Meet Marc Tarczali | Writer/Director/Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marc Tarczali and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marc, what role has risk played in your life or career?
If you’re pursuing something for a genuine reason, you’re not taking a risk. Risk only comes into play if you’re not there for the right reasons. There’s a big difference between asking for something you might want, and asking for something you need, and people can tell the difference. As a filmmaker I try not to ask for things until I absolutely need them, I try to do as much work by myself as possible until I am out of options and the only way forward is to ask someone to either collaborate or join the project. In a lot of ways, this is out of respect to the performers and collaborators I’m approaching, I want to ensure that I’ve done my due diligence before approaching them to join the project. But there’s also a level of quality control, I want to make sure that my creative materials are impeccable before pitching someone, and whether or not they say “yes” or “no”, they will walk away feeling impressed by what I presented.
There’s all kinds of reasons people will say “no”, and sometimes hearing “no” is a good thing, because you don’t want to take someone onto your project who isn’t 100% committed. In that regard, I honestly don’t feel like I’m taking any risks, the right collaborators will make themselves known and it’s my job to do the work to find them. You can’t take rejection personally, you have to consider that the person on the end also has a schedule, obligations, and their own taste, and you have to respect that. Just make sure you keep searching until you find the right people, and you will be fine.
The hardest part has been learning by doing. It seems like nobody wants to give me straight answers, so I have to figure out if the stove is hot by touching it. That has caused major setbacks that would’ve made most people tap out.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
It’s been nothing but challenges, but I’ve learned that my value in the film industry comes from my storytelling ability. Some people have a lot of connections, some people have a lot of money and skip to the front of the line, but what I have is my stories. It took a while to figure that out. We are living in a very unprecedented time when cinema and TV are no longer the dominant forms of media. It’s interesting to see how filmmakers react to that, you can see who is really here because they love it, and who’s jumping ship. There’s absolutely no viable reason I should be doing this, it’s a horrible way to make a living, there’s so many ups and downs, it’s a total roller coaster ride. But about a year ago, when things got really bleak, I realized that no matter how bad it gets, I will still wake up a couple days later and say, “You know what would make a cool movie? What if they made a movie about Robin, and Batman was exiled like Napoleon, and Robin needed the Joker’s help….”. I’m a movie addict, I just can’t help myself.

It’s great that with social media, some of those people looking for fame can just make a TikTok or podcast and be fulfilled, I feel like a lot of those people were frustrated under the old system, and thankfully they have an outlet now. At the end of the day, I don’t think storytelling will ever go away, and there will always be a need for people to sit down and watch a story. A lot of the post-modern commentary we enjoyed with 90s films has switched to the podcasting realm, where you can hear everyone’s “take” on a particular topic, so I think the next evolution of filmmaking will go back to its modernist origins, and filmmakers will have to overpower audiences with strange worlds and strange characters that don’t make sense in a podcast.

It also goes a long way to thank people for working on your projects, and to give them encouragement even in a small way, because making films can be completely heartbreaking and everyone needs to hear that things are okay. A couple years ago I learned that Tim Burton would thank crew members personally at his premieres, and once I started directing, I tried implementing that policy. So once we wrap on set, I try to go around to everyone and shake their hand and thank them personally. That’s something that comes with maturing as a filmmaker.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Glendale Galleria- – Cheesecake Factory, twice a day, for seven days. Get yourself an egg roll sampler and an iced tea, or some Buffalo Blasts.

They would have a pretty unexciting visit. I don’t really do much other than think about movies, and I kinda don’t care about much else. Back in the day, I would go to Blockbuster alot, and just walk around for an hour, even though I knew where everything was. It smelled nice in there. I think once they took Blockbuster away, I was pretty ticked off, and so I had to make movies myself. I was never a movie theatre person, there’s a lot of rude people who go to movie theatres and wreck the movie, so for me the cinema experience was always walking into Blockbuster and getting a hefty whiff of the popcorn/Twizzlers smell as you go through the door, and they had all this cool merch, and you got to test-drive the newest video games. For kids growing up in suburban America, having these kinds of corporate chain stores like Blockbuster, FYE or GameStop in close proximity really enhanced our quality of life. We were spoiled, we could drive 10 minutes down the street and sure enough there was either a Blockbuster, GameStop, Ames, Sears, RadioShack, etc, etc, and you could spend a couple hours on a Tuesday night trying out the latest console at GameStop, seeing the latest LCD or plasma TV at Sears, or trying out the newest audio gear at RadioShack. Not to mention all the other exotic products like ZipZap RC cars, new digital cameras, synth keyboards, etc. It really broadened our horizons and imaginations, and you can say what you want about corporate America, but the level of innovation was through the roof and it seemed like we had cool new groundbreaking stuff every 2 weeks. Now we are seeing what life is like without these corporate chains, and it’s just a bunch of liminal spaces with no people walking around (except for the grocery store), and the only place you really get to see people in a creative setting is online, even then, half of them are bots. I have to drive an hour to see new products that used to be available 10 minutes from my house, and like most people, I now rely on Amazon reviews to determine what to buy, and I never get to see it physically until it arrives at my door. We’re seeing the externalities of destroying the business model for places like Blockbuster, Regal Cinemas, or even RadioShack; where do people go to get exposure to the latest products and technology? Where do they go to escape the confines of school/work/home? Those businesses have been replaced by gyms and bougie gastropubs, which are fine, but innovation has come to a grinding halt. Scrolling through a curated Netflix “recommendations” list is nothing compared to standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling wall of colorful VHS boxes at Blockbuster, where you could see 150 movie options simultaneously. Today we are experiencing a carefully curated version of reality that comes to us through our phones. If you asked me this question even 5 years ago, my answer would’ve been totally different, it seems like there aren’t as many places to conveniently go anymore.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have some guardian angels who’ve helped me throughout my career, I don’t want to put any of my filmmaking collaborators on the spot specifically, but outside of filmmaking, my friends Rick and Lynn really saved my career when it was looking like I was out for the count and out of options. I wouldn’t have been able to mount this past year of production, which has been pretty successful, without them. Rick is kind of like an older brother figure, he likes to mess with me, but always has my back, and he’s a total unsung hero. Rick saved my career.

Most of all, I owe a lot to my dad, my taste in movies comes from him, and he is the most pivotal figure in my life. He was the person in my family who really encouraged me to be unique and different, in a world where people resent you for being different, and taught me to pursue my dreams no matter how silly they seemed to other people. I think the vision most of my other family members had for me was to become a teacher, or a police officer, or a nurse, or an accountant, something quasi-municipal with “benefits” (that’s big for them). There’s nothing wrong with those jobs, but it’s definitely not for me, and when I told them I wanted to be a filmmaker they really gave me pushback on it (to put it lightly), and they still haven’t come around 10 years later. It’s a very narrow minded way of thinking, and my dad always taught me to think beyond those confines, to have goals, and to pursue them relentlessly. He would buy me “Beavis and Butthead” box sets, and CDs from bands like Alice In Chains and Metallica, along with a giant stereo-system so my 13 year old self could blast “Angry Chair” through my window at 3pm on a Monday. He always loved going to Spencer’s, and he bought me my first Yamaha guitar when I said I wanted to play. He would actively cultivate my interests, rather than tell me there was a certain way I needed to act, or a certain job I needed to do, or a certain person I needed to be. And whatever those interests were, he would help me pursue them, and taught me to have courage to face challenges, and most importantly, to fight for what I believe in.

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Image Credits
Tum-Tum Speedboat