I was on Letterboxd when I stumbled across a comment on my review for Pawn Sacrifice (2014). It was this mutual who told me he'd made a movie and wanted me to give it an honest review. Alas, I took that proverbial red pill and dove into that rabbit hole.
The film is called Florida Man, written and directed by David Sigura, a 27-year-old New Jersey native who's worked in films in front and behind the camera. Even though this film is on the low-end spectrum of low budget, just the fact that someone went out and made a movie, and made it happen, is worthy of some deserved applause. That's how we end up here. Director/writer/lead actor of Florida Man David Sigura talked to For Films' Sake about his journey to get that movie made and released.
FFS: Without going into a formulaic synopsis mode here, what is Florida Man about?
DS: (Laughs) If there's anything that the movie isn't, it's formulaic. Florida Man is a selfish movie. I mean that seriously. It's one of those "filmmaker exorcises his demons" films that we all love to hate. Why I decided to make a type of film I myself don't always vibe with, I don't know. But I believe I treated it as a sort of therapy. As such, it became very personal. The movie is about a wishy-washy main character who talks a lot but hardly accomplishes anything. They succumb to their environment and like to point fingers. This isn't a character that's particularly easy to root for - which is on purpose. I don't even like him, because to me, he represents the qualities of myself I could do without. What I tried to capture was a deeper sense of hurt that while we're not exactly rooting for this guy, we can at least feel what's going on underneath the surface. And we can hope that he pulls himself out of it, stops blaming the people around him, and starts accepting that things won't always be perfect, but that's okay. That's what Florida Man is about - a man-child caught between a stage of adulthood that feels non-adult, and the trials he experiences because of it.
FFS: It certainly felt like that with the Danny character, who seemed to just drift through life, with no regard for immediate consequences. Would you say that's an accurate assumption?
DS: Definitely! He floats atop the water, too scared to dive in, too apprehensive to paddle out. Just drifting.
FFS: What was the proverbial spark that triggered you into going through with this movie?
DS: Shit, was there one? I'm not sure there was. It was the summer of 2019, Sal (Frederick, Director of Photography) and I had finished submitting our short to festivals, and I guess I was just looking to continue the process of making something. I think I had said in my acting class at the beginning of the year that I wanted to write a feature film. And once the opportunity opened up to shoot in Florida because I had access to these locations, the reality that if I wrote something it could ACTUALLY HAPPEN set in. I think that's what spurred me on - I'm much more likely to write if it's for a project with a realistic chance of happening, rather than a dream scenario of a $100 million blockbuster that's years away, if at all.
FFS: I'd be remiss if I didn't ask: For risk of sounding redundant, but would you say that a $100 million budget/studio-backed project is something you aspire to achieve someday?
DS: Who WOULDN'T want that? At least once. It's a whole new opportunity in the film scape. I think the trials of undergoing that type of project - preserving the artistic vision while simultaneously trying to appease producers and investors with a marketable movie - would toughen any filmmaker up. Of course, the experience isn't always a fond one. It hasn't seemed to have been a kind experience to some of my influences, who got their one big movie and then retreated to the smaller stuff.
FFS: Which was your favorite scene to film?
DS: Definitely the old person scenes. I've been doing an old person shtick since I was 6 years old and getting to bring it to life with Jamie (Molina) was fantastic fun. There was some disruption, as one of the neighbors didn't like the fact that we were filming on her street and tried to make as much noise by shouting things and vacuuming really loudly to ruin our shots, but we somehow managed to push through it!
FFS: That sounds like a vice of such a small production! You can't close down a street or anything like that. Is there anything else that you had to deal with when filming other scenes?
DS: Nor would I want to, I honestly dislike when productions close down streets and make life so inconvenient for everyone around them as if their production is so much more important. I liked hearing from Safdie Bros. that they just filmed in the middle of busy New York streets making Uncut Gems and real people would get in the shots just out of happenstance.
We had to be cautious of the weather - we had our night scene in the palm tree field scheduled for one night only, and we had a generator and lights and all this electrical equipment. I can't imagine what would have happened had it rained. Luckily, it didn't, so I didn't have to find out, but it rained every other night that week!
There were also scheduling issues. Jamie had a family event to attend earlier than planned, Chris (Game) was coming off shooting Regina King's One Night...In Miami, I had to switch around entire schedules and shooting days to accommodate that.
Of course, because it's such a small production and pay is small, I felt it right to accommodate their schedule, not the other way around.
FFS: You said in your Letterboxd promotion that you were meaner to this movie than anyone reviewing it could ever be. Why is that?
DS: Well, judging from one recent review that put the movie on their "trash movie list", looks like I spoke too soon (Laughs). Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with my work, and it's hard to separate the bias. In the last two years since filming I've definitely been improving my craft. I've been on more productions, assumed different roles, and have learned a ton. So you look back at all your earlier mistakes, knowing better now, and think "goddammit." Of course, you have to start SOMEwhere, and I wouldn't grow as a filmmaker without doing and learning from it. But there are specific things I see in the movie that I find myself critiquing. I wish I hadn't fucked up the general audio quality, for one. I wish I had made the movie more of a two-hander and fleshed out the character of Rachel more, instead of her serving as more of a conduit for Danny's feelings. So I've definitely put the movie, and myself, through the wringer. As such, anyone else's opinions on the film become data that I learn from, but I don't want people to sugarcoat what they think, even if I don't necessarily agree with them.
I have a very supportive community around me, and many many people congratulated me on the film, but I can usually tell after they watch the film if they were genuinely into it or if it wasn't for them. I think I had about a 50/50 split at my premiere screening, which is cool! But I definitely like gathering strangers' opinions, because they don't have the context of knowing me OR the desire to not hurt my feelings.
FFS: What's next on the docket?
DS: Good question. I worked on a documentary called Gaming Wall Street in late 2021/early 2022 as a story editor. It came out on HBO Max and was a really fulfilling experience that piqued my interest in documentary filmmaking. I then watched a really cool, stripped-back doc called Hands on a Hardbody that documents a contest in Texas in 1995 where contestants try to win a truck by keeping one hand on it longer than anyone else. It was such a simple, human story about perseverance and a really cool look at Americana at a certain time. It's also something that can be achieved with minimal crew and gear - so I think I'm going to look into telling some stories in that format. I'm working with a band from Germany in about a week on a project and will try to film some interviews while we're together and hope to get in on their story before they blow up big.
Florida Man is available on YouTube: Trailer || Full Movie
David Sigura can be found on Instagram (@david_sigura) and on www.davidsigura.com.
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