Voices en Español

During the summer I heard about an atypical first-time film director. His name is Ryan Harper. He’s a 32-year-old college instructor who teaches biotechnology. He had a dream to write, direct and produce a film and he decided to do it in two languages — Spanish and English. The fact that he doesn’t speak Spanish didn’t stop him. That really jumped out at me. He’s a great example of how when someone has a ton of enthusiasm and combines that with massive action, anything is possible. The movie is called Circulation and Below is a Q&A we did together. Click “MORE” to keep on reading…

Who is Ryan Harper?

That’s a good question…

You seem like a modern-day Renaissance man. How does a University of California-Berkeley grad with a background in molecular biology wind up directing films?

I actually remember the night that I decided to make a movie. I was drinking a beer at an old Irish bar with my friend Todd and he asked me a question. He asked if you could do anything for a living, doesn’t matter what it is, what would you do? I thought about it for a minute or two and I told him that if I could do anything I would make movies. For the next week I couldn’t stop thinking about that conversation. It sounds weird but at the time I believed that I was living in the afterlife and that this reality was just a figment of my imagination and that I had the potential to change my reality. With work, effort, and conviction I could do whatever I wanted. So, I decided I would go ahead, make a movie, make it as best I could and with effort and pure conviction it would be successful.

How did the idea of Circulation occur to you?

A few months before I started writing the script, I took a trip down to Mexico. I drove that brown 1984 F250 truck that’s in the movie. I took it all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and back. When I passed military check points, the federales would laugh at my truck and tell me I would never make it. It broke down three times, but it did make it there and back.

One night I was sleeping in the bed of the truck on a sandy beach along the Pacific Ocean. I woke up when it was still dark and couldn’t fall back asleep. I must have laid there for an hour or more. Finally I decided that I might as well get on the road. Fog covered everything. I could hardly see 5 feet in front of me. I drove for hours and hours and hours. The fog eventually cleared, but it stayed dark. I thought that maybe that was it…that this is the road taking me to the afterlife…that there would always be darkness and the sun would no longer shine. I remember passing a bull on the side of the road. The headlights illuminating his cold dark eyes and long horns. Anyway, the sun finally did come up. It wasn’t the road to the afterlife, just a normal road in the middle of the desert.

That image of the bull stayed with me. The animalistic nature of the afterlife in Circulation might be attributed to that bull…but I’ve always been interested in the idea that humans still have something primitive that was left behind as we evolved…something that could cause us to revert back to an animal state. I like that idea…

Fill us in on the plot. What’s Circulation about?

Circulation is a movie about the afterlife. Like anything, it is open to interpretation, but when I wrote the movie I wanted it to be about reincarnation and I imagined a purgatory where people still have human form but learn the instincts of animals. It asks the question, how are animals born with natural instincts?

The movie is bilingual but I read somewhere that you don’t speak Spanish. How did you manage to pull that off? What was your secret weapon?

I took three years of Spanish in high school, but now I can barely speak a complete sentence. I wrote the script in English and then had someone translate the Spanish dialogue. In Mexico, the lead actress spoke Spanish and so did the production manager. They helped me a lot when talking to extras or people we hired to help out the crew. Most of the officials at the police station, office of tourism and the mayors office spoke English, so I was able to speak to them directly. There were a few surprises in the movie when I had it re-translated so we can add the subtitles. There were moments when I was like really that person said that?

Did making the film make you want to learn Spanish?

I do want to learn Spanish – I think it’s a beautiful language. I wish a lived in the Matrix and they could just load some software into me and I’ll instantly know another language. When I got back from Mexico I thought about taking a class at the Berkeley Community College, but then I got lazy and never enrolled. I’m not very good with languages. For awhile I was thinking about doing a movie in Iraq and I tried to learn Arabic. It was sad. Languages are not something that comes easy to me…even English.

Where did you film and what was that like?

Everything was filmed within a 40-mile radius of San Felipe, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula. It’s a beautiful place and I can’t wait to get back there. I’m going to do my best to make it down there for Christmas. The movie only captures 5% of the area’s beauty.

What was the hardest part about putting the story on film?

Everything was hard. Every day we spent in Mexico was challenging. The cars and trucks would constantly break down, get a flat tire or get stuck in the sand. There was not a single day where we didn’t have a car problem. We had a really small crew – two make-up girls, DP, grip, production manager and a sound person. Everyone would usually help each other out, but by the end of the six weeks, the cast and crew were completely drained. It was completely exhausting. I remember driving back to the house we rented and being so exhausted that I would be falling asleep as I was driving. Sometime the drive was only five or ten minutes, but still my eyes would close and I would have to force myself to try and keep them open.

From a creative standpoint, the hardest thing was getting the voiceover right. After we edited the movie we recorded the voiceover, but it didn’t sound right. It actually didn’t make sense. The original idea was that the voiceover was a conversation between the American Character and a woman he picks up at the very end of the film. However, nobody got what was happening. The audience thought that the main male character was talking to the female lead which was definitely not what I intended. I rewrote it and then we recorded it again. This time I tried to make it more clear, I gave the female voice a name so that the audience could distinguish her from the female lead. I also made it more dramatic, hoping that people would be more interested and listen better…but no…still the majority of people didn’t make the connection to the woman at the end of the movie and the conversation through the film. Then we took the voiceover out all together, but there were not enough clues in the film for people to understand what was happening. Finally on the fourth attempt I changed the entire thing and had the main character do a more traditional voiceover. I think it turned out best and it was worth the extra time and money to make the changes.

How big was your budget and how did you finance it?

The entire budget was around $55,000 dollars. I saved for a year or two, took out about 10 credit cards, sold a sailboat and a rare Vespa. Two members of my family also invested some money. Except for the six weeks we were in Mexico, I continued to work part time as a science teacher at a college. I spread the post production payments out so that everyone got paid at different times. It worked well because as soon as someone got paid I was flat broke, but would make enough money before the next person needed to get paid. I still have 12 grand worth of credit card debt, but I’m hoping to pay that off within the next year or so…

What surprised you the most about the entire process?

Maybe the fact that the police and fire departments in San Felipe were so helpful. You’re not allowed to bring guns into Mexico so on the third or fourth day I walked into the police station and asked them if I could borrow a rifle. This was the first time I spoke with anyone at the station, but 5 minutes later they took me to a back room and opened a cabinet of M16s and military style shot guns. I had to explain to them that I needed a hunting rifle. They called around and a few days later a police pick up truck pulls up to a location we’re filming at and hands over a rifle that was borrowed from a local lawyer.

Although, they did tow our car TWO days before we need to leave Mexico! We purposefully crashed a car into a ditch, but didn’t have enough time to film the scene that took place after the crash…so we left the car in the ditch, but when we came back to it the next morning it was gone. Eventually we found out that someone towed the car and it was now at a junk yard. The car wasn’t registered to us, so with one day to spare we managed to jump through all the bureaucratic hurdles to get the car back. Then we crashed it again and filmed the scene FIVE MINUTES before the sun set. That was the last shot of the movie and by 7:00am the next day (three days before Christmas)were were all headed home.

When will the film be released and where can people find it?

The film will be released in December by Cinema Epoch and you’ll be able to get it on Netflix, Borders Books, Best Buy and hopefully Blockbuster. There will also be a small theatrical release at smaller independent theaters. If your readers have a Blockbuster account and are interested in renting the movie it wouldn’t hurt to ask Blockbuster to carry it.

The thing that really struck me about you and your background is the strong determination and focus you seem to have. Do you have any advice for other people who have an intense passion or interest in pursuing a dream but are afraid to take the first step?

What I said about people making their own reality is totally true. If you’re miserable working for your boss then take initiative and find a job that you like or do something that you’re excited about. If you really believe in something and put forth the effort required then you will be able to make it happen…(learning Spanish excluded)…But really you need to go all in – 100%. You need to have a do or die mentality and more times than not you will get what you’re after.

What’s up next for you? Any future film projects in the works? Can you share any details?

Well, I don’t have any money at the moment to make another movie, but if someone out there wants to be generous and give me cold hard cash, I have three scripts that I’ve written over the last 9 months that would make really great movies. They’re a little more main stream than Circulation. The latest one I wrote I am really excited about…It’s a ghost story, but it’s unique and I don’t think anyone has ever told a ghost story this way. I think it’s going to be a hit. I’m also looking for an agent or producer or really anyone that could help get my next film off the ground.

Visit Ryan Harper’s web site for his film Circulation: www.circulationfilm.com

Longer Director’s reel below, but you’ll need QuickTime to view it.
Click on the black box and the trailer will start