Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Wilder.
Hi Matthew, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I think loneliness drives most people. You see it to a heightened degree when you write or direct something and try to understand or come up with the motivations behind these made up characters. Every action we take boils down to a need to feel less lonely. Whatever you feel that drives you – your desire to be rich, you need to feel the smartest in the room, or the most powerful, or the most beautiful – it’s all the same. Somewhere deep in your dark well of loneliness, you pray that achieving a high degree of any of these things will get people to accept you. And then you will feel less lonely. Maybe. Toward the end of film school, my drinking buddy reached an epiphany over his third bottle of soju and twentieth cigarette of the night. “Each one of us is just a lonely island.” Loneliness drove me to filmmaking. When I left college, I wandered aimlessly through my twenties. I held different jobs, hung out with people I never imagined I ever would, moved back home to Tokyo for a while, and moved back to New York when I got bored with that. I wandered quite literally too when at some point I picked up a small camera. I would wander up and down Manhattan every week and take photographs for hours. My obsession with street photography became so intense I would feel restless unless I had gone out to shoot.
As with all things you begin, after some time I began to feel I was good at street photography, and then that feeling waned and I lost confidence. My photos didn’t have the intimacy of works by guys like Daido Moriyama, William Klein, Robert Frank, or W. Eugene Smith. I was so far away from my subjects. I was too scared to take photos up close, I was too scared of people. I once read that the cinematographer Bradford Young went to look at photographs of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King taken by the most prominent white photojournalists of the time. They were all great photographs but markedly different depending on who was being photographed. The photos of Malcolm X were taken on longer lenses at a distance, while MLK was taken up close. These white photographers were scared to go up close to photograph Malcolm X because of his militant views. In contrast, they were more comfortable being physically close to MLK because his message seemed passive to them. There is an endless clash of loneliness and fear of people in me. Filmmaking for me has helped to calm this clash. It forces me to interact with actors and filmmakers and show me that we all share the same insecurities. At some point in my late twenties, I stopped wandering and went to USC film school from which I recently graduated. All throughout, I’ve pushed myself to not only push the camera closer to people but to also push myself closer to others.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The amusing thing about film students is they don’t quite know how to level filmmaking expectations with filmmaking reality. Oftentimes their vision is too grand given the schedule, equipment and people available. I’ve seen a director and AD getting into a fistfight after hour 16 of an overnight shoot that was supposed to be 8 hours. I’ve seen a production designer assigned $500 to period design a space the size of two basketball courts. But optimism is key. Sometimes the naivety pays off. I’ve shot dozens of projects over the past few years and I remember one script that was sent to me had scenes with large crowds all dressed in 1940s costumes. I dreaded shooting it because I knew what would happen. Four weird out of work actors from a Facebook group would show up and I would have to use every cheap camera trick to make it seem like there were forty not four. But I was wrong. On the day of shooting, there were fifty enthusiastic extras dressed in period clothing. The film had a moving message about race, and the producers had done a great job of promoting that message online to get people excited about the film to come be extras.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a cinematographer and director. I’ve shot short films, commercials, music videos, and hopefully a feature film soon. I just recently finished production on a contemporary fantasy thriller with werewolves and mystical amulets that will be shopped around town and hopefully be picked up for a series. It was my first production during the pandemic and took some getting used to with all the necessary safety protocols. As tough as it is to shoot during this pandemic, it pushes you to simplify how you work, which in the greater context is a good thing. I also finished a short film I directed called “Async” – it’s a weird little film about a cultish group inspired by the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto. It’s in the process of being submitted to festivals for next year. Otherwise, I am finishing a photobook of street photos I took while in Tokyo this year. Once this pandemic dies down, I am planning to rent a gallery space in LA with a photographer friend to showcase some of our work. And hopefully celebrate the end of this nasty virus.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
When I first came to LA, I thought it was the dirtiest city I’ve ever been to. There is garbage literally everywhere, it’s truly incredible. Piles and piles of garbage – freeway entrances and underpasses seem to be hot spots. I live in downtown LA and some sidewalks and alleys have garbage piles as tall as me. A huge culture shock for someone who grew up in one of the most meticulously clean cities in the world. It was disgusting to me. But at some point, I started getting used to it, and my initial impressions began to fade. I can’t put my finger to when this all suddenly became “normal” to me, but one summer my mother visited and pointed out how filthy the city was. But the abundant trash no longer bothered me, all I could remember was “oh yeah, I had that reaction too when I first came here.” LA trash is a part of me.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wilder_san
