DOLLS Directed By Randy Caspersen

Shane: Tell us about your film? How did you come up with the idea?

Randy: I found an old story about a teenage girl who beats a wooden doll in her attic out of frustration. I translated that into the idea of a teenage boy finding his old dolls in the attic. For him, they are something sacred. His mom is ashamed that he played with dolls and wants to get rid of them. When she tries to sell them at a garage sale, they are unexpectedly destroyed. The teenage boy is tired of being bullied and is forced to defend what remains of his childhood toys. The dolls become a metaphor for the boy’s homosexuality and when the boy’s mother brings the dolls into the open, she must face that part of her son she has always tried to ignore and deal with his otherness, his gayness.

S: Was this a school project?

R: Yes, “DOLLS” was a school project. I am a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago. We are required to make a short narrative at the end of our first year and “DOLLS” is the film I made.

S: How did you find your cast?

R: Casting a fifteen-year-old boy for the lead was nearly impossible with my limited resources. But I found him through a listing on craigslist. I found the rest of my cast through posting ads through various talent sites in the Chicago area. I held auditions and call backs with all my actors. I am happy to say all of my cast were my first choice for their roles.

S: How long did the film take?

R: “DOLLS” was conceived and created during my first year of graduate school. I wrote the film in November of 2006. Pre-production went on from January until March of 2007. It was shot in two days at the end of March. I finished picture editing in May of 2007. I worked on the sound all summer. I made the master tapes in January of 2008. I guess that means it took about a year, but much of that time was spent working on other projects for school.

S: What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?

R: The shoot went very smoothly. The hardest part was all the pressure of getting all of the right crew in the weeks and days before the shoot. That was exhausting. I also underestimated the amount of post-production I needed to do for the film.

S: Tell us about the films festival experience so far?

R: “DOLLS” had its world premiere in February at Cinequest. It has played a number of well-known venues, mostly gay-themed festivals. Because I have been in school the whole time ( I just finished classes four days ago), I have been at none of my screenings and my experience is limited to judging the festival by how nice the emails are with the various festival programmers. I am going to see the film in San Francisco in June. I can say that the London Gay & Lesbian Film Festival has brought me a great deal of inquiry from festivals from Europe and the United States and even led to me getting distribution through a German company.

S: What are you most looking forward to at the festival?

R: I won’t be attending the festival, but would very much like to see the feature film that my short is playing before. It’s called “Ready? OK”. My film preceded it at another festival and my film’s composer helped sound design “Ready? OK” so how’s that for kismet.

S: What films or filmmakers inspire you?

R: Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite director. I love Judy Garland musicals and current independent cinema. I watch a great deal of scripted hourlong episodic television. I think Todd Haynes’ aesthetic and the delicacy of Natalie Merchant’s music influence my work a great deal. If there is one kind of film I aspire to it is the quiet drama of films like Joanne Woodward’s “Rachel, Rachel” or “The Effect of the Gamma Rays on the

Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds”.

S: What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

R: I am a private, shy kid. Watching films was always my favorite thing in the world--a place where I could identify, escape and adventure. Now I am interested in finding out how I can move people in the ways I felt moved. How do I positively impact an audience? That is what I wonder about.

S: What is next for you?

R: I am finishing up an experimental short on my days of living in West Hollywood and a documentary short I did on a friend of mine who was an actor and shaman. I have two short narratives that I should be shooting this year, one about roommates who meddle

in magic and another about an older, married couple whose classic car breaks down.

S: What is next for the film?

R: I make films so an audience can see them so just continuing to keep “DOLLS” screening in whatever festivals want it has been extremely gratifying. It just got aNorth American distributor and will be featured on a German DVD compilation within the next year so I am glad to say that people will continue to see it.

S: If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short

film… What would it be?

R: A filmmaker is a host, a guide and a captain through the journey of any given film. Whether your crew and talent are being paid or not, they are putting their time

and effort into your vision and that graciousness should always be nurtured and respected. Be as detailed, thorough and loving in every filmmaking decision (camera, sound, crew, story development, craft services) as possible because your footage is influenced as much by the effort you put behind the camera as that which you put before it.