Community Highlights: Meet David Krouse of The Valley Film Festival

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Krouse

David, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting in movies and teleivsion. I enrolled in college and signed up for media production classes to learn how to create my own content (this was before ‘Unsane’ and TikTok). I wasn’t planning on working on exhibiting other people’s content – but I ended up backing into it.

In 2015, I worked on an independent horror movie ‘Mermaid Down’. The producer kept encouraging me to pursue producing as a career path. She told me I’d be great at it precisely because I wanted to be an actor; I would understand the product! She also commented that I was not the kind of guy who would ever sacrifice a movie’s quality to bring it in under budget to make a quick bonus (she was right).

After wrapping ‘Mermaid Down’, a radio personality I knew from an acting-for-camera class was putting together a short movie and had crowdfunded a small budget. She’d hired another producer who was doing nothing with the project and approached me instead. I kept declining, but strategized that she could run her movie through a college film production class and make a thesis project. I finally agreed after I was listed on all her homework as “the Producer.” I helped with location scouting, audition actors, and even secured an actor who’d just appeared in Magic’s music video ‘Rude.’ The project even qualified as a SAG-AFTRA Student Project. Word got around and I ended up working on half-a-dozen student movies that I hadn’t planned on either. Unfortunately, the collaboration with the school put way to many restrictions on the movie I was producing (they did no technical training, while requiring the Director to also be the Cinematographer and refused to allow students to access the school’s cameras). We also had some difficulty with the other lead who declined to commit to the shooting schedule or withdraw from the project, forcing us to shoot again. The end result was pretty unwatchable and the name talent couldn’t use it for his reel (which was supposed to be how we compensated him for his time). It was a very practical learning experience. It was also extremely frustrating.

It was around the same time I got involved with The Valley Film Festival.

I’d been wanting to get involved for some time, but now I was involved in all these student short movie projects that the school also had no plan for after the end of the semester. I cold emailed Tracey Adlai, (who I’d met a year earlier) and joined the volunteers. VFF15 was fantastic! During the festival, Tracey asked me to join the screening group, which as a Valley boy at the time, I was enthusiastic about. I was also able to shepherd one of the shorts I worked on into VFF16! Then the opportunity came up to earn commissions securing festival sponsorships and interface with people in the industry as a backend producer for DTLA Film Festival (who I had already joined as a screener as well). They didn’t have to ask twice – I immediately jumped at it. Tracey then asked me to consider being the Valley Film Festival’s Co-Producer the following year and did that for the next two years.

During this time I also started working at the movie theaters in Los Angeles – Laemmle, Cinelounge, the American Cinematheque, and finally the TCL Chinese Theater until Covid-19 closed the industry. I got to participate in a lot of cool events including the 60th Anniversary of Vertigo with Kim Novak and the world premieres of ‘Joker’ and ‘Rise of Skywalker’! I also worked as a theater checker for the studios, auditing opening theatrical runs at Arclight Hollywood, the TCL Chinese Theater and AMC Universal City. (One of the perks of this career is that I finally got to meet Bai Ling, one of my first movie crushes. For the record, she is one of the hardest working, professional in the business).

After Covid, I wasn’t really planning on working in the film industry again – but I threw my hat in the ring for the Denver Film Festival in 2022 on a whim. My “interview” was a quick meeting asking me when I could start and if I would be interested in management. I turned down management the first year because I wanted to see their operation first – especially after Covid and accepted a Box Office position. From there I quickly scaled to screener and Theater Manager again. Last year, I also worked briefly at AMC as staff during Taylor Swift’s ERA’s Tour movie.

Last October, Tracey asked me if I had time to screen and help program the narrative features for VFF24. I’ve also returned this year as a screener for the Denver Film Festival.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is found footage of my career path.

One of the biggest obstacle I repeatedly had to deal with was housing insecurity. I saw on online that Lana Parilla and Alex Warren recently both opened up about being homeless. I actually did an interview about this years ago for a friend doing a piece for Capital & Main (it ended up not making the final edit). When I moved to Los Angeles, I remember thinking that it wouldn’t matter if I ended up being successful in the film industry or not – I’d still get to move out of the Midwest, have my own studio apartment, a job, friends, social life, be near the beach . . . I was fully prepared to accept being working class in my 20s in a cool place.

That didn’t happen.

I could never qualify for a lease (I was told as a junior college student with no degree, I was expected to have proof of three times the rent, an amazing credit score, deposit and first months rent – at a student housing building marketed for junior college students).

I ended up in a series of sublets – when I could get them; (between August 2011 and December 2017, I had fourteen residences that I remember). I was homeless from late May 2012 to November 1 2013, and again from summer 2015 until mid-November 2015. By homeless I mean a majority of that time was spent sleeping in my broken down car at different encampments, including the North Hollywood Park and showering at 24 Hour Fitness. The worst part of trying to sleep in those conditions is there’s no noise insulation (you can hear EVERYTHING) and realizing that A) anybody could cut your throat while you sleep, B) the cops are not there to protect you – if anything they will either ticket or arrest you.

During all this, I was going to school full-time and working various jobs – unloading the 4am truck at Target, doing social media for small businesses, and teaching yoga. It also didn’t help that film school is full of of toxic people. Fall Semester 2013, I almost quit school and nearly failed every class. Looking back, I should have quit school and focused entirely on working. Ironically, during the period that I was working on all those student shorts and worked my first Valley Film Festival, I didn’t have a place to live and hadn’t for months. The week of VFF, I was alternating crashing at an acquaintance’s place who forgot he gave me a key and was out of town and an empty guest house of some other people who were moving.

I was eventually able to stabilize moving into a rent-controlled apartment (again a sublet from the tenant who’d lived there for thirty-years, where I paid the majority of the rent). What really disgruntled me was the last year I was in Los Angeles, I discovered a coworker ten years younger than myself was renting a bed in a house with THIRTY people for the same price I was paying for a room. A generation before the amount we were paying would have afforded a decent apartment.

I also didn’t really have anyone older that I could turn too for advice.

I’ve found most Gen Xr’s and Boomers to be pretty clueless about the real world and oblivious to their Generational Privilege. One woman seriously suggested that I should ask someone in the industry to buy me a new car and then let me work for them as a production assistant (she didn’t seem to get that she was only able to do that because her father had been a major producer when she was growing up). Another told me that I should have no trouble finding and qualifying for a $500/month apartment. One friend tried to help by giving me a book called “An Actor’s Guide–Your First Year in Hollywood” that had been reprinted a few times. I was shocked that not only was the information no longer relevant despite being printed a few years earlier, but also only a few years prior to my moving to Los Angeles you only needed 1.5x the rent to get a lease! Had I been born a few years earlier, I would probably never have been homeless at all. In the past year, I got alot of validation when I saw a Tik-Tok by ‘Days Of Our Lives’ actor Freddie Smith talking about how financially different your life chances are if you were born after 1985, compared to someone born before.

(Needless to say I’m disgusted with the recent Supreme Court ruling criminalizing homeless American’s and depriving them of civil rights. Gavin Newsom’s smug applause is disgusting, but not surprising – his special occasion bottle of wine is $21,282. But again I’m not surprised. One of the most vile things I’ve heard someone say in my life was when I was teaching yoga at 24 Hour Fitness and a member proudly told me after class he thought they should go down the homeless areas with a high power water hose).

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Valley Film Festival?
The Valley Film Festival is the longest and largest running film festival in the San Fernando Valley. It showcases and supports content Made-in-the-818 and imports national and international content from around the world to the Valley.

This past year I’ve been screening narrative features for VFF24.

Screening movies for VFF this year was very rewarding because two filmmakers who had movies in VFF17 (the first year I Co-Produced), submitted feature movies! In 2017, we screened a short comedy ‘Mariachi Madness’. This year, VFF’s opening movie ‘A Little Family Drama’ is a feature that was developed from that short! It’s always rewarding playing a role in the life cycle of a movie.

Then there’s VFF24’s Centerpiece and Closing Night Movie – The Ghost Trap and Tomorrow, You Pretty Ghost.

‘The Ghost Trap’ is one of those movies that the minute you start it on film freeway, you just know it’s going to be programmed. The word that all the screeners used for it was ‘Gorgeous.’ When I saw ‘Tomorrow, You Pretty Ghost,’ the vibe immediately reminded me of the Valley and being a young aspiring actor and some of the people you run into in acting classes.

The hard part about doing a festival is that there are so many movies and they can’t all be programmed.

Often this has nothing to do with the quality of the movie. Years ago, Tracey and I produced an annual panel called ‘Meet the Programmers,’ where we assembled screeners and programmers from multiple festivals to dialogue about the decision-making process and how we programmed. Have you already premiered locally? Will the filmmakers support their screening? Is it relevant to the audience?

Probably the most important question I have to ask is – do I care? If I, as your first audience, doesn’t care about your characters and what happens to them, will a general audience?

Even when you have multiple winning ingredients, time considerations don’t always work-out either. But that doesn’t mean that submitting is in vain (if you submit to the right festival – something else that filmmakers need to vet). As a screener for multiple festivals, if I see a project that I think would be a good fit for another festival I work on, I’ll will recommend it. Example: A short documentary called ‘Chasing Shadows’, came across my screen for DFF. I immediately knew it was something that would be perfect for the Valley Film Festival. The short documentary programmer agreed and it was programmed as part of VFF’s ‘Women Film Director’s Short Film ShowCase’ at 5pm on Tuesday, August 6, 2024.

I’ll give honorable mention to a few that that were semi-finalist’s that this year’s VFF program couldn’t fit in, with my actual Film Freeway comments.

Month-to-Month (2023), Directors Mike Koslov and Derrick Owens.

“I’m giving this a nine because while not a masterpiece, it’s pretty good and it’s from the Valley (specifically North Hollywood). This is every Valley boy’s experience trying to survive in L.A. Unstable living situation, useless cops, victim-of-crime, hippie-dippie friends, etc . . . I also appreciate that it was shot mostly in the NoHo Arts District neighborhood (even includes the Red Line Station and Burbank Airport!). The filmmakers also say they have had friends who are alumni and screened features in the festival. This could easily be closing night, or if there is an ‘Made-in-the 818’ program, programmed as the screening after the shorts. Strongly recommend.”

The Founder Effect (2023), Director Justin MacGregor.

“Very STRONG movie. There is an unusual amount of good feature content this year from North America. This movie could be an opening night or closing night movie. It also reminds me a bit of Flight of the Navigator. Also connects older and younger generations (grand-father/grand-son relationship). I like that this is from Canada. I’m giving it an award worthy.”

Saturn Movie (2023), Director Eric Esau.

“Easy recommend. Story made me feel alot. STRONG Production values and the Cinematography and VFX were great for an Independent Feature. Working actors . . . could easily be Opening, Closing or Saturday Night Feature. The only question I have – will the team that made this support their screening if programmed? I also think that this will get distribution next year easily.”

I recommend checking them out when they are released.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I liked about Los Angeles was being exposed to a number new experiences. The Ocean! Rooftop Movies. Gourmet Hot Dogs. Yoga. Venice Beach. Malibu Beach. Jack-in-the-Box (may not sound like much, but first time I ate a Jack-in-the-Box was my first day in Los Angeles). Wine tastings in Malibu.

What I didn’t like is that Los Angeles is not an enjoyable place to live.

When I’ve summed Los Angeles up in a word to others, the word is “pretentious.” The dictionary definition is “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.”

Los Angeles is Instagramable, but not functional (the traffic alone is evidence of that). What I experienced from L.A. is it operates on Image Management, over substance. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the advice “fake it till you make it,” or “cover your ass.” I don’t ever recall hearing anyone say “know your craft” or “Play hard.”

I had endless frustration with multiple jobs, projects, etc . . . where people refused to confront or deal with actual problems – while creating drama about non-issues in an effort to make-it-look like they were working. Many times working in Los Angeles, I observed people simply lied their way up the career ladder and then jumped ship before the situation exploded and left other people to clean-up the mess. The worst part of this was when I would speak-up I’d be perceived as problematic – until everything blew-up in people’s faces. Often the issues at hand were not major issues, or unsolvable. I never asked anyone to create nuclear fission, or split the atom (despite the fact that both have already been done).

I did come to realize one thing – never make your security or success dependent on other people being conscionable, reasonable, or even intelligent. And if you ever find yourself talking about a situation and starting with “You’d think they’d . . .” you already know the answer and it’s not a good one.

Los Angeles’s number one asset (as far as I’m concerned) is still the Ocean.

Pricing:

• $15 a ticket to the Valley Film Festival

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.valleyfilmfest.org/
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