Where did the idea for The Puffy Chair come from?

We started making fun, cheap DV shorts in 2002 after making a string of crappy, overly serious expensive films. The first one, THIS IS JOHN, was in 20 minutes for about $3 (entire cast and crew was me and Jay) and it was our first film to be accepted at Sundance. Once at Sundance, we discovered that feature filmmakers get into much cooler parties and get much better shwag. At that point, we decided to make a feature.

Was this your first attempt at writing a feature? What kinds of
challenges did you face while writing the screenplay?

We've written plenty of features, but they all sucked. Really. A feature film is so hard. I believe that uou have to be really inspired, experienced, and then on top of that you have to get a bit lucky, too.

How did you go about finding funding for the film?

We borrowed $10,000 from our parents. We had seen a lot of people wait around close to 5 years to get their films fully financed and we didn't want to do that for this one. Or any one, really. We believe in making things fast while you're still inspired. Being in love with a movie while we're making it is a huge thing for us...

What kind of camera/format did you use to shoot the film?
What were some of your biggest challenges of shooting digitally?

Panasonic miniDV AGDVX100A. Digital is EASY. Film is HARD. No challenges here. Run the mic into the camera, press record and go. Now, selling a digital film is a little harder.

Was digital an aesthetic choice or just purely a financial one?

Financial at first, but now it's become part of our aesthetic. It helps us to shoot long, rambling takes, which in turn helps to define our acting style.

At first when I noticed that the film was shot digitally, I thought I was going to be looking for all the little imperfections in the picture, but I was quickly sucked into the story due to great performances.

Excellent question. Thanks for compliment!

What did you do to make the performances feel so natural?
Did you do a lot of improv?

We don't do rehearsals. And we let the actors improvise the lines and say them however they want. But, there is no improv as far as where the story goes, that's pretty set in stone.

There are some great music choices in the film. How did you
go about finding music?

I was in a band called VOLCANO, I’M STILL EXCITED!! on Polyvinyl Records. So, a lot of the music in the film is from my old label mates. The other songs we just begged and begged and begged for. One word of advice, don't put big, expensive songs in your movie while editing. You'll fall in love and it'll kill you when you have to take them out (they charge about $100,000 for a mainstream song). Use your friends' music. It's usually free.

What were some of your biggest issues with production?
How did you solve them?

We had to rewrite and reshoot the first 10 minutes of  the film after it was edited because the front of the movie wasn't working. It's really hard to go back and get that momentum, at least for us.

What would you say you learned while working on your
first feature?

Acting and story are everything. Let all else go (especially on cheap movies) and just make something people can respond to.

How did you feel during your premiere at Sundance?

We cried about 7 times. It was an incredible night.

What did you learn about getting your film sold at a festival?

Film Festivals with short films are simple. Lots of free Stella Artois and chicken skewers with mango chutney at the happy hour parties. With a feature, it's harder. You have to sell the movie. It took us a year to find the right people to put our movie in theaters. Technically, our film has everything in the textbook against it as far as a "sellable" film. No stars. DV. Shaky camera. But, we sold it. I guess the rule is, don't think about this. Think about making the best film you can make, then everything else will fall into place.

I noticed on your site you have a link to Ray Carney. How does Carney and/or John Cassavetes influence you as a filmmaker?

We love Ray's book on Cassevetes. And, yeah, we really respect Cassevetes' family style of making films. I think we borrowed a lot from his process.

You mentioned on your site that although you edited many indie films, you couldn't seem to make a good movie yourselves. What were some of the things that ultimately helped you?

I don't know. Part of it was just "waiting at the bus" for a good one to come. Part of it was getting older and more self-effacing... being able to laugh at ourselves more and put that stuff on screen. The growth was more personal than technical.

What’s next for the Duplass brothers?

Movies. Movies. Movies. We're writing a bunch of films right now. Some small, like Puffy, some are bigger and set up with studios. And, we're doing a TV show with the Weitz Brothers. We've been very very lucky since Puffy came out.

What advice would you give to filmmakers who are working on
their first feature?

Story. Acting. They're free. Use them.