Surf City director’s film debuts at festival
Lolita Harper
Like all filmmakers taking part in the Newport Beach Film Festival,
Surf City director Mike Goedecke wants to attract attention to his
short film.
Unlike other filmmakers, however, Goedecke has embarked on this
endeavor by allowing other creative forces to form the final product.
Goedecke’s film, “Untitled: 003 -- Embryo,” follows various
characters through a series of dreams and scenes that were each
created by other filmmakers, animators and studios.
“This film involves various artists creating a film and not really
knowing how it would all come together,” Goedecke said. “We had a
narrative and then incorporated all these dream sequences, and so the
movie has a very unique feeling because of that. It is very magical
as a result.”
Goedecke and Kane Roberts, who co-wrote the screenplay with him,
forged the outline for the story and then contacted various studios
to contribute dream scenarios for the assorted characters.
The Huntington Beach native said the film received very positive
feedback during its showings earlier in the week, which reaffirmed
his belief that the collaborative process was one worth pursuing.
“This festival has been great and really a lot of fun,” Goedecke
said. “People really seem to be into it.”
Goedecke said it was heartening to see people’s reactions to the
film and to hear them laughing in the right places and perhaps
gasping in others. The personal interaction with the audience is the
culminating experience of filmmaking, he said.
“You make these films in a vacuum, so I am just excited to get it
shown to others,” he said.
The festival awards ceremony will be held Friday, but Goedecke is
not too concerned with that formality. While it would be wonderful to
take home an honor, it is more important for him to make connections,
show his film, meet his audience and share his unparalleled
filmmaking concept with others.
The Newport Beach Film Festival has allowed him the opportunity to
do all those things, and the Orange County local is grateful for
that, he said. An award would be nice, though.
“The key for us is just trying to showcase a new way of filmmaking
that is not traditional, but still very entertaining,” he said.
“Hopefully, someone in Hollywood will take notice of this new way and
parlay it into something else.”
* LOLITA HARPER is a reporter with Times Community News. She may
be reached at (949) 574-4275 or by e-mail at
lolita.harper@latimes.com.
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