Ill Square

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Images courtesy of Edgardo Flores

by Romina Rosenow

Do-It-Yourself, the 84-Minute Experience

Before the existence of Steven Soderbergh’s influential 1989 film, Sex, Lies and Videotape, the term ‘indie film’ was virtually nonexistent. Its screenplay may have been jotted down on a yellow legal pad over the course of a brisk eight days, but the movie’s impact had an effect on the film industry that continues to last today. It’s true that many years before the pivotal ‘80s there were offbeat art films like Chelsea Girls being made by the likes of such people as Warhol, but it wasn’t until Soderbergh came around that the independent film industry became recognized on a massive scale. What the revolution of the indie film industry, which has since proliferated meant, was that more indie films reach a much wider audience than ever could have been possible before. This facet of the film industry has been responsible for the making of many interesting, often groundbreaking films—all because the makers often tend to be more concerned with perfecting their craft and less about making a buck.

Like the music recording industry’s evolution (though that was the result of the rise of the Internet a decade later), the independent film industry has now evolved from low budget methods—think French new wave, to full on makeshift DIY methods, which Santa Monica based indie filmmaker Edgardo Flores employed to the fullest degree when he set out to make his debut feature film in 2007. His methods and means of making a feature-length film illustrate the indie film industry’s evolution. With his former girlfriend Michelle Munjekovich as film crew and a Canon HV20 as the only tool, the 34-year old directed, produced, filmed, starred in, made the music for and later edited his feature, Ill Square. He would have written it, if there was a script, but he chose his favored method of telling a story, improvisation.

Making it up as he goes—that’s been Flores’ approach to his craft since he began shooting shorts for his sketch comedy troupe “The Tricksters” in the late ‘90s, the results of which aired on Monrovia cable access in the form of a sixteen-episode season. The episodes, like Ill Square, were made up of a loose outline within which each actor could improvise to his heart’s content. The comedy troupe experience also helped Flores work on his editing skills and was, in a sense, about as close to film school the self-taught filmmaker ever came to. However, the real schooling came with Ill Square, which Flores muses taught him a lot technically. “It was like film school in a sense.”

With an ambitious outlook, Flores took the improv method to the next level for Ill Square—not only was the dialogue improvised, but as Flores describes it, “It started out as one story, a guy in the subway waiting for a train to arrive, like a music video sequence. And from there, it became this puzzle piece like process, where each scene that was shot would inspire the next scene to come.” Essentially the story, consisting of a superstitious father-son duo bent on saving the world from imaginary zombies, a lovesick man intent on getting back his estranged girlfriend, and a female documentarian (Munjekovich) who could well be that man’s path to salvation, unfolded as the scenes were filmed.

The experiment Flores embarked on revolved around making the plot points secondary to achieving the lonely mood of the film—a dark, mysterious one, realized through grainy visuals, night street scenes on the 110 freeway, and electro-dance music reminiscent at times of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Indeed, one of the most memorable overall qualities of the film is its undeniable confidence by way of taking risks in an artistic sense. According to Flores, the French new wave fashion of jump cuts, existing light, etc, “allowed for a more raw and intimate approach.” Ever pragmatic, he insists that the lack of funds actually helped attain the film’s overarching mood. The filming locale, set throughout various parts of South Pasadena and Downtown Los Angeles for the most part, holds special meaning for Flores. One of the scenes, a musical montage of the ex-girlfriend in Ill Square, was filmed at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Flores reveals his connection with the same spot the scene was filmed, saying, “I would often go there late, gaze over the city and envision my future.”

Ill Square’s music was written before the film was even a blip in the filmmaker’s mind, but would help inform and even guide the making of the film. “I recorded an album in 2006 [under the name Simontronics] called The Royal Bloodline. I wrote all the music, then had my band mate Joe Fraley [of] King Devil come in and implement his sort of experimental touch—tweaking, cutting and rearranging the pieces. That's our routine process.” As with his film techniques, Flores says of making the music, “I never really give too much thought to the approach. I just sort of go.” He does list trip-hop musicians such as Portishead as an influence, as well as the Def Jux label’s slew of hip-hop artists.

Making Ill Square a reality with almost no help and no money wasn’t the only obstacle to overcome. Before Ill Square, Flores and his cast were working on another film, called For Digital Viewers. As Flores remembers it, “While shooting that film, it started to just fall apart. Cast members were dropping out and I had to fire a few people. The film essentially was just dismantled and I had to start from scratch… [For Digital Viewers] sort of gave birth to Ill Square.” And with the bulk of the prior film’s budget sunk into the camera, Flores had to start over with nothing but an optimistic sense of determination. Over the course of one year, Flores accumulated sixty hours of raw footage, which took him another year to edit. Ill Square was released in late 2009, but later pulled. It is now in the process of being revamped in terms of audio, color grade, added scenes, and most importantly, an alternate ending. In the prior ending, Flores comes face to face with himself in the past, as a sick man, and in the present, liberated. In the new ending, the documentarian character (Munjekovich) meets with the main character (Flores) at Union Station in Los Angeles for an outing, which signifies their fated coming together. The original version was projected this summer at Pasadena’s 2011 Action on International Film Festival, while the revamped version will be released in the fall of 2012 and available for instant streaming, as well as download.

On the horizon for Flores is another feature film project, set to begin shooting in early October. The cast will include indie film actress Ban-ya Choi, who is known in Korea for her indie film work. Flores gives a coy smile when asked about the upcoming film, summing it up for now as an “unconventional musical/romance film.” Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

 

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