Vanessa McMahon

O-STAR (2015) by Writer/Director/Producer Dima Otvertchenko.

Good-natured country boy Rudy is 19 when he discovers that life on Earth may end this week. But the worst part's already happened: His girlfriend just dumped him. Now he has just a few days to discover what it ever meant to be in love in the first place. Told through fantastical music videos, 'O-Star' features a core cast of actor-singers performing 7 original pop-punk rock songs, hearkening back to 'American Idiot on Broadway', 'RENT', and 'Across The Universe'.

In an interview with Dima Otvertchenko during the Palm Springs International Shortfest, here is what he had to say:

Did you film this on digital? And was this short a high budget?

Yeah, we shot digitally. Primarily RED Scarlet, but there was some Sony F3 and Canon SLR use as well. My DP Will Jobe and I were aiming to make each music video look different, so we embraced that kind of patchwork collage approach and weren’t afraid of mixing formats. For a while we were thinking of shooting one of the vids on 16mm, but when we added up the costs involved, we figured we could get a more unique look by putting more money towards production design and color grading. The movie ended up costing around $29,000, which includes the soundtrack. We shot for 21 days between March and September of 2013.

Sometimes the film feels like a mix between a musical and a music video. Were you very much influenced by musicals and if so, which ones?

I wasn’t a huge fan of musicals going into the movie, though the process of making it made me really appreciate them. Growing up, I’ve enjoyed all those animated Disney musicals but I was never that guy in drama class singing showtunes. My influence was mostly music videos from pop/rock artists – the big one being Green Day. But nowadays, my Spotify playlists definitely have some RENT and Book of Mormon on them.

How did you meet the lead singers? Will we be seeing more of them in future?

We met our leads all sorts of ways. We found Spencer through cold casting, after holding many American Idol-style auditions. Jessi was recommended to us by our music producer Dean Dichoso, who works with her frequently. And Patrick was actually referred by his roommate who initially auditioned for us, and then thought “Wait, I know just the guy for this”. The initial thought was to find actors who could also sing, but after seeing too many William Hungs, we figured to also explore the other route and find singers who could act. Between both approaches, we got our cast. Spencer’s own band is called “The Draw” and Jessi is the lead of “Jessi Jae Joplin and the Ruckus”. They’re putting out new material all the time, both are based in LA and you can check them out on Spotify.

The theme of your film is love and friendship in the face of planetary extinction. While it's treated lightly in your film, do you think this is a theme that defines our times?

While I’m sure we will one day find ourselves having to deal with an approaching comet or other apocalyptic scenario, you don’t need a cataclysm to remember that your days on Earth are numbered. That’s why the movie’s not really about the end of the world, but more about being forced to ask yourself what you would do if you had a 50-50 chance of dying this week. Are you making your days count? Are you chasing your dreams? Are you doing right by those important to you? That’s a theme that I hope defines any age, and something that I hope we’re all thinking about.

You said you want to turn this film into a feature. When do you think that might be ready?

I’ve got a treatment for the feature film which I’m currently expanding into a script, but at the same time I’m writing more songs because I’d like to end up with around 20. Generally the story informs the songs, but sometimes it’s the other way around and so I think it’s good to be writing both simultaneously – that way the two are allowed to speak to each other. Should be done with the script and songs by the end of July – after that, it’s anybody’s guess. We’ll have to raise a bit more than $29,000 this time, hehe.

How was your experience at PSIFF?

Palm Springs ShortFest was fantastic. Right when I arrived, I met the friendliest people in the world in the volunteers and staff, and then I met folks from all over the world who showed up with their films and companies. The filmmakers lounge, the market, the parties, the locals, the screenings – amazing; not a thing you could say a bad word about. The staff instantly become your friends and I felt like a VIP the whole time, which you normally don’t get when attending a festival with a short film, so it was a real treat to be part of the main event! Just truly fortunate and honored to have been part of it.

What are your plans next for this film and for future projects?

“O-Star” is playing this weekend at FilmQuest in Utah, and next month we screen at the Macon Film Festival in Georgia. Hopefully there will be more events to announce as move along in our festival run. In the meantime, I’m in Los Angeles working on photography and music videos in addition to writing the “O-Star” feature.

See trailer here: