“American Spirit” made its debut at this year’s Austin Film Festival helmed by two UT alumni, director Christopher Yates and cinematographer Eric Johnsen, who were both radio-television-film students in 2019. The Daily Texan interviewed the local stars on the red carpet and dove into how the film came to be.
The Daily Texan: Was the choice to set the film in Austin on UT’s campus always on your mind when crafting the story or did it just happen that way as an indie filmmaker?
Christopher Yates: It felt like the natural thing to do, to set it in Austin and set it in the places where these things happened to me. (This is) where I learned about relationships and friendships. By having that specificity … it’s going to come through (to audiences better and) those experiences are going to feel more lived in. … We wanted these characters to feel like people who had lives before we saw them on screen, and they have lives after we see them for the last time on screen. Setting (the film) in Austin as a writer was just writing what I knew.
DT: What was the most difficult part of the production process for you?
CY: Locations. You can write all the locations you want. It doesn’t mean you’re going to get them. When I was writing the script, there were obviously these very specific locations. Like we have Kerbey Lane and Jester and Orange Market. We ended up filming at West Campus Market because that was what was available to us. I think we got really lucky, (because) nine out of ten (of the time) we ended up getting (the locations we wanted). That was a hard-fought thing.
DT: In capturing the aesthetics of UT Austin, did you find that a challenge as the director of photography or was it pretty simple considering your time here? On top of that, what was your inspiration for the visual language of the film?
Eric Johnsen: Going to college at UT’s campus helped (me) understand the aesthetics that we wanted to capture when making this film. (We wanted to) make sure we got the perspective of someone who goes to school here and walks this campus every day, so we wanted to include a lot of environments that people will be able to look at the screen and be like “Hey, I know that place.” Hopefully, a lot of the places in the film are reflective of that, because it’s very much a UT film.
DT: What advice do you have for UT filmmakers?
CY: Watch movies. I feel like when I was in college, I barely watched any movies, and I think (you’ve got to) watch good movies (and) you’ve got to watch bad movies. There are lessons to be learned from both.
EJ: I would say to UT students trying to create a feature or any type of artistic endeavor, to just do it. The hardest thing is getting people together that have like minds and who really do want to work hard on projects. So if you could find someone that really puts in the effort and cares more about art than they do about their sanity, which is very hard and unethical, but if you have that ability in yourself, then go for it and make art. If that’s all you think you can do (in life), you should (go for it).
