‘Out Of Office’ - - Official Selection for ASVOFF 17
starring Naythan Cotne @naythancotne
directed, shot & edited by Max Gold @max__gold
art direction, styling & production by Molly Apple @mollyroseapple @agency___m
light & color Ed Wu @wuhawk
makeup Nora Kryst @norakryst.makeup
production assistant Aubrey Salita @4ubreysalita
wearing KKCO @kkco
voice overs Mickey Bloom @mickey.h.bloom Hana Vagnerova @iamhanavagnerova & Ben Palacios @benpalacios_
music Matt Orenstein @matt_orenstein
soundtrack cover by Handle With Care Studio @_____handlewithcare
Words by Max Gold
I really had to pee so I changed my last two crumpled dollar bills for quarters to use the bathroom in Chinatown Central Plaza. We were doing a wardrobe test for our fashion film, OOO, and I was early. So was Naythalia. We said hello and I asked if she wanted to play around with a few shots before the fitting. After that we didn’t yap much besides soft, intermittent exchanges of my direction and her acknowledgment.
The irony was that Chinatown Central Plaza was exploding in color– specifically candy-apple red. Red lanterns hung between buildings were the same color as Naythalia’s lipstick were the same as the red bottoms of her Louboutin’s... all of which would translate on the filmstock as murky shades of gray. We discovered a kid’s ride – a mechanical orca which, like the bathroom, was also powered by coins. The orca, after all these years being fed quarters to be ridden by screaming kids, had been waiting until this day to be straddled by Naythalia. Shopkeepers watched from behind iron gates as Naythalia effortlessly surged between pinup-style poses on the orca. We were breaking rules. Maybe not enough to be asked to leave, but enough that the shopkeepers muttered to one another while pretending not to watch.
It felt like being thirteen again, when I used a camcorder to shoot my uncle Dan in drag, walking through our neighborhood with a weedwacker trimming boulevards of the scandalized neighbors. (We set the footage to Andrea Bocelli’s “Con Te Partiró.”) I had wanted to shoot OOO on the exact same Digital 8 camcorder to reconnect to the playful and rebellious energy that had made me want to direct films in the first place. As a painfully shy but also burningly curious teenager, the video camera was my bridge between these two otherwise irreconcilable personality contradictions.
The intent behind OOO was the same. Our team put energy into holding open the door for curiosity -- while keeping learned commercial and linear narrative expectations at bay. Whatever came through that door, we auditioned into the image (or sound). Naythalia was the perfect star because her beauty asks questions rather than gives answers. She and I made our way to the fountain where people tossed coins to make a wish. I gave her my last quarter. She closed her long-lashed eyes, whispered a wish and tossed it in.
Los Angeles is a place where wishes are monetized more than anything. It was invigorating to work on a film where our team was able to conjure an aliveness that was anything but coin-operated. I wonder how often someone comes through and collects all those wish-quarters from the bottom of the pond. How do you think they dry them off?
