Announcing our latest Tongaler of the Month: Anna Christopher! Her very first Tongal video submission "Read My Face" won second place in the Olay Fresh Effects Video Project. Read on to hear about her background, inspiration, and what she's up to when she isn't Tongaling!
Sarah Donze: Tell us a little bit about your background: how did you get into filmmaking?
Anna Christopher: I have always been writing but then in high school, influenced by my mom who is a painter and photographer, I explored visual storytelling with photography. By the time I was looking at colleges, I knew I either wanted to go into geology/plate tectonics (I was fascinated by earthquakes) or filmmaking, a place where words and visuals combine into a magical thing. I decided to study Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University because they have a fantastic film program that would allow me to explore every stage in making a film and every position on a crew. I continued honing my craft getting my masters degree at the American Film Institute in the Directing Program. I loved my time at AFI and all the collaborators I met there.
SD: What was the first film you ever made?
AC: SOCK IT TO ME. It is about a mom, daughter and their rivalry in the cutthroat world of sock monkey-making competitions. Yes, it was a comedy.
SD: Sounds hilarious! How did you find Tongal?
AC: While working on feature films and TV projects, I had started doing branded digital content and was enjoying the fun of working with brands to create media that cut through the noise on the internet. A friend of mine had seen my work and knew about Tongal and introduced me to the site. It was love at first sight.
SD: A true romance. What attracted you to the Olay projects?
AC: I was so inspired by Olay's interest in doing something new and different from typical beauty content. They wanted to speak to the younger generation in a way that respected their smarts, savvy, and appetite for fun. Olay wasn't scared of trying something new, which is like jet-fuel for a creative person. Their willingness to do something that was a little out of the box, a little less conventional for the genre, made me feel confident and excited to push myself, which is something I'm always attracted to doing.
SD: Was there something specific that inspired your winning video “Read My Face”?
AC: I've had a version of that last scene in the video of my own life: being out all night with friends, having surprising adventures, hilarious mishaps, and unexpectedly beautiful moments, and then ending up at the beach with some of your favorite people on the planet. The beach location is a Cali thing, but I think that idea and that journey is something so many of us have experienced and remember viscerally. I worked backwards from that kind of moment and created original characters who had their own individual needs and obstacles that resulted in three mini stories.
SD: The resulting work was beautiful! Tell us a little about your new web series.
AC: LISA'S ADVICE has been one of my favorite projects of 2013! I love this web series... a lot. LISA'S ADVICE is a comedic web series that at first is a satire about advice-giving, but underneath is really about how women talk to each other and navigate the hilarious yet very real codes of female friendship. Written, directed and starred in by me and actress/filmmaker Regina Taufen (my real-life friend), LISA'S ADVICE began as a joke that we made over a hangover cure-all breakfast at IHOP. We got excited about making a project that cracked us up, i.e. we didn't know if anyone else would think it was funny but we didn't care, so we put in dozens of our own dollars and called upon a few helpful friends (and boyfriends) to actualize the web series. Now LISA'S ADVICE is 14 videos, each deliciously short (:30-:60), providing LOL-worthy insights into this fictional yet curiously familiar friendship between a lovable, try-hard straight woman and a vicious, unstoppable funny woman.
SD: How do you juggle starring and directing in the same project? Do you give yourself notes?
AC: LISA'S ADVICE is the first project in which I've acted and directed at the same time, and I wouldn't have done it without Regina Taufen being there as my co-director and co-star. We have a great working relationship, very honest, very transparent, very positive. We did rehearsals and talked through our characters, the scenes' beats, etc. These conversations, the same ones I have with actors any time I direct (I just usually am not the actor!), were the closest thing to "notes" I gave myself. On set, I knew that for myself to give a good performance, I needed to be in the moment, connecting to my scene-partner, being fully present. I could not be "watching" my performance, so I really looked to Regina, as my co-director, to give me feedback and help shape my performance.
SD: You work in so many different formats whether they’re commercials, short films, series. Do projects come at you randomly or do you seek out varied opportunities?
AC: I seek out opportunities that interest me creatively, whether that means visually or because of the talent/crew attached or the concept of the project or the script. If there is something in the project that sparks something in me, I wanna do it. Inspiration is a precious thing so I'm happy to ping-pong around in different formats to find it.
SD: What do you find unique about being a female filmmaker in such a male-dominated industry?
AC: Sometimes you're the only woman in the room, on the set, in the meeting, which is all the more reason to rock it.
SD: We’d love to hear more about your film that screened at Cannes.
AC: At Northwestern University, I directed the annual music video for Niteskool, a student-run organization. That music video was extremely ambitious for a student film because it included a car chase, fantastic locations, and a nighttime shooting, but we had a tremendous team, and we made it a reality. The video won a student Emmy and also garnered a place at a special Cannes showcase of student work.
SD: Do you have any advice for your fellow Tongalers?
AC: Push yourself to think outside the box and take chances because Tongal is a great place to try new ideas and be recognized for your creativity.
SD: Are there any projects you’d love to see on tongal.com that we haven’t presented yet?
AC: I'd love to see Tongal actualize an idea that's been floating around the indie community for years which is to create a feature film made by multiple filmmakers taking on different sections/acts/scenes of the film. Sorta like "Paris, Je T'aime" but a continuous narrative rather than thematically-linked shorts.
SD: Is there another filmmaker whose work inspires your own?
AC: Mike Nichols, Spike Jonze, Mike Mills, John Hughes, Cameron Crowe.
SD: What are your daily must-reads?
AC: Does Facebook count? Read-read wise, I'm currently loving the THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tart. It's for book club.
SD: Fun fact or surprising hobby?
AC: I started horseback riding when I was six years old and still go once a week. Hanging with horses is super fun; they don't care about deadlines, scripts, production schedules and all you have to do to get them to love you is bring them carrots.
SD: Thanks for your time Anna!
