Filmmaking | Interviews

Love and Tattoos

1 Aug , 2002  

Written by Phaedra Barlas | Posted by:

Richard Bean talks about the inspiration and production of his latest feature film, 'Tattoo, A Love Story.'

Boston University graduate Richard Bean’s latest film "Tattoo, A Love Story" was one of the most popular features at this summer’s Nantucket Film Festival. The film tells the story of a conservative teacher who loses control of her life when she falls in love with a giant tattooed biker. Bean is no newcomer to the filmmaking arena. His past work includes 15 feature films including "Chasing Amy" and "The Opportunists," short film, commercial films, and documentaries for Lifetime television and the Discovery Channel.

Now living in New York, Bean talks with NewEnglandFilm.com about the inspiration and production of his latest feature film.

PB: Do you have a tattoo?

Bean: I have two small ones, on my leg.

PB: How long have you been in the business and what are some films that you have worked on?

Bean: I’ve been in and out of the business for about 10 years, although early on there wasn’t much business involved. I’ve worked for sandwiches on a lot of films. I’ve been every thing from a production assistant to a producer. I was a camera assistant on "Chasing Amy" for a while and a grip/electric on "The Opportunists." One of my favorite parts about the process is the dynamic of bringing together a small army of people to play with expensive equipment and trying to get them all to work toward the same idea. Each person has a role and you have to know how to take care of everybody to get the most out of them. A lot of directors I’ve worked for don’t get that.

PB: Being that you now live in New York why did you choose to shoot in Boise Idaho and what are some of the challenges or benefits in shooting there?

Bean: The simple answer is: I’m from there. But there were other reasons. Lack of money, access and pace of the city were important factors, but it was also necessary for the story that the film took place in a smaller town. We needed a location where tattoos could still be considered provocative, and most people have a certain image when they think of Boise. In reality it’s a pretty hip town, but most audiences across the country don’t perceive it that way. As far as the challenges, it is difficult to shoot a feature in a city that has almost no production community anymore. There are some talented people there, and we used most of them. But we had to bring in a lot of crew and most of the equipment from out of town. No shortage of acting talent though. Most of the actors in the film live in Boise.

PB: I have heard you say that you are unable to make shorts because your mind only works in feature-length style.  Could you elaborate on that?

Bean: I think what I said was, I prefer features. But for anyone who has seen my shorts "unable" may be a better word! I have made several shorts and on a basic level I guess every scene of a feature could be considered a short. But I think about stories in a longer, theatrical form. I like to have the time to develop elements of the story and the character, withhold information until just the right time. In shorts you can’t do that as deliberately. Features are also the form I most like to watch.

PB: Where did the idea for the lead character of a tattoo artist originate?

Bean: From Virgil Mignanelli, the actor that plays the artist in the film. We were in the theatre program together at Boise State and have been friends for years and we always wanted to do a project together. When we were out of school, Virgil was working as a tattoo artist and I was unemployed so I would hang out at his shop all the time. I thought it would make a great location for a film and that it would be fun to try and do a romantic film in a place that a lot of people think is kind of dark and seedy. The rest grew from there.

PB: Explain to me how you started from just having a vision to an actual execution of the vision.  What was the process of executing the vision?

Bean: There are so many steps that I’m not sure how to answer. On a practical level, the longest, most difficult part is raising the money. And all you can do there is keep begging people until they pay you to go away. On an artistic level, I started by assembling talented people to help me. At first it was my producing partners and Gregg Sacon, the co-writer. I also had my editor Brian Murphy and my DP David Klein on board from the beginning. Once I had some people involved, I just started telling the story, over and over and over. Each time you tell it, you fine-tune it, people add their two cents and eventually, you have a film. If the people you get involved don’t get the vision, I’m either not doing something right or they aren’t the right people for the job. It’s collaboration and the director just keeps people on the right path. Luckily, we had a great cast and crew and they all tuned in to what I was trying to do.

PB: How do you compare your independent romantic comedy to the mainstream romantic comedy?

Bean: There are elements of a romantic comedy that you just can’t get away from. You know two people will meet, they’ll have differences and they’ll overcome obstacles to fall in love. What we did with "Tattoo" is tried to break the expectations of who those two people are and what they get from the relationship. Most mainstream romantic comedies are about beautiful people in New York or L.A. and they have fabulous jobs and unbelievable apartments. I wanted to see real people fall in love, characters that a regular audience can relate to. And then there is the idea of trying to make needles and ink romantic.

PB: What made you want to become a filmmaker?

Bean: I have always loved movies and hated day jobs. And there is nothing better than affecting an audience in some way. I like that.

PB: What are some of your film influences?

Bean: I love films about seemingly small subjects that are huge to the characters in the story. Rather than rattle off classics that we all are influenced by… some recent films that I like are "You Can Count on Me," "Election," and "Searching for Bobby Fisher." And I love comedies that are real, those films where humor comes out of real life and not high concept. When I was working on "Tattoo" I watched "Manhattan" and "Nobody’s Fool" over and over again. I think both of those films are flawless. And they both have a strong sense of locations where they unfold. In all of the films I’ve just mentioned, the locations function like a character in the film. It’s really hard to pull off, but one of the things I’m constantly thinking about.

PB: What film festivals have you been a part of? How do they compare to your experience at the recent Nantucket Film Festival?

Bean: We have played at Taos Talking Pictures in New Mexico, Gen Art in New York and the Florida Film Festival in Orlando. They have all been great experiences and it’s been educational to see how audiences in different parts of the country respond to the film. The biggest difference between them is really the cities in which they take place. I think I prefer a festival that takes over a small town because everywhere you go people are talking about the films they’ve seen or what their next project may be. But at the same time, the bigger cities offer larger venues and a bigger, more general audience. After all of the years of hard work, any chance to show the film to an audience is exciting.

For more information about the film, visit www.tattoothemovie.com.


For more information about the film, visit www.tattoothemovie.com.

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