Meet Ethan and Luke Montgomery | Filmmakers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ethan and Luke Montgomery and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan and Luke, what role has risk played in your life or career?
We have found that risk is essential to filmmaking (or any art-making), not because there is any benefit in intentionally taking risks, but because the absence of risks is indicative of an overly cautious mindset. When we wrote the script for our film “First Chair,” a mentor of ours gave us some very harsh feedback, and it really challenged us. Suddenly we had lots of fears about the film. We worried about whether it was any good, but the deeper fear was that our own internal concept of good storytelling was wrong. Addressing our mentor’s notes would mean changing the very heart of the film. The hardest decision to make, but the right one in retrospect, was sticking to our intuition and refusing to tailor the film to the feelings of others. We made the film as we envisioned it, practically trembling with fear the whole time, and it ended up being the film we’re most proud of. Not just that, but the film has also resonated with people more deeply than we had hoped.

It’s ironic to us that a lot of filmmakers test their ideas by pitching their loglines in elevators and coffee shops, only making a project when they’re sure they have something “good.” For us, good ideas are the ones that keep us up at night, and good films come from sticking to those ideas despite the risk that our friends at the coffee shop won’t like it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We’ve been making films together since we were eleven years old. For us, it started with a love of green-screen and visual effects tricks, but it eventually evolved into a love of telling stories. We recently completed four years of film school, which was a really fruitful time for us. We’ve completed several shorts over the last four years, and we’ve been able to find and develop our voice in that time. Our most recent work is the stuff we’re most proud of, which is a good thing, we think! Our short, “First Chair” was just released on “Omeleto” on YouTube, and continues to circulate festivals. Our latest short, “The Shakespeare Mash-Up” will hopefully be out in festivals next summer. Our current project is a feature film, which we hope to make independently in a couple years.

We care about telling stories that come from our hearts. Perhaps the biggest lesson we’ve learned is that personal experience is our best source of ideas.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would start at our aunt’s lovely cottage-like home in Hollywood, where we would serve tea and, if you’re lucky, some Indian food. We would visit LA’s best museum, the Norton Simon, and then walk down Mission Street in South Pasadena. Then we would hike the Culver City steps and get boba. Then we would see a movie at the Los Feliz or the New Beverly. That sounds like a pretty good day to us.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people to whom we owe great thanks. Our elementary school computer teacher, Lee Wadsworth, is the one who introduced us to making movies. We wouldn’t be doing any of this without his influence. Our former youth pastor, Caley Meza, was the first one to encourage us to pursue filmmaking seriously, so the same can be said of him. Lastly, our parents are the ones who first put in us a love of creating, and they have remained our greatest support.

Website: www.montgomerybrothers.work

Instagram: https://instagram.com/montgomery_brothers?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMontgomeryBrothers

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@montgomery_brothers

Image Credits
Afton McNatt, Micah Smith, Jack Burns