Our interview with Cory Reeder is the second in our series of interviews with the filmmakers of “I Can,” which is part of the 2019 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. You can watch the film below. Film challenge participants write, shoot, and edit a shirt film in 55 hours. The goal is to raise visibility for people with disabilities who work in the entertainment industry, on both sides of the camera.
Cory Reeder is a writer/director/producer who lives and works in Los Angeles.
Where did you grow up?
I’m a native Californian, born and raised in Fullerton. It was a little town just north of Anaheim (where Disneyland is). It’s since grown into more of a city than a town, tons of college kids and bars.
Where did you go to school?
Fairmont Private School was my elementary school. But right about the time I turned 13, they “encouraged” me seek schooling elsewhere due to my… independent nature and creative problem-solving. Long-story-short, I led a revolt against the administration when they refused to let me wear my Iron Maiden gear on “free-dress Friday’s”. See, we always had to wear these stiff corduroy pants and cardboard cutout shirts as our uniforms, but on Friday we could wear what we wanted. For some reason, they decided my choice of heavy metal wardrobe to be too extreme for their liking. And I decided their liking wasn’t my concern so…. I went to Junior High and High School within the public education system. LOL. Ultimately I got my degree in film and television production from Cal State University Fullerton, while also dabbling in the Fullerton Community College theatre department.
What made you pursue film making?
As a kid, when we would take family vacations my dad would always be shooting slide photographs or Super-8 movies. A couple of weeks after the vacation he would invite over neighbors and family friends for dinner and he’d project all the photos and movies while narrating the story of our vacation. I fell in love with the fact that he was able to take people on our vacation weeks after we got home. The idea of visual storytelling locked into my creative nature and it was something I started doing on my own when I was seven or eight years old. Making movies with my friends, or toys, really anyone or anything I could coerce into being on camera.
What roadblocks did you face when you were starting out?
I can’t really say that anyone or anything ever stood in my way of making films as a kid. It was something I was always content doing by myself or with anyone who wanted to work with me. But once things started to get into the professional world, when I started working at internships in college, I was my own roadblock. Like many young artists, I was afflicted with two conditions: shyness and arrogance. I was incredibly awkward and shy around people, and yet incredibly opinionated about my creativity, and yours. This rubbed some people the wrong way and definitely prevented me from advancing in my career as quickly as I would have wished. I had a lot of learning to do in order to become the team player I now am.
What’s the difference between producing and directing?
That’s a great question. An oversimplified metaphor would be, imagine a single person who owns or is in charge of a painting studio, the paint, canvas, the janitor, the snacks, and ultimately the gallery that will sell the paintings; that’s the producer. The director is the painter hired to come and use all those supplies. Often the producer can have creative influence over production because they are the one responsible for the budget. But in most cases, a good producer tries to gather all the right supplies for a visionary director to tell a story. There are classic pairings like Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Scorsese and Barbara De Fina, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. Though directors can often take a lot of glory home for the artistic integrity they bring to a film or it’s production, it’s the producer who facilitates it and keeps ownership of a film. Though now, more directors and key cast members work to own a share of ownership as well.
Tell us about “I Can.”
“I Can” is a science fiction short film produced in 2019 for the annual Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. It’s a competition that invites anyone to create a short film from script to screen over the course of a weekend which showcases people with a disability. I Can seems like a fever dream for the lead heroine but is actually an allegory of her coming of age. She faces three trials, one of friendship, parental independence and finally, overcoming authority to discover the power of self.
Tell us about your producer approach to “I Can”?
Being my fifth year participating in the Challenge, I try to bring all things of production value to the forefront before anything official begins. This year I focused on locations. Here in California, we’re having a beautiful spring with wildflowers, an event called a “superbloom”. So I sought out a suitable location for filming amongst all the wildflowers growing in our deserts and countrysides. While visiting Ojai with my wife, we happened upon Besant Hill School which had a huge pasture of yellow mustard in bloom. An email, then a phone call and they gave us permission to film. With that in mind, I searched for the exact opposite of the naturally beautiful location, I thought of a dank, dark, factory, or ship of some sort. I called some of the local standing sets and stages around Los Angeles, but they cost too much and didn’t have room to accommodate a small production like ours. In conversation with a friend, I was introduced to the concept of escape rooms. Basically themed puzzle rooms that groups of people enter to try and escape. A little research, a couple of scouts and I found 60 Out Escape Rooms on Figueroa (right by USC). They have a room that is decorated like a crusty spaceship, and they were willing to help the cause. So with that, we had two key locations to base our story on when assigned. I can’t describe how excited we were when they announced this year’s genre as Sci-Fi, we already had a freaking space ship location booked, I mean, “C’MON!”
Can you tell us about a funny anecdote about someone you have worked with?
After participating in my first Easterseals Disability Film Challenge I became passionate about hiring people with disabilities on all my productions. The first opportunity I had was when I produced some concert tour content for System of a Down. We hired a young man named Grant who is on the autism spectrum to be a production assistant. The bands bass player Shavo was overseeing the production that day and making a cameo in some of the shots. I made sure to introduce him to Grant, then explained my hiring practice of disability inclusion. There were a few times throughout the day that I saw Grant become a little star-struck. It reminded me of that SNL skit where Chris Farley met Paul McCartney, “So, uh, do you remember that time you were in the Beatles?” At the end of the day though Shavo came up to me and said, “that’s a pretty cool thing you’re doing man. Keep it up.” Since then I’ve never stopped.
Do you have any advice for young filmmakers out there?
Learn to write a good story, it is the basis of anything you’ll ever film. Take some time to learn basic editing skills, and work every position there is on set. Never be too proud to be a production assistant until you’re paid to be something better. Write your stories, collect them, and until you’re the boss work to be of service lending your production skills to others. Embrace and respect the creative team aspect of filmmaking because you’ll never know when someone is saving your ass until after it’s saved. Lastly, it’s a small industry when you start to climb the ladder of success the people you step on while you’re climbing will have the most fun watching you fall. So be kind.
Which book would you love to make a film out of one day?
The Bible? I don’t think anyone’s ever made a movie with those characters before have they? Just kidding, that author was a hack. Again, I jest! That’s a hard question to answer, mostly because any of the books I think of I am positive some big studio somewhere has the right and may even be in production as we speak. Maybe The Catcher in the Rye, my quick search of IMDB show’s that’s not been produced yet. Or it could be fun to go a bit more absurdist/ artistic and make a sort-of anthology from Shel Silverstein‘s children’s books. I always loved his poetry/lyrics they were so colorful and rich with tone, theme and morals.