The Egotist Interviews: Director Eric Noren

Denver's Factory Design Labs retooled their website a few months ago to feature expensive, well-shot, well-conceived web films as the central visual draw. Ever since, we've been infatuated with getting to the bottom of what they're up to with this somewhat mysterious campaign. What is 'The Power of Orange?' We got some answers from Rehab's Eric Noren – the San Francisco director who just shot 'Headphones' and 'On Time' – the two latest installments for the Factory Design Labs site.

Q: Recently you shot two new web films for Factory Design Labs’ website. Can you tell us about these films? Where did the ideas come from?

A: One of the films is an exploration of a run-down Tokyo business man who finds a pair of Orange headphones that bring him out of his decades-long monotonous slump. The second is another short about an Orange suitcase that helps move life along at the airport. The ideas came from Dean Del Calzo and Brett Lareau the creative team at Factory who I had the great pleasure of working with on these films. The approach was to have multiple filmmakers tackle a variety of scripts centered around objects or subject matter that is the color Orange. It's an honor to see what a big part these films are currently playing on their site.

Q: We understand ‘Headphones’ was shot in Shibuya, Tokyo. What’s your favorite story from the time you spent there?

A: Shooting in Shibuya is always an amazing time. So much going on, so many compositions all around you. Dean, Brett and I trying to find restaurants by ourselves at night was pretty funny. Also, ordering food with no interpreters is always a treat. In terms of the production, shooting in the rain is never dull and it frustrated even our extremely disciplined actor at times.

We had a lot to shoot in two days and the weather was slowing things down, but he nailed every, single take and would literally run back to his first position when we called cut-o. One time I asked him to open his umbrella while walking, and the umbrella would not open for some reason. He became pretty distraught because he blew the take – but had such sorrow in his face it was actually one of the best reactions we got from that shot.

Q: How many people were cast in this film vs. those just caught in the camera’s eye?

A: The main actor was cast before we arrived in Tokyo. The two days before the shoot in Shibuya we spent location scouting/extra-talent scouting, as well as scouting places/people that had already been narrowed down before we left the states. Certain locations presented talent that already existed there – such as the tattoo parlor owner who was happy to bring in multiple friends for us to cast as a tattoo artist. Other extras we literally met on the street. I've found that most of the time these are some of the best people you can add to any cast.

Headphones - Orange from samuelmiller on Vimeo.

Q: The second film, ‘On Time,’ used the Oakland Airport terminal as its backdrop. What’s it take these days to shut down an entire airport terminal to allow you to do your thing?

A: It takes a good producer/coordinator with savvy speak to convince the airport people we are not trying to plunder the airport in any way, shape or form. Once we were there, I was surprised they didn't have guns on us the whole time – but I think they figured we would not abandon our fancy gear. We had to have a special guy to run the luggage machine which was pretty awesome because he was legally able to crawl down the spot where the luggage comes up – and you know you've always wanted to do that. Now that I think about it, he was also probably under cover homeland security as well.

Factory Design Labs 'On Time' from sean leman on Vimeo.

Q: For us production dweebs, can you elaborate on the equipment you used to capture the imagery in the films?

A: We used the one and only RED 4k digital cinema camera. I'M F*^K#NG in love with this camera and also own the one we filmed on. The camera is agile when need be or mega-studio-style when called for. You get super 35mm resolution on little hard drives and cf cards you can edit that day or flying home on the plane – you can't beat it!

I always shoot at full 4k resolution which is what we did on both these films. For the subway/handheld shots we just strip the Red down to its bare bones, use a wide prime lens and some elbow grease. For lighting, we used an array of kino flo's and as much natural light as possible with cards, flags, bounce, et.. Most of the Tokyo night stuff is strictly lit by the neon video billboards filling the urban landscape.

Q: Was the music in the films created in-house at Factory Design labs?

A: The music was created by Christophe Eagleton of Eagleton Productions. He is a brilliant composer and I'm happy Factory got him to do these films. The music/sound design really brought these films together and beautifully sets the mood.

Q: Who handled the post-production?

A: The post-production was handled in-house at Factory and the edit was done by Robert Fraser. He also elevated these films with the edit and gave them twist sand turns we did not see originally going into post.

Q: How many more films does Factory Design Labs have planned to your knowledge?

A: At this point in time, I'm not sure how many more films they have planned. But I don't see why more filmmakers would not be ecstatic to shoot something with them. Everyone at Factory is great and we really enjoyed making these films, which is something you can't say for every branded film you get to work on.

Q: We hear Factory Design Labs has ‘its eyes on a big prize’ – and that’s the reason for all the changes to their website of late. Heard any whisperings about their end goal?

A: Maybe, maybe not. But I believe they deserve it.