Frankie Latina: Modus Operandi
Frankie Latina is an exciting, fresh filmmaker, a veritable diamond in the rough if I may use that annoying metaphor. Hailing from Milwaukee, WI, (a city I know too well), he came onto the scene with his first feature Modus Operandi, a fun, exhilarating mashup with ’70s swagger mixed with low-budget genius. Set in Milwaukee and featuring a plot with stolen suitcases, CIA burnouts, gunfights, kung fu, and plenty of naked women, it has the fun and energetic spirit that Grindhouse should have showcased. Screening at both Cinevegas and most recently the AFI Fest, the film is a testament to determination over limits so much so that Robert Rodriguez would be proud. Here, Latina discusses the ways in which he pulled this project together and in the process reveals tips that anyone interested in making their own film should take to heart.
IFQ: One thing that I noticed right off the bat about the movie is its fantastic mash-up quality, in terms of both genre and technically, i.e. switching from b&w to color, different film stocks, etc. I’m curious to know how you came upon structuring the film this way aesthetically and if it was a conscious decision to have the visuals mirror the content?
Frankie Latina: Well I hope this doesn’t sound bad. (laughs) but every time I would run out of money I couldn’t afford color film so I would buy black and white film stock instead. But the thing about it was, it wasn’t an aesthetic choice; I just didn’t want to give up on my film and I knew that if I waited around to get more color stock that this might not come to fruition. So I would just buy black and white film and simply deal with the fact that if a particular scene was supposed to be in color it was now going to be in black and white. It’s not the most spectacular answer but it is the truth.
IFQ: Well no, because the constant switching does work here and gives a sort of Oliver Stone-type look to the movie.
FL: It’s funny you said that because I was thinking a lot about Natural Born Killers; a lot of people that saw Modus Operandi in its early stages would ask “How can you keep track of all these different film stocks?” with Super 8mm, 16mm, black and white, color, and then there’s video too in the sequences with the girls being interviewed. For that, I used really old video cameras and ran them through VHS decks to make them look really junky. That was my sort of homage to sex, lies, and videotape and Videodrome. As far as the black and white versus color thing goes, honestly I would prefer the whole thing to be shot on pristine, 35mm color but I had absolutely no money or resources so I just shot on any stock I could get my hands on.
IFQ: I think in the end though it works, because it reminded me of old Beastie Boys videos with that cool, low-fi look and feel, which, I think, wouldn’t come across nearly as well if you had plenty of money and resources to draw from while filming.
FL: I think you’re onto something there, especially when you mention it being lo-fi; I really tried with the movie so that you never see any cell phones, CDs or anything like that. You see instead 8-track players and pay phones, I’m not into anything that’s modern at all. I don’t know if it’s a generational thing where people want to go back to a lot of the old stuff and feel. On one hand, digital is great; I’m not a film snob and I want people to make movies so if they have to shoot on digital that’s great. But I’d just prefer to use regular film and older reel to reel recording devices. I like all those fuzzy, scratchy, pops and noises.
IFQ: I know what you mean, it reminds me of this slight resurgence in vinyl right now where bands will release new albums not just on CD or MP3 but also on records too and sales for those records are slowly picking up. I think it points to a rationale of just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s necessarily always better than what’s come before it.
FL: I think you’re spot-on, the other thing as well is if I’m shooting a scene with someone listening to music, just cinematically if you have a sexy girl who turns her iPod on that’s just like “ok, she’s listening to music, whatever”. But if you have same sexy girl pulling a record out of a sleeve, setting it down on a turntable, dropping the needle on it, hearing and seeing the needle hit the vinyl; it’s just so much more cinematically interesting.
IFQ: Something else I loved was bringing together an exciting genre like the spy film with a location as mundane, at least on the surface, as Milwaukee. I think the juxtaposition between the two is great and I have to ask what made you want to set the story there.
FL: That’s part of the charm of the film I think, because it’s shot in this location which hasn’t been on the map since Laverne and Shirley. The thing about Milwaukee is, and I find this true about a lot of flyover states, filmmakers and other people don’t realize that no matter what city you live in there are all these little back streets there for you to explore and treasure, with all sorts of different buildings and architecture. I really appreciate the city I live in, but I think every city has those attributes and if you search around you can find really good interesting stuff to shoot. I drove around Milwaukee looking for each shot of that film. I just shot all the architecture that nobody there likes and is going to get knocked down to make condos someday. So maybe now it’ll become more of an archival film that will allow people to see Milwaukee the way it was in the 60’s and 70’s before all that history was removed.
IFQ: Going back to the mash-up factor, what specific reference points did you use when coming up with the film’s look and story, any specific movies come to mind that you went back to often?
FL: Oh yeah, well I’m not really like a Syd Field-type writer; plus most of the people in my movie are friends and family so I can’t expect them to handle Glengarry Glen Ross dialogue well. Basically my script wasn’t a conventional one. I bought up my favorite photographer’s books, his name is Helmut Newton, and because they were all so expensive from the bookstore I’d buy one, photocopy my favorite pictures from it, and then return that book to get the money back so I could then buy the next one and so on. I then took all the pictures and would write notes, ideas, dialogue and paste everything into a notebook so each page would have a picture along with accompanying notes and dialogue and that was the script. Of course though there were obviously some sections of a conventional script, like when we were casting Danny Trejo, his agent asked for a script so I had my friend type one up for him because I knew we couldn’t just send over a bundle of photographs to look at (laughs). As far as movies go, the main reference for this movie was Le Samourai. I was also influenced by Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and then just in general, movies that inspired me to make movies myself were John Waters’ Female Trouble, Coffy with Pam Grier, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now, Wes Anderson movies, Kubrick, etc. I couldn’t afford to go film school so I just bought Robert Rodriguez’s book on filmmaking and read that.
IFQ: Looking back on the movie now since you mentioned Waters, I can definitely feel his hand in it since both his early movies and Modus Operandi have that certain charm of being made on little money but finding all sorts of creative ways to overcome that problem and in the end, look more interesting than other movies with bigger budgets.
FL: I appreciate that, well I mean obviously you saw the movie so I ripped off every single director ever; but I didn’t do it in any way to poke fun at them. I did everything with the utmost respect for the films I referenced because if it wasn’t for those guys I wouldn’t have been able to make a film myself. Because as I said I just read that book and worked in a video store so I could rent every single movie I could get my hands on. I guess I was just drunk on film.
IFQ: What was the initial reaction of people when you approached them with this script both in terms of getting talent as well as putting the production together, i.e. getting finance, crew, etc.?
FL: Well I could never really assemble a crew unless there were naked girls on set and then I would get everyone in town, the best cameraman, lighting people, craft services. Having craft service on my set wasn’t even in the realm of possibility normally. If people came to set bearing food it meant that there were topless girls there on that day. Usually 90% of the time it was just me and a cameraman and the talent; I would just bring these really shitty shop lights from the hardware store. You know those big, bright garage lights they have? I would just bring those out of my trunk and turn them on. Because it was Super 8mm too, we would just blast them and not even check the light meter because you need as much light as you can get to produce an exposure. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t paying anyone so they shouldn’t have just shown up for nothing but again, when I’d have a naked girl on set people would come out of the woodwork. They’d call me up and ask me “Oh you need some help this weekend?” or “Hey, I heard you’re doing a pool scene do you need any help with that?” and my response would be “oh yeah, sure”. I mean, I couldn’t say no because I needed the help but it was obvious what they were doing so I think it worked out for everyone.
But when I raised the money for Danny Trejo to do his cameo I got the biggest commercial producer in Milwaukee, this hot shot, to come down. So I now had a real producer on set, there was an actual craft services table with a cook that came so she could meet Danny as well. And all sorts of grips and gaffers and PA’s showed up. There was an assistant to the sound guy, you know what I’m saying? I’m like “what are you talking about? We haven’t shot sound for the entire movie”. I could never afford to because Super 8mm cameras are so loud, so I had to do all the sound afterwards like old Italian films. So then check this out, there was a guy holding the boom, another guy holding the sound recorder, and then there was also assistant taking notes on the takes each time Danny would do a line. And in the old theater we shot Danny in, there was a bathroom there but you had to go get a key and go up an elevator to use it so they had a PA that would take Danny to the bathroom whenever he had to go. It was totally ridiculous. I mean it was all really professional I guess, but I don’t know if I could work in those conditions with all those people. I’m more into a very tight-knit group of people that you can just trust on set.
IFQ: Moving forward, are you interested in doing more movies like Modus Operandi and explore that kind of aesthetic further or do you want to try something entirely different next time out?
FL: Well I’m trying to start up a new project as quickly as possible. I have a few different things that I’ve been pitching to different people, scripts ready to go, but if something doesn’t happen soon I’m going to just go shoot it myself again. I’m not really looking to pigeonhole myself; I’d like to make movies that appeal to large audiences but in my own artistic way, not just bullshit for the sole purpose of playing in multiplexes.
*To learn more about Modus Operandi and Frankie, check out www.frankielatina.com
*Photos courtesy of Modus Operandi