Continuing our 2013 Tribeca Film Festival Preview series which has already included looks at Oxyana, the feature directorial debut of Sean Dunne (SHOOTonline, 3/8), and Adult World, directed by Scott Coffey (SHOOT, 3/22), this week we delve into the Fest’s short film lineup, focusing on Space Cadet, directed by Paul Riccio, who like Dunne and Coffey has spotmaking chops. Riccio is repped for commercials and branded content by Sandwick Media.
Space Cadet marks Riccio’s narrative short filmmaking debut. His prior short endeavors have come in comedic bursts for Funny or Die–one featuring Sally Jessy Raphael in her post-talk-show host career as a mime; another placing a pantless, jogging Steve Guttenberg in Central Park as seen through a paparazzi-like perspective. Both offbeat shorts were buzz worthy with the Guttenberg bit garnering more than 2 million views.
Now, while continuing in his quirky comedic vein, Riccio has more of a story to tell in Space Cadet, which centers on Paul, a distracted 15-year-old who’s asked to help prepare dinner but nearly blows up the apartment in the process. “He’s in that adolescent time of life when not everyone gets you,” related Riccio. “He’s a creative kid who’s different and that can be mistaken for aloofness or being branded ‘a space cadet.’ The failed dinner attempt is the straw that breaks the camel’s back as his hippie, free-spirit parents reach the end of their rope. One of my favorite scenes is when through a haze of pot smoke, the parents tell their kid he needs to see a shrink. When you’re told that, your self-esteem goes through the floor. Even his bandmates think his seeing a psychiatrist wouldn’t be a bad idea. He’s in a nosedive.”
A twist of fate, though, redeems Paul as he inadvertently thwarts a burglary at his home while having the presence of mind to keep his dad out of legal hot water by hiding a certain incriminating piece of potted plant evidence just before the police arrive. The journey from nosedive to being back in good graces is not only comedic but makes for a sweet relationship piece between father and son.
Space Cadet was written by Michael Gambino, who is executive creative director at The Halo Group. Riccio and Gambino enjoy a good working collaboration in the spot arena. Riccio helmed several Verizon Fios commercials for Gambino who at the time was at McCann Erickson, New York.
“Mike wrote a funny, doable, interesting, quirky little script,” Riccio assessed of Space Cadet. “We went back and forth, did some rewrites, I put my two cents in and it made for a nice partnership. We started sending the script out to some select actors and got a nice response.”
For example, Riccio first envisioned character actor Richard Edson (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise) in the part of the father. Edson gave a thumbs up and then brought Jessica Hecht (Breaking Bad, Sideways) into the picture as the mother. “Richard had me talk to Jessica, she read the script and loved it,” recalled Riccio who worked with Lisa Rubenstein, his casting person of choice on all his commercials, to line up other actors, including Brian D’Addario who portrays Paul.
Bill Sandwick of Sandwick Media served as executive producer, with Riccio noting that the support of his spotmaking roost was key in making Space Cadet a reality. Also integral was significant funding procured via Kickstarter, through which some $10,500 was raised.
Riccio’s other commercialmaking colleagues also made key contributions to Space Cadet, including DP Derek McKane (who’s repped by The Skouras Agency) and editor Richard Mettler (who at the time was with jUMP and is now freelancing). Riccio first worked with Mettler on a campaign for the ING New York City Marathon which marked a departure for the director from comedy/dialogue into more visually driven fare. Mettler has enjoyed a successful run on the festival circuit as of late. In addition to the upcoming Space Cadet at Tribeca, he cut the Sean Ellis-directed Metro Manilla which won this year’s World Cinema-Dramatic Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Sundance’s World Cinema-Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
Space Cadet was produced by Matt O’Shea and Riccio. The latter’s directorial credits in the ad arena span such clients as Citibank, McDonald’s, Black & Decker, the NBA, Scion, Kellogg’s, The New York Mets and The Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
Full slate
Among the other films slated for the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival (April 17-28) from directors with commercialmaking affiliations are:
• Adult World, written and directed by Scott Coffey. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Amy (Emma Roberts) is na�ve, awkward and anxious to get her poetry career off of the ground. She begrudgingly accepts a job at the local sex shop, Adult World, while pursuing a surefire kick-start for her success: a mentorship with reclusive writer Rat Billings (the hilarious John Cusack). As Amy’s world melds with that of Adult World, she slowly learns that inspiration can be found in the most improbable places. (Coffey directs commercials via Food Chain Films)
• Almost Christmas, directed by Phil Morrison, written by Melissa James Gibson. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Two French Canadian ne’er-do-wells travel to New York City with a scheme to a get rich quick selling Christmas trees. Easygoing charmer Rene (Paul Rudd) clashes with misanthropic ex-con Dennis (Paul Giamatti), whose wife Rene just stole. Still, this odd couple must make an honest go of it in this fresh buddy comedy co-starring Sally Hawkins, by the director of the indie breakout hit Junebug. (Morrison directs spots and branded content via Epoch Films.)
• At Any Price, directed by Ramin Bahrani, written by Hallie Elizabeth Newton and Bahrani. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative. The robust farming industry of Iowa is the backdrop for this father-and-son story. Dean Wipple (Zac Efron) longs to be a professional racecar driver. His father Henry (Dennis Quaid) plans to make him the heir to their family farming empire. When Henry’s ethics and expansion practices come under fire, the family must unify or risk losing everything. Temptation, ambition and competition are the driving forces behind this modern-day drama co-starring Heather Graham and Clancy Brown. A Sony Pictures Classics release. (Bahrani is repped for spots and branded content by Moxie Pictures.)
• Oxyana, directed by Sean Dunne. (USA) – World Premiere. Oceana, West Virginia–known as “Oxyana” after its residents’ epidemic abuse of OxyContin–is a tragically real example of the insidious spread of drug dependency throughout the country. Set against an abandoned coal mining landscape to the melodies of Deer Tick’s haunting score, this unflinchingly intimate documentary probes the lives of Oceana’s afflicted and exposes the day-to-day experience of a town living in the harsh grip of addiction. (Dunne directs commercials and branded content at Nonfiction Unlimited)
• Prince Avalanche, directed and written by David Gordon Green. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative. Alvin (Paul Rudd) and Lance (Emile Hirsch) spend the summer of 1988 repainting a highway in a fire-damaged forest. The isolation quickly wears thin on Lance, yet an unlikely friendship emerges within their cutting jibes and forced reconciliations to meet the long road that lies ahead. David Gordon Green returns to the lyrical tenor of his earliest films in this potent blend of comedy and road-movie stoicism, based on the 2011 Icelandic film Either Way. A Magnolia Pictures release. (Green’s spotmaking roost is Chelsea Pictures.)
• Running From Crazy, directed by Barbara Kopple. (USA) – New York Premiere, Documentary. Join actress Mariel Hemingway, granddaughter of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, as she examines the mental illness and suicide that colors her family’s history and tries to avert that fate for herself and her daughters. By mixing in remarkable archival footage of the three Hemingway sisters, two-time Academy Award�-winner Barbara Kopple expands one famous family’s deeply embedded truths into a broad picture of the courage it takes to face the past and change your future. (Kopple directs commercials and branded content via Nonfiction Unlimited.)
• In the Storyscapes transmedia section of Tribeca, there’s:
This Exquisite Forest, Project Creators: Aaron Koblin and Chris Milk (USA). Conceived by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin and produced by Google and Tate Modern, This Exquisite Forest was inspired by the surrealist game “exquisite corpse” and its idea of collaborative creation. The project, hosted at exquisiteforest.com, allows visitors to create short animations right in their web browser. Other users may build on the animation at any point, creating a collection of navigable, branching narratives resembling trees that grow bigger as more artists contribute. (Milk directs commercials and branded content at @radical.media.)
Shorts The shorts in the 2013 Tribeca lineup involving directors with spotmaking ties include:
• Likeness, directed and written by Rodrigo Prieto (USA) – World Premiere. A young girl battles with body image and enters the world of eating disorders where worth rises as weight falls. This marks the directorial debut short film of noted cinematographer Prieto (Argo, the recently wrapped The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese). Little Minx and Idealogue, two companies that previously produced the web series Little Minx Exquisite Corpse, reunited on this project, partnering with Candescent Films. (Prieto is on the Little Minx roster.)
• Playdate, directed by David Shane (USA) – World Premiere. Paul and Kate excitedly arrive for dinner at the home of a cool couple from their kids’ school, only to discover an interloping third couple already in attendance as playground politics boil over. (Shane directs via O Positive Films.)
