5Q's w/: Patrick Hogan "Shatter The Glass" Director
QUESTION#1: How do your top 3 favorite films influence your filmmaking?:
So I have a list of my 50 favorite films (yes, I’m that kind of film nerd) and my top three are Breaking Away, Star Wars and Aliens. Three very different films in three very different genres. And when you watch my body of work as a film director, the fact that those 3 are my favorite makes a lot of sense. As a filmmaker, I tend to bounce back and forth between dramas (like the film playing this year at BSFF) and sci-fi genre films. But the uniting thread in all of my films, much like my favorite 3 films, is the human connection at the heart of all of them. All of my films explore the interconnectedness of the human experience – whether it’s the relationship between a mother and daughter, or two good friends, or someone who is alone and cut off and longing to find that connection. Our relatedness is what makes us human, and to me that is what makes cinema interesting. For me, any film, regardless of genre, needs to start with a compelling character who seeks the same basic fundamental emotional connections that we all search for in life – they are window into the world of the movie – whether it’s a grounded drama or a fantastical space opera or a woman desperate to save the daughter she never had from terrifying alien creatures. And I try to always remember that and make that at the spine of any film that I direct.
QUESTION#2: What do you wish someone would ask you about your film and why?:
I suppose I would love to talk about how women’s roles in society, and what is expected of them, hasn’t really changed despite all the advances in technology in the past 70 years. What really drew me to the script for “Shatter the Glass” was how Alex and her mom are in conflict at the beginning of the film and the mom is upset with how Alex is using social media to generate a “positive” social media reaction, that she thinks is detrimental for her daughter, but mom is blind to how she herself responds in the exact same way in her personal life when attention is taken away from her, without the lens of social media to bring it into focus. That generational conflict where each person can help the other recognize what is truly important, and that they share common struggles, is something that really resonated with me in the script.
QUESTION#3: What scared you the most about making this film?:
Directing someone else’s voice was very scary for me. The script was written by Syd Blue, and for me it was fascinating to see this very personal, female gaze into social media but also how the underlying issues that social media create for women isn’t a new phenomenon, but something that past generations of women have struggled with as well. So the worry for me, was to make sure that I stayed true to Syd’s vision and POV, and not inject my POV into it, but rather use my eyes as a way to present this to an audience, using my own experience as an audience of this script as a window into the characters so that an audience could watch the film and get the underlying subtext and deeper meanings to this story. As a director, you have tremendous power in how a story is shaped and unfolds, and I was really scared that I wouldn’t do it justice and make the wrong decisions. Hopefully, that isn’t the case and audiences both enjoy the film and have interesting and meaningful discussions about the underlying social issues that the film raises. And most of all I hope that Syd was happy with my interpretation of her script (I think she is…)
QUESTION#4: You have to choose one to make your next movie: 1) unlimited budget but only a single take of every shot 2) Academy award winning composer, but they're not allowed to watch the film 3) A-list cast, but they're directed using only charades. Which one do you pick and why?:
So I’ll cheat and say that I’d pick an unlimited budget but with only a single take of each shot. Because that would also get me all the A-list talent I wanted, getting me two of the choices, but also I could finally pay all of my collaborators all the money they so richly deserve for helping me out on all of my projects over the years. So not only would I get to work with all the talented artists and craftspeople that I want, but I’d also be able to help them all financially, which is such a dream for all low-budget indie filmmakers. And then, on top of that, I am a big fan of rehearsal and prep – so with the time (which you get with money) to fully prep and rehearse – I am confident that my cast and crew would nail every set up on the first take and we’d never want a second take anyway. :)
QUESTION#5: What's does the future hold for this film and you?:
We are early in our festival run for Shatter the Glass, so we hope it gets seen by more audiences and has a lot of success. And then hopefully it can find a life in distribution and online where people can see the film and discuss what it brings up and just maybe it will help change someone’s life for the better. And I hope the film brings more attention and success to the three amazing actors in the film who did such an amazing job. For me personally, I have 2 films on the festival cireuit right now – the other is a VERY different film – a horror/comedy – although it also deals with mother/daughter dynamics and issue, but in a very different way. So the next year is hopefully about visiting many film festivals with both films and continuing to build my community of collaborators and artists to work with. And then I have another short film I would love to make in 2024 – something very different from most short films, something I haven’t seen before that I think audiences would really love and appreciate. And then I have 2 feature films I am developing and hopefully one of those goes into production before the end of the year – and in keeping with my duality as a filmmaker – one is a true-story drama based on a book by an indigenous writer and the other is a dystopian sci-fi romance drama. Ha ha.
Social media tags to share with our readers: instagram and threads: @ppatrickhogan website:
URL link(s) to cool BTS images and videos:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/hhs923p5vxne7948vncu8/h?rlkey=69agjx38wr4xainigrq1ep2tt&dl=0