During the last big blizzard Jamie Stuart (who just sketched us this photo of himself) created a short film that you may remember, called "Idiot With A Tripod." The film captured the moment so well, and Stuart turned it around so quickly and perfectly edited, that Roger Ebert declared it deserving of an Academy Award for best live-action short subject. We asked Stuart a few questions about his work, the short, the sudden attention, and of course the big question: did he document last night's snowfall? Find out below...
How long did it take you to make the video, start to final edit? The short took just over a day to complete. I started shooting not too long after the snow began in the early afternoon—the first shots were through my window out at the rooftops. After that, I went out twice during daylight for about 15-20 minutes, then, at night, I shot for 90 minutes. After converting all the footage, I edited for 5 hours the following day and uploaded the original Quicktime to my server around 5pm.
Where was it filmed exactly? It was shot on Crescent Street, in Astoria, by Broadway. The blizzard was so bad at night, I couldn't go any further than one block in either direction.
Last night's storm, by Jamie Stuart
I've done a few shorts similar to this, but those were essentially test shoots—when I first got the 7D, and subsequent lenses and so on, I went out and shot short videos in various locations. Normally, however, my work is more centered -- the bulk of my work over the past 6 years has been press and promo-related for Focus Features and Filmmaker Magazine, where I've created quirky/artsy portraits of filmmakers like Wes Anderson or David Cronenberg or even Sienna Miller (who inspired me to murder somebody in one short). I do like shooting around the city, though -- not just shorts, but also still photography.
Were you surprised to read that Roger Ebert thinks it could be an Oscar-winning short? That's putting it mildly. Roger and I have been friendly for a couple of years, and he's often linked to my work or quoted me in tweets. But, yeah, it was something else to wake up to interview questions from him, then reading the finished piece at his site. Pretty sure my hand slapped my forehead. The funniest thing was when I was arranging an interview with Britain's ITV, they wanted to get a quote from Roger, so I asked, and he basically replied that if they'd like to see something of mine that's really good, they should check out "NYFF48," which I finished back in October. At that point, I realized this was one of those situations where I was getting an Oscar not for my best work, but as a make-up prize.
Is this something you are looking in to (would rules allow you to win)? No, I don't believe it's eligible. I think the rules stipulate that the film must premiere in a theater, and any other type of initial broadcast is not allowed. That's why Olivier Assayas' "Carlos" won't be nominated for anything, despite winning lots of critics awards. Roger really likes my work, and this was his way of trying to call attention to it.
What are your plans for the short? I've received a handful of festival requests, so I'm following up with those. Strangely, I've never played any of my films at a festival before -- I've always worked exclusively online. I've shot videos at festivals, but never participated. Should be an interesting change.
What else are you working on currently? At the moment, I'm prepping for Sundance. I'll be shooting video pieces for Filmmaker Magazine there. I had started to develop a DIY feature before Idiot broke, but that's been sidetracked, as I'm running around and taking meetings and doing press interviews.
Did you film in last night's storm? No, no "Idiot 2: The Revenge." But I did take a photo out my window around midnight.
