Filmmaker Dan Abramovici: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Filmmaking

…Don’t be afraid of networking. Apparently, that’s how things happen. I can’t tell you the number of events surrounding festivals or whatever that I didn’t go to because of some social anxiety. I don’t like being in large groups or talking to people I don’t know. Or I’d go and just stand by the cheese platter, waiting until it was socially acceptable to leave. But you have a lot more fun, and this applies both professionally and in life, when you say yes to things, introduce yourself, and try to make human connections…

I had the pleasure of talking with Dan Abramovici. Dan, a Canadian actor and filmmaker, has built a career that delves deeply into stories that question identity and explore life on the spectrum. Graduating from the Canadian Film Centre’s prestigious Actor Conservatory, Abramovici quickly made his mark in the industry with his first feature film, Ben’s At Home. The film not only showcased his talents as both a writer and actor but also garnered numerous awards, including Best Feature at the Canadian Film Festival, an Audience Choice award at Gasparilla, and a Canadian Comedy Award. After a successful theatrical run in Canada, the film found a wider audience on Netflix in 2017.

Following the success of Ben’s At Home, Abramovici continued to develop his craft. His next feature script, You Have Feet In Your Shoes, was recognized at Cinequest, earning a Top 10 award and receiving mentorship from industry legends like Laurence Kasdan and Dennis Lehane. This script solidified his reputation as a screenwriter of note.

Abramovici’s directorial work also began to gain traction. His short film liminal won Best Short awards at the Canadian Film Fest and Snowdance International Film Festival, as well as an Honorable Mention at the Oscar-qualifying Dances With Films Festival. It was featured at several Academy Qualifying festivals, including HollyShorts, Dublin, Newport Beach, BendFilm, and Raindance, showcasing his ability to create compelling short-form content.

In 2021, Abramovici directed Play It Again, an LGBTQ+ comedy that premiered at the Austin International Film Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Short, qualifying it for Academy consideration. This film further cemented his place as a filmmaker capable of tackling diverse genres and themes with sensitivity and insight.

Looking ahead, Abramovici’s upcoming project, SPACEMAN, set to release in 2024, promises to be another intriguing entry in his oeuvre. The surrealist short stars Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons and Mena Massoud, and serves as a proof of concept for his upcoming feature film Searching for Marceau, which is currently in development. The script for Searching for Marceau is highly regarded, ranking in the top 1% of Dramatic Features on Coverfly, and has been a finalist in several prestigious competitions, including Shore Scripts, Slamdance, and Austin. It is currently a Nicholl’s quarter finalist.

Abramovici’s personal journey from immigrant to acclaimed filmmaker is reflected in his work, often exploring themes of identity and self-discovery. His experience of moving to Canada as a teenager, grappling with cultural integration and self-identity, informs his storytelling approach, which frequently employs a surrealist lens to examine complex human experiences.

His acting career continues to thrive alongside his filmmaking. Abramovici has appeared in high-profile projects such as Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, HBO’s Jane, FX’s What We Do In The Shadows, and CBS’s Star Trek Discovery. These roles complement his filmmaking, allowing him to maintain a multifaceted presence in the industry.

Abramovici’s early experiences with film and television were formative, providing not only a means to learn English but also a way to connect with others and navigate his new environment. This background has deeply influenced his artistic vision, driving him to create stories that resonate on a personal level while addressing broader societal themes.

As a filmmaker, Abramovici has learned valuable lessons from his journey, particularly the importance of adaptability in the creative process. His commitment to collaboration and openness to evolving his vision during production have been crucial to his success. This approach is evident in his work, which often features seamless integration of various artistic elements to create a cohesive and engaging narrative.

Dan Abramovici’s career is a testament to the power of storytelling in exploring and understanding identity. His films, marked by their emotional depth and innovative storytelling techniques, continue to attract critical acclaim and audience appreciation. With several exciting projects on the horizon, including the highly anticipated Searching for Marceau, Abramovici is poised to further cement his place as a significant voice in contemporary cinema.

Yitzi: Dan, it’s a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?

Dan: Well, I immigrated to Canada as a teenager. I was in the fifth grade, didn’t speak a word of English, and stories on film and TV were how I learned the language and connected with people. I was one of those kids you see in movies, obsessed with movies, just sitting in front of the TV and thinking, “OK, they get me. I’m understood.” Shows like Freaks and Geeks and Animaniacs — I would do voices and impressions and get positive attention at school, which meant I got my first set of friends.

I started off as an actor because that, for me, was the way into this magical world of storytelling. I worked as an actor for a bit and, as my day job, I got trained as a photographer. Then I enrolled into The Second City, and started doing improv and sketch comedy. I loved it, but I started to get frustrated at how the sketch would be done when we stepped offstage… So I started to film some of those ideas.

The first couple of things I shot were short comedy sketches that I would act in. A couple of years ago, out of the blue, we got this opportunity — just a confluence of a little bit of money but a lot of people willing to donate their time and energy to make an independent feature that I co-wrote and starred in (my co-writer directed it), called Ben’s at Home. It was a single location mumblecore-type film, definitely owing a debt of gratitude to Mark Duplass’s “The Cavalry’s Not Coming” speech from SXSW. We didn’t think it would go anywhere, but it ended up playing some great festivals, won a Canadian Comedy Award, got distribution, and was on Netflix in America and Canada for a couple of years.

I loved that whole process. I loved the challenge of trying to make something beautiful on a shoestring budget. I loved the team aspect. Having a Jewish writer’s physique meant that I didn’t play a lot of sports as a teen, so I love the sense of team that comes with being on set. It’s a true collaboration, “best idea wins”, and I love that.

Making our second feature turned out to be a lot more difficult because we went from doing a shoestring, put-it-on-a-credit-card film to something more ambitious. All of a sudden, money and business came into play, and it didn’t really end up going anywhere. My way to recover from that, and the path I’m on now is, writing and directing my own films. I found my voice with a short called Liminal that played at Raindance and HollyShorts over COVID. Then I directed a short film called Play It Again, which won the Jury Award at the Austin International Film Festival. Now I have Spaceman, which is going to play at HollyShorts. After this there are two more short films, LEOPARD and Heirlooms, and then… We shall see.

The idea is to move into writing/directing features, and also to direct other people’s stories. I would love to try my hand at TV as well.

Spaceman and Liminal are both standalone films with standalone stories, but they’re also proof of concept for a larger story called Searching for Marceau that we’re hoping to make in the next couple years.

Yitzi: You probably have some fascinating stories from all the people that you’ve met and all the sets that you’ve been on. Can you share with our readers one or two of your favorite memories, favorite anecdotes from your professional life?

Dan: Well, a recent one came from making this short film, Spaceman. I was born in a very polite Jewish household, and then we moved to Canada, which made us exponentially more polite. I don’t like to bother people. We had a rough cut of Spaceman, and it’s about this guy who decides today is the day he needs to stop. His quest is so unlikely — he wants to be a professional mime. Who wants a mime today? But for him, this is important. So today, he’s decided to give it up.

In the story of Spaceman, his subconscious comes to life. His id, his ego come to life and push him into his subconscious, into this Alice in Wonderland sort of journey into the heart of the jungle. What’s the proper way of saying it? Heart of darkness. Dive into the cave to retrieve the thing to come out. Along the way, the forces he’s battling are all his psyche — his father’s voice in his head, the voice of doubt, the voice of reason. We thought, man, it would be so great if we could get… If I could get anybody, who would be the perfect voice for that with the right oomph? Never mind a name. Of course, that’s nice. But who would be the best? And Whiplash is one of my all-time favorite movies. I was like, if we can get J.K. Simmons, but we’re not going to get J.K. Simmons.

Well, it just so happened that because the previous film played at Raindance and was liked there, we ended up getting some sort of access to J.K. Simmons’ people. The whole way through, I’m like, we shouldn’t even bother asking because the thought of this stranger being even slightly annoyed with me at the other side of the world — I couldn’t live with that. I respect him too much. But he said yes. And not just that, but three days later, I got an email with a selection of different performances, different reads for different things that I needed. Then I was like, man, this is incredible. Except could I maybe give direction on this one line? But who am I to ask? J.K. is probably busy. The next day, I got new reads from him for that line.

That was incredible. Emboldened by that, when you’re working on an edit, you often have in the timeline a reference track. Maybe it’s a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross piece because it seems like every movie has music by them now. Or it could be something by Hans Zimmer. As the composers work on it, they take that away and replace it with their music that matches the feeling and style you want, giving it that flavor you like plus something extra.

For the last track in Spaceman, I had used a song by my all-time favorite artist, Thom Yorke from Radiohead and The Smile. Ever since I was a kid, he was my North Star — what an artist should be and how an artist should evolve with each work while keeping my interest. Unlike many bands I listened to in the ’90s or 2000s, where I only go back to them occasionally, Thom Yorke has always been my guiding light. We couldn’t swap out that song with anything else.

So, once again, I reached out to his management. They said it would cost $20,000 to use the song, which was half of our total movie budget. Emboldened by what happened with Mr. Simmons, I wrote a very earnest, heartfelt letter explaining how perfect the song was for the film. Long story still long, we waited six months for The Smile to pause touring so they could watch the film. Then we got an email from their manager saying, “the boys said you can have the song.”

So, that was some incredible, fortunate stuff that happened with this movie. I have plenty of stories from being on sets and learning things, but those two are very relevant to Spaceman because it’s been so much work, joy, and luck getting it here, even though it’s just a 12-minute short.

Hopefully, it’ll be like the pilot of a huge series. The hope is that this is very much like Whiplash, right? Whiplash started as a short film by Damien Chazelle that starred J.K. Simmons, and now it’s considered one of the best movies ever. My hope is that people will love this little short and want to see what else we can do.

Yitzi: I didn’t realize that shorts are used as proofs of concepts, as pilots. I didn’t realize that.

Dan: Yeah, not all the time, but sometimes. Sling Blade is another famous example, the Billy Bob Thornton movie. They did a short called This is a Sling Blade. I want to use shorts to grow and explore and expand my cinematic language as a writer-director, but also to build towards a bigger project.

Yitzi: Do you make money just doing shorts?

Dan: No, no, no. I’ve not made money doing shorts. I mean, now with shorts, there are some very successful ones that are the passion projects of people with big names, and they can get big grants. All the money we raised is on screen. A lot of people put in time and love. Everybody got paid a day rate, but because it’s my baby, I’ll be the first to give up my fee so we can have maybe an extra half a day, an extra camera, or better lighting. At the end of the day, that’s my heart and soul.

Yitzi: Amazing. It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story of a humorous mistake that you made when you were first starting filmmaking and the lesson that you learned from it?

Dan: Yeah, with my first film where I think I really kind of found my voice, Liminal, I really wanted it to feel like a completely seamless shot. I wanted it to be not a oner but have this very dreamlike flow. So I fought to include as much single tracking shot stuff as I could. I very quickly realized in the edit that it sure is nice to have coverage. It sure is nice to have other things to cut to just to make sure that it’s not too much of a mess.

I learned that in filmmaking, like somebody else said, a film gets written three times. Once by the screenwriter, once on set when you’re dealing with all the limitations and opportunities the day throws at you, and then again in the edit. I think it’s important to set yourself up in such a way where you have a very clear vision, but also have backup plans and backup plans for the backup plans.

Yitzi: So, Dan, you have so much impressive work. Share with us the exciting projects that you’re working on now. Tell us more about Spaceman. Tell us why we have to watch it. And where do you see yourself heading after this?

Dan: Thanks. Well, I got very excited watching films growing up by Baz Luhrmann and Michel Gondry, directors who did a lot of magic in-camera and also looked back to classic-era Hollywood — like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and the great musicals from the ’50s and ’60s like Cover Girl. I’m very excited with Spaceman, Searching for Marcel, and some of my other work to bring back that sort of classic Hollywood theatricality and handmade visual effects into the modern age. I want to tell fantastic stories that are heartfelt and grounded.

That’s at the heart of Spaceman. It’s a throwback with a mishmash of styles. Then there’s Searching for Marcel, the feature I’ve written and we’re looking to develop. I see it as structurally similar to an old musical, like An American in Paris or Cover Girl, but instead of detours into song and dance, we highlight lesser-known art forms like mime, clown, puppetry, and circus. It can’t just be Damien Chazelle and Baz Luhrmann doing it. There’s plenty of room in the sandbox, and I’m excited to craft some weird, odd castles for people to enjoy. Woof that metaphor really got away from me there.

Yitzi: I read that you like to explore stories that question identity and explore life on the spectrum. What does that mean by “life on the spectrum”? And what is it that draws you to those themes?

Dan: I think it’s just growing up as an arty weirdo in a conservative household. Moving to Canada, living between cultures, and not understanding the language. I had to figure out what my mask is, how to make it fit comfortably, and when to take it off.

Yitzi: That’s great. How do you think these experiences, exploring these stories and developing them, have contributed to your own personal growth and your own understanding of your identity?

Dan: I think something I always struggled with, and I’m sure a lot of people do, is that people put a lot of stock in the destination, not in the journey. Growing up in a more traditional household, you put certain expectations on yourself. I’m an indie filmmaker with paychecks that come in very irregularly, but I love what I do when I’m doing it.

I’ve been writing these stories about young people have to learn to love who they are, and find joy in the journey. I think, and hope, that some of that sank into my own consciousness and is helping me with my own mental health, and imposter syndrome.

Yitzi: This segues to the next question. Everyone struggles with this, particularly artists and probably filmmakers, who have both the benefits and challenges of critical reception. How do you deal with negative and positive critical reception? How does it influence your future projects moving forward?

Dan: It’s practice, like anything. I think I’ve built up a bit of a tougher skin being an actor because every audition is like a job interview. If most people went on a few job interviews and didn’t get the job, they’d be like, “I’m done,” but that’s not how it works for actors. You get told no for any reason — from not being good enough to just not fitting the part, even down to things like “we don’t like your face,” “you’re too tall,” “ too old”, “too young”, or “actually the producer’s nephew is gonna play this part”. You can’t take it personal.

With my films it’s somehow more difficult, because my films really feel like they’re my babies. You set these brass rings, but then you realize that the people who program too have a million things to consider, and at the end of the day it’s a matter of taste. Still, it can be hard. I never got into TIFF, and as a kid I remember my grandmother taking me there and we would watch movies that were wayyy inappropriate for my age. It’s a part of how I fell in love with cinema. Some of that romanticism keeps you vibrant and hungry, but it can also hurt. And the same thing goes with putting a set of expectations on it, like “oh if this gets into Sundance my career will ____” there’s no guarantees, and maybe you meet your next investor or collaborator not at Sundance, but at Jim’s Movie Basement Extravaganza.

If you can find a community of people whose work and taste you respect, and they like your work, then you’re on the right track. You can’t please everyone. As long as you’re happy with your work and the people you trust can give you honest feedback and incisive notes, that’s all you can ask for. You can’t worry about what the public thinks, what some studio thinks, or what some festival programmer thinks because you have no control over it. It’s hard though.

Yitzi: This is our signature question that we ask in all our interviews. Dan, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success. Now, looking back to when you first started, do you have five things that you know now that you wish somebody had told you when you first started?

Dan:

1. Treat it like a job. Don’t just write when the inspiration hits you. Make time to write and work. Like Stephen King says, punch in and punch out.

2. You’re not special. Nobody’s just going to notice you. You need to work hard and make it happen. Do the work.

3. Reach out to people you respect. Help them. Collaborate. Build a real community.

4. Don’t be afraid of networking. Apparently, that’s how things happen. I can’t tell you the number of events surrounding festivals or whatever that I didn’t go to because of some social anxiety. I don’t like being in large groups or talking to people I don’t know. Or I’d go and just stand by the cheese platter, waiting until it was socially acceptable to leave. But you have a lot more fun, and this applies both professionally and in life, when you say yes to things, introduce yourself, and try to make human connections.

5. Try and do things the right way. Taking shortcuts and trying to game the system will often leave you feeling gross, and won’t lead to great work.

Yitzi: This is our penultimate question. Dan, because of the work that you’re doing, the great work that you’re doing, and the platform that you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Dan: Gosh. Within the film community, I’m often surprised at how divided people are. I’m surprised people don’t reach out to each other more, reaching out to ask for help, or offering help. I’ve been doing more of that in the last couple of years, and I’ve just been amazed at some of the friendships and relationships I’ve been able to make.

For example, going to HollyShorts a few years ago with Liminal, I met Ethan and Serena of Schmeh Films in a Zoom room. This was during COVID. We had a nice chat, and that could have been the end of it. But then I had a draft of something and sent it to them, asking for their thoughts. A couple of months later, they asked me to review something of theirs. Last week, my girlfriend and I, along with Ethan, Serena, and Haley, went to a cottage for a writing retreat here in Toronto. It was their first time in Canada. I met Callie and Chris at the Reno Film Festival, and we’ve stayed in touch and sent each other project, and Chris just cut my director reel.

The best part about film is that it’s so collaborative. So why not put yourself out there and work with other people on their projects? It can only benefit everybody.

Yitzi: This is our last question. This is what we call our matchmaker question, and sometimes it works. Is there a person in the world, in Canada or the US, with whom you’d like to have a power lunch, coffee, or share a beer with? Who could you sit down with and have a coffee with that would be a game-changer for your career trajectory? Because we could tag them on social media. Maybe we could connect you.

Dan: I love writing and directing my own stuff, but would also love to direct other people’s stories as well.. I’d love to connect with people who need help getting their story to the screen. I’m looking for representation right now, and mentorship. So long story long, I don’t know who to tag. Maybe someone from a mentorship program or a lab? Ultimately I am looking to collaborate with producers, writers, and build my community.

My final dinner… Thom Yorke? But it would 100% be like when Troy met Levar Burton on Community. He’d probably be lovely, and then as soon as he looked my way I’d knock myself out running into a wall.

Yitzi: How can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they watch Spaceman? How can they support you? How can they purchase anything that you have to offer that can support your work? How can they support you in any way?

Dan: Well, I’m on Instagram at @danabramovici and my website is www.danabramovici.com. Right now folks can see Spaceman at HollyShorts, and then we hope to get on a streaming platform like Omeletto, Short of The Week, Vimeo Staff Pick, or Nowness.

Yitzi: I think you’re very talented. I think you’re going to be a superstar one day.

Dan: I just want to make good work. And maybe not starve. I’d be happy with that.

Yitzi: It’s such an honor to meet you. I wish you continued success and blessings. I really hope that we can stay in touch.

Dan: Thank you so much.