Director : Jacob Mendel : The Waking Artist

The Waking Artist from Jacob Mendel on Vimeo.

What inspired this film?

A professor and I were having a conversation about Kafka, and he told me about an idea he had from a long time ago involving how Kafka’s short story  The Hunger Artist would be adapted into a film, suggesting the cinematic equivalent of not eating would be the refusal to sleep — insomnia as a sort of performance. I was intrigued by the concept and happened to be in New York with my friend Jason Sudak during a spring break and thought that Coney Island would be a perfect place to make The Waking Artist. During our last night in New York, the plan was that we’d meet at Penn Station, stay up all night filming (I liked the idea of Coney Island at night for its  abandoned and neon-lit insomniac aura), and then catch our 1:00 train the next afternoon back to Michigan. To make a gruelingly long story short, I waited up all night at Penn Station for Jason, and we didn’t start filming until 7:00 the next morning, with a train to catch in 6 hours. Although we were both in bad moods and delirious from staying up all night, in retrospect, the filming conditions were ideal and could not have been more in the spirit of the adaptation — we had become the waking artists ourselves.

How long have you been directing and doing photography?

I’ve been very passionate about filmmaking since my freshman year of high school. I would use friends as actors, rent local movie theaters, and sell tickets in the cafeteria. Overtime, I used the profits from screenings and DVD sales toward better equipment, and have been making films independently since.

You did the writing, cinematography and editing for “The Waking Artist”.  Did you approach the film with this “do it yourself” style out of necessity or to get a more broad perspective on the overall process?

For the Waking Artist, I had to cover all the areas of production out of necessity — all I had was a camera, tripod, no sleep, no New York film connections, and only 5 hours to film. In my filmmaking experience, I have typically followed a very “do it yourself” style, mainly because I didn’t know any filmmakers in high school so had to teach myself all phases of production.

What equipment do you use?

The Waking Artist was shot a very small consumer-grade HDV camera that Jason had brought to New York. Everything was shot in natural light

Where can more of your work be found?

My filmmaking can be found online at www.jacobmendel.com and on Vimeo ((http://www.vimeo.com/jacobmendel). The Waking Artist will screen this Fall at The Imago International Film Festival in Portugal and Eschatology will screen at Filmstock International Film Festival in the U.K. and at Anthology Film Archives in New York.

While visiting your website (jacobmendel.com), I saw that this film had been accepted into multiple festivals including The Imago International Film Festival in Portugal.  How do you feel about being able to present your work to other film enthusiasts?

Playing a project that I’m happy with at film festivals is one of my favorite parts of filmmaking. It’s a good feeling to know that people are actually watching what I’ve been up to and the sense of film community at film festivals in irreplaceable.

There are plenty of people who want to direct their own films, but don’t know where to start and aren’t financially able to do so.  What advice would you give another aspiring director?

With digital video and editing technology, the resources to make good films have become ubiquitous. If you have an idea that you like, make it, and stick to what you envision. In my experience, creative output has also always been dependent on at least some form of input — read books, watch films, write down conversations, explore.

Are you working on anything currently?

I am currently studying at Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and will be creating a narrative production or two here, so check back in January to see some films shot in Europe

At the end of the film theres a text that infers that you attend The University of Michigan Screen Arts and Cultures.  There are people who are weary of attending art schools because they feel that being taught certain methods will hinder their creativity.  Can you give any type of testimony in favor of universities and schools that focus on the arts?

Film school can be an amazing thing, but a level weariness is definitely something that I’d advise — creativity can’t really be taught and excessive pedagogical guidance can definitely be hindering. The main thing is to make the program work for you — use the resources that are available to you and make the school into a space where you can work.

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