Interview: Director Josh Hope for ‘Wild Blue’ at the Chicago Film Fiesta

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CHICAGO – The Chicago Film Fiesta is an ongoing showcase for independent and micro budget shorts and features, and they are presenting the film “Wild Blue” on Saturday, February 8th, 2014, at the Logan Theatre in Chicago. “Wild Blue” is a road picture, written and directed by Josh Hope.

Josh Hope graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2002, and after a stint working in TV production – which began in Chicago with The Jerry Springer Show – he formed his own production company in 2005, and produced his first short film, “Eugene and the Worm,” in 2007. “Wild Blue” is his first feature film, an arresting story about a foster child who becomes too old for the system, and is launched into the world. While working a dead-end job, he meets a girl and joins her road trip, which becomes the journey for the film.

Wild Blue
Stills from the film ‘Wild Blue,’ directed by Josh Hope
Photo credit: www.WildBlue-Movie.com

The Chicago Film Fiesta is the brainchild of Chicago Talkies, an independent film company in the area. The event will kickoff at noon, with the film at 1pm, with opportunities to meet the director, crew and cast of “Wild Blue” before and after the premiere. Director Josh Hope talked to HollywoodChicago.com in anticipation of the screening.

HollywoodChicago.com: You are exploring the circumstances of a person coming from the closed society of fostering, into the open society of possibilities. What spurred the idea, was it something in your own life or something outside of it?

Josh Hope: It came from my real life. My parents were foster parents in Oklahoma, and these kids would come in – some with severe problems – and my parents would foster them until adoption. This process could take up to two years, but in some cases there were kids in the foster system until they were 18 years old, and the state just releases them into society. It’s like a prison sentence that ends, what happens next? After I’ve seen a couple of these kids come through, it’s a story I wanted to tell.

HollywoodChicago.com: It is also a road picture. What elements of a the road picture genre did you want to avoid, and what other elements do think must be in a road picture for the sake of familiarity or story sensibility?

Hope: We definitely wanted to avoid any clichés, we wanted it to be natural and real. We hit the road, shot a week on the Oklahoma roads, then a week up near Chicago. We simply wanted to make it feel real as possible, so if you’re watching the film you feel like you’re hanging out with the three characters in the car.

HollywoodChicago.com: You wrote both male and female characters. When you wrote the female characters, do you ever get stuck on what they would do based on not being in the gender, or are you just going for a persona that could fit a male or female?

Hope: When I write, that is one of my biggest concerns. I want my female characters to be real, to feel real, yet there is also a bit part of me in every character I write. As far the character of Lola in ‘Wild Blue,’ I took pieces of my life and the lives of four or five women that I know, and combined these elements. She was born out of that.

HollywoodChicago.com: We are in a blossoming era of the micro budget film. With more people having access in the way to making a film, what obstacles do think most filmmakers don’t realize after a film is shot and finished?

Hope: I knew exactly what to expect in the type of film we were making. The biggest problem that filmmakers have is after they shoot their first independent film, their expectations are sky high, and they think they’ve made a film that will automatically go to Sundance or even the Cannes Film Festival. That’s very rare. So in making this film, I knew exactly which festivals to attack, and the distribution afterward. It freed us up in the type of film we could make, because we didn’t have to worry about pleasing anyone in Hollywood, and we didn’t even have a ton of investment money to pay back.

HollywoodChicago.com: What, as a director, is the easiest way for you to re-engineer a scene that isn’t working or doesn’t seem natural? What techniques do you use, either with the actors or the scenario?

Josh Hope
Director Josh Hope of ‘Wild Blue’
Photo credit: www.WildBlue-Movie.com

Hope: It depends on the actor, and the situation. You have to get to know the actor as a person, as well as the character they are playing. If something isn’t working in a scene, hopefully I can figure out the trigger to get it going again. It’s difficult sometimes, because you want to be friends with the actors, but if I want them to do a certain thing, I have to find that trigger and pull it.

Despite the low budget, I wanted to find good actors, because otherwise the whole thing wouldn’t work. We worked hard on the audition process, and saw about a thousand people for the three main roles. We wanted great actors in the film, and we found them in the Chicago area. Another consideration is the right type of person, because we were shooting in the middle of Oklahoma, on 100 degree August days, so I didn’t want anyone who would crack under that or be a diva.

HollywoodChicago.com: How many days did you shoot, and what was the total budget?

Hope: We shot it in 13 days over a total time of 17 days, and the cost was $7000.

HollywoodChicago.com: Who are your director heroes, and did you include an homage to any of them within ‘Wild Blue’?

Hope: No direct homages, but definitely bits and pieces of movies and directors – with their styles – that I have picked up along the way. My biggest influences are Alexander Payne, Noah Baumbach and Joe Swanberg. ‘Drinking Buddies,’ by Joe Swanberg, was one of my favorite films of last year.

HollywoodChicago.com: Given your last name, what has been the greatest moment of personal redemptive hope in your lifetime?

Hope: I will put it in the context of ‘Wild Blue.’ When I began the process of putting the film together, and was telling people I was making a road picture for seven grand, they thought I was insane. [laughs] They said it couldn’t be done and I wouldn’t finish it. So when we did finish it, got distribution and screened at ten festivals, it was nice to know we did do it, they were wrong. That is the very definition of redemptive hope.

The Chicago Film Fiesta Presents the Chicago Premiere of “Wild Blue” on Saturday, February 9th, 2014, at 1pm – in the Logan Theatre, 2646 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here. For more information about Chicago Talkies, click here.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2014 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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Wild Blue Movie

We are proud of Josh Hope in his perseverance toward getting his first feature film completed(done). This film has helped Josh Hope further his passion toward his goal of making quality films that all people can come and hope to enjoy for themselves. A family movie that you can still take your children too. Josh is eagerly working on more quality films to bring to the public in the very near future. Go and watch “Wild Blue” at a theater near you or catch the movie on line at INDIEFLIX and other outlets. We welcome your comments and feedback. Go to website for “WILD BLUE” movie and let us know what you think. THANKS Chicago Film Fiesta and HollywoodChicago.com. Thanks PatrickMcD for great article on our director Josh Hope and “Wild Blue” Movie!!!

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