While working on her debut feature Cicadas, filmmaker Kat Candler harbored no expectations but simply made a film to make one. She lived within the luxury of a first try, offering the production creative energy without any overriding concerns.  In crafting the 2006 film festival lauded feature Jumping Off Bridges, however, the stakes were higher.

Following the story of a son coming to terms with the suicide of his mother, Jumping Off Bridges, like so many independent films, battled against financial setbacks, lessened fortunately by a dedicated cast and crew as well as help from unexpected corners. In order to help the filmmakers waive city fees for the permit to jump off Phluger Bridge into Town Lake,  Austin’s mayor Will Wynn gladly jumped in with the actors, an event that garnered firestorm media attention from local news outlets.

Two years after production, however, Candler is still attending screenings around the country, promoting the film in areas supportive of independent-minded works. She’s tired of the hustling, she admits, but she speaks here with an enthusiastic energy, a sense of “I can do it all—even though I’m not sure quite how to yet.”

SM: Film Threat and Cinematical have likened your work to that of John Hughes. Why do you think it is that you have this compulsion to talk about adolescence?

KC: When you’re a teenager, everything is so heightened; everything is so new; you’re experiencing it for the first time, and there’s something very huge about it. I had a great adolesence. I had wonderful friends, stupid adventures, and I just really love being in those moments, reliving those moments. My twenties were a little boring, and I think that’s because I was so focused on making movies and not really living the moment, whereas as a teenager, you’re forced to.

I’ve done a few shorts that were about elderly characters, and I love elderly characters too. For some reason, I’m either drawn to youth or the elderly and not so much in between. I’m sure that will change once I have kids. 

SM: How do you know when you’ve hit on something that stirs your consciousness or that you connect with when you’re making a film?

KC: I’ll start a draft, and if I fall in love with my characters and I want to hang out with them for a long time, then I know I’ve really hit on something. But, if I’m working on something, and I’m not really in tune with my characters because I don’t really like them, then I don’t want to hang out with them. When you’re making a project, you spend years of your life with it…So, I really have to love my characters…

With Brain Brawl, when I started writing that, it was an ode to my high school…All of us were nerds or geeks. It was a magnet program for academics. When I started writing that, my characters were so weird and so quirky but sweet—really, really sweet kids. I wanted to hang out with them for a long time. I loved getting to the computer, writing, talking with them, having conversations and doing stupid stuff with them. It’s all about the characters for me.

SM: Actually, what’s going on with Brain Brawl now? Is it in pre-production, production?

KC: It’s in development hell. I wish it were in pre-production; that would be amazing. No, we’re developing it. It’s being shopped around. It’s a constant struggle. I don’t think it matter who you are or what level of filmmaking you’re at. It’s always hard to get a project off the ground. I’ve heard horror stories from huge directors to art house directors. Everybody struggles with getting something going. We’ve been working on it for about a year to a year and a half now, just doing everything we can to make it happen.

SM: A lot of that same process applies to Jumping Off Bridges, where it was hard to cobble together money, but you were just really determined to get the film made. What was that process like for you, just being so dogged and saying, “We’re going to make this. Come hell or high water, we’re going to make this film,”?

KC: I wish I had that spark right now. In (January 2005), my producing partners and I decided, “Okay, we’re going to make this film, and whatever happens, happens. We’re just going to make it.”  We put together a business plan, worked with our lawyer and started talking to people about investing. We started production on July 1, and at that point we only had half the money to get us through our shoot. So, we could afford three weeks out of our six-week shooting schedule. It was a situation where my producers sat me down and said, “Look, we’re only going to get half of it, so what do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I’ll be on set. If anyone wants to join me, that would be awesome. Let’s make a friggin’ movie.”

While we were shooting the film, we were constantly looking for money still, trying to look in every corner, every nook and cranny that we could. You just can’t take no for an answer. You can’t sit idly and wait for something to happen because if you wait, you’ll be waiting forever. You have to be very active constantly, constantly, constantly. It gets tiring. I’m actually pretty tired right now because of that, because you’re constantly trying to figure out how to work it and get a project off the ground.

Jumping Off Bridges, that was two years ago? I need to bring back some of that gumption.

SM: Now, the actual production process itself you said was six weeks long. What was it like working with all the actors? Michael Emerson (now well known for his portrayal of Ben Linus on Lost), particularly, and Bryan Chafin you’d known previously, and then when Savannah Welch, Glen Powell Jr. and Katie Lemon came on they were from the audition process. What was it like being on set and working with all five of them?

KC: All of my actors I just adore. They’re good human beings. I look for really natural qualities, and they have to be good people, good human beings. So it was a wonderful experience, and I keep in touch with everybody. Actually Bryan and Glen just graduated from high school this past spring, and they’re heading off to college in the fall. Leslie Powell, who’s Glen’s little sister and who’s in the film for a second, I go to see her in plays and community theater.

The rehearsal process for the film was basically just a lot of hanging out. The Nelson family I would just bring into the house that we were shooting at and sit them down with a deck of cards, order some pizza, just let them play cards for an entire night, eat pizza and hang out. That was probably the best part of rehearsing, just having them hang out and create those connections that hopefully would come across on screen.

SM: Because you shot on Super 16mm, there’s a grainy, romantic feel to Austin,…and, I was hoping that you could talk about how you worked with cinematographer Jim Eastburn and how you approached the cinematography.

KC: (Jim) came to one of my very first short screenings, and afterwards at our little cast and crew party, he came up to me and said, “I want to work with you.” That was before Cicadas, and so actually Cicadas was the first project we worked on together. We did several shorts after that. So I knew all along he would be shooting (Jumping Off Bridges.)

As far as the cinematography, there was an early debate about whether we would shoot on film or Hi-Def, and for me, it was always film…Like you said, it’s got a more romanticized feel to it, and I wanted it to feel very nostalgic. It was a hard debate because of money, and as sad as that is—ugh, I hate it—I prevailed, and so we got to shoot on film. As far as the aesthetic and look of it, the colors I brought to Jim and my production designer (Lisa Laratta) were pulled from the comic Optic Nerve, the colors that (artist Adrian Tomine) uses on the exterior of the comics, lots of greens and browns. As far as cinematography, I wanted things to feel fluid. We wanted to use a Steadicam badly, but the one that we had didn’t work very well.

SM: Another thing I noticed, especially with the shots of the house because many of them are static, is a feeling of containment…I didn’t know if that was a conscious choice, to have this family who is emotionally contained, contained also by the frame. 

KC:  I wish I could say that was a conscious thing, but it wasn’t. The house was small that we were using, and it was very enclosed as to how we could shoot in there. But, yeah, I’m glad that you felt that way. That’s awesome. That is what I think is so interesting about films and artists. There are things that people interpret from your art or films that you don’t necessarily intend. That’s the beauty of it.

SM: One of the other big themes of the film, besides the innocence of adolescence and getting to spend time with the teenagers, which is, as you said, a lovely and nostalgic time, we also get an overriding theme of loss, particularly with the mother’s suicide. I was hoping that you could speak a little bit to that.

KC: It’s a hard one…a lot of people talk about how authentic (the film) is, as far as the emotions, particularly those with suicide, and I can’t say that I did the research on it that I should have. I had never experienced suicide directly. It was just a matter of something tragic happening in your life and whatever it is, (watching) how people deal with grief and heal…There’s nothing right or wrong about it.

SM: In the case (of this film), the reaction to grief is one of guilt, the constant need to blame the self for what’s happened…Do you think that’s a natural human tendency, to displace and push onto ourselves guilt for situations that may not be our fault?

KC: Oh, God yeah, in a huge way. In experiencing loss since making the movie, guilt is huge. It’s absolutely huge, and I think it’s natural. In regards to suicide, the sad thing about it is that you’ll never know what was going through somebody’s head, and it’s their choice. As much as anyone blames themselves, there’s no blame on anyone.

SM: Why is it that you feel you are driven to make films?

KC: I love telling a story. I love creating a world from scratch. I love dialogue. I love the way people talk. I love how somebody walks or the moments of silence. I think ultimately I just like creating a world. I love characters and people.

Up until Jumping Off Bridges, I was into the whole naturalism trend, to get a very realistic type feel. Now, I’ve been working more on broader comedies, but even still I love everything from the way somebody says something to the shoes that they’re wearing to the choices that they make as characters.

For more information visit www.jumpingoffbridges.com.

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