0:01:05 – Speaker 2
Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. My name is Jonathan Nadeau, I’m your host and this is Embrace your Storm. Thank you for joining us. I’ve got an exciting episode for you, as always. Today I’m speaking with Harry and he submitted a film to the Tornado Film Festival called Enter the Room. Harry, thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me great to be here. Thanks for coming on. Harry. Before we get into Enter the Room, how did you get involved in film creation as your outlet? What brought you down this road?
0:01:37 – Speaker 3
Yeah, it goes all the way back to when I was really young. One of my first memories as a kid was watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Nice Love that film still one of my favorites. The scene, though, that I was so obsessed with as a kid was the opening scene where Harrison Ford is being chased by that boulder. Absolutely, I actually used to recreate it at my aunt’s place. Just take all these rubber balls and run down the stairs and pretend like they were chasing me like a boulder chasing him.
Anyway though. So yeah, I grew up especially on a lot of blockbusters. A little kid love an Indiana Jones, star Wars. As I got a little older, the Terminator films, alien, aliens so I always loved watching movies, but I guess that I probably got it from my, I would say, my grandpa. He’s awesome guy, paid for my college, one of the most generous people I’ve ever met just a much more business oriented two plus two equals four kind of guy.
So I wouldn’t say that he never pressured me, but because I was kind of like him, or even though I’m more artistic, like my dad especially, who’s an artist, I thought of having a job more of the way my grandpa did, who ran his own business, and because of that he kind of lightly nudged me first, kind of you know, said maybe I should go into accounting, and then I kind of agreed to go into marketing for business, which is interesting enough in its own right, but not really something I’m passionate about. So anyway, so you know, whereas I always loved films, love watching movies growing up, I just didn’t really think it was a realistic career path.
So, I studied business in college and while I had a great experience in college, I found myself not paying attention to a lot of my classes. It was a real bore. The last couple of years I’d even bring my laptop in and just be playing games while the professor you know, was presenting on their.
0:03:38 – Speaker 1
PowerPoint presentation.
0:03:41 – Speaker 3
So there were two things that opened my eyes. The first thing was this personal essay class that I took in college. I took it thinking, you know, it was a filler, it’s going to be an easy A. I had three friends who took it. They all I don’t think they got terrible grades, but I think they got like B’s, c’s and they all did pretty well in college and they kind of said no, no, no, this class is not a joke, it’s not a filler class. Like the teacher, he’s real tough. Like he’s, you better be prepared. So I got really nervous, I was upset because you know, I have my business classes which are tougher and I’m not excited.
0:04:15 – Speaker 2
Yeah, you wanted, yeah, exactly, you want to come an easy class or whatever.
0:04:18 – Speaker 3
So it ends up becoming my favorite class ever. It basically was just the teacher. You know, right from the first day I liked him. He was. He seemed very intelligent, articulate, not judgmental. I could tell that he wasn’t going to be an easy grader. But he basically, for our first idea he said yeah, just write a personal experience. You had that really stuck with you. So I had this not to get too into, but I had this crazy, crazy high school experience where the cops showed up at a friend’s party and basically I was hiding behind a laundry machine with like 30 clothes over me.
I won’t get too into that. So that was literally the story I wrote and I had been caught in previous having some English classes when I was younger. I tend to have a darker mind to write some of these darker stories and my teachers didn’t always appreciate them so I was a little nervous about it. He absolutely loved this. He was and all the things my friends warned about me I just didn’t see. But I guess it’s because he really liked the story and thought about it yeah.
So right off the bat, I got an A minus on that and the class was just so much fun. We did three personal essays that we wrote All of them. I had so much fun writing and just going to class, whereas my business class is it’d be a dragon, I’d be dreading it, these personal essay classes we’d go in, we’d read an excerpt, we’d heavily analyze it. I was actually excited to go to this class. So this was the first time where I kind of questioned wait a minute, like am I really like, could it be like this with all my classes? So I didn’t do anything about it. Though. So fast forward about a year and I’m having a lot of fun in college, but kind of in a rough headspace where I just it keeps not connecting. I’m taking these business classes, they’re boring.
They thinking, all right, well, maybe I’ll get some marketing job. I start having these kind of pipe dreams in my head well, maybe I’ll get a marketing job for some film production company. And then I transition, but it just it doesn’t really mesh or connect. It doesn’t really make sense to me. So anyway, very early in my second yeah, second semester of senior year, college, I have this dream and it’s I mean, I remember my dreams all the time. I have some and I’ve had some insane dreams I still do. But of all the thousands and thousands I’ve had, this is the one I will always remember.
So, basically all it was, I just saw a film, the Social Network, one of my favorite films, oh yeah, yeah, you know, with my roommate and I think it was a little influenced by that, but yeah, it was basically just nothing crazy. I’m going to a prestigious film school, I’m going to cinematography 101, I’m collaborating with other filmmakers, and in the dream I was just so happy, and I was so much happier in the dream than I was in real life. And what was so weird was how real the dream felt. And it felt so real that when I woke up I actually popped out of my bed, thinking the dream was real, that I was going to a film class. And I run to my bedroom door and I grabbed my backpack and my jacket and I suddenly stopped and I realized wait a minute, it’s Saturday, it’s noon. You were at a bar with friends last night. You’re not in film school, you’re not going to be a filmmaker, you know, you’re studying business and I guess you’re going to graduate college soon, get a business job you don’t really care about and that will be it. So that was the single, probably the most deflating moment of my life. Yeah, no, kidding.
I sat on my bed, I stared at my wall and I must have stared at my wall for like 20 minutes and suddenly a light bulb pops out of my head and I realized well, yeah, it sucks that. You know, you realize what you wanted to major in as you’re graduating college. But you know you’re 21, your life’s not over. This isn’t all your life’s not written in stone? So yeah, exactly, came up with this plan. I figured I’m going to graduate college, I’m going to find a decent paying job in business while I slowly pursue film. So I started working in insurance, which I did not like, but I saved up a decent amount of money doing that for five years, first in Manhattan and then I came out to Chicago. So while I was doing that, I was just during the day I was doing the insurance job and at night I was just the beginning reading a lot.
I took out this book on screenwriting from the library, watching a ton of YouTube tutorials on cinematography, editing, creating characters, storytelling and all while I was doing that I read a couple of quotes from it was from Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and they basically said like yeah, it’s great to study and like, look up theory and understand the way things work.
That they’re like, but if you really want to get better, you need to just go out there. And they had both mentioned buying a camera and just shooting stuff. So I did that and that’s where I shot my first film 515, which I mentioned earlier. And what was so cool about making that film was that with so many things in my life, I would envision it going one way and it would usually go worse. And with that film I felt like it went as good, even better, in some areas, particularly when I got to editing, which this really shocked me because I always thought I was gonna love shooting. I don’t hate shooting, but it is not one of my favorite parts of filmmaking. Editing is actually my favorite, with writing being a close second.
I thought I would hate, yeah, I thought I would hate editing, but when I started cutting the thing together especially when I put in the music that was the most fun I had had, maybe in my entire life. So yeah, anyway. So I made that film and while I was doing that I started going to networking events, got on this decently big indie film early like 50-ish people. That’s a lot.
0:10:17 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I know totally.
0:10:19 – Speaker 3
Yeah, I met this guy, Eugene Park, pretty well-known filmmaker in Chicago. He’s made a ton of films. He was making this film self-departation so he brought me on as a production assistant.
0:10:30 – Speaker 2
That’s cool.
0:10:31 – Speaker 3
It was just super cool being on a film set, seeing how everything worked.
0:10:34 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:10:35 – Speaker 3
But where I really got, where this really helped for me taking this role, was that I met this guy, lance Elliott Adams. He was a producer on set and I had a car. So I was picking up a lot of supplies and getting lunch for the cast and crew. So I spent probably 75% of my time on set with him. So we really kind of hit it off and he started bringing me on his films, first as a PA, then I did some assistant camera and lighting work.
So while I was doing this I came up with this idea for Enter the Room and I’d written the script and I was very happy with it. But you know, 515 I made on my own and this one I wanted to have an actual cast and crew. So what was tough for me was, you know, I didn’t know how to do that. I didn’t know how to put that all together, so it was kind of just sitting on the shelf for a while. Unfortunately, one day, lance you know I’m one of his friends’ films that I was helping out as a PA on he kind of asked me what was going on with me. So I told him about Enter the Room. I sent it to him. I just figured I’d sent my stuff to people before not heard back.
0:11:48 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.
0:11:49 – Speaker 3
But a week later he got back to me and he said, hey, like this, I really like the script, I really like the voices of the characters, especially the neurotic one. I think this could be a really awesome idea. And he’s like how would you like, you know, if I jumped on as producer and cinematographer and I immediately was like, yes, like this is what I’ve been, this is the break I’ve been waiting for. So basically, he kind of showed me the ropes. He showed me how to get an assistant director, how to post casting notices, which casting websites to use scheduling auditions for the theater, casting the right characters for their actors, for their respective roles, all the way to holding rehearsals, getting a gaffer for lighting, sound person, yeah, all the way up to scheduling shoot days, and everything went pretty smoothly.
I mean, there were some hiccups, as there always are, but it was so important seeing him do that because I realized, oh, like I can do this, I can actually I didn’t realize I could, you know, start up a film on my own like this. So I basically took what I learned from him and I’ve done it. I did it for my next two short films in the backseat, in Bay, for Blood, and then for my feature film, the Corridor Crossing, which I shot last summer and, yeah, things have been going well from there and that’s kind of just my backstory on how I got started in film.
0:13:09 – Speaker 2
That’s pretty awesome. I love you were kind of pointing out. One thing that a few other guests have pointed out too is like being on set as a great place to learn a whole lot and asking questions and stuff like that. So that’s pretty cool, that that was kind of part of your path. Like so you mentioned enter the room, so like why don’t you tell the audience kind of like what’s the kind of like the plot behind that story, what kind of gave the idea for it? Tell us a little bit about it.
0:13:35 – Speaker 3
Yeah, of course, and just to give a little backstory, I know we mentioned a little earlier, but this idea came from a roommate I had in college. He was a little uptight, to put it lightly. I think he grew up as an only child and he was not used to having, you know, being in close quarters with someone else, so I think that he didn’t like that and every little thing I did just kind of triggered him. He was accusing me of doing a lot of things I didn’t. So, yeah, it was that’s where the idea originally came from, and in the film I’d say, 90% of the things that Brian is getting on his brother Jeremy’s case about he did call me out on, and there were actually a ton of ton more things that were in the original script that I ended up cutting out because the movie would have been like 40 minutes if I didn’t cut that stuff out.
So anyway. So yeah, I kind of, as I mentioned earlier, I liked the idea. I thought there was a lot of tension, the characters were funny, but I didn’t think that was quite enough. So I figured, you know what, let’s make them brothers, let’s give them this kind of traumatic backstory sort of shape, who they were. I think that could really round out this film more successfully. And yeah, that’s basically.
0:14:54 – Speaker 2
You know there’s an kind of getting Can you give the backstory to the brothers, or will that give anything away?
0:14:59 – Speaker 3
I won’t give away the twist. But to get a little more into the story, it’s basically about two brothers. One’s name is Brian. He’s the neurotic, uptight one. One’s name is Jeremy. He’s a lot more laid back, he’s a little bit of a slob. They couldn’t be more different. And basically just Brian. Jeremy moves out to the city because he’s an actor and he recently landed a gig in Chicago, so they agree that he can stay at Brian’s place for a couple of weeks and basically just they’re differing lifestyles really trigger Brian.
0:15:30 – Speaker 2
That’s pretty funny.
0:15:31 – Speaker 3
So Brian is just getting on Jeremy’s case time after time after time, and Jeremy is a pretty laid back guy, so he takes it well first, but it slowly irritates him more and more until there’s basically this big explosion at the end. And then you do at the end of the film. I don’t want to give it away, but you kind of find out what happened between these two characters I understand a little more why they are acting the way they are towards each other.
0:16:00 – Speaker 2
That’s pretty cool. What gave you the idea to? Oh? I mean, you said like your roommate and stuff, but are there any kind of like producers or directors that you like, that you would like lean towards their style, would you say?
0:16:18 – Speaker 3
Yeah, there were no. So for the actual idea, I didn’t even realize this at the time. It had to have come from this film, though I thought about it after the older film classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
0:16:30 – Speaker 2
Okay, yeah.
0:16:31 – Speaker 3
I actually think the way the characters interact in the story not to say I mean that film’s a masterpiece. So this very light version of that, but I would say the films are pretty similar in that respect, narratively and character-wise. That’s probably the closest film to enter the room. From a stylistic perspective yeah, I’d say a number of directors. I’m a big Christopher Nolan fan, especially his earlier work. Memento is my favorite film of all time.
I would say sort of the twisty nature, that sort of how the film unfolds at the end. There definitely were some influences from him, the character Brian, even though he was based on my roommate, the way he talked and his mannerisms. I actually was going a little off of Jesse Eisenberg in the social network. Other filmmakers, though, that had a light influence excuse me, influence on this David Lynch is one that I get a lot of comparisons for, I’d say David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Alfonzo Carone and a few others.
0:17:32 – Speaker 2
Man, you also mentioned you did a feature film, so how is that compared to doing a short film?
0:17:41 – Speaker 3
It is crazy. So it’s in color correction right now and I’m actually running into a little hiccup with some of the clips not exporting color. Anyway, though that will hopefully be finished in the near future, everything about it is just so much bigger. Like when I was posting about it, I was getting way more feed mostly positive, some negative too way more attention. People just seem way more excited about it. It is definitely more expensive, it definitely takes way longer, but it’s also been so much more satisfying. I’m really happy with Enter the Room and I have another short film, bay for Blood, which is I’m hoping to have done in the next month, and I love those films. But my love for this film is kind of on a different level. I just think the fact that it’s a full length feature, two hour film. It’s called the Corridor Crossing. It’s the first idea I ever had for a film, but of course I didn’t wanna make my first film my feature film. That would have been insane.
0:18:40 – Speaker 2
I hear it. Yeah, I know, I hear that.
0:18:42 – Speaker 3
But so it’s just everything’s bigger, good and bad, but mostly good. I am so happy I did it. But I would say to any filmmaker who has only made shorts, when you’re making your first feature I was actually telling somebody this he made a couple of shorts. He had one of his short films won a couple of awards at the ceremony last night, which was cool. I told him you know cause I’m going from 15 minute films well Bay for Blood’s 18 minutes to a two hour film. So you would think, oh well, so it’s like, you know, six, eight times as much work. And I tell people well, it feels like it’s a hundred times as much work.
0:19:18 – Speaker 2
So just you know.
0:19:19 – Speaker 3
Yeah, so just be. I would say that’s my main piece of advice Really be prepared to be like you’re going to be breathing this thing 24, seven for like a year, maybe two years. So it’s amazing it’s been so satisfying to just be prepared for how much work it is.
0:19:34 – Speaker 2
Going back to the end of the room. Where did the title come from?
0:19:39 – Speaker 3
So it’s interesting because that one I would say since Bay for Blood, I have really spent a lot of time. I’ll do a lot of thesaurus like synonym lookups. I’ll usually take a few words or phrases I like and then plug it in and see what I can find With Enter the Room. It just kind of came right away. It just sounded. I like the sound of it. I like the whole film takes place in the apartment and I guess just the implication of kind of everything’s going down here. So that wasn’t one.
I spent very little time coming up with that one and I was like, yeah, I was a little nervous that maybe it wouldn’t work, but generally I’ve received positive responses regarding the title, whereas a lot of my ideas, since I’ve had to put a lot more thought into it.
0:20:30 – Speaker 2
So I mean you already kind of gave some advice a few minutes ago. But another question I’d like to ask everyone that comes on is like what advice would you give to any other up and comers that in the film industry, like writing or directing or producing, what kind of advice would you give any someone?
0:20:47 – Speaker 3
Yeah, I have a few. I’m glad you asked this because I’ve had a few interviews where this has been asked and I definitely think this is important for aspiring and new filmmakers. I’d say number one and I would never try to discourage anyone from doing this but, as you just need to have realistic expectations, and I think number one is, if you don’t love doing this not saying you can’t, but my advice would be do it minimally or don’t do it, because the amount of work and money even if I’m good at cutting costs, but it’s still expensive, Even my low budget films, it’s still it adds up and it would add up even more if I didn’t edit professionally. I save a lot because I can edit all my stuff, but anyway. So, yeah, do it because you love it.
And while you want people to love your film and you know, yeah, you want to get recognition and of course, it’d be nice to actually make money from a film those are not. Those things should not be requirements. For you to feel like this was a success. It should really come from the self satisfaction you get from going through the process and seeing the final product. I think that if that is enough for you and you really love doing it, you should be happy doing it. But if it’s not, and it’s okay if it’s not, I’ve tried doing plenty of things before filmmaking and I stop not completely, but stop focusing on them as much because I realized I was too focused on the end game and I wasn’t really passionate about them.
0:22:15 – Speaker 2
One was a basketball.
0:22:16 – Speaker 3
I was obsessed with basketball. I just was bad I played my old child. And I don’t even think I loved it that much. I just wanted to be good. I’m kind of a smaller guy, but I’m kind of well, I’m a little older now. When I was young I was very shifty and fast, but I just I didn’t understand the game well and I was not tough enough. I wasn’t good enough at defense. I could not slash well. All I could really do was maybe hit an open shot.
But anyway, so I kind of figured. Well, you can do it casually, but don’t don’t put so anyway. My advice, yeah, is if you’re a filmmaker and you’re kind of on the fence, you don’t have to quit, but just don’t put everything into this, because it’s an industry where you’re putting so much time and blood and sweat and tears. Yeah, you really are and you’re rarely going to receive, not only financially but even the recognition for Whiteness, Exactly.
0:23:05 – Speaker 2
No, for real.
0:23:06 – Speaker 3
There’s so much content out there. That would be my number one piece of advice. I would also say, number two for me would be that, well, that’s a copy of the Nike slogan, just do it.
Yeah, I see that a lot too, yeah, but just to get a little more into that because it sounds so obvious. But it’s what’s happened to me so many times and while I like to think that once I get into a rhythm I really go, but like a lot of other people, if I’ve never done something I get kind of stuck in the mud, I get nervous. It happened with the feature film. That happened with the script with Enter the Room. It happened the first time I had to shoot outside. It’s happened with all these new situations where I have happened with film festivals too.
I put that off for a while, me being afraid of failing, of being rejected, and I’ve come to accept the fact that when you’ve never tried something, no matter how good you are, no matter how hard you work at it, no matter how prepared you think you are, expect the unexpected. Every project I’ve ever worked on something always goes wrong and you will make mistakes. But you just need to kind of move on and make mistakes can be great because you can learn from them. My second film in the Baxi, which I love and I still think it’s a solid film. I made some mistakes with that film, but that, I think, is maybe the most important film I’ve ever made because I think it really helped for me preparing for Bay, for Blood and the Coroner Crossing. So I think it’s one of those. Don’t overthink it, just go. Things will go wrong, but if you’re persistent and you work really hard and you plan properly, you will get through and you will become smarter and stronger because of it.
0:24:48 – Speaker 2
Absolutely. Yeah, no, and those two things really do tie together. Where you’d have to take action and it’s not for the faint of heart, like you were saying. So just do it and keep your nose to the grindstone, kind of thing. And, like you said, things might come up, but there’s always, there’s more than one way around the bond to fix problems. And yeah I was sitting in another interview that so much happens in the film industry where, like you write a script and the writer puts so much trust and faith in all these other things in order to happen, for the film to actually even get made, you know.
0:25:30 – Speaker 3
Absolutely.
0:25:31 – Speaker 2
So yeah, but Harry, thanks for coming out so much. Is there any films you want to mention about Into the Room or anything else I didn’t cover?
0:25:41 – Speaker 3
Nothing too specific. Just I hope you know everyone watching this please feel free to the film will. It’s still going to festivals, but it will. You know it’ll be in a lot of. It. Should be playing in a handful more festivals, being online screenings here and there. I post on all my social media accounts Facebook, instagram, you want to give out your handles and stuff?
Oh, of course, If you so. My name is Harry Waldman. I’m at Edgewater Film Productions. If you Google Harry Waldman or Edgewater Film Productions, all my, all my information stuff comes up, okay, but yeah, just Harry Waldman.
My Instagram name is hwaldman18. But yeah, the film will eventually be streaming online. I’m more well, it’s nice to make money. I’m more concerned with getting as many eyeballs on this as possible. So I want if you’re watching this, you know I want you to see this film. And yeah, just you know, please continue. You know, if you like, enter the room. If you like any other stuff, please continue to support me, follow me. I’m. I plan on, you know, getting my short films enter the room in the backseat and Bay for Blood Once, once they’re done with festivals, I want to get you know, get those to the public online and then the corridor crossing will follow.
0:26:54 – Speaker 2
Awesome, Awesome. Thanks again, Harry. So much for your submissions to the tornado film festival and everyone. Thank you for listening, Thank you for downloading and don’t forget to embrace your storm. See ya.
0:27:07 – Speaker 1
Tornado with Jonathan Nado. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe now. See your first year. New episodes with more stories of inspiration about the highs and lows of life and how embracing the storm is so much more fulfilling of a life than being crushed by the weight of the world. And until then, we hope you’re inspired to do something, whether it’s creating, participating or learning whenever leads you to your personal passion.
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