartbroken women by the actual Unicorn, while knuckleheads like COLE and DUSTY make attempts to capture it. SAMUEL, a Native American whose family has had a unique association with the unicorns for hundreds of years, emerges to take Josie and Lee on their life's journey. This is what the unicorns have meant to his own people.
Q. Obviously "The Unicorn" would be a unique film. But is there any film you could compare it to in tone or style?
Silla: I am not sure if there is anything unique any more in this world, however original something may seem. "All new is forgotten old" as they say.
I definitely do an analysis for myself based on how comparative pictures have grossed in the GBO, but for this micro-budget film it is almost pointless, as there is no P&A money spent by the studios, or any distribution windows looking forward to it. It is a film made on spec, but still I need to make sure it returns the investment and hopefully generates a profit. I would leave it for the viewers to decide if it is like anything else.
Q. The budget you mentioned is very small for an American-made feature film, but would go a long ways in Eastern Europe, where the film crews are very experienced, but less expensive. How does this factor into your plans?
Silla: I am certain everyone has their own right pattern for filmmaking. I can tell you what my plans are, and how they differ in a few ways from a regular American studio film. My first films are unlikely to be produced in the way I would like, because the money is not there, it needs to be made on DV even so I believe it deserves more, it truly makes me laugh and cry. With one of the next pictures I can go with the pattern I believe to be right for me, this is where, let's say, you have 1 million dollars to develop three pictures as an undertaker for a studio. From the 1 MLN USD 120% is projected to be returned in 1 year, and conferred to the investor is also 10% participation from each picture's company gross over 3 years. The production budget for each of these films needs to be about 30-60 million USD. True it is that this money comes from the entertainment industry banks, and as banks never take a risk it is not a risky venture for them or the producer from that point on (if the story and talent is there). This money is secured by pre-sale and studio distribution agreements and by a completion bond. This is like a negative pickup but with the difference that just the right amount of rights is given to the studio.
A feature film financed this way might not be able to introduce very much LDS culture. Nevertheless, they can inspire the world for better. These pictures are for a world-wide audiences, and to be successful they have to at least garner their production costs at the box office, and a total approximately triple that when U.S. box office gross is combined with the foreign, video, and ancillary markets. And they will, because banks don't take any risk. You know that a picture's success is for the most part determined before any development money (1 MLN) is spent. It is a process and uses a formula. As a creative producer, you are still the artist deciding the outcome, but you have a team of US executives involved to ensure global success. You choose a team that is most respected from among completion bond companies, major studios, banks, publicists, entertainment law-firms and presale companies. You pick bankable people, and you learn from them. As more of us become adept at doing this, we pave the way for others. The majority of the film industry is optimistic about working with anyone immersed in the culture who has sound business experience in mainstream filmmaking, as long as they are talented.
Q. What is your long-term goal as a filmmaker?
Silla: It may be true, that I as a foreigner might be unable to participate in this grand work, but I'm thrilled to see others do so. I hope to be a part of this in at least some small way, to fill the pail of good drop by drop. I hope we make our works through the love of our Savior. This is my hope and my prayer.