Austin-based actor and filmmaker Kelly Frye received an invite to a dinner at Hotel Saint Cecilia. Frye entered the event excited at the prospect of meeting fellow female creatives. To her surprise, the event hosted a different type of creative than she expected—instead of filmmakers, she found influencers.
Inspired by her experience, Frye teamed up with writer Daved Wilkins and fellow actor Carly Christopher to create “Four Influencers and a Funeral.” The comedy short film underscoring the absurdity of social media premiered at Austin Film Festival on Saturday and marked Frye’s directorial debut. The Daily Texan sat down with Frye, Wilkins and Christopher to talk about the film’s Austin roots.
DT: What was it about influencers that drew you to that subject matter?
Daved Wilkins: It’s such an exaggeration of humanity. For me, the interesting thing is what you present versus what you are. We made sure that all the characters got to play with that — the facade versus the foundation. It’s also one of those things that people love to hate, but all secretly want to have. Everybody wants to have that audience of a million people that will respond to a random thought that you had (or) some basic experience that you’re going through. There’s something appealing about that particularly for me as an actor and writer, just to want to have that audience to feed off of and to get that feedback from.
DT: You are all based in Austin, and the film was shot in Austin. What was it like showing a film so rooted in Austin at the Austin Film Festival?
CC: Austin is experiencing a lot of growth and some changes, but the essence of the city is still there. It is a city that doesn’t take itself too seriously. So in the event that Austin was completely overrun by crazy influencers, I still feel like we can step back and laugh at it. There is an energy of like, “Hey, be cool. This is Austin. We’re all just trying to exist here.” So, I like that it was placed here. Austin Film Festival has that essence of … valuing story, valuing theme. Filmmakers are based here and (are) thinking about the Texas filmmaking industry, supporting that and keeping it local.
The Daily Texan: During the creative process, what were some comedic elements you wanted to incorporate into the short film?
Kelly Frye: Daved, Carly and I started getting on a (message) chain. We would send each other videos of Influencers in the Wild, that account on Instagram, articles and all sorts of things that played into elements that Daved as the writer, brought into the script.
Carly Christopher: We knew that we wanted to have physical props. (The character) Eugene’s ring light that also doubles as a halo is a great example of an immediate laugh, a physical laugh. With the influencer (characters), (we tried) to figure out what items viewers would see and know, “Oh, God, that’s someone documenting their life online.” So you see Steadicams, everyone’s got a phone, we’ve got microphones, we’ve got drones. The technology made it feel more alive.
