Richard Schertzer

First of all, tell our audience who you are.

My name is Richard Arthur George Schertzer and I am a recent grad student from Howard University where I got my MFA in Filmmaking. Before that, I went to Manhattanville College, obtaining my Bachelor’s in Music Business.

 

When did you start making movies?

I started making home video-type movies when I was in middle school with my family and I started doing it because I wanted to create stories for people to consume and critique. I enjoy being a storyteller.

 

We would like to know a little more about this project. Could you tell us the process?

When it comes to my latest short film project “Ms. Davis’ Close Friend”, I have worked on the concept and the script of the project since early 2021 and I started casting late 2021 and I began pre-production with script reads with them. Afterwards, I collected the film equipment, mostly from Howard University’s tech center, gathered it into my car and relocated the contents to the film location which was a fellow classmate’s house. We only shot there for two days which was completed in March 2022 and the editing was finished by July 2022.

The film is about an elderly woman named Marina Davis who is diagnosed with terminal cancer, while she is visited by her invisible companion "Death" and is forced to cope with her absent son and the loss of her husband.

Danette Illig plays Marina Davis, who was in a previous short called "Preventable" in 2018. Kike Ayodeji plays Katie who also had a bit part in ABC's "Abbott Elementary". Jesse Milliner has a vocal cameo as James and he had a speaking role as Ed in HBOMax's "We Own the City". Donald Imm plays John Davis and Trey G. Riley plays Death.

The film has also won at the Cinnediction Spotlight Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress Kike Ayodeji and Best Screenplay.

It has also been reviewed on Film Threat and given a 7/10 score.

 

Is it self financed? If so, what budget did you have?

he film was financed by myself and had a budget of about $2500 of my own money.

 

Normally independent filmmakers have to take care of many things, such as locating, directing, producing and even editing or distributing. Can you tell me a little better what you did within the project?

For this project I was the writer, editor, director, producer and had to find a good location for the shoot. A lot of the film rested on my shoulders and I was in charge of coaching and motivating the actors and working with crew to make sure that all went well and is going well with the shoot and offloading footage for post-production.

 

Tell me one thing you like about this project and one thing you don't like.

One thing that I liked about this project was the writing and the script that I had for it. I wrote a very soft and poignant script that discussed life and death and truly was a thing of beauty. One thing I did not like about the project was its length. It was originally conceived as a feature-length film but my professors told me that I had to condense it to less than 20 minutes.

 

Did you have any problems during the shoot?

I really didn’t have that many problems during the shoot. The only problem was that we had to come earlier for a shoot day to double back on some scenes that were missed on that first shoot day.

 

We have seen that it is a university project, could you explain how the university helps you? Does he lend you material, technical equipment or do you have to find the resources yourself? Actors?

During the production of the project, Howard university did not interfere with me or my film’s production, pre-production or post-production. They just gave me the greenlight to check out equipment from the Tech Center. I got all of the actors myself.

​

How do you define yourself as a director?

I define myself as a director by the art and content that I have created. I have made video essays, written articles and done tons of work in preparation for filmmaking and to develop a solid base knowledge of the craft. I believe that if I am trying my best to make great content, it will be received as great. I define myself as a director by what I have worked on and if I am proud of it, I have a chance of making it big with other directors.

 

How is your methodology with actors? How do you work with them?

I work very closely with actors, doing script reads and defining their character motivations with them. I have to coach these actors to help them better understand who their character is and it works great because sometimes their perspective on a character may be better than mine.

 

Tell me your favorite directors.

My favorite directors are Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg.

 

And your three favorite movies?My favorite films are The Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Dinosaur and Revenge of the Sith.

 

Do you see yourself making movies in 10 years? What is your dream? Where would you like to arrive?

I see myself making feature-length big-budget movies in the next 10 years with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. My dream is to win a total of 6 Academy Awards in my film career.

 

What experience have you had with film festivals? Where do you think they should improve?

I have had a very great experience with film festivals. A lot of my projects have gotten into dozens of festivals since 2017. The festivals could, however, improve with letting the people know if they have been admitted into the festival sooner or not.