Triple Threat!
Part Three

<< Continued from Part 2

Lisa: Now with certain females being able to break out of the box, like a Charlize Theron or a Halle Berry, I think it's healthy. [It refutes] that whole thing of "Well, you look a certain way, you can't be serious—you can't pull this role off." I think those are two good examples of women who were able to pull off roles that even I might've said, "Hey, you can't do that." But I'm like, Halle Berry's pretty ugly in that movie, you know; obviously Charlize Theron was, too.

Jen Kelley makes her point. (photo: Eric Bomba-Ire)

Mary: What movie?

Lisa: Monster's Ball.

Mary: I was like, I'm not buying that—she still looks...

Lisa: Really?

Mary: ...like gorgeous. I'm like, "Come on!"

Lisa: I think she took you away from it just with her acting and the rawness of the character. And so maybe she still was beautiful...but, uh, yeah.

Mary: How can she look bad?

Lisa: But I did take her very seriously in that role! I really did...as well as Charlize.

CinemATL (MK): What's been your favorite project that you've ever worked on?

Mary: The Adult SwimCartoon Network stuff.

CinemATL (LW): The voiceover stuff?

Mary: Umm-hmm, that was a voiceover. Then a short film for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the same guys writing both, pretty much. They shot a short film—they've had a script around for forever, since I've known them...it's been like, I guess, eight years or something. And then Turner finally offered to pay to have it produced, so they're like, "Okay!" It's just a short little stupid silly thing. We shot it during the past year, and they put it on the Aqua Teen DVD, so it's nationwide,

They're so fun to work with. It's like playtime when you get to do whatever you want. The voiceover stuff is sort of open, and free, and you just play around and do whatever you want, do it again—don't do what's written down, do what would make it better. So that's my favorite stuff.

I had so much fun in the Jackalope movie I did for Cougars Film Group. I do so many commercial and industrial types of jobs, that whenever I am given an opportunity to really come up with my own character and experiment with it, it's like being let loose in Big Lots with $1000.

Something that was pretty much entirely new to me was the role I played for Jay Edwards' Stomp! Shout! Scream! I knew Jay from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim shows. He wrote and directed S!S!S!, a rock 'n roll/beach party/monster movie set in the 1960s. We got to wear some vintage 1960s clothes, we got the whole hair/makeup deal from that era, and I got to play the part of an electric bass-playing-girl-garage-band-rocker. So much fun!

Actually the best part was traveling down to Bradenton, Florida, for the on-location shooting. Everyone on the film got along so well, and we all got to go down and stay at the beach for free! And work on film...actual film. And pretend to be a bad-ass playing the bass guitar—again, at the beach. And...no bathing suits were involved. That's pretty awesome!

Jen: Fun? For me it's probably writing...writing is my passion. I mean, I like producing, but I mainly do it because if I don't do it, it won't get done. Whereas I would rather someone else say "Okay, we'll produce your stuff," and let me just have creative input.

Lisa Cunningham laughs at a joke. (photo: Eric Bomba-Ire)

Lisa: For me it has to be with the TV show, translating my ideas through the editing, because it's just been difficult to make that come to life in the way that I really want it to. So many, many hours spent with the editor, and then seeing the final product—that's really my thing now. I could just do that forever, you know. I still get a big, big thrill, out of being told I have 16 hours to do a music video, and I'm the one who has to lead the troops through the burning sands. I literally get a rush. It was five o'clock in the morning the other day and we were still an hour away from wrapping, and I told my second AD, "I just got my second wind!" And she looked at me like I was on crack. It was one of those moments where I was just like "Wow!"—just amazed at everything.

You do movies and you got so many opportunities, if something goes wrong, to do it next week, or this, that, or the other. [With videos] you have that one day where everybody flies in and it's all gotta be right, and that's it, whether it rains, or whatever. So it's a challenge, and you finally see the product on TV...whether it is a bunch of dancing girls on totem poles (laughing).

Mary: (laughing) Come on, that's art!

Lisa: You just feel good about the experience; knowing the glitches 'cause for me it's not about that project...because everything, as you guys know, translates into "Oh, yeah, when that was going on, this was going on." So it's the back story. It's all about the back story.

Jen: Whether you're male or female, I think it's real important to try to work in as many areas as you can in this business to appreciate those things. I ran props at an equity playhouse for a summer, and it's like you go, "We're gonna do this 1930s." And I'm like, "Ok, I'm up in Vermont, I'll see what kind of 1930s furniture I can find." It's just the hunting and the searching, and then you bring something in. You don't realize what you have to go through to get it...you beg, borrow, and steal. So anytime you can volunteer in any kind of role on a set is just, I think, a good learning experience overall.

CinemATL: So, in general would you say you're optimistic for the Atlanta film community and its direction right now and in a couple of years perhaps?

Jen: With the new tax bill that passed, I'm hopeful, optimistic that more work is gonna come this way. I mean, there's already a lot going on....

Mary: I was hoping for it to be quicker, though.

Jen: ...because it was so "Write your congressman!" and " Canada keeps getting it all!"

Lisa: It's about quality though. I feel like a lot of work is gonna come, because these music people may have production companies, but, you know, you don't want it to be just a bunch of crap.

CinemATL (LW): What do you think needs to change?

Lisa: Like, I was impressed with Jermaine not doing what other people have done before, which is hire people that were around them already. The guy who heads his film company has worked at MTV, worked at BET, so he's bringing a different level of experience. It's not my experience that most of the people in Atlanta who have tried things like this on the urban side get the real professionals involved, and I admire him for that. And I would be hard pressed to think that Andre 3000...I just can't imagine him doing any kind of crap, you know what I mean

Jen: I would like to see more serious work come to Georgia. There hasn't been serious stuff here in a long time. You know? I'll Fly Awayand...

Lisa: All of our guys used to work on In The Heat of The Night and I'll Fly Away.

Jen: ...and Picket Fences. When I moved here those were the last ones. In The Heat of The Nightwas just wrapping up.

That is great for the actors, because, you really get the opportunity to have more substantial roles and regular work. We do have One Tree Hilland Surface, but they're up in Wilmington, so you still have to travel.

Mary: I wish there were more meaty parts. This is industry-wide, not necessarily just Georgia or Atlanta —but just more interesting stuff. Hardly anything interesting can make it through to TV, unless it's a premium channel.

CinemATL (LW): My worst fear about Atlanta is that we're gonna be doing a little tap show for the standard for what people want: "You know that's what they want so let's just go ahead and do it," and not coming up with anything original. And it would be nice if we get recognized as a city that's creative... different.

Lisa: It's so hard, because, being a native, I mean, there's no real pulse. You go to even a town like Memphis, or other Southern cities, it's like there's a pulse and there's a history of arts and entertainment that's different. Since Atlanta is such hybrid city you don't have the same sort of support from the pulse of it. I think that's what we're missing, and we'll never get it, and so we've just got to create the hype.

CinemATL (LW): Well, I think that's not necessarily true on all levels...in the music industry that's definitely not true, because there is a pulse here in the music industry. Maybe not in the production end, the music videos, but actually in the people who produce the music here, I think there's a definite a pulse.

Lisa: But in terms of like the arts overall...

CinemATL (LW): There's no money, number one.

Lisa: There's no money, and there's no campaigning. I mean, you have cities that just spend money on the city's arts and entertainment.

Jen: There's that one new campaign though, right now, Brand Atlanta, they've been running those ads.

CinemATL (LW): I'm scared of the word "brand."

Jen: Well, at least they're trying to create an identity here. Another thing happening now is Go Georgia, which is kind of a similar thing. Well, it's a little different, the project's a little bit different, but it's still the community coming together to try and create something for Atlanta. So there are efforts starting now to promote Atlanta more, but it's taking a while.

Mary: We move slow in this town.

Lisa: It's like what is the definition? That's why you get nervous, because "Brand Atlanta," like, what's that?!? That goes back to my point, "What is Atlanta?" "Hey, it's just a melting pot of really great minds that have just traveled to one space in time." That in itself would be cool.

Continue to Part 4 >>

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photo by Merrill Brady/Primal Pi

Filmography Highlights

Lisa Cunningham
The Envy Life (producer)

Jen Kelley
Recharging the Batteries (writer/producer)
Vineyard (writer/producer)

Mary Kraft
Stomp! Shout! Scream! (actress)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force (voiceover)
Squidbillies (voiceover)
Return of the Jackalope (actress)
Aliens Among Us (writer/actress)

More Features:

• Cover Story: Triple Threat
• Establishing Shot: Kirkwood
• The Insider's Scoop: D.P.

On Set Reports:
• Blood Car
• The Signal