About Brenna
Brenna L. Diesner started writing scripts when she was fourteen-years-old. Her first full-length play was published and performed at the Colorado TriMedia Festival in 2012. She went on to publish another play for the Fringe Festival one year later, and hopes to continue writing and publishing consistently. Brenna likes to dabble in all aspects of theatre, including writing, acting, directing, and singing. She wants to be an English teacher and a Choir director, as well as a playwright. Brenna loves the Foo Fighters and cats, and she would like to encourage aspiring artists to “keep trying until you do something you can proudly show off.”
Questions for Brenna
Q: We thought your film was really quirky and interesting. How did you come up with the idea for it?
A: Well, I really like reading- yes, for fun! And I got to thinking about how different genres of books have different moods to them, like flavors. That kind of got me thinking about an alternate world where people could eat books to get stories from them, rather than reading, because every book out there “tastes” different.
Q: What inspired you to make this a film, and what got you interested in film as a creative genre?
A: Most of my ideas start as scripts- that form of writing comes easiest to me. The downside is that one hundred people could read the same character differently- I knew I had to pick one person to be one specific character, or the whole meaning of the piece would flop. Rather than making it a short play, I made it film so I could add background music and have different angles on the characters, because there is such a small amount of dialogue. Filming it was a way of keeping it interesting for the audience.
Q: What is the meaning of your film?
A: I was trying to take something that everyone is familiar with (reading), and give it a completely new angle. Rather than reading books, the girl eats them. The skeptical guy going about his business clearly appears to be judging her odd behavior, until we find out that he’s just hungry too. I guess if I’m being really cheesey, it’s a classic example of the age-old story- being judgmental of something because you don’t know enough about it to see something you like.
Q: What was it like shooting the film?
A: It was an awkward afternoon, haha. We were at a Dazbog, so there were other customers around to witness. I think they eventually figured out that these two teenagers weren’t really eating books. Plus, Greer and Griffin, my FABULOUS actors, are both pretty big germophobes. I’m lucky they like me, because I don’t think they would have put paper in their mouths for anyone else, haha.
Q: How did you decide on your cast, your setting, your music, and all the other interesting elements involved in film production?
A: I wanted my characters to be a couple of odd-balls, haha (Greer and Griffin, if you read this, know I love you both with my whole heart). From an outsider’s perspective, it would make more sense to see some more unique people eating paper than a typical Joe. To contrast with that, I wanted a very casual setting- a public place, to show that in this particular world (where the film takes place), it’s normal to go out to a coffee shop and eat books. I wanted the music to be simple- to compliment the film’s pace, rather than have the film trying to keep up with a tune. It was all supposed to be very casual. This worked really well with the camera angles; everything that needed to be in the shot was in the shot, without any fancy or distracting background shenanigans.
Q: What other types of art do you like to create, and what is your favorite medium (songwriting, poetry, etc.)?
A: I’ve tried pretty much everything! Like I said before- scripts come easily to me. Apart from that, I love composing songs with just my acoustic guitar and my voice. I’ve tried structured and slam poetry several times, but I never seem to be as good as I think I am, haha. Writing and singing are tied for my most cherished forms of self-expression. I’m fairly soft-spoken, and it’s often easier for me to write words than say them. All of my best pieces come from sitting with a pencil and notebook just writing and writing and writing for as long as I can (even if it’s forced), and then going back later and sifting through the lame ideas, and adding better snippets to the good ideas. That’s how I wrote both of my plays. I find that if you sit and try hard enough for a long enough period of time, something amazing is going to happen eventually. Music is the same way.
