At 7 p.m, Saturday, April 11th, 16-year-old Cape Cod filmmaker Jaiden van Bork will premiere her new mockumentary, Not Quite Late Night, a film that came together with a limited budget from donations and the hard work of a large cast and crew of teenagers on Cape Cod. Shot last year in various towns on Cape Cod, the film was supposed to have a live premiere, complete with red carpet and more. Alas, the coronavirus has stopped film premieres all over the world. Luckily, Jaiden is premiering the film on youTube tonight. The screening is free, but there will be a virtual tip jar to raise money they would have made at a live screening, which will go towards future film projects.
Check out the trailer:
She took a few minutes to answer my questions just a few hours before the film’s virtual premiere.
Where did the idea for Not Quite Late Night come from?
Well, I think originally I had just been watching a lot of late night talk shows like Stephen Colbert and stuff. I was just oddly fascinated with the idea of a talk show host, and I decided that was something I wanted to parody. I mean, you have to imagine that someone who does that kind of thing, has to have a MASSIVE fucking ego. And so I started working on this character who was sort of a failure of a talk show host because I thought that would be funny. I think a lot of inspiration also came from my own failures in other creative endeavors and just feeling kind of like nothing was working out. So I think in a way, I wrote Not Quite Late Night as a way to sort of laugh at my own failures.
How long did this project take from when you first wrote the script through completion of the final cut?
So, I actually had the idea back in spring of 2018. I pitched it to my friends Horatio Cordero (who ended up becoming my co-producer) and Wyatt Falk (who stars in the film as Jeffrey Roberts). They were immediately super excited about it, and we essentially started trying to simultaneously write and shoot this web series centered around this character. However, that didn’t really work out—it just wasn’t that funny or anything. So I sorta went back to the drawing board for the next 9 months or so and ended up accidentally writing this 45-page script in the winter of 2019. From there we started bringing on more people, and then we shot everything that summer pretty much. Then Horatio and I ended up working on editing right up until a little over a month ago. So yeah, it’s been a wild ride.
What was the most challenging scene to film and why?
I’m not sure, honestly. I think a lot of this was stuff none of us had ever tried before, so it was hard to just sorta figure out what we were doing. We shot a lot of stuff in the Punkhorn Parklands [in Brewster], though, and that was really difficult because you’re dealing with these uncontrollable natural elements, which are just frustrating.
You were involved in the film as a writer, a director, a producer, and an actor. Which role was the absolute worst, and why?
I think I really hated acting the most. I’m not really a good actor, and I think I’m very self-conscious of my acting ability. So I didn’t really like that. I mean, I think acting is fun and all, but I won’t be casting myself in that many roles in the future.
What do you hope audiences get from watching this film?
Oh jeez… I mean, I think that maybe people will think it’s funny, I guess. Like, if anything, I hope I can maybe numb the pain for someone for like thirty minutes. I’m not gonna pretend like it’s a particularly deep film or anything, but I hope that it can allow anyone who watches to just relax for a minute and accept the absurdity of the world.
What’s your next film project going to be?
I’ve got a few things in the works right now, actually. Going forward, I’m going to be working with a lot of the same people to make new stuff. Specifically, I’ve got a script I’ve written for a new short that I’m going to be working on with Horatio Cordero, who co-produced this film, and Clementine Valtz who I’ve worked with on some other things in the past. So we’re gonna be casting and stuff for that shortly. But I encourage everyone to donate to the sort of “virtual tip jar” we have for Jaiden van Bork Productions because we really love doing this stuff and we just want to keep making shit for people to enjoy–It’s really our passion. But y’know… stay tuned.
Not Quite Late Night premieres Saturday, April 11 at 7 p.m. here on youTube. To contribute to future film projects by Jaiden van Bork, click on the link in the youtube description or click here at any time.
The Cape Cod Film Society 