The Making of Love, Life, and Laundry

by Stacie Turk | Published September 3, 1999

Stacie Isabella Turk is an independent filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. Her first short, Love, Life, and Laundry, a well-made romantic comedy with a killer soundtrack, recently premiered at the Nashville Independent Film Festival. Understandably, Stacie was as anxious as an expectant mother about to give birth as she waited for the lights to dim on that first public screening. Afterward, though, she seemed more like a festival veteran, both calmly pleased with the film's positive reception and eager to gar­ner support for her next project. Stacie shared her moviemaking adventure with us shortly after her return to Los Angeles.

MovieMaker (MM): Is this your directorial debut?

Stacie Isabella Turk (ST): This is the first film, yes. I wrote, directed and produced a PSA on the topic of domestic vio­lence in 1997 (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not) that MTV as well as a chain of movie theatres picked up.

MM: What is the length of the film? Also, what was the format and film stock you used?

ST: The plight of the short film­maker always seems to be to make the short film shorter. My film runs 36 minutes-32 min­utes of story and four minutes of opening and clos­ing titles. The opening titles are animated (a la The Pink Panther) and are scored with The Pretenders' song, "Watching The Clothes." Like most filmmak­ers, I was fantasizing about titles over picture and realizing the cost was prohibitive when I hit on the animation idea. I thought I was so smart "to just make my own titles!" Little did I suspect all the new challenges I was about to face: Digital vs. cell animation, 30 fps converted to 24 fps and all sorts of tricks that kept pushing my learning curve, which by now resembled Mt. Rushmore. But I was convinced that the cartoon aspect would set the tone for this romantic comedy, and thus began my four­month search for an animator. Scott McCall (Nucleus Interactive) did an awesome job of bringing the whole piece to life, and with the help of Royal Garden Post and Pixel Harvest, we did a digital-to-film output directly onto 16 mm and cut it into the rest of the negative. We shot in 16mm and used beautiful KODAKVision stock.

MM: How did you fund a working laundromat location for six whole days?

ST: Well, I needed a laundromat exclusively and certainly didn't have the money to pay for a location, so I decided to find one that could benefit from our presence. I thought I was so smart to choose a script with only one location and a cast of three, but I didn't realize I chose one of the most dif­ficult locations to secure for no money. Laundromats are all cash businesses with very little overhead and are open 18 hours a day. There is no shooting after business hours because, basically, they never close! After a five-month search (both on foot and on telephone) and searching out remodels and foreclosures, I finally spoke to a man who owned a laundromat in Inglewood. It wasn't too big, so it could be lit for less than the national debt, and not too small, so it could accommodate all the equipment. It was an ugly, dirty beige color, though, and I would also have to negotiate with Crackerjack, a man who had become    accustomed to using the front sink as his own private shower, but this I could handle. Fourteen of us from Filmmaker's Alliance (the non-profit independent filmmaking collective of which I am a member and which provides production support ser­vices) went on a Saturday night, armed with paint rollers, to this Inglewood laundromat to give it its long awaited facelift. We finished at 2:00 am and it was beautiful! I had my movie location and the laundromat owner had a remod­eled business.

MM: How did you get your very cool "money shot" shot at the end, with Maggie and Chris spinning inside the washing machine?

ST: You like that? Good. I wanted to leave the audience with that "spinning" theme that we used throughout the story. Clairmont Camera has a roundy-round remote camera head that revolves 360 degrees at all different speeds. We mounted it vertically above the action and compos­ited it on top of another static shot we had of the washing machine. We shot the wash­er at three different distances and blacked out the window so there was a clean can­vas on which to composite.

MM: The Love, Life, and Laundry story is told very visually. Was that a priority for you?

ST: Yes, very much so. Having shot behind a still camera for 14 years, that was important. After nine drafts, staged readings, four writers and many story notes, I had a script I really loved. But I didn't want the audience to learn every­thing narratively, I wanted to paint a vivid picture, too. Plus, I wanted the pro­duction design to reflect a "magical " laundromat. We were trying to create an unusual environment to echo the rela­tionship that develops between Maggie and Chris and the dance they do.

MM: Tell us about the soundtrack.

ST: Yeah! My music supervisor (Rynda Laurel) and I fought hard for the songs we wanted even though songs like this are nor­mally too expensive for a short film's budget. Suffice it to say that the hard work paid off and we're blessed with great songs from Aerosmith, The Pretenders, and even Peggy Lee, Gene Autry and The Partridge Family We have fes­tival licenses for all of them. We started working on the rights a year ago. For one of the songs, I traded a photo shoot (I photographed one of the record label's recording artists) in exchange for the license. I think our original music, by Truman Fairlane, gives the film its own unique identity.

MM: What advice would you give a young moviemaker who wants to shoot her first short?

ST: As Jerry Lewis says, "The loudest voice known to man is on thousand foot reels." Or, in my case, lots and lots of short ends. I would advise them to make films, shoot films, run films. Do something. Be involved in the business somehow. Shoot anything. It doesn't have to have sound. It doesn't have to be titled. It doesn't have to be color. There is no "have to." Just shoot and show. If it is an audience of one, that's okay. You've learned something. Now do it again. That's how it's done. Sounds simple, doesn't it? It's not. Then again, it is." MM

COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by Turks Lover on 2/11/08 at 7:24 pm

pretty cool movie, I cant believe it has been so long. I love that picutre of the Wayans brothers, they look so young lol. Love, Life, and Laundry is excellent

Comment by archie on 11/28/08 at 9:30 am

This movie is lined up on my to be watched list,would definitely watch it.Looks interesting,cast of 3,really?

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