3 Filmmaking Lessons from the 'F*ckups Anonymous' SXSW Team

Writing as a practice is truly amazing. It can be therapeutic as you work through emotions and process your thoughts, leading to a reduction in mental health issues. Putting your experiences to paper also has value as a way to share your unique perspective. No one sees things the way you do!

It's a bit gauche to say, and I'm not trying to make light of anyone's trauma, but it boils down to another version of "write what you know"—and regardless of how you feel about that adage, it can be a great starting point to tell your story. In the case of screenwriter Joe Tierney and his independent SXSW pilot F*ckups Anonymous, it's certainly true.

Joe wrote a version of himself, played by Andrew Michael Fama, as a character who recently arrived at a "therapeutic boarding school" for troubled teens. Many of these establishments are now known to be abusive and controversial, which is what young Joe starts to realize on his first day there when he witnesses the dressing down of a fellow resident (Sarah Jeffrey).

The project was directed by Kat Whalen and primarily shot in a tight two days, resulting in a taut and emotional story of young anguish. Tierney took 12 years to finally put the whole thing on paper, searching for the right tone and perspective.

NFS sat down with members of the team just before the pilot's premiere and learned about exploring vulnerability, how to work with talent, and the importance of community.

What Actors Want in a Director

Professional actors ​arrive on set ready to help achieve the director's vision, but it's no small secret that if you don't have a good working relationship or solid communication skills, that can be a difficult feat for the director.

I asked these actors what their productive relationships with strong directors look like.

"I think everyone's going to be different, but I always like to say, 'Oh, that's an actor's director,'" Jeffrey said. "Whether they're an actor or not, I think you have to be vulnerable as a director."

She added that the best director-actor relationships involve mutual risk and a deep emotional connection.

"Actors are crazy, vulnerable, sad people. And the best experiences I've had are with directors that are willing to also be on the role, because you can't ask someone to do something that you're not willing to do."

Fama pointed to something new he experienced with Whalen on their set.

"I don't know if she even knew she was doing it, but it felt like it for me," he said. "On the first take, it felt like we would go grounded, and then we went through a whole range of one to 10 of emotion. So it started grounded to being big. And then she also would give lines to actors and catch you off guard. And that for me, as an actor, freed me up a lot because it felt like I could be more in the moment. And presence is so key to actors."

Be Vulnerable in Your Writing

As this was such a deeply personal story for Tierney, the process of making the project was a little raw. He joked that if he had been the director, he would have called "cut" two minutes in and scrapped the project.

"The challenges were keeping my emotions in check, and I had the best people around me to let myself say, 'You're safe, this is a safe space."'

Whalen also emphasized the importance of vulnerability on a safe set.

"Just to piggyback off of that, all of us coming into this to tell Joe's story, and thank God we had you there," Whalen said. "But also I think having such a respectful story and not wanting to muck it up ... So thank God we had this amazing trust beforehand, in that we could, after each take, just making eye contact and making sure, 'Okay, he's still good, he's still on board. He still feels like we're going in the right direction.'"

Fama added he approached his role with the same respect.

"It is trying to do justice for Joe in such a small period of time and making sure that you're showing the story," he said, "and also not just doing justice for Joe, but all the people that have struggled with addiction and [been] in these schools. You want to do them justice as well."

Advice on Finding Collaborators and Taking Risks

Everyone on the team highlighted the power of finding the right collaborators—people who can pull you out of isolation and help get projects off the ground, as well as those who can inspire you.

Fostering a supportive community is crucial for filmmakers. A space like SXSW can be the perfect place to make those connections and get inspired by others' work.

Even on this project, Tierney said, he had doubts they would get a whole crew together and actually finish. Seeing other filmmakers at SXSW who worked on scrappy teams was a learning experience, he said.

"Being here is inspiring, and watching all those shorts and seeing these big, beautiful ideas that can really go and propel to the next stage, whether it's a feature or a series, I saw all that in these."

Whalen agreed.

"It's about the collaboration and finding the people that can pull you out of your room and get things up and going," she said. "You've got to just keep making things."

"Take risks," Fama said.

Jeffrey echoed the need to take risks.

"I would also say use any resources you have, give your script to anyone and everyone, get thoughts on it," she said. "From an actor's perspective, you never know what's going to hit."