How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away?
I suppose it’s finished when you are ready to put it out into the world. I usually write multiple things at once, and then wait till something feels like the right thing to make into a film. A good script to shoot isn’t always my most beautifully and lyrically written script. But it’s the one that feels like the story I want to tell right now. So it’s not necessarily finished at the beginning. It gets better and better as we add in all the other elements of production. I often change the script during rehearsals, because I’m very interested in seeing authentic people on the screen. So we improvise a lot in rehearsals, and find their characters together, and that can change the script a bit. I have a harder time letting the film go during post-production. I would edit forever. Fortunately the editor I work with is so good that I have to let him move on so he’ll work with me again next time!
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I have my own particular way of seeing things, so when I read something in the newspaper, or hear my children talk about something, that way of seeing steps in and looks for my unwritten story in it. Someone else might read the same thing and see its story differently. My recent film came from my children’s love of hotel rooms, and their fascination with room service. They asked me, “Can you get anything you want?” We adults take it for granted, we know there’s a person on the other end taking down our order, that there’s a kitchen, that there’s a real system there, but to my kids, it was wonderous. That sort of thing has to make you dream – what if you could get anything you want? And where would that lead?
What is your favorite aspect of film production?
I love being on set. Writing is wonderful because you create these worlds out of your head, and if you allow yourself, there’s an endless stream of worlds in there. Creativity is really unlimited if it’s given permission. But it’s very quiet and I don’t really love sitting for long periods of time! When I was twelve I made my first film as an actor, and I fell in love with the set. The community of a crew working together, to make what I still think is magic. Every art form comes out of some menial thing – a piece of charcoal, a typewriter – and then there’s this beauty. I prepare so much, so when I come to set I’m excited to see all these storyboards and meetings and ideas come into being.
Why did you choose to submit to the Breckenridge Film Festival? What do you look for in a festival where you hope to show your film?
I submitted to Breckenridge because I had heard for a long time about its reputation as a top festival. Once I was accepted, I realized the reason it had been in my radar for so long was because other filmmakers respected and loved the festival so much. There is so much support for both the film and the filmmaker at Breckenridge, which is the best thing that I hope for in a festival experience. Although I collaborate once I get to pre-production, being a writer/director/producer is a pretty long, lonely process. There is a point where you just step over the line and decide to make something, and then you’re in it for the long haul. And it’s really only getting to a festival like Breck when I feel like it was all worth it. There’s such an intelligent audience and group of filmmakers and film lovers there, it really makes me feel seen and understood and appreciated. After two years of working on a project, that is better than anything!
What are the next project or projects you are beginning work on?
I’m working on a film I wrote/directed about a boy who is stuck in a hotel by himself all night. It’s about what happens to the imagination when you’re alone. And it’s about children, especially children who are left alone. I was inspired by the fantastical world of children, which I think is very real. Children are so good at making up worlds, and so good at believing in them. That’s why children have such raw acting talent! But imagination without boundary – it can be so beautiful, and also dangerous. Those two ideas – the beauty and the danger - merge in the film. Hopefully at the end you wonder at that fantastic talent for dreaming and creating, and at a life where reality is submerged by a world of dreams. I suppose that speaks to any artist’s inner life😊
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About Darcy Miller
Darcy was born in a small town in New York, moved to New York City at age three, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Yale University where she studied Political Sociology and earned a degree in Classical Acting at the London Academy of Performing Arts. She studied screenwriting at the New School and acting with Fred Kareman and at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
She wrote, directed, and produced the film, Stories We Could Have Told You, which won Best Short Drama at Breckenridge Film Festival and played at DC Shorts, Buffalo, Tacoma and many others. She also wrote, directed, produced and starred in the 10-part series, One Bird at a Time, a dark comedy about the rise of homelessness and addiction in Portland. Other projects include the film Rise (written/directed/produced) and One Hundred Eighty Degrees (written/produced). She was a co-writer on the adapted screenplay of Edwidge Danticat’s Caroline’s Wedding, which won the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest.
Darcy has two daughters, age 5 and 7, who make it difficult to find time to work, but easy to be inspired to do so.
