Michelle Kaffko

Chicago director/cinematographer Michelle Kaffko muses on her love of chocolate chip cookies and blues harmonica...



Chief Magazine: How did you first get into film?

Michelle Kaffko: Well, I did a lot of photography in high school, though not officially. I could never get into the classes, they always seemed to fill up very quickly, but I knew the photography teacher, one of those total classic photo teachers with the gray haired ponytail and he'd show me stuff and let me into the darkroom to work...

Hey, my photography teacher had a ponytail, too.

Yeah, I think they all did...

[Laughs]

...So I was into photography and fooled around a lot on my dad's video camera, which I eventually broke and which he likes to bring up often. But I seriously got into film in college, my dad made me go, it's not that I didn't want to go, I just didn't know what I wanted to do and thought it'd be a waste of money.

You didn't know what you wanted?

Not at all. I was taking a class in meteorology, I don't know what I was thinking, I thought I'd be a meteorologist or a weatherman or a doctor and I ended up taking cinema studies and I really loved it. I had a background in photography and thought I wanted to try filmmaking but the school was in the midst of getting rid of the cinema program due to lack of funding and when it came time to declare my major I chose cinema studies, the theory and history of film, the psychology of film basically.

And your hands on experience?

I used 8mm in some classes in college and actually own and use a 16mm camera now. I just did it myself. I read a lot about filmmaking in books and magazines and worked on indie films learning everything by just doing it and making mistakes along the way.

Tell me about your short film Nice Threads.

I felt like a lot of local indie films in Chicago were too much the same. They were all using their apartments as sets and their friends as characters. They were using issues that are relevant, that we deal with daily, which is how we communicate to each other as filmmakers, but they were only writing about what they knew. I wanted to try writing about something I didn't know anything about.

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What's the premise?

Well, it's a story about this older Japanese shop owner who after his wife dies tries fitting in with a group of neighborhood thugs. After they accept him into there gang he visits his wife's grave and her spirit, which he still communicates with, disapproves of his new choice in friends.

Sounds pretty weird.

I know... and I swear I don't do drugs.

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Where'd that story come from?

I was on a brown line platform waiting for the train and there was this guy, an older Asian man waiting too and he was wearing a hoodie. His hood was up and he zipped it up all the way and had his hands mashed into the pockets and I thought if I saw that really quickly or at a weird angle he looked like a total thug. You know how they stretch their pockets down like that?

Yeah.

And I thought about what kind of situation an older traditional Japanese man might join a gang of thugs. Like would they accept him or what?

Still pretty weird.

I know. But after talking with a friend who grew up on the south side I realized I had it all wrong. He said in the neighborhoods where he grew up the Asian or Pakistani shop owners always knew the kids in the area. They knew them by name and what school they went to and would hang out and talk with them and I thought that was so weird. The idea of this old Pakistani hanging out and talking with little African American kids was just foreign to me. And basically that's where I got the idea for the end of my film. The old man ends up taking two younger thugs home and showing them how to do origami and so there's an exchange of cultures going on. I didn't really want to make a statement about subcultures but the film kind of says that in order to be accepted into a subculture there's got be reciprocity.  

Did you recognize that theme towards the end or was it always inherent in the idea?

Yeah, I knew when I started writing. I really wanted to plan it out, have a hell of a lot of preproduction and I knew if I went the wrong way I'd be saying something I didn't want to say. At the same time I also didn't want to say anything in particular. I wanted to make sure the film was still pretty open so people could take what they wanted from it. I tried to maintain just enough control to keep everything focused.

So this was your first serious endeavor.

Yeah, it feels like it. It was the most expensive and there were a lot of people involved.

What did you enjoy most about the process? Or what do you see yourself doing more of?

I don't think I'm confident enough to direct really. I can manage people, but to get them all into one specific vision is difficult. I don't think I necessarily failed with Nice Threads but a better director could have done it more justice. One thing that everyone has consistently commented on is that the camera work and lighting was of such higher quality than most indie films and I really focused on that. I put a lot of time aside and gave my gaffer even more time if necessary to get what I wanted and to get it perfect. so that's definitely where I'd rather be, doing the cinematography, taking a director's vision, talking about what he or she wants visually and the mood or feeling they're after and translating that to film.

I hear you play blues harmonica.

That's right.

How long have you been playing?  

About two years

Oh, not that long.

No.

How'd you get into that? Are you a big blues fan?

Not anymore than the average person. And I can't really even remember why, like maybe I found a flyer or something. I'm not a musician per se.

You don't play anything else?

No, but I love music and I like being the center of attention so I always wanted to play something. Anyway, I just remember seeing something that said "blues harmonica - level one" and thinking harmonicas are cheap, I'll give it a try... and I really liked it.

[Laughs] Really? That was it?

Yeah, that was it. I didn't have a dead grandfather calling to me from the grave to play harmonica. I don't know. I picked it up and it was just really natural. It's perfect for me actually because music theory is just way over my head and I'll never understand it but any good blues player if you ask them to write something down or ask what key they're in will be like, "Fuck you, just play!"

Right, totally.

Yeah, it's the perfect instrument for the non musician. You just feel it. And I'm still convinced I'm at least partially tone deaf so...

[Laughs]

Seriously, it makes it tough for me to hear all the notes I'm playing. That's another cool thing about the harmonica. People think it only has so many notes but you can bend the shit out of a lot of notes, too, making for many possibilities when it comes to what's possible to play. And people have made it out to be as significant as guitar, just a really serious instrument. Some of the dudes I hang out with are very serious about their harmonica.

Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?

Well, I've always said that someday before I die I'd like to be invited to the American Society of Cinematographers but as I learn more and get to know myself better I realize that it's great to have goals but the best works of art I've created, if I've created any works of art, I've done just because they felt right. I mean, I just found the harmonica. it turned out to be the perfect instrument for me and who would've thought? So I don't know where I want to be in ten years but right now I kind of like the idea of just living for the moment... if  I were a burner I'd say something like that.

[laughs]

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Does that make sense? I like to have goals, they keep me focused but sometimes they make me neurotic and I don't want that either. So I'd like to join the ASC in 10 or 20 or 50 years but I'd also like to be a blues musician or the next Annie Liebowitz or whatever. Maybe a photojournalist. There're a lot of options out there but if you put too much pressure on one you might be missing a whole bunch of other shit. I tried tap dancing once. I didn't like it very much. And I'm glad I didn't stick with it because maybe I wouldn't have found harmonica.

What's your favorite food?

Chocolate chip cookies.

That's so simple.

No, no, no. Awwww, man... it is a world of awesome. I don't know what it is... A big ol' chocolate chip cookie is like my everything, my soul. I know I'm gonna make myself diabetic eventually. I have to have a steady stream of chocolate chip cookies in my blood stream at all times.

[Laughs]

No. Seriously, I'm not even fucking with you. I have some here in my purse...

Websites

www.findmichelle.com
www.nicethreadsfilm.com
www.organicheadshots.com

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