Director BIO: Tony K Hall (LONESOME)

Tony K Hall (Director, Writer, Producer):
is a first time film director based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from St. Norbert Collge (De Pere, WI). His prior experience includes being on set as a production assistant and assistant director for several other short films and YouTube videos. He has one prior unreleased short film as writer/director. He also routinely writes film reviews that he privately shares via forums with his friends and family. He has several other feature film scripts that have not yet been greenlighted but has high hopes to continue to make more films.

Director Statement

“Lonesome” was shot in B&W on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a skeleton cast &crew, and a shoestring budget. Heavily influenced by the films of the French New Wave, I wanted my first feature to be a film that was shot on the cheap, with a handheld camera, natural lighting, and using location shooting. In the early 2010s DSLR cameras started becoming affordable for first time film makers, who would no longer need to rent expensive equipment or buy a camera that would cost a life’s savings. With the advent of the affordable DSLR, I felt that we had the tools to make a film look cinematic, while still being able to maintain a low budget. Many challenging variables allowed us to complete this film. Many first time directors have the goal of trying to make the next ‘no budget’ feature that can become a cult hit, and ‘Lonesome’ was made in this spirit.
Along with the ‘low budget’ shooting concept, I felt the story of ‘Lonesome’ had to be a simple story as well. My taste has always veered towards romantic narratives (heavily influenced by the films of Jacques Demy and Wong Kar-Wai). ‘Lonesome’ needed to be a simple love found, love lost story. I wanted the film to have a feel of improvised dialogue, even though the majority of dialogue was scripted. Initially the movie was conceived as being a silent film in which inter-titles would provide the narrative, and the dialogue would be subtitled. However, as filming went along, the artistic decision was made to leave the dialogue as dialogue(instead of using subtitles), and only use inter-titles to narrate. I wanted to play around with different genres, so it was fun to have the film be partially silent, partially a musical and to be dramatic with comedic moments. Ultimately, we were trying to achieve a romantic narrative that would fit the genre of Art-house or Indie Film, and still have that classic cinema look.
-Tony K Hall