By: Ashton Newton
Staff Writer
With the New Year here, moviegoers have begun talking about the films they’ll be seeing over the next 12 months. Students and faculty at WOU, however, get the chance to start their year off with a movie made by students right here on campus.
WOU students Nathaniel Dunaway (Fifth-year, Theatre), Darien Campo (Junior, Visual Communication and Design), and Burke De Boer (Junior, BFA Acting) started their indie film studio Body in the Window Seat back in 2012. Since then, they’ve made three films and are currently in the production of their fourth.
I got a chance to sit down with director Nathaniel Dunaway to talk about the studio’s latest film, “Misfortune County,” which they will be showing on campus on January 29th.
“Misfortune County” is a Western film set in the 1900s in Eastern Oregon’s Malheur County. The film revolves around the mission of an assassin who goes by the name of Lady Vengeance, a revenge killer for hire. Dunaway said that the movie is a Western with comedy woven in, and that the film looks at the idea of quests in cinema.
Dunaway comments that it’s almost a cross between “True Grit” and “The Wizard of Oz,” adding the quest aspect to the Western genre.
The film was shot in Central Oregon, in the Ochoco National Forest. It opened up December 31st in the studio’s hometown of Prineville, OR at the Pine Theater to a full house.
Making a film set in 1900 certainly has its challenges; Dunaway talked about having to find costumes that reflected the time period and having to be very precise with camera positioning to avoid showing anything contemporary. Horses were also used for the first time in one of their films. All shots involving the horses were filmed in one day, and the actors had to be trained the same day as filming. Dunaway says the use of horses adds a lot to the realism of the Western genre, since they’re so important in both classic and contemporary Western films.
“I’m inspired by classic westerns, is the most general way to put it,” Dunaway said, listing “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” and “True Grit” as key inspirations.
As a director, Dunaway said that he’s “influenced by the Coen Brothers’ command of the grammar of filmmaking without heavy camera work.”
Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg are also inspirations, as well as John Ford, who Dunaway said defines what the Western genre is.
Dunaway started writing “Misfortune County” in Feb. 2015. In writing, a lot of inspiration for the character’s dialogue was taken from Western novels, as well as the works of Mark Twain.
“Writing was very enjoyable. I like to build a good story,” Dunaway said.
As this is Body in the Window Seat’s third film, Dunaway talked about some differences in directing.
“For this film, I was able to choose actors who I knew would memorize the lines, so in that sense it was easier to direct the actors and I could spend more time with the actual camera work,” he said.
Dunaway also noted that the studio was much more professional and efficient in the film’s production; he was able to take more time with each shot, and production, which took a total of 20 days, was easily the most enjoyable part of making the film.
Also, technical improvements helped in a very direct way: “Misfortune County” is the studio’s first film where the audio and video were recorded completely separately.
“Misfortune County” takes place in a very different time period, a time that Dunaway says is romanticized in Western movies.
“There’s a character in the film named P.W. Foster who comes to Oregon from Philadelphia and expects the west to be full of adventure, but what he finds is a more realistic west; but at the same time we wanted to embrace the Western genre,” said Dunaway.
Dunaway also commented that the film doesn’t celebrate main character Lady Vengeance’s ways, and that she could never be an assassin if not for the lawlessness of the time period.
As a director, there are some stylistic elements that Dunaway loves to put in his films. All three of Body in the Window Seat’s films feature dream sequences and take place in Oregon. Dunaway likes to express hopefulness with his films, the idea that no one is stuck as who they are. With the characters, Dunaway said that he likes to nod to movies he likes in his films, particularly with the names of his characters, giving them names from other movies or the names of actors.
Darien Campo served as the sound designer for the film. All of the music in the film was original, but it was sparse, taking inspiration from “No Country for Old Men” in that sense. Dunaway described the music as subtle, that it is sort of following. The film’s music is orchestral in nature, also a first for the studio.
Body in the Window Seat is currently in production of their fourth film, a mystery-comedy called “Todd Got Clobbered” directed by Darien Campo. “Todd Got Clobbered” will be filmed on Western Oregon University’s campus.
You can catch Body in the Window Seat’s showing of “Misfortune County” starring Paige Scofield, Burke De Boer, and Jim Churchill-Dicks on Jan. 29 in Hamersley Library room 106. The showing is free and starts at 6 p.m.
