Canadian filmmaker J.Brown chatted about his new short film “Dragon Fruit,” which he wrote and directed.
Yvonne Chapman stars as a long woman forced to make ends meet while caring for her son in a cruel, barbaric world. The movie follows her as she struggles to grow a small plant sprout into a fully ripened dragon fruit.
“Originally, I wrote it in 2019,” he said. “I had a rough outline of a post-apocalyptic world, and she is trying to grow dragon fruit.”
“Once I assigned the cast, I started to make props and then the pandemic hit. Then, I got laid off (since I was working in digital effects at the time), and basically, the movies stopped for that summer,” he elaborated.
“When the world shut down in 2020 for those six months, I just started making props because there was nothing else to do,” he noted.
“It ended up working out because by the end of 2020, I made most of the props and costumes, and I had things ready to go and it got people really excited to be a part of it because the production value was already pretty high even before we shot anything,” he explained.
J.Brown was also the production designer, prop maker, visual effects supervisor and editor. He is an award-winning director and VFX artist whose credits include “Avengers: Infinity War” as well as Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”
Lessons learned from the ‘Dragon Fruit’ screenplay
On the lessons learned from this screenplay, he said, “It is interesting when you look through it how much of yourself gets puts into it without even realizing it. That happens naturally with what you are concerned about and what you are thinking about.”
“The movie is about the hustle and grind of modern life, and that’s how life felt to me,” he said. “The feeling of working all the time where you can’t seem to get ahead. So, it’s about having a ‘Hail Mary’ shot of something to try and make money.”
“There is not a lot of dialogue, and I don’t really explain much in the story and that’s on purpose, so that people can bring their own interpretation to it and they can fill in the gaps themselves,” he elaborated.
“It is up to their own impressions, pre-conceived biases, and everything else that comes with it,” he added.
The digital age
On being a part of the digital age, he said, “It’s tough. There is a lot more noise these days, so it is harder to break through. Social media can be distracting, and it is changing filmmaking language, so people that grew up with social media have a different way or seeing the world.”
“There are different transitions, different editing styles and different storytelling techniques. It is tough to keep up with all that stuff and maintain a more traditional storytelling sense,” he said.
“AI is another player on the field; whether you like it or not, it’s on the field,” he added.
Advice for young and emerging filmmakers
For young and aspiring filmmakers, he said, “If you are aspiring filmmaker, everyone can the ability to make a movie with a camera in their pocket. That is very much true.”
“Even if you are not ready to shoot, start doing the parts that you can. Start making props, costumes and things that you are going to need. This way, you learn a lot too,” he noted.
“Production design works hand in hand with visual effects, and if you can link all those things, you can get a really nice package. The more know about each department, the better director you will be,” he added.
Success
On his definition of the word success, he said, “Success means finishing a project, and then having it resonate with people. So, when people watch it, they take something away from it and they get something out of it, and enjoy it.”
To learn more about J.Brown, follow him on Instagram and check out his IMDb page.
