Kelly Blatz

February 2020 Filmmaker of the Month

Professional Bio:

Kelly Blatz is an actor and filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. As an actor, he has worked in numerous films and television shows over the last decade. In 2014, he made his foray into filmmaking, directing numerous short documentaries. In 2016, he directed and starred in his first narrative short film titled "The Stairs" opposite Anthony Heald, which won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Ashland Independent Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the River’s Edge International Film Festival. He has completed his directorial feature debut "Senior Love Triangle", which has won numerous awards including Best Feature at both Breckenridge Film Festival and Syracuse International Film Festival.

Learn more about Blatz here. Check out the film that won our own festival’s Best Feature Award here.

Filmmaker Interview with Kelly Blatz

Breck Film Fest’s Best Actress, Marlyn Mason, pictured here in a scene from Blatz’s debut feature film Senior Love Triangle. — Breck Film Fest’s Best Actress, Marlyn Mason, pictured here in a scene from Blatz’s debut feature film *Senior Love Triangle*.

1. Tell us your backstory. How and why did you get into filmmaking?

I was always obsessed with the camera, from a very young age. I was the kid who made the skate movies for all the skate kids. I took a film class my senior year in high school that really solidified wanting to dedicate my life to it. I was headed to film school, but a girlfriend at the time suggested I study acting and instead of paying $100K for film school, I could potentially get paid to learn filmmaking through osmosis by working as an actor. I thought it sounded like a pretty good deal, so I went that route and I am really glad that I did. I acted for six years, then picked up the camera again and started making short documentaries, a short film, and now a feature film.

2. What are the specific qualities that, in your opinion, make a film great?

Film is so subjective, like any art. I think films are great that people think are trash. What I am always hoping for, is to see something that has never been done before. To see something risky or irreverent. Too see films that you knew had an emotional cost, something personal. To see a film someone risked their entire mortgage on. To see a film that saved the person’s life who made it. I think specificity is one quality that I think can make a great film. Specific images, emotions, characters. Also films that ask more questions than give answers.

3. What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?

That is a hard question to answer because almost everything I have ever seen has been influential or inspiring. I could say that “Homeward Bound” or “Rookie of the Year” is just as inspiring to me as “Apocalypse Now” or “Days of Heaven”. There are different times in life when different films speak to you. Currently, I am really enjoying the films of Harmony Korine, Hal Ashby, Robert Downey Sr., Louis Malle, Werner Herzog, Ruben Ostlund, and Yorgos Lanthimos.

4. What’s harder? Getting started or being able to keep going? And what drives you to continue making films?

Everything about it is hard. That’s what makes it worthwhile. I wouldn’t want to do it if it wasn’t hard. What drives me to keep making films is walking into St. Peter’s Basilica and realizing it took 126 years to build that masterpiece, and millions of people walk into it every year and leave changed human beings. I think that films can have the power of great cathedrals, and it’s worth it to spend your entire life attempting to create one great work of art that can affect people on a spiritual level for thousands of years to come.

5. How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away?

In my experience with “Senior Love Triangle” the only time I could walk away was when I felt like I had completely exhausted every single frame of the film and

explored every single possible choice to make sure there wasn’t a better choice that I could have made to strengthen it. That goes with seeing how it plays in front of an audience. Then there are other factors like money, which I think is a good thing to have a limit on. I think parameters are a great thing to have. If someone locks you in a room with one canvas, a small paintbrush, and a can of red paint, you are going to try and make the greatest painting you possibly can with those resources at hand.

6. How many films have you completed? What is your favorite project you have worked on and why?

I have made six short documentaries, one narrative short film, and one narrative feature film. My feature film is by far my favorite project because it was the most difficult (and in turn, most rewarding) and I got to work with a large group of wonderful people for an extended period of time. What a gift it is to be able to bring a large group of people together, each with their own specific skill or craft, and try to create this one vision that encompasses it all and then becomes a living thing that takes on it’s own life. Like building a ship and then pushing it into the ocean.

7. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Everything. Books, dreams, photographs, films, painters, jugglers, pain, failure, fire, heartbreak, motorcycles, grandparents, children, dogs, cashiers at the grocery store, music, travels, religion, destruction, broken bones, waffles, etc.

8. What is your favorite aspect of film production?

Seeing an image that started in your head and then trying to make it something that exists outside of your head.

9. 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 chose to submit because it seemed to have a great reputation for many decades. It was well reviewed by filmmakers and audiences alike. And of course, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world in my opinion. 

10. You are a collaborator. Did you make any connections at the Breckenridge Film Festival that have led to collaborations with other filmmakers?

I met a lot of other filmmakers at the festival whose work I was inspired by. That's one of the best thing about festivals is being able to see a film and then meet the human behind it. Usually in independent cinema, there is a certain level of passion behind each film that you don't find in the mainstream. Most of these filmmakers sold their refrigerators or possibly their stamp collection to make these films. I love that.

11. Can you describe the business behind independent filmmaking and how you are trying to get your film seen?

I don’t see it as any different than making a lemonade stand as a kid. You get your lemons by whatever means necessary (stealing from the neighbors yard), you squeeze the things by hand even if it stings like hell, you add the right amount of sugar and water to your own taste and liking, you find an old table in the garage, you get some colorful markers out and make your own signs, and you try to waive down people driving 50mph down the street looking at their cell phones. Maybe someone glances your way and is thirsty.

12. What are the hurdles you have had to overcome in order to recoup the costs of producing the film? (If you feel comfortable discussing exact financials, you are welcome to do so.)

That lemonade stand I was talking about? It’s now on the side of the freeway.  

13. What are the next project or projects you are beginning work on?

I am pitching a television series I developed about a friend and pitching another feature film that is also about a friend (a different one, not the same friend).

14. If there is one or more thing you think would make the film industry better, what would it be?

There should be a renaissance of 90’s baseball movies in my opinion.