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Five Questions from Quarantine: Brien Holman
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The We Are Royale partner/executive creative director tells us why being locked up with The Dude would be the stuff of storytelling dreams, why Hors Piste provides the humour needed at the moment and gives us a Clue as to his favourite board game
What's your self-isolation set-up at the moment?
I’m slowly taking more stuff from the studio home.
It started with my laptop, dock, and my ultra-wide monitor - and has now spread to the bigger studio Wacom, speakers (need some good audio), and the PC.
Equipment aside, I’ve got a small arcade machine sitting in the corner to remind me of the machines we’ve got in the office, a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube to give me something to master while on lockdown, and a library of art books I’ve had since college, which I just organized on a shelf.
I find that every so often taking a look at one of the books I first read 15 years ago still inspires me - and gives me the nostalgic shot in the arm I need to keep pushing through this.
It's lockdown; aside from your family, which four people, past or present, would you most like to be quarantined with?
The obvious answer here is Jeff Bridges.
Not only is he a national treasure, but also the stories he must have would entertain me on this desert island of quarantine we’re in.
Steve Kazanjian is one of my mentors in college - and I still feel like I have a lot to learn from him.
On the practical side, Joel Voelker is a damned good DP I work with constantly. If you’re going to be quarantined with someone, quarantine yourself with a guy who can shoot things with you…. Maybe then, I’d get that short film done.
And, just as a wild card here, Wes Anderson.
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We need entertainment, what's your favourite short film?
This one’s a call-back, but if you haven’t had the pleasure to give Kung Fury a go, you owe it to yourself.
It’s an over-the-top nostalgia play on the ’80s action films I grew up with that’s self-aware and excellently produced. David Sandberg, who wrote, directed, and co-starred in the film, is a genius among men and deserves all the recognition he can get.
More recently, I can’t get enough of a short animated film that made the circuit with the 2020 Academy Award nominees from Léo Brunel and Loris Cavalier called Hors Piste. It plays into the same humor as Kung Fury, leaning on a ridiculous situation a pair of helicopter rescue pilots find themselves in, and the steps they take to save an injured climber.
With everything that’s going on right now, humor is a good place to pull some inspiration.
David Sandberg – Kung Fury
Oscar Malet – Hors Piste
You've completed Netflix. And Amazon Prime. And Disney+. It's on the hard stuff; board games. What do you pick and why?
Clue.
Always.
The stories you can tell with your friends to justify every random guess is amazing and never gets old.
If you’re a fan of the movie, and of Tim Curry's performance, playing the board game will make you smile every time.
On a serious note, how do you think this situation will impact you individually, and the industry as a whole?
I’m playing more board games, becoming a champion puzzle builder, and crafting a dissertation on proper video conferencing etiquette.
In all honesty, it’s a tough time for everybody, especially those of us trying our best to run a small business without interruption to our staff or clients.
Once the social distancing restrictions are lifted, I feel like we’re looking at a long time before we’re back to any resemblance of 'normal' and even then, that 'normal' is going to look much different than it used to be.
On the optimistic side, we will learn from this, and adapt some of what we’re learning how to do now into our everyday working lives; remote working being the easiest example. Remote sessions and video calls are common now. I don’t think that’s ever going away. In fact, it’ll encourage more clients to get involved in shoots and reviews in a way they haven’t been before.
We’ll all be a little more cautious with how we run the business moving forward, but the way we communicate with each other has changed forever.
