A Film Festival Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Shut Up and Fish
Genre: Coming of age surrealism
Length of film: 13 minutes 19 seconds
Date: NA
Director: Cliqua (Raul Sanchez Pasqual Gutierrez)
Producer: Sarah Park
Executive Producer: Doug Riggs & Ryan Hahn
Writer: Pasqual Gutierrez & Raul Sanchez
Cinematographer: Xiaolong Liu
Editor: Nick Rondeau
Composer: Chris Beach
Production Company: HPLA
Budget: $40k (suggestive)
Financing: Doug Riggs, Ryan Hahn, Raul Sanchez, Pasqual Gutierrez
Shooting Format: Digital
Screening Format: Digital
World Premiere: HollyShorts
Awards: NA
Website
The Official Trailer for Shut Up and Fish
Watch The Trailer for Shut Up and Fish directed by Cliqua
A Short Biography of Cliqua
The name Cliqua refers two filmmakers, Raul Sanchez and Pasqual Gutierrez.
The Filmmaker Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Cliqua (C): Shut Up and Fish is about an adolescent boy who comes to realize that fitting in isn’t as cool as it seems. Depending on who you talk to I think the film is about various things, but at its core, that’s what it’s about to me. The idea and the title came at once, while Raul and I were in Las Vegas together having dinner at a very mediocre Mexican restaurant inside a casino.
I remember it very clearly. Raul was talking about how we should make a short film, and how he really wanted to make something around the idea of Edgars. The “edgar”, if you don’t already know, is a nickname for a cultural phenomenon happening amongst Latino youth. It’s all about the hair, but the hair is also associated with a sort of lifestyle that we were really into at the time. Edgars are a sort of new age fuckboy–getting eyebrows threaded to steal girls, being a badass but also being really into skincare and selfies.
Anyways, we were in this restaurant talking about Edgars and I kept saying how we needed to put them in a very bizarre environment. Something that would be a literal fishbowl for their kind of behavior, but also a setting that you’d never see an Edgar in. I was wearing this gas station hat that said “Shut Up and Fish” on it. That’s where the second half of the idea came from. I remember that night going into the hotel room and writing the whole thing down on a note. This good-boy-brand-new Edgar is trapped on a boat with toxic, older edgars, culminating in an adversarial fight.
Give the full synopsis for the film?
Cliqua (C): A young Aiden gets a matching ‘edgar’ haircut to fit in with older peers Edgar, Hector, and Chuy. Eager to be part of the group, Aiden shows the boys how to fish while out on an empty, placid lake. Aiden is immediately teased by Edgar, starting a slow boiling tension between the two. Edgar, the true alpha of the group, bullies Hector and Chuy who are quickly revealed to be his neutral minions.
Aiden is forced to listen to Edgar speak disrespectfully about women–specifically his sister, and a girl named Amber. He is then pressured into showing his penis to the group as a form of “being down”. When he does so, however, Aiden is ridiculed for having an uncircumcised penis. A deeply embarrassed Aiden distances himself onto the far side of the boat while Edgar and his minions continue their sophomoric banter.
At last, Aiden catches a fish–the first and only of the day. Upon seeing the fish breathing its final breaths, however, sympathetic Aiden tosses the fish back into the water. Edgar, furious, claims that the fish was ‘his’ because it was on ‘his side of the boat’–another bullyish construct in the boys’ microcosm. Aiden is faced with a decision–will he stand up against Edgar or will he let it slide again?
Development & Financing?
Cliqua (C): In terms of financing, the entire project was independent. Immense gratitude to Doug Riggs who gave us the most generous portion of the funding! Ryan Hahn, producer and EP at HPLA, also gave us a good amount as well as allowed us to run the project through his company. Major shouts to Ryan Hahn as well. Raul and I covered the rest, and that was that. In terms of development of the actual idea…like I said we came up with the initial idea that one evening in Vegas, but over the coming months it marinated with us both and the story began evolving as we wrote more drafts of it. The idea of the circumcision, the penis scene, and the nightmarish ‘dream sequence’ at the end came after a few iterations of the script. In terms of the creative, we did all the writing ourselves.
Production?
Cliqua (C): I think that Vegas dinner took place in November of 2021. Since then we sort of toyed with the idea here and there between music videos and commercial gigs. After we’d written (what we’d felt) was a solid enough version of the script–nearly 6 months later–we began the casting process. Elmel Bettache was crucial here. She specialized in a street casting approach, and looked all over for us, from high schools to after school theater programs, barber shops, skate parks, everything.
She and I even went to the Pomona Fair together by my parents’ house, anywhere we thought we’d see an “edgar”. In addition to Elmel, we also had major help from Berenice Valle who specialized in casting Latino/a nonactors in and around greater LA. This process took months in and of itself, and when we finally found our crew, we began rehearsing with them. The rehearsal began in the summer of 2022. None of the kids had ever acted on set before and remembering lines was a difficult challenge.
Over the span of 4 months, from about June to September, we rehearsed with the boys bi monthly. Raul and I filmed every rehearsal and allowed them to improvise, since memorization was an issue. This improvisation was then transcoded and peppered back into our script. The script itself was a changing document that, over the four months of rehearsal, began to reflect more of the kids’ natural banter. The cinematography and style of the film was also a long conversation. Close collaborator and friend Xiaolong Liu was attached from the start, and over the summer we discussed the varying ways in which we should capture the boys.
X wanted a 4:3, black and white, highly dramatized style akin to something like The Lighthouse to capture the kids. The idea behind this was that an arthouse, European-inspired aesthetic had never been given to young, Latino boys from LA before. Principal photography began on September 20th, 2022. We shot for three days. Post was a more arduous process. Raul and I began editing the film ourselves for a few weeks. After hitting a wall, we brought in longtime collaborator Nick Rondeau to edit with us. He was an essential soundboard for us both as we were so close to the film and precious about everything.
Because we were all juggling other jobs and everyone was working for free, we finally picture locked in February of 2023. Derek Hansen colored and Raphael Ajuelos did the sound design. We were still at odds with some musical aspects of the film, and so around this time we also went into a music studio with my good friend Waju (who also worked on the short during photography). Waju brought out a high school friend Chris Beach to help us with some of the pan flute music.
Festival preparation & Strategy?
Cliqua (C): Doug was in charge of all of this. Shouts to him again! Doug had recent success with his Oscar qualifying short film “Burros”, so through his experience we gave him the lead and he took charge, searching high and low for a home for our premiere. We landed at Hollyshorts!
The Release?
Cliqua (C): After Hollyshorts, we will be playing at Sidewalk, then who knows where. We want to play as many festivals as we can, but the film will ultimately land online for all to see–especially the edgars.
Advice from the filmmaker?
Cliqua (C): Street Reporter tells the journey of Sheila White. Sheila dreams of becoming a photojournalist despite living in a women’s homeless shelter.
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