Sundance Institute’s first-ever ShortsLab: L.A. will be held at the end of July and caps off with a screening of the 2010 Sundance Short Film Prize winners including Dramatic Jury Prize winner Drunk History: Douglass & Lincoln. Undeniably original in its approach to American history, the film meshes alcohol-enhanced storytelling with spot-on voice dubbing and aptly overstated reenactments from Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle, and Zooey Deschanel. Douglass & Lincoln, though the fifth volume in the “Drunk History” series, is the first to receive a Festival screening and take home a prize. Director Jeremy Konner and writer/producer/actor Derek Waters took time recently to discuss the development of their popular film series, its unconventional path to the Sundance Film Festival, and offer a few tips to short film newcomers.
Q: How did the “Drunk History” series come to be?
Derek Waters: History is just kind of boring to me, I’ve never really known that much about it, and I thought it’d be funny to get someone drunk and have people reenact events exactly how a person told it. The idea was to call it Drunk History Channel, and a lot of people were like, “I don’t understand it, do the people have to be drunk?” And then I talked to Jeremy and he understood it right away. The idea was for a five-minute video, there was no thought to that this would become a series.
Jeremy Konner: We were really surprised. We didn’t know if it was going to be good or not. When we sat down with Mark Gagliardi (narrator from Drunk History Vol. 1) we couldn’t believe how funny he was being.
Q: The series has become wildly popular on the Internet. How did the project gain so much online traction?
Derek Waters: The comedy nerd version of me wishes it was because it’s different and no one had done it before. But in reality, it’s because famous people are in it—that’s how you get people to see stuff. I really don’t like admitting that, but if Jack Black wasn’t Ben Franklin I don’t know how many people would have watched a drunk person talking about history.
Q: Can you describe the collaboration involved in writing, filming, and editing short films like these?
Jeremy Konner: The process is usually that we’ll talk to someone who says they have a really great story. We’ll look up the story beforehand so we know the person hits the most important points. I’ll take the footage and cut it down to about 10 minutes, and Derek will come over and we’ll go through it and decide what’s funny. Then we’ll ask people to be in it—the cut down version is the script. There’s no sound recording involved, which is really fun. It really liberates you. People can be doing stuff in the other side of the room—it’s a relaxed environment. We play a clip, and then we need the actor to replicate what the narrator said.
Q: Has anything changed since premiering Douglass & Lincoln at the Sundance Film Festival?
Derek Waters: Everything changes. I just did a movie with Owen Wilson called Hall Pass. But I’m still making “Drunk History.” Still making shorts!
Jeremy Konner: As a filmmaker, definitely. Now people are taking me more seriously as a director, which is all I could hope for. I’m coming out of a festival having been a winner—it really changes what we’ve made from comedy into art with that one award. Comedies don’t usually win awards. It was an amazing experience. I was very surprised to even get in, and totally blown away when we actually won.
Q: Do you have any final tips for up-and-coming filmmakers?
Derek Waters: Do what you think is funny. When someone’s doing exactly what they want to do, it’s beautiful because it comes from their heart…like getting someone drunk.
Jeremy Konner: One of the big lessons I came away with is to not stop working. We didn’t know what it was going to be, we didn’t know if it was going to be good or not, we just decided to go out and shoot it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The best thing to do is to be prolific. If you look at a lot of the great artists, they made plenty of things that weren’t successful, that didn’t work. I was making shorts since I was 15. I was doing it all through high school, all through college, and this is the first thing that has been really successful. And if you’re going to go (to Sundance), win, because it’s way more fun.
Watch it now!
