Directing Charli XCX With A Crew Of 3 & Playing Sundance, SXSW And TIFF In One Year With Pete Ohs

In this episode, I'm joined by filmmaker Pete Ohs for his third appearance, and there's a lot to catch up on. Since we last spoke, Pete made Erupcja, a feature starring Charli XCX that he shot in Warsaw with no script, a crew of three, and the same Canon 5D Mark III running a Magic Lantern raw hack he's used on every film in his process.

The film premiered at TIFF, in a year where he also had The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick at SXSW and Obex, which he co-wrote, shot, and edited with Albert Birney, at Sundance.

Throughout the episode Pete tells the full story of meeting Charli at 3am in a Lower East Side bar with Jeremy O. Harris just before Brat came out, and how the project survived Brat summer to shoot three months later, right before her world tour.

We get into why he pitches actors an experience rather than an idea, how his "don't care" philosophy kept the stakes low even with a global pop star on board, why he finally signed with a manager, and how he wrote his first script in years using the exact same process: two weeks in a friend's backyard, three scenes a day, all in the Notes app.

Topics covered include:

Meeting Charli XCX at 3am with Jeremy O. Harris, weeks before BratPitching actors an experience instead of a scriptShooting every film on the same 5D Mark III with a Magic Lantern raw hackWhy "don't care" is baked into his process, even with a pop star on setHaving three films on the festival circuit at the same timeSpotting the carrot on a string and not chasing false opportunitiesWhy he signed with a manager now and not years agoWriting a feature in two weeks, three scenes a day, in the Notes appThe simple math behind his 70 to 80 minute featuresEveryone should make movies, but not everyone needs to see themBeing honest with yourself when your film isn't getting into festivalsWorking through the top ten festival deadlines and letting sales agents handle the restIntuition as a director's most important skill, and how to train it dailyHis new Patreon as a virtual DVD special features hubMuch More!Links from the show:

Pete Ohs on Instagram

Pete Ohs on Patreon

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