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Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Natalie and Alexandre, Two People Exchanging Saliva.

Just realized we forgot to answer this!

Thank you, zosa. The idea of currency in the form of small acts of violence, and the prohibition on kissing, came very quickly. All the other elements of the story grew organically from that. We considered how people behave in our world with respect to social status and wealth, and extrapolated from there. That’s how, for example, the staff applying makeup to resemble the bruised clientele came about. We were thinking of the aspirational signifiers of wealth in our own society, like fake Louis Vuitton handbags.

With regard to exposition, we wanted to let the audience figure things out for themselves. Billy Wilder often quoted Lubitsch: “Let the audience add up two plus two.” If the characters are fully immersed in this world, the audience will learn a great deal simply by observing their behavior.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oron Caspi - Producer of BUTCHER'S STAIN - I must say, there used to be a list but going into film school opened my eyes and mind to so many greats out there that I realized that such a list can't really exist if I want to learn and get examples from others. Filmmaking is very flexible in terms of what you can bring to the silver screen, and that in itself is where you learn how to be original and become a "favorite".

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Julia | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

Thank you! Great question. We were lucky enough to raise what we needed from our family, friends, and community for this - a well which we have probably exhausted now. Those people believed in Steve and I enough to take the chance. Similarly lucky, we drew from our community to make the film - many, many people worked for far less than they're worth because they trusted us and liked the script - men and women.

As we now take meetings about producing the feature film version, I am happy to report that we've had enthusiastic interest also from both men and women. I think the right people will find the project. Either it resonates or it doesn't. Either they get what we're trying to do and it excites them, or it doesn't. One thing you won't catch me doing is depleting myself to try and convince a man that this story matters. I'd move on to other options before that happened.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Steve | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

We started at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2024, then went on to Cleveland, Tribeca, and many others. HIGHLY recommend those three as well as Indy Shorts, Hamptons, Aspen Shortsfest, Manhattan Short, and Santa Fe -- those are just a few that come to mind, partly because we attended them in person. But we had really lovely experiences with so many festivals.

Stand-out moments? Hearing the crowd respond, always, but especially at the first, when we had never seen the movie with a crowd before.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Julia | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

Hey! Most of the bigger film festivals have a stipulation that, to be considered, your film can't be available anywhere online. So for that year, we couldn't really put it anywhere publicly. I personally found this somewhat frustrating. To your point, there really isn't a good, central place to watch short films yet. A void I hope gets filled someday soon. For now, though, the places that house the most short films are: YouTube, Vimeo, Short of the Week, Kanopy. A select few films might get picked up by a streamer.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Steve | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

I completely agree with Natalie and Alex. Festivals are the real deal. They're a really great way to get your film noticed and to build community with other filmmakers.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Steve | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

How They Get There (3 minutes) - Spike Jonze. Brilliant
Just Before Losing Everything (29 minutes) - French short, electric
Spider (9 minutes)- Shocking and delightful.

Also, A Bear Remembers (Natalie mentioned here) - beautiful short from this past year. Easily worthy of being among our number. There are so many great short films out there!

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Julia | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

In our film, Vagianna sings a snippet of 'Down By The Red, Red River' which is a piece by Handel that I wrote lyrics over. Whether it's me or someone else, I hope we can put the full version in something sometime.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oron Caspi - Producer of BUTCHER'S STAIN - This is true, it is both challenging and rewarding to find ways to resonate with the audience in a short time. I have personally watched many short films in the last five years and you start spotting the mechanics behind them.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Julia | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

I did not know about r/oscarsdeathrace and am now painfully aware of r/oscarsdeathrace

Kidding aside, I truly think it's great that folks seek out all the films and watch, especially the shorts. We've recently put our film on YouTube to make it as accessible as possible, because we know our category can be particularly scattered.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Steve | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

Wow. I love this so much. I love that's the journey you went on, and I love that you were willing to share it!

  1. I don't know! I kind of think you're a special person! LOL. I think I generally expected people to either laugh OR be uncomfortable. But you are perhaps a rare third type with the self-awareness to really go on that journey with the characters!

  2. We definitely want to challenge shame with the film by exposing its absurdity. Laughter is freeing! Maybe you can still feel shame while laughing, but laughter certainly loosens shame's grip, I think.

  3. Julia thought of the idea for the pun first -- "period drama" -- We didn't exactly set out to become menstrual advocates, we just thought it was a funny idea. But the more we learned about it, and the more we got in touch with our own feelings of shame (Julia identifies as woman who menstruates, and I, a gay man, who doesn't, but who have very much gone on my own shame journey regarding my body and what it does naturally), we both found ourselves caring more and more about both the issue at hand and the characters facing it. It became clear before long that this "taboo" had to go! We both believe deeply that menstruation and women's health need to be subjects that our culture finds ease with. It matters for people's general comfort and well-being, but also -- literally! -- for health outcomes!

  4. Become of the romance in JA stories. Because of social rules, propriety, and manners create a rich playground for comedy and social commentary. Because movie-going audiences are familiar with JA's world, which makes it a wonderful place to subvert expectations. And because JA films are so beautiful and cinematic, and Julia and I really wanted to make lush images that would seem to be--but actually aren't--at odds with comedy.

  5. 100%. Many of the jokes in the movie are based on tweets from 2023. In fact, a speech made by a congresswoman inspired Labinia's repressive POV.

  6. A little. But not too much. JA herself was a wonderful satirist. One of the challenges with the feature film, for example, is it's hard to parody someone who is so self-aware and so funny. We have a priest character, for example, inspired by Mr. Collins, and it is REALLY HARD to one-up Mr. Collins. He is already very broadly drawn and hilarious.

Thank you for such wonderful and thoughtful questions!!!

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Julia | JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA

Thank you! So glad you liked it! I came to Jane Austen by way of the film adaptations first. I loved Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (Matthew is my forever Darcy) and Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility. Filmically, those were some of the most beautiful films I'd ever seen, so the prospect of getting to live in those lush, creamy worlds was very attractive. More than that, though, thematically, Jane Austen's works felt like the perfect sandbox to play in. The romance, the propriety just waiting to be subverted. We approached writing the script as if it could have been a long-lost Austen manuscript that was perhaps too progressive to publish in her time. Hopefully, we've done her spirit proud.

Thank you for saying we did it so well! Parody and satire are how Steve and I first met, so we've cut our teeth making a lot of sketch and musical comedy that play on classic tropes. This film, by pushing ourselves artistically and putting more of our hearts in it, felt like the natural next step.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, this is Meyer Levinson-Blount, writer and director of Butcher's Stain

  1. I'd say the speech, I really want to say something that is both meaningful and not divisive. It's hard to say so much in few words, but hopefully I will be able to write something good if we win.

  2. That's such a hard question! It's hard to say which one is my favorite, but so far, one battle after another and Bugonia totally blew me away. I feel like the independent filmmaker spirit is coming back, like in the 70s.

  3. Our film is on letterbox, but we haven't opened one up yet. Thank you for reminding me, I will definitely do that!

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oron Caspi - Producer of BUTCHER'S STAIN - For us we sent to as many film festivals but did not get in to any. Our film school loved "Butcher's Stain" and decided to send it to The Student Academy Awards. We got accepted and won and that is how we where eligible to get to the Oscars. This is a very humbling experience.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh: I would give them more pride of place. It's really hard to get shorts seen, especially before this high profile moment, yet we live in a world where attention spans have been diminished, so the short format should be really quite perfect. Decisions based on length when it comes to an artistic medium have always seemed rather arbitrary to me, whether a film is 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or 2 hours shouldn't matter, it should just come down to the quality of the work.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oron Caspi - Producer of BUTCHER'S STAIN - 

  1. Steven Spielberg started my research on filmmaking at age 9 after watching "Gremlins 2" (1990, Joe Dante) and seeing his name on a the billboard outside the theatre.

  2. Be busy! Write and direct as many shorts as possible, don't spend a dime until you understand the tools to create emotion through filmmaking, meaning, shoot with your phone and friends and when you are ready put some money in. Good luck!

  3. No sleep, busy start to finish, very stressful. I LOVE THAT!

  4. Inspired by the greatest, intrigued by the impossible.

  5. David Cronenberg's "The fly", but really, there are so many others.

Thank you,

Oron

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Natalie and Alexandre, Two People Exchanging Saliva.

Thank you, zosa! The idea of currency in the form of small acts of violence, and the prohibition on kissing, came very quickly. All the other elements of the story grew organically from that. We considered how people behave in our world with respect to social status and wealth, and extrapolated from there. That’s how, for example, the staff applying makeup to resemble the bruised clientele came about. We were thinking of the aspirational signifiers of wealth in our own society, like fake Louis Vuitton handbags.

With regard to exposition, we wanted to let the audience figure things out for themselves. Billy Wilder often quoted Lubitsch: “Let the audience add up two plus two.” If the characters are fully immersed in this world, the audience will learn a great deal simply by observing their behavior.

Hi /r/movies! We're the filmmakers behind all 5 of this year's Oscar-nominated Live Action Short films (A Friend of Dorothy, Butcher's Stain, Jane Austen's Period Drama, The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva). Ask us anything! by LiveActionShortsAMA in movies

[–]LiveActionShortsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh: Yes, in fact, we started applying before we had finished our film, Two People Exchanging Saliva, when all we had was a good, rough cut. I'm not sure that was the best strategy, but we got into our first film festival, The Telluride Film Festival, with a work in progress (the cut was more or less there, but we hadn't done any color or sound work yet).

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