James Bond and Pepperdine have something in common: both were inspirations for two 2002 alumni-turned-filmmakers Nichlas Mah and Will Johnson.
Their film “Sobaka released on DVD in December 2008, is inspired by a character who has a small” role in “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974).
“The original idea came from a James Bond movie that I saw said Johnson, who produced the movie. There is an assassin who has a midget assistant and I remember thinking ‘What if the assistant was to kill the assassin and take over his life … No one would ever miss him.'”
The story separates itself from its secret agent roots and instead follows the life of a Russian immigrant struggling to realize his American dream. A series of unfortunate events with a little help from a call girl leads him down a dangerous path into the world of assassination and deceit.
“The word ‘sobaka’ translated from Russian means ‘dog’ – so it’s this idea of an obedient servant said Mah, who directed the movie. He doesn’t really think things out and only has a shallow grasp of what is going on around him.”
Sales of the feature-length film have recently increased but are still not as substantial as the filmmakers would like. Although the movie marks Johnson and Mah’s first completed cinematic project their interest in filmmaking dates back a decade.
“I’ve been involved with the arts forever Mah said. Films are writing; they are visual and they structure the story in a way that moves an audience over time. This project is one of the first things I felt 100 percent [confident] about.”
However the excitement Mah exudes for his future as a filmmaker is not quite shared by Johnson. While Mah graduated from Pepperdine as a studio art major Johnson who wrote the film left with a degree in economics and a creative writing minor. He now struggles to fit both his interest in filmmaking and his talent for numbers into his daily life.
“Actually my final project for my screenwriting class was to write a screenplay and that is what drove me toward this a little bit Johnson said. Nick is more focused on making this his career than I am. I feel like right now I am more gifted at what I do which is finance.”
Most of the cast and crew during had to balance several other jobs during the three-month production. The budget was kept to a minimum at $90 leaving little wiggle room for changes or even abiding by the law.
“Cops are very aware of what filmmaking looks like in Los Angeles and we didn’t exactly go the route of getting permission to film Mah said. We got followed a couple times especially with our driving scenes. When that happened we just shut the cameras off and slowed down until they left.”
Post-production was another point of stress for the movie-making duo. A full nine months after shutting off the cameras the film’s soundtrack and score were finalized. And unfortunately according to Johnson by that point the movie had lost much of its momentum.
“Post-production was terrible because as a producer I was by default the bad guy Johnson said. I had to say ‘no’ to budget costs and inform [the cast and crew] about time constraints. I had a couple conflicts with the actors because of it but overall it turned out fine.”
The film has yet to be deemed a success in the sales department but Mah and Johnson remain hopefully realistic at the same time about its future. So far they have taken no steps toward paid advertisement which they attribute to their lack of experience in marketing. While overcoming the obstacles inherent with taking on the production of a feature-length film Johnson said he now has advice for those looking to break into the industry.
“Drink lots of tea Johnson said. My advice would be to get started as young as you can and just make the movies. It all starts with a script – you learn so much during the process and it is a lot cheaper than film school.”