Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott J. Ramsey.
Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was a social outcast growing up. A bit of a bookworm, most of my time was in my head or working on stories at home, and I had very few friends. Most other kids thought I was very strange. When I went to study cinema at San Francisco State, I made myself over and was determined to be liked by everyone. This resulted in a few very mediocre first films. Then when I came out as queer and started being myself – not just with my sexuality, but also allowing myself to open up more, and to express myself – there was this fire that unleashed. It’s like the inner freak that I’d repressed for a bit had secretly evolved into some kind of monster that might devour anything in its path. So since college, it’s taken a lot of inner work to tame the monster and harness it in a productive way.
This is what gave birth to my first feature-length movie, “X”. I had this bizarre albatross that had been with me since I was a child, that I was unlovable and was meant to be alone. Which is very weird considering my family was unconditional in their love and was very nourishing of my creativity. Unpacking this led me to Christian, the protagonist in “X”, who is a pervert, a voyeur. In the movie, Christian hosts charity balls at her beach house that double as sex parties, and she aims to be a liberating figure, allowing her guests to play out their most obscene fantasies – but little do they know that she is watching them on a hidden camera in the bathroom.
Inside she feels so disgusting, so perverted – that she believes she is incapable of being loved. And thus she feels she can only get off by watching – and this is a vicious circle. I brought the story to my creative partner Hannah, who was a better writer than me, and asked her to write the script with me and produce it, and then fresh out of school, with zero industry contacts, nothing to show for anything, we set out to turn our weird sex script into a feature film. We went to our close friend and collaborator Kevin, and the three of us launched what would become our creative collective, The Foundation. Kevin’s parents had invested in other projects, so we pitched our film to them. They believed in us and invested in our movie.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of my favorite quotes is “Obstacles do not block the path – they are the path.” The entire making of “X” have been riddled with landmines, but overcoming challenges from both within and without makes the final baked cake you hold in your hands all the more rewarding. I tried to make a feature film when I was 19. Of course, everyone told me I was crazy and couldn’t finish it. They were right – I was lying to myself that I could do it. When I was 23 and we started making “X”, people said the same thing and I was still lying to myself – but I lied all the way through production until the lie had become the truth. I truly believe there is no such thing as talent – talent is a concept made up by elites to stop people from trying. There is only privilege, luck, and persistence. You just need 2 of the 3 to do amazing things.
Our team has a lot of the first two but is absolutely lush with the third. We’ve had sprinklers come on and flood a set the first weekend of shooting – we’ve crammed our team and heavily costumed actors into a tiny 105 degrees room to finish 5 shots in 20 minutes before a show was about to happen in the same place – we’ve had to re-record almost every line of dialogue in post – we’ve had cyberbullying and plenty of naysayers, the latter including people who ultimately love us and want us to do well, but were worried for us. But through all that, we’re drawing from an oasis of passion. For me, the process is the reward – it’s not a means to an end. It is the end. I just hope to someday be allowed to do it for a living!
We’d love to hear more about your work.
The Foundation is named after a mysterious fictional charity organization in our movie “X”. The characters never say its actual, real name – they just refer to “the foundation” – and while they use sex parties to raise money, it’s never revealed what cause the organization serves. I thought this was hilarious, cause the movie’s about all these rich kids and their sexual tension and drama, so of course, no one thinks about the actual cause itself. But just as how in our movie. The Foundation is a safe space for the guests of Christian’s balls to play out their fantasies, our company is a safe space for our team to reify our artistic fantasies.
What makes this project unique is that it isn’t just a movie. In addition to the feature film, which is a traditional narrative, our team also made three music videos to songs from the score. Then, during post-production of the movie, me and Kevin, who is also one of the film’s composers, formed a music duo called The Major Arcana, which has made a full-length album and performs the music live. So our project is storytelling on three different levels, and our goal as a collective is to continue this model with future stories. So far, “X” has gone on to win 15 awards at 14 film festivals. We’ve screened in places like Manchester, UK, and Milan, Italy. Meanwhile, our music videos have screened at seven film festivals worldwide. Moving forward, Hannah and I are writing our second feature film which I’m also going to direct, and The Major Arcana is continuing to play shows and make more music.
Most of the film’s crew were women and/or queer, and everyone involved was a rookie. I’m shamelessly in love with our art, which sounds very arrogant, but I promise it’s not some kind of delusion about my own talent – rather, it’s because of the profound sense of transformation I get from creating, and the family of collaborators we’ve built. Storytelling is how I engage with the world, so when I feel like I’ve actually said something, I kind of don’t care if it’s any good – cause I feel fulfilled. Like I just ate a great big hot meal.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Hannah and I are writing another feature, which we’re hoping to launch soon, and The Major Arcana has recorded an album, featuring music from “X” and new music, which will be out next year. In her 2014 SXSW keynote, Tilda Swinton said something that inspired me: the concept of cinema is at odds with society itself. Cinema – both narrative and documentary, and even experimental – is all about change, and how you can change and grow and move. This is the core thesis of almost every movie ever made. But society continually suggests you are one thing, and can’t change.
In this spirit, my ultimate goal is to be a shapeshifter who moves between media and ideas – to make work that can’t be defined as just one thing. What drew me to filmmaking as a kid was greed – not financial greed, but rather creative greed. Making a film involves all of the arts, combined into one uber-art: story, photography, theater, music, design, fashion, collage, dance. The beauty of making a film is the synchrony of each of these arts, to create a symphony of emotions. What I’d love to do is to continue to nurture and grow this idea of storytelling on multiple levels, through many media, not just directing movies: music, literature, photography, and more, all working together to create an art world for each story project, but with a unifying singular vision. I’d also like to make work for freaks – for people who feel like freaks. I’m privileged and empowered and yet still feel like such an outcast, cuz I grew up feeling that way. “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” I’d consider inking that on my ass, but I get all my movie titles tattooed, so I can’t waste real estate.
Contact Info:
- Website: everybodylovesX.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
“X” promo collage shot by Chantel Beam
“X” poster shot by Chantel Beam, poster by Lien Do
The Major Arcana promo shot by Chantel Beam
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