That's what I expected when my good friend, Janelle Lannan asked me to take a look at the short film she had starred in called Dwarf Lord. No, she never asked me to write a story. It was just a friend passing along a link to a project she was proud of. I knew she was a strong actress, but I didn't expect the short film to be any good (most aren't). But how wrong I was! Dwarf Lord was nothing short but amazing.
Think of Office Space on crack. I had to find out who the director was and he instantly became someone I wanted to tell everyone was a "Director to Watch". His whitty comedic style, his geniusly crafted over-the-top characters, quick editing and brilliant one-liners had me captivated.
I knew it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would come calling and decided to interview Ned Thorne so our Huffington Post readers could get a taste for this man's brilliance:
I first discovered you on Youtube when my friend, actress Janelle Lannan, who won Best Lead Actress in your film Dwarf Lord sent me a clip. Wow! What a brilliant short film. What made you come up with the concept?
Dwarf Lord is one of half a dozen films I've made over the last two years with a rotating group of actors and crew collectively referred to as The MacArthur Genius Grant, the core members of which are myself, writer/producer Tom Brennan, and writer/editor Ian Marks, as well as composer Samuel Joseph Smythe, who's based in Los Angeles. Hopefully the MacArthur people will be cool with that. We originally came together to create films for a national fast filmmaking contest - the Diesel Filmrace (www.filmracing.com). The contest dictates a theme (in this case, "evil") and an action (counting money). Once we got the prompt, I wrote the whole script in about half an hour and we shot it. I've found that occasionally, when writing plays or movies, the idea drops almost fully formed into my head. I do a lot of improv with friends, creating scenes and characters off the top of my head, just seeing how long I can sustain something, and a several projects have been written originally as just improvisations on paper, which I then revise and shape into something coherent and hopefully still entertaining. Just because you laugh at something once doesn't mean it'll ever be funny again. I think in the case of Dwarf Lord I'd recently watched South Park's episode which deals with World of Warcraft, because I'm not a WoW player nor know all that much about it other than the basics which anyone with an ear to pop culture has heard: questing, gold, noobs, trolling, flame wars - geek stuff. Whereas I'm most definitely a geek in many areas - film and photography, mainly - I never got into the whole role playing arena and prefer to leave it to the experts. My hope is it gave some level 50 paladin out there a chuckle, and that they got the Leeroy Jenkins reference.
What challenges do you face being a new director in a world full of young filmmakers trying to break in?
Making films has been a dream of mine (among others) since I was about 13 and blowing up dummies made of old clothes for the camera with friends. When I first started, video cameras and editing equipment were still fairly expensive, especially the latter. I was lucky enough to have some friends with some very basic tape to tape equipment, and we went town. I'm 27 now. These days cameras and editing gear are so cheap and available that pretty much anyone with a solid idea (or not) and some willing participants can go out and shoot a short or a feature, throw it on the internet and get it seen. It might not look pretty, but you can do it. Obviously, this is in some ways a glorious and wonderful thing, since now I or anyone can save up, say, $5,000, and shoot a feature with it. However, despite the attractive egalitarian nature of such a development, I also tend to believe that just because you can shoot a movie pretty easily, it doesn't mean you necessarily should. For one thing, when I say shooting a movie is easy, what I really mean is that shooting a lousy movie is easy, which is why since the advent of consumer-priced professional-level equipment, the world has been flooded by cheap, crummy productions that fifteen years ago never would have made it off the creator's iMac. There are thousands of people like me out there - folks who loved movies growing up, and thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to make them for a living - but when we look online at hundreds and thousands of shorts and features being created, whether or not they're really any good (most aren't; as for my own, I reserve judgment to the viewer), we wonder how on earth we can possibly stand out from the crowd. But of course, people do. And those people - the ones that promote the hell out of their movie, spend time filling out festival submission forms and writing entry fee checks, stump for it via every available platform, and, of course, make the movie well - still have to get lucky. But they manage by sheer force of will, I think, to put themselves in an advantaged position with regard to luck. So in the end it comes down to simple drive. I can complain all I want about drowning in a sea of mediocrity, but the bottom line is that if unless I'm out there actually making my films, whether I'm a hack or the voice of my generation, I have no business complaining.
PS: Direct-to-DVD garbage made on the cheap for a quick buck at the video store is a whole different story. C. Thomas Howell has carved out a pretty good niche.
What has happened since winning your award?
Part of the prize was a scholarship to the Writers Bootcamp screenwriting course, which I wound up using, and which gave me the opportunity to revisit a few of the feature ideas I've had kicking around for years, and which I'm nor wrestling onto the page. With some luck and effort I'll be able to drum up some attention for those. Meanwhile Ian has moved on to his own projects, and Tom and I have worked together on one other fast film while spending a lot of time writing sketches and throwing ideas around. I have a feature I'd like to get off the ground this fall sometime in hopes of shooting next year, but of course, we all have day jobs, so it remains to be seen.
How many films have you made?
I've made half a dozen with the MacArthur Genius Grant, and perhaps a dozen more before that by myself or with others, all shorts. I've written several feature screenplays but haven't yet tackled an entire feature as a director.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I work as the video editor for an online media company that produces international video journalism for the web, so in the past few years I've found myself gravitating strongly towards that field. In five years I very much hope to either be behind the camera shooting features, or in a foreign country as a photojournalist. I also think Michael Palin's got about the best job in the world - roaming around the world making travel documentaries; he'll be my model for retirement eventually.
Who are you dying to work with in terms of producers or actors in your films?
If I'm allowed to fantasize at this point - every writer does when envisioning his movies - I think it'd be lovely to have Gary Oldman and David Thewlis in something together. Maybe with Simon Pegg as the junior partner, and Audrey Tautou as his love interest. I think Ray Stevenson is just awesome, as well as Tom Hanks, Mark Heap, John Hawkes, Tamsin Grieg, Ellen Page, Nathan Fillion, Edward James Olmos, Alan Tudyk, John Hurt, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet...I mean the list goes on. I'd drag Michael Palin out of retirement to be in something. I'd ask John Cleese but I expect he'd say no. Steve Hauck and Tracee Chimo are New York actors who just had their Broadway debuts, and I'm worried (sort of) that their theatre careers are about to take off and make them totally unavailable to be in my stuff. Irene Longshore, Janelle Lannan, Maya Rosewood, Matt Stapleton, Enid Cortes...basically I want to put folks I know up against A-listers and see who wins. That'd be fun. I'll make it a co-production of Wingnut and Merchant Ivory Films, and get to hang out with Peter Jackson and James Ivory.
Where can people go to see more of your work?
At the moment all the films I've made with the MacArthur Genius Grant are available at nedthornedirector.tumblr.com. That's probably the easiest thing to do.
What did you do to drive traffic and exposure to your film that works?
I've slowly learned to embrace the reality of social networking. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Digg, all of it - if you know what you're doing (and luckily I have friends who do), you can very quickly create a manageable social media network that shoots out in all directions. Throw a few live events behind that, and you'll hopefully start building a fanbase. By which I mean I'll do all that from now on.