‘Carpe Millennium,’ written and directed by Eric Bednarowicz, is a comedy about a guy who wants to lose his virginity on the eve of the year 2000. In order to do this, Kevin (Steven Yuen) starts telling tales about knowing a famous celebrity, action star Sean Blackstone. As the lies get bigger and bolder, more and more women are interested in him. Just as he’s about to get lucky, his celebrity “friend” shows up and things take a turn for the worst!
While this film is far from an autobiography for filmmaker Eric Bednarowicz, “at the end of the day I think a lot of the characters I wrote, I see facets of their personality within myself,” he says. The inspiration for ‘Carpe Millennium’ came from a number of places and include themes he connects with as a director; “grappling with control, telling the truth, and ultimately the fear of the unknown.”
Check Out our interview with Eric Bednarowicz after the jump!
In ‘Carpe Millennium,’ dealing with the truth “presented an obstacle for the main character, Kevin, that wasn’t just something that could be overcome and then we move on,” explains Bednarowicz. He believes that it’s an internal struggle every person deals with. “Presenting that as really the core problem in this film for me was a very challenging and worthwhile opportunity,” says Bednarowicz. “As the film goes on, we start to see the stripping away of who Kevin is and ultimately who he wants to be as an honest individual.”
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR ERIC BEDNAROWICZ
CELEBRITY (04:00)
Another main theme in ‘Carpe Millennium’ tackles this notion of celebrity, as what Bednarowicz describes has become a national pastime for Americans. “I wanted to kind of strip away at that and really get at what ‘celebrity’ means in terms of how people use it as a tool,” he said.
“We wanted to create this idol for Kevin to worship and then have that be the demise of his character,” says Filmmaker Eric Bednarowicz.
He goes onto describe this demise as seeing what happens when we get to close to a celebrity. “I wanted to take the audience to the discovery of where we go when we do get to close to the fire,” says Bednarowicz.
FILMING LOCATION (02:43)
While ‘Carpe Millennium’ was filmed in Chicago, Bednarowicz says the “physical location wasn’t itself as important as story location because the film is self contained and takes place interior.”
He then goes onto explain that because the shot was interior, it could technically be shot anywhere. However, when it comes to telling the story, he describes a “distinct separation between Los Angeles, which is the center of the industry, and out there.” In regards to story location, “it is used as surface for a lot of sub textual context, showing Kevin’s manifestation from the honest portion of himself and who he was, with who he hopes to be,” he explains.
ACTORS ON THE RISE (07:30)
Bednarowicz explains that comedies can be hard to direct and force out of people. “80% of what the film is, just getting actors who totally embrace the role and make it their own,” he said. “We had a couple weeks of rehearsal and then we went to set. There was this strange comfort ability in the air which everyone kind of had in the cast, that a bomb could go off on the set and these actors wouldn’t skip a beat.”
The cast includes Steven Yeun (Second City), Max Lesser (According to Jim), Colleen McGovern, Angela Sprinkle, Amanda Tanguay, and Joel Wasserman from the O’Connor Casting Agency.
DIRECTING WITH ERIC
One of Bednarowicz cinematic influences is ‘The Usual Suspects’. He says he feels incredibly connected to the film “particularly because of how they reveal plot or choose to withhold from the audience.” In addition to the way the plot unfolds, he admits he is “also drawn to comedy that really pushes the envelope,” mentioning Judd Apatow’s movie ‘Knocked Up’ as a good example.
While he understands that there’s a line between gratuitous anything, he believes that “if you’re able to tell something in a tasteful way, understanding where your audiences limits are and be able to agitate them just a little bit, I think what you can do is constantly create something fresh for them.”
“I like to capture the element of adventure, surprise and discovery with every film I do. I think discovery is ultimately why we go to the movies. We want to learn about others journeys outside of our own.”
One surprising influence of Bednarowicz’s filmmaking is the documentary genre. While he has not directed a documentary himself, he states that “documentary has had a very profound influence on my films.” Documentaries reveal the importance of “making the driving force in your story to be that of substance between characters and not necessarily cinematography, set, dressing, or anything else.”
Having already won a Film Accolade, ‘Carpe Millennium‘ is about to begin its 2010 nationwide festival tour with a world premiere at the Charleston Int’l Film Festival on Saturday, April 10th. Worth its weight in gold, the Honolulu Int’l Film Festival has already notified ‘Carpe Millennium‘ they’ve won the ‘Gold Kahuna Award for Excellence in Filmmaking.’ The tour also includes the Geneva Film Festival, Riverside Int’l Film Festival, and Reality Bytes Film Festival.
To purchase tickets to the premiere of ‘Carpe Millennium‘ at the American Theater in Charleston, South Carolina, click here.
For more information on ‘Carpe Millennium‘, check out CarpeMillenniumFilm.com.
