Filmmaker Spotlight: NICOLA ROSE
Since launching her filmmaking career in 2015 with the comedy web series Callie and Izzy, actor/writer/director/puppeteer Nicola Rose has merged all four of those talents into creating entertaining yet meaningful stories of humanity.
After Rose memorably starred as both a fiendish puppet and her human alter ego in Callie and Izzy, the multi-talented filmmaker has followed up that debut with three short films that look at the emotional connections we share, and how two different people can be brought together by a common dream.
Rose’s latest project, Biff and Me, exemplifies the latter fact as a smart girl named Charlotte and a gruff bully named Biff secretly aspire to play a role that no one expects them to play: that of an elegant beauty queen. Rose is already working on raising funds to produce Biff and Me through IndieGoGo, with filming scheduled to commence in November.
Now screening at several film festivals are two other Rose productions — Gabrielle and In The Land of Moonstones — which explore the emotional challenges of youth as poignantly as Biff and Me promises to do upon its release. (More on those films ahead.) Prior to producing all three of those films, Rose undertook a true education in filmmaking when she starred in and produced her first short, 2017’s Creative Block.
In that film, Rose played a puppeteer, Claire, whose momentary inability to solve an artistic problem profoundly links her with a figure skater who’s also struggling to break out of his own creative dilemma. Yet with every project Rose shares with the public, her mission is consistent: to tell authentic yet entertaining stories of the human condition.
What (and/or who) inspired you to create Biff and Me?
Nicola Rose: I saw a movie with a sort of related premise, about a kid with an unexpected gender identity, and it left me cold. There were things in it that were admirable, but basically it came off to me as a sermon to the viewer. I remember thinking it was such a missed opportunity. You can make a forceful point about difference, acceptance (of yourself and others), etc. while still telling a story first. I remember thinking on the way home, “I have to do something like this in my own style.”
You also have several other short films coming up, among them Gabrielle and the live-action/animated hybrid In The Land Of Moonstones. What are those films about, and when/where can viewers see them?
NR: They are both making their way through the festival circuit, and I hope both will be online by the end of 2020. Both films are about adolescence, broadly speaking. Moonstones is about first love and loss, and a little girl’s friendship with her Russian grandmother. Gabrielle is about bullying, friendship, and resilience. Both films feature cartoons by my talented friend and frequent collaborator, Jennifer Himes.
In 2017 you made an award-winning bilingual English/French short film called Creative Block, which tells the story of a puppeteer, Claire (whom you play) who meets a French figure skater that suffers from the same creative struggles as your character does. What was it like making that film, and how did your experience as a puppeteer help you to prepare for playing Claire?
NR: Creative Block was my first real foray into moviemaking, aside from a web series I had made just prior (Callie and Izzy). So I really didn’t know what I was doing, and that always means greater liberty, in a way. And it’s true that I have a background in puppetry, but I actually don’t think puppetry was crucial to the film! It was important that the character be an artist, and puppetry was the first art my mind reached for. But she could have been a musician, sculptor, architect, etc.
Both Gabrielle and your upcoming film Biff And Me tackle the subject of bullying, while Creative Block examines how artists often struggle to find inspiration in their work. How did you translate your own real life experiences with those issues into the stories and characters you created for the three films?
NR: With Creative Block I set out to portray a very particular sort of depression. I wanted to show what happens when we’re humming along in life, productive and inspired, and then one day, it just kind of stops. I wanted my character Claire to embody the bleakness and helplessness of that situation, but also resilience over it.
Gabrielle is about a teenager who experiences bullying from an adult. Portrayals of that particular type of bullying are scarce. So I wrote Gabrielle to ask the question: if a child is bullied by an adult, what kind of adult does that child then become?
Biff is not really about bullying (although the main character is seen as a bully). Basically, it’s a story about how hard it is to be who you are, especially when it’s not what society expects of you. People throw around the words “be yourself” but if that self doesn’t fit some socially acceptable archetype, it’s amazing how fast those same people change their tune. I think that’s an important point to make. Still, I don’t want this film to be some sort of morality play that makes people think; I want it to be really funny and make people laugh. Then maybe also make them think, but only afterwards.
I first spoke to you a few years ago when you created and starred in your first project, the web series Callie And Izzy. In your opinion, how do you feel you’ve grown as an actor and filmmaker since you started in film back in 2015, and what have you learned about the filmmaking process since then?
NR: I’ve learned I didn’t know what I was doing. No, actually: I already knew that. What I now realize is how much I didn’t know what I was doing. Fortunately, I surrounded myself with crews who did know what they were doing, and I’m convinced that’s the secret: always surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Then learn from them. And be nice to them. Then I’ve also learned these miscellaneous items, of ascending importance:
- Hire a production designer, AD (assistant director) and gaffer. Oh sure, it sounds obvious, but is it, really, if you’re making your first film?
- Children are the best and smartest actors.
- If you belittle, undermine or otherwise antagonize your colleagues on set, it doesn’t make you powerful. It makes you an asshole.
- Don’t be an asshole.
What do you want people to take away from watching your films, and what do you ultimately hope to accomplish with your work?
NR: There was a quote I saw on a subway ad in Paris a couple years ago, taken from a play at the Théâtre de la Ville, a sort of reimagined Alice in Wonderland. Basically the quote was, “if life has no meaning, then what’s stopping us from inventing one?” I think that sums up my goal as well as anything ever could.
I think most of the time, life is devoid of order. I don’t mean this as a bleak or nihilistic comment. I mean that, for all life’s highs and lows, the days are mostly chaotic or humdrum, with few instances of beauty, poetry, symmetry or comedy (comedy to me combines all of the other three). But then those rare moments do come along, and you feel as if the stars have aligned, and suddenly all the chaos and the humdrum is worth it.
I don’t think about it much, but I think I make films to encapsulate those rare and extraordinary moments, maybe in hopes of making more of them. All of my films are about people trying to figure out life, in all its messiness, discomfort, tragedy, and silliness. They have no clue what they’re doing, and neither do any of us, really. We just pretend and stumble — and if we’re lucky, we get to make up stories about it. Then if we’re really, really lucky, people identify with those stories. For me, that’s the ideal.
Find out more about Nicola’s work on her official website:
https://www.nicolarosedirects.com/
Contribute to Rose’s IndieGoGo campaign for Biff and Me here:
