An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: 1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me
Genre: Drama
Date: January 2020
Director: Emil Gallardo
Producer: Emil Gallardo, My-Hanh Lac and Derek Ho
Writer: Emil Gallardo & Derek Ho
Cinematographer: Caroline Harrison
Production Company: Waterlight Films, LLC
Shooting Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 2:1
World Premiere (if it applies): Pasadena Film Festival
Awards: Grand Prix Best Short (HollyShorts), Grand Jury Award (Austin), Best Short (NY Latino), Best of Fest & Best Performer (LA Diversity), Best Drama Short (Cordillera), Best Drama Short & Best Actress (Queen Palm International), Best Local Drama (SF Indie Shorts), Audience Choice (Salute Your Shorts), and Best Actress (CineOdyssey).
Website: https://www.waterlightfilms.com/
The Official Trailer for 1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me
Watch The Trailer for 1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me directed by Emil Gallardo
A Short Biography of Emil Gallardo
Emil Gallardo is an award-winning Mexican-American writer-director and a 2020 HBO Directing Fellow. Los Angeles and Oakland are the two places which heavily influence Emil’s directing style. Eager to begin his career in film, Emil’s first dues were on as a PA in 2003 on a softcore porn set. He stayed in the AD department but graduated to working on a variety of fully-clothed independent and studio productions.
The Emil Gallardo Interview
1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me is about a crisis that engulfs an elementary school and Ms. Leena, a passionate art teacher that does everything she can to save her young class. The story comes out of our desire to help audiences. It helps audiences develop a deeper emotional understanding of being in a trap situation like this. From everything we’ve heard during our festival run, we’ve been successful in creating that understanding.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Emil Gallardo (EG): The success we’ve had has been unbelievable! When the script was still in development and while we were casting the film, some people had a really adverse reaction to the story we wanted to tell and we weren’t sure if festival audiences would share that sentiment. It turned out to be the opposite. The film has really moved audiences and people reach out daily to express how much the film has meant to them. We’re still on the festival circuit and so far we’ve won the Grand Prix Best Short award at HollyShorts which made us eligible for an Oscar. We were a Jury Award winner at the Austin film festival, won Best Short at the NY Latino Film Festival and were nominated for a John Singleton Impact Award, among other awards.
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Emil Gallardo (EG): A loving teacher has her hands full with her young class. When she takes an upset student outside and she sees a young man writing X’s on classroom doors, she knows something’s wrong. Things quickly unravel and Ms. Leena and her class find themselves trapped in an impossible situation none of them were prepared for.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Emil Gallardo (EG): This is a placeholder text, that indicates that the content for this template must be placed between this block, to allow the article to hold a firm structure and also kill time for the writer or editor.
Development & Financing?
Emil Gallardo (EG): This was an original screenplay I wrote with my writing partner Derek Ho. Derek and I have been friends since we were 11 years old and have been writing together for the last few years. We’re more like brothers than friends at this point. The story is based on a combination of real incidents, the interviews we did with teachers and some creative decisions we made. We self-funded the film. We had a small window in which to shoot the film and knew the subject matter was controversial. It was important for us to tell the story we envisioned and wanted to have complete creative control from the script through the final cut of the film.
Production?
EG: We shot the film over 4 days in Oakland. We were fortunate to have found a location that was very supportive of the film we wanted to make. Their only stipulation was that we be done filming in time for their teachers to come in to prep for the upcoming school year. If we missed our Summer window, we wouldn’t have another chance until Winter break, six months later. Our team made it happen and we got the movie shot in the time we had without needing to do any re-shoots or ADR.
Tragically, the day after we wrapped principal photography, the El Paso shooting occurred. That situation closely mirrors our story and was especially heartbreaking. I had just spent all of this time with these kids and for that incident to be so similar and so close to what we had just created was devastating. Shortly after that, I got pneumonia. I was in bed for about 10 days but recovered just in time to edit the film and submit a work-in-progress cut by Sundance’s final deadline. In the weeks that followed, we finalized the titles, color and sound design and updated our submissions.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
EG: We were confident we had a strong film and our festival strategy included submitting to top tier festivals like Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca. We also submitted to Oscar-qualifying festivals like Cleveland, BronzeLens, Indy Shorts, etc. Finally, in our first round of submissions, we submitted to Latinx festivals around the country. I’m Mexican-American and most of our cast is Latinx and it was important for us to participate in these festivals. As of right now, we’ve been accepted to 25 festivals but at one point we were rejected from 11 straight festivals over the course of three months. To any emerging filmmakers out there – don’t give up! We just qualified for the Oscars! Also, a special shout out to the Latinx film festivals we submitted to. We were accepted into every single one! Vamos!
The Release?
EG: The film is still playing in festivals but we are evaluating our distribution options once our festival run ends
Advice from the Filmmaker?
EG: Focus on the story. Don’t rush your film into production before the story is the best you can make it. It’s easy to feel pressure to get something out, to get excited about a stunt or a cool camera move. All of that will come. The story is what will make the biggest impact on the audience. Do whatever it takes to make the story strong. Get notes. Partner with a co-writer. Do more research. Do another draft. Throw everything you can into the story.
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