Interview: Neil Drumming — Part 4

Neil Drumming is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and journalist. He is a former staff writer and editor at Entertainment Weekly, and his work has appeared in Wired, The Washington Post, Vibe, Rolling Stone, Essence, and Vanity Fair. He wrote and directed his first film Big Words, which the New York Times describes as “weaving race, class, sexual orientation and politics — as well as the evolution of rap music — into a wistful tapestry of male disaffection.”

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Neil. In Part 4, Neil discusses the ending of Big Words, how the response to the movie has been, and what his future plans are:

Scott: I’d like to talk about that because the ending is really quite nuanced. I think I’d describe it as, because of the nature of the day’s events when Obama was elected President, everything’s changed, but none of your story’s major characters change. I was wondering how you landed on that ending as opposed to the proverbial happy ending where some people might think, “Oh, the three of them are going to get back together, or they’re going to start doing music?” What are the sensibilities where you said, “No, I’m just going to show a day in the life, a glimmer of hope,” like you said?

Neil: Yeah. There’s a real world impetus to that ending. I used to be in a rap group in college and we’re never going to perform together again. One of the guys from that group did a song for the movie and he was like, “Why don’t you get on the song with me, we can do the song together?” I’m like that’s not going to happen because we’re in different places in our lives and it’s just not realistic. Here’s the real world example for me which is that that doesn’t happen. The other thing is I just never felt like anything that you see from them will ever live up to what it was. I don’t need the audience to believe that they were great, I just need the audience to believe that they wanted it at that time, that it was important to them then. That’s all that really matters. I don’t want you to see them and be like man, you’re right, they were incredible together.

I don’t think that’s necessary. I want you to believe that Jack was pretty good, which I think we get across, but I don’t need you to see that they would have been spectacular at this. That’s actually not even the case with all three of them. I don’t know necessarily James was really cut out to be a rapper. James was cut out to be a publicist, which is what he is.

Scott: This idea of a compressed time frame, one day in the life, how did you make that choice?

Neil: It was always going to be one day. The Obama thing actually came a bit later but the one day thing was always the case because I love those movies. Compressed time. Like I said, I like little changes. I like little journeys. It just seemed like a natural thing. The Obama thing, I can’t remember exactly how that came up. But it became crystal clear why it should be that case. Not completely without hope but certainly looking inward and internally when everyone else around them is looking outward. It just felt like a great device for drawing a contrast between them and the rest of the world and showing where they were.

Scott: You really drive that home because none of them end up voting in the election.

Neil: Yeah. [laughter] I get a lot of flack for that, but whatever.

Scott: That reflects the fact, like you said, they’re on more of an inward journey that day rather than everybody else looking outward, right?

Neil: Yeah, yeah. There’s a line at the beginning of the movie when John is getting fired, the guy firing him says about the election it’s going to be an important day. I want it to be an important day, but it’s not an important day for the reasons you assume at the beginning.

Scott: Big Words was an official selection of SLAMdance and received some strong reviews including the New York Times. That must be gratifying.

Neil: Yeah, definitely.

Scott: The movie’s being distributed by Array which is the distribution label of the African‑American Film Festival Releasing Movement. What’s the plan on getting the movie out there?

Neil: We’re towards the tail end of New York run. We did pretty well. LA, I think, did better. AFFRM in LA came up with this idea that they would do it almost like a hip‑hop tour. They’re taking the film from city to city.

We’re doing it throughout July and August, where we’re just taking the movie around the country and the world. AFFRM is really good at marshaling volunteer talent. Mavericks they’re called, and they work tirelessly to help promote the film via being on the street and social media. They’ve been really good about getting the word out. We’re forever indebted to them.

Scott: What other projects do you have in mind? Do you plan to continue with the independent movie thing or are you interested in moving to more mainstream studio type films?

Neil: Matt Keene Smith is my producer on Big Words and we have another project, a script I finished about a month ago. We just had a phone meeting with our casting director from Big Words, Lois Drabkin, to talk about early ideas for cast. We actually went out to someone for the lead. I can say that it’s a science fiction romance, much in the vein of Eternal Sunshine. It’s set in Queens. I love New York. Obviously because I was born in Queens, I want to fully explore the magic and diversity there. It’s an adventure.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Neil talks about some key aspects of the screenwriting craft.

For Part 1, go here.

Part 2, go here.

Part 3, go here.

You can follow Neil on Twitter: @neildrumming.