The Last Dilettante

New York, NY – In addition to being a singer-songwriter, young Spottiswoode is also a writer-director.

His narrative short film, THE GENTLEMAN (co-wrtten and co-directed with Sam Serafy) played the 2000 film festival circuit (Slamdance, BBC, San Francisco…) and then enjoyed a three-year run on the Independent Film Channel.

Shot on super-16mm and projected on 35mm, THE GENTLEMAN is an autobiographical anti-romantic comedy about an Englishman who plays a cruel joke on his Greek hostess at a dinner party in Washington, DC.

The television version includes a soundtrack featuring the band’s music.

Before that, Spottiswoode directed a trilogy of music videos for his former band, The Zimmermans. The collection, Loneliest Woman In The World, earned him two consecutive student Emmies from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He flew to Los Angeles twice to thank the Academy and pick up his award (first from Ed Asner and then from Lisa Kudrow).

“Writing a screenplay and making a movie is remarkably similar to writing songs and making a record,” says the perceptive Brit. “Except it’s even harder and the stakes are a lot higher.”

“While making The Gentleman I discovered that working with actors is very much like working with musicians. You basically have to cast the right players and then, with a little guidance, you simply encourage them to do what they do best.

“If you’ve written the song or the story, you usually think you know what you want. But through the collaborative process it grows into something much larger and more magical.

“By the time you reach post-production (mixing/sequencing for music; editing for film) you are inevitably exhausted and confused. You already feel like you’ve expressed what you wanted to say. Consequently you’ve lost touch with your main motivation for telling the story in the first place. So, it’s a very dark time. There is a huge danger in over-thinking the project at this point and dismissing your original instincts. On the other hand, there are brilliant new choices you can make right at the end that can take your original vision even further. The problem is you have no idea what the right answer is. And you never will. You can second-guess yourself forever.”

Still, Spottiswoode is ready to climb the mountain again. His feature script, THE LONG WALK, is currently in pre-production.