anderswolleck

When someone tells me about an anthology movie with science fiction themes I dont think good thoughts. That is because anthology movies usually stink i.e. Tales From the Crypt and Four Rooms.

But Greg Paks low budget digital video movie Robot Stories is not in that vein. Each story has a robot involved but that isnt the main theme of the movie. In my favorite short, "The Robot Fixer, doesnt have any real working robots in it at all.

The stories are:
"My Robot Baby," in which a couple must care for a robot baby before adopting a human child; "The Robot Fixer," in which a mother tries to connect with her dying son by completing his toy robot collection; "Machine Love," in which an office worker android learns that he, too, needs love; and "Clay," in which an old sculptor must choose between natural death and digital immortality.

Check out the website for Robot Stories

Daniel Robert Epstein:I really liked your movie.

I know you got started doing short films. Is that where Robot Stories originated?

Greg Pak: I had written the stories separately because whenever I have an idea I work on it regardless whether I had any conceivable idea on how to make it happen. So I had written these stories, which were long shorts like 20 minutes to a half hour. I didnt have money to produce films like that. I was doing shorts that were three minutes and cost $200. Then I figured that these three kind of fit together, they shared themes so I started putting them together and it became a feature.

DRE: Did you ever think that since you were putting so much time into them that you might as well do a feature?

GP: I had a bunch of feature length screenplays I had written over the years and those were what I thought would be my first feature. All of those ended up being too expensive on paper. So I had these three stories, which fit together, and they worked out in terms of production challenges.

DRE: So you wrote these with the idea you would be doing it on a low budget.

GP: Definitely. Even when Im writing for other people I always try to write with the budget in mind. I think about how to do things cheaply.

DRE: When I see an anthology movie with a science fiction element I think they are going to have twist endings like Weird Science. Were people surprised?

GP: Each one of the stories has something of a twist but they dont have the kinds where they have ones that change everything you were thinking about the story. Believe it or not, Clay, the last story had a twist ending and we ended up changing it because emotionally it didnt work. These stories all had an emotional center to them so it was important to maintain that to remain emotionally true to the characters. I didnt want to sacrifice the emotional reality of the story for a big twist. People do get surprised by the endings but in a surprising way [laughs]. In short films its kind of clich to have a crazy twist. We do have twists but they are more emotional twists that are subtle with a slightly different emotional emphasis. My big goal was to have those twists take the film to the next emotional level rather just have something clever to talk about.

DRE: For the first story, "My Robot Baby", did you design the robot baby?

GP: Yes I drew this picture of an egg shaped baby and then we had these great designers and builders who put it together. I was the one who went to the stores and found the mixing bowls that became the body [laughs]. We were really inspired by stories from the production of Star Wars where they used gardening gloves and random things to make the costumes. We didnt have the budget to do a plastic mold. So we had to find everyday objects to make this robot baby.

DRE: How personal are these stories for you?

GP: None of them are strictly autobiographical. I am not an android and Ive never adopted a robot baby.

DRE: Not yet.

GP: Exactly. But on an emotional level they came out of stuff I was going through at different points when I was writing it. A friend of mine looked at the film and told me that he thought it was all about human frailty. I hadnt thought about that in those terms but I think thats probably pretty accurate. In the few years I was writing these stories it was a rough personal time. I lost a number of people that were close to me and I was struggling with many things. I wasnt thinking about those things explicitly when I was writing but the things that were concerning me ended up concerning the characters.

DRE: Its also got those themes of loving something that doesnt love back.

GP: I thought about it a little differently than that. I felt it was about people learning to love. When I was thinking about the actual robots in the story I never thought about them being cold or incapable of emotion. They were programmed to learn and grow emotionally. The robot baby is ready to respond to love like any child. I didnt think about the robot having the problem but the mother having the problem. The story is really about this woman caring for something and letting herself be vulnerable to love something. Also the same with the third story with the office worker androids. Their emotional problems dont come from their inability to love they come from other peoples inability to respond to them. So the robots were not the flawed ones. Its up to the human beings around them to figure what they are trying to achieve. Its the struggle of people learning to love.

DRE: The stories felt more Vonnegut than Bradbury.

GP: Thats funny because you're the first person to mention that. That makes a lot of sense. Ray Bradbury was my first literary hero. But at a certain point I did read a lot of Vonnegut and was a huge fan. Vonnegut definitely has more of a social emotional thread to his stuff. What I would say is that the Vonnegut stories are more clearly satirical. The characters are cartoonier which is different from what we are doing here. Its not exactly Bradbury but I think he is more straightforward in his satire.

DRE: Were you always planning on doing this movie on video?

GP: Yeah. I graduated from film school in 1998 and I struggled for years to do the features Id written. But I had written a western that couldnt be done on video and I couldnt get that money together. So the challenge for myself was to come up with something that could be done on digital video that would be appropriate for the format.

I also knew that Robot Stories needed a clean and even a pretty feel to it. This isnt a Blair Witch movie so it couldnt be low budget handheld. In the end we shot PAL DV cam, which is the European standard of video, so it gave us more lines of resolution and gave us a beautiful film transfer as well.

DRE: Had you acted much before this?

GP: Ive done improv comedy for 15 years now but Ive acted on film only a few times. I waited a long time before casting myself in my own stuff because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. From the minute I started thinking about Archie, the android who needs love, I really wanted to play him.

DRE: Was it difficult directing yourself?

GP: It was a challenge but I had really good support from the actors I was working with. Also my producer, Kim Ima, is an actress. So from time to time I would ask her for advice and she would be a good barometer.

DRE: I read that you started shooting this film right around 9/11.

GP: Yes we were shooting in Brooklyn outside this bar. I walked by the television in the bar and thought it was something about pollution because it looked like a couple of smokestacks. Then we found it was the Twin Towers. When the towers collapsed ash started blowing all over the set. We shut down for a few days to figure out what we were going to do. In the end we kept shooting because the actors and I really wanted to work. I wanted to feel useful and positive. Only one crewmember ended up dropping out.

DRE: What are your origins?

GP: I am half-Asian and half-white.

DRE: Have you always felt a strong connection to your Asian origins?

GP: Thats how I grew up and its who I am. I think about it similarly to the way Ed Burns does. He makes movies with Irish people in them and Scorsese makes movies with Italian people. None of them exclusively do that but its comfortable for them. I feel the same way about casting Asian Americans. For me filmmaking is a universal thing because if you tell an emotional story well, everyone will understand.

DRE: What I really liked about the movie is that there is no stereotypical Hollywood Asian character. They are regular people and the fact that they are Asian is not a big part of the story. It must have been pleasant and refreshing.

GP: Yes and one of the things I have always tried to do with my work is put people up there in non-stereotypical ways. If you are an Asian American in the United States you get outraged all the time by ridiculous racist depictions of Asians in the media.

DRE: They rarely get commented on because its just atypical.

GP: Exactly. People would never tolerate the kind of jokes that are made about Asians if they were made about African-Americans, Jews or anybody. Im particularly happy for the actors in Robot Stories because we have these amazing actors. I always think about Wai Ching Ho, who played the mother in the second story, because I thought she was incredible from the first time I met her in the audition. Shes had a great career doing stage in New York but this is the biggest film role shes ever had. When you see her in other movies or TV they tend to stick her behind the counter with an accent as a deli owner. She has this incredible depth and range and should be in movies all the time but there are just too few roles for her.

DRE: In your short career youve gotten to work with some pretty amazing people like [M. Butterfly creator] David Henry Hwang [in the short film Asian Pride Porn].

GP: Basically my whole plan of action over the years has been to keep working because I knew that was the only way to grow as a filmmaker. So I kept making short films. I met David Henry Hwang before, I faxed him my screenplay and asked if he wanted to be in it. He said yes which was awesome. Hes got a good sense of humor.

DRE: Where did you grow up?

GP: Dallas, Texas and I came to New York to go to NYU.

DRE: How was that?

GP: I thought it was great. Like every film student I complained about my program. Before I went to college the only people who saw my short films were family and friends. So it was tremendous because it was the first time where people who had no investment in my emotional well being told me exactly what they thought about my work, which I needed. I needed that rigorous criticism.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck