INTERVIEW: ’15 Minutes at 400 Degrees’ finds widower trying to recreate his wife’s recipes
Photo: 15 Minutes at 400 Degrees, a new short film by Chris McCaleb, stars Richard Riehle. Photo courtesy of the production / Provided by Rogers and Cowan with permission.
Director Chris McCaleb’s new short film, 15 Minutes at 400 Degrees, recently played the LA Shorts International Film Festival.
The film, starring Elizabeth Gillies, Richard Riehle and John Gemberling, details the circumstances of a widower two years after he lost his wife. This man is able to connect with his lost loved one thanks to an online relationship he develops with a woman who teaches him to recreate his wife’s recipes. Then, when a disgruntled robber shows up, the story takes quite the turn.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with McCaleb about his new short. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What are the unique challenges of directing a short film? Do the time constraints make it easier or more difficult?
In my experience, every project has unique challenges, regardless of the length. With short films (and short-form series as well), the biggest challenge is: Can I tell a compelling story in the allotted time? Sometimes, you get big ideas, and you find yourself condensing them down to fit into a certain length — and they don’t always want to cooperate! With this film, the biggest challenge was keeping up the tension with a story that took place mostly in a single room — and on top of that, one of the main characters isn’t even physically in the space, yet she commands so much power.
What inspired this particular short film?
A few things are at the heart of this film. The first is telepresence — the ability for two people to share a connection without ever inhabiting the same space. This is a concept that Doug Cheney and I have been talking about for probably a decade — so when he and Carmella showed me their script, I was immediately excited. Something that gets lost in the social media age is the shared experience — but that’s something you can actually have with someone through a live video chat, even if you are never actually in the same physical space.
The second inspiration for this film is the very real feeling among the working class in America that we’re being squeezed out of existence by a corporate oligarchy gone mad. I know that sounds lofty, given the nature of this story, but that feeling is behind every action Buddy takes in the film. And it was very important for all of us to show that every one of these characters, in their own way, has had their lives shaped by the current situation. It helps to remember that we’re all in this together — well, most of us, anyway.
Do you have plans to make this short film into a feature length, or do you feel that the project is finished?
We have discussed how we could take this story and expand it into a feature film — but at the moment, we’re very happy with the way the project turned out, and anything further would be down the road a bit.
When did you first become interested in film?
I guess I’ve always been fascinated by films, at least since I can remember. However, we didn’t have a lot of money growing up, and not to date myself, but video cameras used to be expensive. We finally got a camera when I was in sixth grade, and from that day forward you almost couldn’t get me to do anything else. I found ways to make little movies for my classes, instead of whatever the curriculum dictated. I studied film production at Loyola Marymount University, and after graduating, I was lucky to work with and learn from a couple of great filmmakers — John Sayles and Michael Mann — which turned out to be the best film school money could never buy.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
15 Minutes at 400 Degrees, directed by Chris McCaleb, recently played the LA Shorts International Film Festival. Click here for more information.
