‘Everything is Content’ – An Interview with Brian Lonano and Blake Myers

Brian Lonano is a filmmaker who has returned to the 2023 Florida Film Festival with his 8th short film to be featured in the Midnight Shorts block. This year he brings production designer and co-director Blake Myers with him as they screen “CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man” to this year’s festival goers, and in this interview I asked them about the genesis of this wild short film, their concerns about “content” in the modern internet era, and their advice for aspiring filmmakers.

Chris Crespo: As a seven-time FFF alumni filmmaker, what brings you back to the Florida Film Festival with each new film, and what do you expect at each FFF?

Brian Lonano: The Florida Film Festival has a lot of great qualities. Their selections are always great. Their staff is incredibly generous and nice. And the venue is one of the best and most unique that I’ve had the pleasure of screening at. “CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man” is my 8th time returning to the festival and like the previous times, we’re part of the midnight shorts block. That program is always crazy fun time and I’m looking forward to being a part of it once again.

Blake Myers: “CONTENT” is like the 7th or 8th film I’ve made with Brian over the past 10 years, but the first one I’ve had the opportunity to Co-direct with him. We have always appreciated all the love that the triple F has given us through the years.

CC: What advantages do you find in making short films, and do you see feature-length filmmaking in your future, or will you be sticking to short form for the foreseeable future?

BL: I love the short film as a medium. You can tell a concise story in a few minutes or explore an idea or an atmosphere. It’s a great way to experiment and come up with something truly unique. I’ve seen a lot of short films (many of them at Florida Film Festival) that were so bizarre and unhinged, that it inspired me to take risks with my own work. I’ve wrestled with the idea of feature-length filmmaking based off of my previous shorts but I find that the idea is better off remaining as a short film. I have a few ideas that I think would work as a feature but they are not based off my previous shorts.

BM: Short filmmaking is a great place to experiment and play around with ideas that an audience would not sit through an entire feature. From a production perspective, we have been able to afford to make short films with higher end production values. Making so many shorts has helped us to hone our skills that we will be able to apply to feature films in the future.

CC: When you came up with “CONTENT: The Lo-Fi Man,” which idea came first – a short film exploring our obsession with “content,” or your desire to homage Tetsuo: The Iron Man?

BL: The idea of the film first came from talking with my brother Kevin about content creators on YouTube and the idea of a man shoving camera lenses into his eye sockets. It came from a place of frustration with the use of the word “content” describing films and putting them on the same level as reaction videos to trailers or reviews of cheeseburgers. Everything is content. It’s a word used in quarterly earnings meetings and it trickled down into everyday people and filmmakers, who were starting to call their own work “content.” That bothered me so the way I deal with things that bother me is to joke and poke fun.

I felt a film that truly defies the word content is “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” so I had the idea of injecting myself into the film and making fun of myself as well. A filmmaker who gets replaced by a hipper YouTube personality until he can’t stand it anymore and breaks free.

BM: The concept of the film was all Brian. As the production designer I was trying to create the different environments that Brian had thought up. Capturing the obsession with content really came through in our YouTube set, but our feelings about that creation was the inspiration behind the content hub underworld. The building of the lo-fi costume and the design of the transformation was lots of fun and really allowed us to create our homage to Tetsuo.

CC: What advice do you have for young filmmakers being brought up in this modern age of digitized content being pushed via algorithms as opposed to films being shared by people?

BL: Watch a lot of films from every decade, every country and every genre. Get inspiration by photographs, paintings and music. And then get together with friends on the weekend and make something. Filmmaking is a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun! Don’t be a dictator on set. Listen and collaborate with your team. It should be about what is best for the film. Please feed your cast and crew. Even if you don’t have enough funds to pay them, at least make sure you buy them lunch and/or dinner. And if the first film is a failure, don’t stop there. Keep trying. I’ve been making films for 18 years and this is my 17th film and I still have a lot left to learn.

BM: Make movies! Get your friends together and make films. While you are with your friends making movies you will all talk about your favorite films and be exposed to many different types of films. Also, invite new people to make films with you. New people help you expand your ideas about filmmaking.

Chris Crespo is a movie critic, writer and podcaster based out of Orlando, Florida. He hosts the weekly podcast Cinema Crespodiso, and has also made appearances on Doug Loves Movies, A Mediocre Time with Tom and Dan, The Curtis Earth Show, and more. This is his 13th year covering the Florida Film Festival.

This interview was conducted via email.