I'm Christopher Egli - I wrote and directed White Girl Young Pretty.
That was almost five years ago now. I watched a bit of the film the other day, and I'd like to offer a few thoughts, though I'm not sure where to start. Maybe with this; that pretty much everyone involved in the film was a big help, and offered helpful suggestions throughout the process.
I was initially very optimistic, while we were shooting the film and during the editing process, which took seven months. When it was ready we had a little premiere, and I also entered the film in about fifteen festivals - including some big ones - of which we only won one - a small local festival.
There were some things I was proud of - normally you have a crew to help shoot a film, but I acted as cameraman, director, sound guy, lighting guy, and grip, and I did a competent job. I was proud of all the technical aspects of the film - I had paid attention, when I'd been on other people's shoots, and in almost every aspect our film was professionally made. It turns out, though, that all of those things count for nothing if it's not an interesting film; in fact, people will gladly overlook technical flaws, if it's a compelling film to watch.
Believe it or not, when I as writing it I thought the script was clever, which troubles me now, because it's gradually become apparent how that it was actually kind of silly and unsophisticated. One of the lead actors warned me of a few scenes in particular, but I didn't listen to him.
If you didn't happen to see it, here's the film in a couple sentences; a naive writer sets out to get a film made, and falls into the clutches of a manipulative producer. The writer, the producer, and another guy all fall in love with the lead actress, a white girl who gets cast to play a black girl. That's pretty much it. Why I thought that was original is beyond me, at this point.
At our premiere the audience reacted with polite interest, but there wasn't much laughter. I attributed this to the theater being only half full, but I also knew it wasn't that we had the wrong audience or that we didn't have the right atmosphere or whatever. It's been troubling to realize that things I thought were funny weren't. I don't know how I could've imagined the film was going to be a big success. The dialogue was okay, but the story wasn't much.
Anyway, I want to say how terrific the actors were to work with. Tyler, Alex, Mark, and pretty much everyone else were just amazingly professional and helpful. I've felt badly that I haven't involved them in new projects, but I ended up less sure of myself than before I started.
Christopher Egli
