Director Patrick Read Johnson talks about 5-25-77 at TIFF Next Wave

Patrick Read Johnson: The majority of the real work is to conform the entire formerly standard definition "road" cut from the "Hearts of Dorkness" tour up to high definition and replace certain temp VFX with the real thing. Then we have to literally "face the music". By that I mean: right now the film has wall-to-wall music comprised of all my favorite 70's songs... and at some point, that all has to be paid for.

Whether or not many of the songs remain the same is a matter that we won't know the answer to until we find out what sort of enthusiasm our eventual distributor has for spending the money we'll need to get them.


tss: Can you describe the strategy you've taken as an indie filmmaker to push 5-25-77 through the post process? Not a lot of directors/producers are determined enough to have their funding strategies/efforts to finish a film turned into a doc!

P.R.J.: I can't really say there's been a strategy so much as a dogged determination to, as Winston Churchill once put it; "Never, never, never quit!" As for having the trials and tribulations documented, I can only say that you get far more attention and support when you're willing to admit you need help than when you don't. I've seen many a filmmaker lose everything by clinging to the notion that they have to somehow appear more successful than they really are. 5-25-77 will be released.  It's a good movie. People like it. It's just a matter of getting it in front of audiences and that requires that it actually be finished. Once upon a time, distributors used to put up finishing funds or had actual post-production people working within their organizations. These days, this is largely not the case... . Distributors are looking for a movie they can simply buy and program and be done with it. So, I will finish mine, by any means necessary, and get it to them. It's not a matter of "if", but when.   

tss: At the time you shot 5-25-77 the lead (John Francis Daley, who's great) was an actor that had done some TV, most notably Freaks & Geeks - in the time since production ended, he's become one of the hottest screenwriters in Hollywood, having written Horrible Bosses and the comedy Burt Wonderstone up next - did you know he had that in him when you were working with him?

P.R.J.: Not at first. John actually plays his ambition cards pretty close to his chest. It took awhile, mainly because my mind was on a million other things while we were shooting, to realize he up to far more than he was letting on. I think the time I finally realized he was going other places was after I saw few short films he'd done and was really impressed with them. Obviously I'm incredibly happy for him.  And can't wait for him to read this article and send me a million dollars to finish 5-25-77!


tss: One of the neatest elements of 5-25-77 is that it's more or less an autobiography - what are the challenges of telling your own story versus someone else's? Do you have any advice for any other DIY filmmaker folks looking to their own histories for inspiration?

P.R.J.: Well, first I have to say I didn't set out to make 5-25-77 because I thought the world was holding its collective breath in anticipation of ever seeing "The Patrick Read Johnson" story.

The main reason I didn't change any names to protect the innocent was that I found that early on in the development process, when ever I pitched the story to others, I'd always get about halfway through and people would invariably blurt out-- "Wait-- is this a TRUE STORY??"  And I realized that people WANTED it to be true. And that, if I'd just made the story up about some fictional kid from the midwest getting to do all of the amazing things I got to do that spring of 1977... people would find it preposterous!

So there was treasure to be found in keeping it the story of this goofy REAL kid named Pat Johnson. The real challenge was to make sure that middle-aged Patrick Read Johnson didn't get in the way of 17-year-old Pat Johnson on set. In other words, it was a very conscious decision on my part to never direct John Francis Daley with any kind of talk about how "I" would or wouldn't have done this or that, but instead always refer to "Pat" as a separate person. I thought of the character in the film as, in fact, being a separate living breathing person, who if you know anything about time, is, in fact, still back there, in 1977, with no idea of the triumphs and tragedies he's yet to face on his journey from Wadsworth, Illinois all the way up to answering questions for this interview. That 17-year old kid would barely recognize ME. So it was really important to keep that in mind when telling his story.

tss: I have to ask - as a film maker and watcher and someone that's lived with Star Wars arguably longer than anyone not named George Lucas - what was your reaction when Disney announced they'd bought the whole thing and planned to start making sequels as quickly as the year after next? Any thoughts on the directions they're taking it?

No matter how good C.G. gets, it's got a terribly long way to go to overthrow 6 million years of the human brain's evolving a sense of what is REAL and threatening or attractive versus what is merely an illusion. And that innate primordial instinct is NEVER fooled, even if the conscious mind is willing to suspend disbelief. That's why Frank Oz and puppet Yoda or Carlo Rambaldi and animatronic E.T. will always engender more response from an audience than any C.G. recreation, now matter how well done.  At least they will in the theater of MY mind!

Beyond that, the globalized social network, I think is linking filmmakers all over the world in ways that are going to make for some fascinating stories down the road. When a kid in Indiana can instantly have a video conversation with one in Iceland or Tanzania or Venezuela, the kinds of tales these conversations can inspire will probably change the filmmaking landscape in ways we can't yet even imagine.

 5-25-77 screens as part of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival on Saturday February 16.