Past Filmmakers

Christopher Holmes
Solid State 9:56

1. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

In the winter of 2002, my first in North Carolina, Greensboro was inundated by an ice storm for several days.  The absolute panic resulting from this undeniably natural phenomena was something so foreign to me, so unnatural, I felt compelled to document it, and so I did.  I sat on the footage for over a year before the memories, images, and textures of the storm began to arrange into some tactile form in my head.      

2. How long did the production process take?

From start to finish it was about a year and a half, but there was a lag of over a year between shooting the footage and beginning the editing process.  As a functional film project there were three days of shooting and about three months worth of editing involved.

3. What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

The greatest challenge was interpreting the seemingly random images and moments I captured, sorting through the mechanics of my own optics so to speak, and synthesizing something meaningful from it.  The film, by design, was an exercise in deconstructing the aesthetic tendencies of my brain,  an attempt to explain the forms and shapes that magnetize my eyes at any given moment.  The ice storm footage was a good forum for that.  It's essentially the same challenge that direct cinema documentarians like Wiseman or the Maysles brothers deal with, but on a more abstract level.  Cultivation of a story from random, varied pieces.    

4. What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

The ice storm itself was fantastic…Tree branches were cracking off and dropping, compact cars were sliding into eachother at every turn, the power was out for a week in some parts of the city.  It really did a lot of damage.  Guys were walking around with chainsaws like zombies.  There was an Infiniti near the arboretum with an oak tree slicing down through the roof like a can opener, length-wise.  That image, although I didn't film it, sort of encapsulates the storm for me.  Nature doesn't give a s*%$ about your property or your pedantic notions of controlled systems, control over your fate. 

5. When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

I would hope they would maybe feel a sort of transcendental calm, a separation from this cutthroat capitalist mentality of accumulation and property we are bombarded with on TV and in media, it's meaningless after all.  You can't take it with you.  Also it would be cool if they would recycle more.  Especially glass, though admittedly it is fun to break. 

6. What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

This being such a personal experiment or exercise, I really haven't shown it to anyone outside of the UNCG faculty and a handful of students.  Responses have been fairly vague, like “I liked it, for some reason, I liked that part with the dog.”  It's been helpful in that I know now to include more dogs in my films.

7. What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers?

Don't be afraid to incur debt.  In order to take risks and produce original work, you'd better be willing to front some cash to put your ideas out into the world because nobody else is likely to foot the bill.  The best films, by and large, end up being some of the least profitable.  Revolutionary ideas are a tough sell.  And if you're in it for the money, who wants to see your stupid film anyway. 

8. Please tell us about the next film you plan to work on.

In the next year I hope to find funding to shoot a script of mine concerning the Lost Colony, at the Outer Banks.  Not a historical piece, just as a sort of backdrop for the story, a texture.  I'm in the process of adapting the short script I wrote into a feature length project, and of course it's optimistic but I'd like to start shooting on it next summer if possible.  I'd really like to get it made. 

9.  What are your thoughts on the film industry in NC?

I see North Carolina as a state poised to make a significant impact in the film industry very soon.  The resources and infrastructure are already here and more or less established, and North Carolina has some of the most ecologically diverse locations of any state in the country.  The increasing number of film students in the state also is encouraging and hopefully will help to disrupt the traditional New York or Los Angeles trajectory of most aspiring filmmakers.  The emergence of the Full Frame Film Festival as a premier festival venue can't hurt, either.