The Origins Of Automatic Everything:

 

My last movie, Sequence, is a comedy about loneliness and chance told in four separate parts. My team and I shot in pieces on and off for two years. When the movie was finally finished, we booked theaters and toured the film to twenty American cities. Each screening was eye-opening. The audiences that built around those screenings felt strong. Sequence was never meant to be about any specific region, but after the screening at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, actor Tim Blake Nelson said that it was one of the most “authentically true southern movies” he’d ever seen. Coming from an actor who I respect so deeply, his remark gave me confidence. 

At the end of 2018, I began production on a new film, Automatic Everything. Yours Truly Creative and I began paying for the movie out of our pockets, along with a few investments from friends, crew and a small grant that I won. 

Co-writer Michael Bible and I have designed a framework that allows us to keep the narrative fresh with new inspiration, flexible as we shoot over an extended amount of time. We wrote a beginning, an ending and a manifesto as the glue that would bind it all together and utilize what we are inspired by during each production cycle to tell Feng’s multi-faceted story. We are inspired by time-tested filmmaking devices and embracing the  possibilities of a new cinema, one from the internet age that’s excited by the various possibilities of consuming a film like this. 



So far, we’ve filmed pieces of the film in Mississippi, Colorado and Los Angeles with New York and China next on the list. Our limited resources have uncomfortably provided us the luxury to make a movie that feels more alive than if we were shooting on a traditional production cycle. With half of production complete, the movie has already brought together a fresh blend of faces and places and energies. 

Over the past few years, our country has undergone an identity crisis. We seem to be more isolated from each other than we were yesterday. Since America is my home and the place I know/love, most of the movie takes place here and flows with the rhythm of these lonely times. Who better than a Chinese outsider to funnel American spirit and tension through? The synthesis of these two worlds is enlightening, to me.



We are now seeking financing to complete the remainder of production, which we project will total between 15 - 18 days. We’re aiming to wrap production up in Spring 2020 and post-production in the summer and will target international festivals that are great launchpads for first feature filmmakers (like myself). We are in talks with sales agents who will work with us to carve out the best potential for an international life for the movie.

In this movie, the array of characters are lost but the quotidian fragments of their lives that link them in unexpected ways allow for the potential of experiencing yourself in a more truthful way through the lens of another person. Automatic Everything is a comedic exploration of longing and desire that takes a unique approach to the concept of a road movie.

The Casting Director in the woods, imagined by Feng.

Thanks for reading. We hope you’ll consider teaming up with us.

~ Director James Alexander Warren

 
 
 

  • Email Alericanflag@gmail.com and Babak@yourstru.ly to become involved.