Today we’d like to introduce you to Cole Douglas Meyer.
Hi Cole Douglas, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It really began when I was a wee tot.
Usually, kids say that they want to be a fireman, astronaut, lawyer, police officer, or doctor when they grow up, but me… I had my eye on something different.
I was in the kitchen, watching the Academy Awards while having a dinner and I was mesmerized by the actors, actresses, the pageantry, the clothes, and the glitz and glamour of the whole thing. Something about these people from tinseltown getting together and bestowing upon each other these accolades, praise and esteem just struck a chord with me, and from there I was hooked and wanted to be a part of that world.
However, I didn’t know where or how that dream could become a reality.
Being a creative and an artist was always with me growing up.
I enjoyed acting in school plays; singing in the choir. I would write short stories in my spare time; interact scenes in my head that I created with action-figures. (Laughs) It wasn’t until I was in my preteens where my real trial by fire introduction into being a director began.
I created a short film with my mom that was basically a spoof of “The Blair Witch Project” (which of course was popular at the time), in which, I pretended I was being chased by an unknown, unseen entity through our front yard. I told my mom (who was manning the camera as the once-and-last-time cinematographer) to keep the camera either pointed at me or at my feet, and get my scared reactions as she chased me. Let’s just say that didn’t go quite as successful as I would’ve liked and planned. (Laughs) Nonetheless, my teacher did get a kick out of it. It was a hysterical and memorable disaster, and that little test made me want to do more.
So, in high school, I got involved in the audio-visual department, and started shooting short little documentaries, and eventually when college came around, I decided I wanted to pursue digital film production for my Associate’s. Shortly, after I decided to go for my Bachelor’s Degree in Screenwriting, and cap off my education with a Master’s in Creative Writing— in which— I wrote a feature-length screenplay about the Bermuda Triangle (of all things) as my capstone/thesis.
In those years between my Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s was when I got into the local film community and started making short films and entering film festivals and competitions. I won a few awards, created a name for myself, networked, and started to feel good that this dream that seemed impossible as a child was now paying off and being a reality.
However, I still had my ambition on going bigger.
At age 30, I decided I was going to retire from doing short films, and I wanted to pursue feature-films.
I had a screenplay that I had been writing and rewriting on that I thought could have potential of making called “Chaste.” I had loosely mentioned it to a few people, but I wasn’t sure if anything would come about it.
I had written some features in the past; been involved with some features that just didn’t have the funding or weren’t likely going to get off the ground, and I thought, “Well, that’s it” or “Maybe I’ll have to figure out a way to crowd-fund this idea down the road.”
But then as fate would have it, I ran into H. Thomas Altman (my business partner and good friend) on a job. Now, a little backstory… H.T. as he likes to be called and I knew of each other and were Facebook friends, but really hadn’t spoken a lot prior to this fateful meeting. Mostly at festivals, we were ships passing in the wind, but this was a good opportunity to say “Hello”, break the ice, and get acquainted. So we did, and I mentioned that I had this feature I wanted to make, which, over break I pitched him the entire synopsis.
By lunchtime, he had a clear view of the film I wanted to make and was instantly interested in helping me make the movie and advocating to play the lead of Shane Becker, a womanizing, sex-addicted photographer for a major advertising agency, whom, is conflicted about settling down and finding love, or continuing his sexual romps.
The material was not going to be an easy sell we knew going in. I wrote and envisioned the main character to be like the movie “Alfie” where the audience is caught and torn between liking this guy and being disgusted by him and abhorring his indecent behavior. However, I didn’t want to make him a total scum bag. I wanted the audience to have some empathy for him; maybe even pity him.
Thence, we got together a group of people he knew and I knew, and within a few months, we had a production ready and raring to roll camera.
I had— at this moment— reached a level of “OMG… I’m actually going to do this” ebullience and “OMG… what am I doing” fear. Yet as we went through scene by scene and I heard the dialogue I wrote be said by actors and flow out of them, watched the dailies pour in, and edited the movie, did I feel proud of myself for sticking with this pursuit of filmmaking.
Others probably in my shoes would’ve quit. Others would’ve been too scared to even get to Day 1.
Let me just say… filmmaking is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. It’s fun in the beginning, but as time goes by, it becomes stressful, costly, and you have to be accepting that you might have to make sacrifices and be content with that. I’m single, unmarried and with no kids. I’d love to have all of those things, sure, but I would need to have a partner that could understand the gambles and risks; need to be supportive and receptive of this life I’ve chosen and my pursuable goals.
That being said, I couldn’t be more happy with the end product that is “Chaste.” It’s a really moving drama with some beautiful cinematography, stellar performances by the actors involved, and a jazzy soundtrack that really paints a mood and marries well with the unpredictability of the character that is Shane.
Once we finished on “Chaste”, we both had this itch to make another movie, and I pitched to H.T. this idea about a struggling country music singer, whom, has to go back home to West Virginia to take custody of the child he abandoned. Like before, we got together, went over the script, rewrote it, assembled a team of talented individuals like Zak Rivers (our Director of Photography) and others, and really wanted to raise the bar on “The Ballad of Travis Hunter.”
This time, I wanted us to have a recognizable face and name to play Travis Hunter’s manager, Larry Fineman, and so we talked to a few Hollywood actors, but no one was biting at our offer. That is until we decided on Eric Roberts. Both of us enjoyed him in “The Best of the Best” and “The Dark Knight”, and we were determined to have him in the picture. When he said “Yes”, we were on Cloud 9, and from there, it seemed like things were just coming in our favor. We gained two other talented actors that had been in some major motion-pictures like Lisa Davis and Michael Edwards aka John Connor in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
We, also, knew if we were going to make a country music-themed movie that we were going to have to make it sound, look, and feel as authentic as possible. This lead us to Billy Ziogas, whom, breathed life into the songs I wrote and took them to an impressive quality neither H.T. and I could’ve imagined, and Nashville-native Tim Temple, whom, has made a soul-stirring score.
Much like “Chaste”, it’s a film that both H.T. and I really proud of, and cannot wait to share both films soon.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Film is a highly-unpredictable medium. You’re going to have schedule conflicts, difficulties obtaining a location, be forced to become clever and reconfigure scenes, sometimes go guerrilla run-and-gun on shoots, and evaluate your product and decide what could be better, what could we add, what could we take out, and how much more money are you going to throw at it to get it to where you want and need it to be.
I’ll add that I’m, also, a perfectionist. This sometimes can be an asset of mine but also a hindrance dependent upon who you’re asking. (Laughs)
I’m a stickler for detail and not wanting something to look bad or affect a scene in anyway.
Sometimes you have to learn to accept things are out of your power; other times you have to find ways to fix mistakes.
And you sometimes have to come to terms with the idea that you can’t win every battle and have to accept something as is.
I’ve also had to learn to be more collaborative and open to ideas.
Sometimes my co-producer and I are on the same wave length and can read each other’s minds, and are a symbiosis— in simpatico. Other times, we can butt heads like brothers. Nonetheless, we are two men who want the best for our company— the Cinematics, and the products we churn out.
H.T., mostly, handles the business side of things whereas me the technical, but, professionally, we’ll give each other insight, bounce off ideas on each other, and problem-solve issues together.
Some of the issues we’ve ran into have been anywhere from sound, picking music, continuity, to having to make casting decisions due to someone having to drop out of the film or stuck between wanting to cast this person but also like this person, having to do reshoots due to corrupted footage, or simply money woes.
All of these things can be headaches and for some— they may not want to even deal with it and be content just doing shorts over features, but H.T. and I find ways to make it work and have devoted our time, money, talents and efforts to find the best solutions and hire the best people— all in the pursuit of putting out the best work.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a screenwriter, producer, editor, director and actor along with some other hats.
I started out as playing the main villain in a friend’s short called “Shades” where… spoiler-alert… I get bludgeoned to death in the end with a briefcase. I still remember the shocked and mixed reactions I got from family members after witnessing that. (Laughs)
After that, I ended up playing a supporting role in a short film by Tucker Kloetzke called “The Dead Body”, which, was kind of “Memento”-esque . I, essentially, played the best friend/Joe Pantoliano-character.
From there, I started making my own shorts. Whether it be some unseen monster chasing a guy through the woods called… you guessed it… “The Woods” to longer shorts like the film noir “The Married Woman”, the gritty “Another One Bites the Dust”, and the destruction of a marriage in “Infidelity.”,
Then, I took the plunge into the short film competition game to see what that was all about making silly shorts like “Jar Jar Binks Ruined My Life” and “Frankenstein in Love” to more serious and dramatic pieces like “Watch Over Me” and “Broken.”
As my twenties drew to a close, I decided I had enough of the short film competition game, and I leapt out to, once again, make a longer short narrative like “One Bad Night” because I felt I said and did enough in that realm, I had ambitions on doing bigger things, and mostly because I didn’t want my creativity to be stifled and my freedom as a filmmaker be consumed and beholden to and by rules and certain control elements like a prop or person’s name to be throw in to satisfy a criterium.
I guess I’m just built different. I’ve always looked at my life as like a checklist. “Once I’ve done this, it’s time to do this next.”
That next box was to make a feature.
In several years spanning, my business partner and I have made two feature-films with a third in its pre-production infancy stages, and we have several scripts on the table to choose from for future endeavors along with interested parties and investors who want to work with us.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
As said before, I’ve learned to be a little more open-minded and collaborative.
I still believe that a filmmaker should hold tight and stay true to his or her vision, but also they should show some signs of loosening their restraint too.
I also learned that in your mind or even on the script page, you can have ideas of how you want it to be, sound, look, etcetera but sometimes you have to have that openness to accept that maybe things go or sound a little different.
Maybe you have to make some compromises to scenes where a shooting location is now filling in for several locations, and with a little set-dressing, you now don’t have to make what’s called a “company move” to a different location, but keep everything in-house there.
Whatever the case, you can’t be hardheaded and think that it has to be only your way or the highway. Sometimes people have some good ideas that are even better than yours, or at the very least, worthy of trying out. Some ad-libbing and improvisation can add a little zest and flavor to spice up scenes. Sometimes letting the actors breathe and do their thing, and giving them the reigns to take a scene and let them ride off with it can be an interesting experiment. Maybe it’ll turn out positive; maybe it’ll turn out negative. Regardless, you have to have a willingness to try it out, free the mind and have an ability to play and let go of stubbornness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chastemovie.com and https://www.theballadoftravishunter.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBalladofTravisHunter
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/chastethemovie
