Recently Rakefet Abergel shared the progress she has made with a film she had written and was fundraising for just a little over a year ago. We spoke with Rakefet last year and now had the opportunity to speak with her again about her recent achievements.
Carolyn Topol Talk: We were in touch last year as Jax In Love was getting ready to film. Please tell us about the evolution of the film since we last spoke about it.
Rakefet Abergel: We finished filming last August.
CTT: What has been happening since then?
RA: I haven’t made a film on my own before so I wasn’t really sure how the timeline would look. It takes a long time to edit! [Laughs] That’s basically what we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, because I don’t have a ton of money to pay people, I have to work around their schedules, which makes it take a bit longer because I can’t ask them to only work on my project. It’s frustrating. I want to get it done, but I have to work around editors’ schedules and the director’s schedule since these people are working other jobs that pay them more money.
CTT: Do you have a team you’re working with?
RA: Yes. We have Director, Colin Campbell, and Executive Producer, Jory Weitz (Napoleon Dynamite), and the other Producer, Gabi Ilioiu. We’ll do a cut with the editor, and then will look at it, then we’ll do another cut and look at it, and so on and so forth. I think we’re on version 11 now.
CTT: Wow!
RA: First we were just cutting to get it together. We were choosing which takes to use, which scenes we’re going to use, which angles we’re going to use, and that takes a while. Once all of that is in the cut, then we were looking for content. After that we looked at it for time and for story. Every time we did something, we cut a little bit and then we had to go back and see if it looked good, and then decide if we liked it or not. I think it was around version seven or eight when we felt like it was pretty much done, but it wasn’t, even though I thought it was.
We showed [Jax In Love] to a bunch of people, in little focus groups — people who I know — friends, family, and friends of friends. We did a few screenings to get an idea of what people think about it — do they get it, do they understand it, do they like it, do they not like it, and what notes do they have as an audience. It was a very collaborative process.
I’m the kind of person who wants to take everyone’s opinion into account. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily the best way to do this since everybody has an opinion. What I tried to do was take everyone’s opinions into account and notice, if everyone had one specific note, it was an issue. If there was just an isolated note or comment, then it was just a personal issue that one person had.
The version that we have now is actually much shorter then the one we originally showed to everybody, and much more tightly put together. Because of the story, which has a bit of a twist ending, and it’s a little bit of a mystery, it’s been very hard to decide what we’d say, and when do we say it — what do we give away, and when do we give it away, to make sure people understand the end. I think if we had a straight-forward script, that was very clearcut, it would not take as much time to edit. That’s what’s been taking so long — just getting the picture locked. I’m hoping, after we have one of the characters do some ADR, additional dialogue recording, for some sound stuff, and I have to get into the music composer, and the colorist to work on the visual effects, and the sound mixer, we’ll be set. It’s a never ending process that I was not entirely clear on. [Laughs] It’s been two years since I started writing the script and it’s been almost a year since we filmed. We’re hoping to have it done in the next month and a half.
CTT: When it is finally done will you present the film to focus groups again?
RA: No, we’re done with the focus groups. As soon as we’re done, I’m going to start submitting to festivals. That’s why I am trying to do it as soon as possible because a lot of the big festivals like Sundance and Tribeca have deadlines during the summer. I was under the impression we were going to be able to get the film in last year — I don’t know what I was thinking. [Laughs] We had to keep doing re-shoots. We shot in June, but we had to keep going back, starting a month later, to shoot something else. Then a month after that we realized some of what we shot wasn’t working, so we had to go back and shoot again — some little pieces. A four-day shoot turned into a six-day shoot, but those last two days were about a month apart.
CTT: Were you shooting scene by scene or did you try to do a continual type of effect when you originally shot due to the short shooting schedule?
RA: Right now [the film is] about 18 1/2 minutes. It was always going to be about 20 minutes in length. Because of that, it’s a short shooting length, but four days is kind of short even for that. We would’ve liked it to be a week but we couldn’t afford that. We shot everything, except for one scene, in the first four days, but we did not shoot it in order. We shot based on the days that we *had the locations we needed, and the actors availability. There’s a little girl in it who’s new, Lia Mariella Russo. She plays a little girl, Jane, in the movie. She’s the daughter of Producer/Director Joe Russo — I used to coach his daughter. I knew she would be perfect for the movie. I asked him and he agreed, and was there when she was filming. They were out of the country during the original shoot so we saved her scenes to do three weeks later and tried to match the locations. When you’re working on a low budget indie film, you have to get creative with locations, with time management, with people — you just can’t expect people to drop everything for a project that’s not really paying them very much. Next time I hope I have a lot more money. [Laughs] It was a really good experience and I learned so much. I learned more than I learned in film school, that’s for sure.
CTT: Were you present throughout all the processes, or did you give notes to the editor and then plan to see each cut after the work was done?
RA: Because the story was so specific, and there was a certain way it needed to go, and because I’m in it and wanted to choose my best performances, I would actually sit with the editor. We’d make a lot of the cuts while I was sitting there, and then he might finish some more stuff up during the week when I wasn’t there. He would then give me a cut and we would look at it, make editing notes, and then I’d meet with him again. Most of the time I would be sitting with him when he was actually cutting. Those sessions were running anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. My editor is Ned Thorne. He’s awesome. He was so patient, and definitely didn’t get paid what he is worth and for all he did.
All the people who worked on Jax have been so generous with their time and their talents. I’m really, really grateful and appreciative of all that they did!
CTT: My guess is that will be reflected in the quality of the film.
RA: Absolutely, I think a lot of it is that they all felt it was a worthwhile project. Not to toot my own horn, but several said it was because I was a nice person and they wanted to work with me. They knew I never took any of them, or their time, for granted. A lot of filmmaking is personal relationships. They also really believed in the project. They read the script and they liked it.
We tried our hardest to make up for the lack of pay in a variety of other ways. One way was food on the set. [Laughs] We had amazing food on the set. My mom, and Devi’s mom (Devi plays Sunny in the film), and my aunt took care of all the catering. We got some stuff donated from restaurants but they cooked and cooked, and set it all up. They did every meal and the snacks. There was food 24 hours a day. We would even supply dinner when we weren’t filming at night so they could take it home.
CTT: So now you’re going to submit to festivals — when does the festival season begin?
RA: It’s actually year around. You would not believe how many festivals there are. There are thousands of festivals! When Sundance comes around, which I think is in January, is when the cycle really all starts again.
CTT: Is your goal is to start having the movie in festivals in 2018?
RA: Sundance and a couple of other festivals have a rule that full-length features have to be premiered at their festival. Fortunately, they do not have the same rule for shorts, so I’m lucky in that way, and I can apply to a variety of festivals. The film festival submissions are a job in and of itself. Once we get into a big film festival, like Sundance, the smaller film festivals will see that and will also want to show the film.
CTT: While you’re doing all of this for the film, I learned that you will also be performing in a new play, correct?
RA: I just recently booked a play called The Furniture. The director is Joel Zwick! He did Full House and directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I’m really looking forward to this, and hope it will be really great for my career.
I’m doing the play while trying to finish Jax In Love. I also coach actors and teach Hebrew School. It’s been very busy and I’m not used to being this busy. I’m an actor who is usually just waiting for stuff. [Laughs] But I decided last year I’m going to stop waiting for things, and do my own project. I’m doing this play because it’s a great play, and I have a great part. I’m one of the leads.
CTT: We wish you all the best on that — both the play and the film. Both sound like they have huge potential.
RA: I think so. They are both very promising. I’m grateful to have some things to talk about and work on. They’re both kind of polar opposites. Jax is pretty dramatic and dark, and the play is very funny. I play the one who has most of the punchlines. My character is very funny. It’s nice to be able to show people that I’m not just a one trick pony.
CTT: I understand you have also been working on getting more physically fit. Have you been able to continue that with your crazy schedule?
RA: It’s been harder. Since the beginning, I had lost about 45 pounds. Unfortunately, since we finished filming in August, I gained about 10 back. I’m sure it’s just because I’ve been busy and stressed. When I saw that it hit 10, I re-committed myself to continuing to get more healthy. It’s a slow process; there is no quick fix. If it’s a quick fix, it’s not going to be a lasting fix. You have to change your lifestyle. If you don’t change your lifestyle, nothing will change for the long-term. I still go to the gym. I try to go at least three days a week. It’s very important for me to, at least, [maintain] the weight I did lose, and keep it off. I worked really hard to get there.
CTT: That makes sense.
Do you have any thoughts about what your most desired next project would be after the play is finished, and the movie is locked?
RA: Oooh, that’s a good question. I would love to be a regular on a sitcom, if nothing further happens with the play. I would love to have a regular acting gig and be able to just focus on acting, which is what I love.
While I thought I would never want to go through the work of making another movie again, I would also love to do that. My producer, Gabi Ilioiu, shared that it’s kind of like having a baby — you forget the pain afterwards. [Laughs] I would love to do a full-length feature, but I would do it if I could only get investors and have the funding for it. Someone actually suggested making a feature film about Jax — possibly doing a prequel, showing what led Jax to get where she is in the short. After working on Jax for over a year, and seeing it, I kid you not, in a variety of different ways probably about 400 times, I need a break from the character for a while.
CTT: Well I can honestly say, if Jax In Love goes to the Tribeca Film Festival, I would definitely make sure to go see it!
RA: Thank you, that would be great! I’m definitely going to try to get in there.
*****
Thank you to Rakefet Abergel for sharing so openly about her journey to bring Jax In Love to completion. From what we have learned, it will be an outstanding and eye-opening short film. We look forward to learning which film festivals will show it!
Here is the link for more information about the play, The Furniture: https://www.thefurnitureplay.com
Below, please find a list of some of many who shared their talents for Jax In Love:
Oscar nominated Director: Colin Campbell
Writer: Rakefet Abergel
Executive Producers: Rakefet Abergel, Jory Weitz (Napoleon Dynamite), Jack and Ginia Stiefel, and Cena and Yakov Abergel
Director of photography: John Kearns
Cast:
Rakefet Abergel
Devi Veysey
John Gammon
Ben Kacsandi
Christopher Illing
Laura Slade Wiggins
Lia Mariella Russo
(Photo Credits: Amber Janke; Jax In Love; Rakefet Abergel)