Marina Rice Bader Makes Impossible Things Happen

In Ava’s Impossible Things, since she is in the dream world. I suppose if something random happened, for example if one of the shots had a stage light completely visible, we could get away with it. There’s so much going on in this dream world that I don’t think anybody is going to catch it. You know what I mean? If there’s a continuity discrepancy, it’s a little less noticeable.

Ava’s Impossible Things was originally going to be a 15 day shoot. But all of these crazy things happened with this film, more than on the other four films combined. We had to go from a fifteen day shoot to a nine day shoot. I found all this out less than a week before we had to start shooting

So I had Chloe in mind when I wrote it. I thought, “Okay. What journey could I see Chloe as Ava, going on?” It sort of grew from there. She has that magical quality about her, which is why I wanted to send her on a little bit of a different journey. Then that transitioned to an altered reality. I didn’t really want to do a parallel universe. I didn’t really have the budget for that. But everybody dreams.

When it came to the story, I knew I wanted it to involve intense family dynamics, because that is a universal theme. I knew I wanted to present what felt like an impossible situation and just my idea of one way to get through it and come out on the other side. To choose happiness and choose life, and to go on, move forward. It’s personal in that a lot of it has to do with my relationship with my mother, who passed fifteen years ago. But it has more to do with my relationship with my children. I’m a mother; I have four kids. I modeled all the choices made by the mother, Faye, on myself. They were all mirrored on how I would personally respond, if I were in the situation that I created for her.

I worked closely with Vimeo to release Anatomy of a Love Seen, and they actually contacted me shortly after my film went live and said, “You know what? We are seeing more action on your film than some films we’ve had for a year. We just want to say whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” It’s because I work really hard. I work to stay in close touch with my audience, to let them know what I’m doing, to speak with them directly. They saw how vibrant my page was, and obviously not only am I a female filmmaker, but I’m telling women’s stories. I guess that was a double slam dunk for them. At the same time, they saw how hard I was working to get the finishing funds for Ava. Some of the folks that I worked with at Vimeo, for the Anatomy release, follow me on Facebook. I was running all these funding campaigns, because that’s one of the major things that happens with a film.

I was telling you, one of the things that happened during production was the schedule was cut down to nine days. Then the Santa Ana winds blew in earlier than expected and blew down the entire set. We had to shut down production after seven days of filming. Then two months later, I recreated that set on a sound stage. That’s where all my post-production money went. I had to start a whole new fundraising campaign for post-production.

Peter Gerard, over at Vimeo, saw all my Facebook posts and said, “You know, maybe Vimeo can help you out. Let’s set up a meeting for you.” I met with the West Coast acquisitions guy, Derek, and we had a nice long conversation. That’s how I ended up being the honored and humble recipient. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

The good news is that right now, as opposed to twenty years ago, if you’re passionate about making films and telling stories, you can do it. Because you can create a wonderful Academy Award nominated film with your iPhone. That was done. You can buy an inexpensive $200 editing software and edit your film. You can get this done with a lovely little team, without spending a lot of money. But only if you’re passionate about it, because it’s a really tough gig. It is a seriously tough gig. It’s so difficult to get women’s films financed. Really. Make sure it’s what you want to do.

Make your first film. Don’t think about it, don’t talk about it for a year, just literally sit down, take your first step, and then take your second step. If you don’t know what to do, contact somebody, shoot me an e-mail. Your first baby step is you create a beautiful short. It can be two minutes, three minutes, whatever. You’ll learn so much. You’ll find out if this is what you want to do, if this is the kind of world you can live in, the kind of life that you can lead. Then you will know.

Just do it. Don’t spend time reading a hundred books. Don’t spend time trying to worry about all the rules and regulations that have been put in place for so long for filmmakers. Everybody’s got their own voice. I think following rules is a bunch of bullshit. Just do it. Just literally get up, decide you’re going to do it, and do it.

I can’t do it anymore. It has exhausted me, to raise funds for all five of these films. I’ve said it before, so I’ll say it now. It’s difficult to get funding for women, and in particular, a small group of women, so I have to do it. I have to move forward. I have to expand my reach. I’m hoping that this new thought process works, because I do not want to have to decide on something else I’m going to do with my life. I want to make movies for the next twenty years. Movies for women and about women.