Movies You Made: “Awakening”
The latest short film from Adam Neustadter:
I wanted to share my latest short with you. It’s an odd existential comedy called AWAKENING. I made it on a whim while a comedy writer friend was visiting from New York. It’s a simple set up in a single short scene, but it was a fun exercise. We were aiming for something that was equal parts Ingmar Bergman and Henny Youngman. The end result is pretty ridiculous.
An allergy season romance: One unhappy New Yorker flees to California in search of a change. And a spiritual, mystical beauty seems to know just what he needs.
Director: Adam Neustadter
Writer: Noah Levenson
Cast: Noah Levenson & Diana Garcia
Director of Photography: Alexander Alexandrov
Sound Design & Score: Elliot Thompson
Here is the short film Awakening:
I asked Adam this question: What was it about this particular story that inspired you to make it into a movie? Here is his reply:
The inspiration for this short came simply from seeing my friend Noah — a comedy writer, born and bred in New York — squirming through the comforts of Los Angeles. He could appreciate LA and the lifestyle here, but was so clearly a fish out of water. I always love seeing New York characters adapting to Los Angeles, whether it’s the LA scenes in Annie Hall, or even in Mad Men. Maybe this is because I’m a New Yorker who now lives in LA, but there’s something I find very funny about that particular “stranger in a strange land” set up. Noah is such a hilarious guy, and a true New Yorker through and through, so seeing him in California was the spark. We were discussing working together on another project, but figured we’d knock out a quick short while he was in town. A few days later we were shooting on the beach, with Diana Garcia (Sin Nombre, Drama/Mex) playing the free spirit opposite him. Noah is not an actor, but I can’t imagine this film without him in it. There is inherent conflict built in to Noah’s character simply being in this picturesque California setting, but when you have him engaging with this beautiful new age-y girl, that conflict just amplifies. Noah and I wanted to make sure that their interaction, and the escalating conflict that comes from it, is not what you’d expect. We wanted it to feel like one thing at first, but then turn towards something else. It was important to us that this pairing of the neurotic New Yorker and zen Angeleno leads you somewhere surprising, and that any character transformation that might occur be completely unexpected. We’ve been joking that our goal was to make something that is equal parts Ingmar Bergman and Henny Youngman. I think that kind of says it all.
You may remember The Bicycle, a short film Adam made with Chris McCoy. I featured it here in December of last year and it went on to become a Vimeo staff pick.
Having lived in L.A. for much of my life, I think Awakening is pretty damn funny. How about you?
Although March is my official Movies You Made month, I am happy to feature original movies by indie filmmakers throughout the year, so if you have a short film, a feature length film, a trailer for a film or even a web episode or series that you feel would be worth the time of the Go Into The Story community, email me with details. I need to review it for content and it has to be embeddable, but should be apparent by now, I like to provide this platform for indie filmmakers.
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