There’s nothing more terrifying than making your own film. Well, maybe that’s not true. As we get to experience firsthand in Austin Culp’s short film TITTY BOY, the fear (and humor) of walking into a locker room with gynecomastia (aka man boobs) is pretty terrifying too.
Making its premiere at the Austin Film Festival, TITTY BOY tells the story of a teenage boy with gynecomastia who attempts to change his body by taking matters into his own hands. As a comedic yet heartfelt exploration of this condition, the film serves as a great exploration of how we’re all able to overcome our biggest fears.
For Culp in particular, TITTY BOY is his first short film. And, as the writer and director of the project, he was able to share with us some insights and lessons learned into how he was able to overcome his first-time filmmakers' fears and tell this funny, but important, story.
Editor's Note: This interview has been for clarity and length.
No Film School: Where did the concept for TITTY BOY come from? What was your inspiration for this project?
Austin Culp: This project originated from my real life. Back when I was growing up in Amarillo, Texas, I had the same gynecomastia condition that the lead character has. The locker room was the most upsetting and terrifying place to be in, so naturally, that needed to play a major part in this. The whole thing is an embarrassing secret that you try to keep away from as many people as possible. It's high school and teenage boys are awful. That's part of the character motivation and costuming choices behind the project.
I was also able to sprinkle in some of my childhood family life in the film. Beyond that, I was also dealing with some family problems with financial responsibility when this idea started up, so I wrote this whole money angle into the film.
Austin Culp on the set of 'TITTY BOY'
Credit: Austin Culp
NFS: While comedic in nature, the film finds a nice medium to balance the drama and comedy of the subject. What were your goals for writing and directing a film about the topic of gynecomastia (aka "man boobs")?
Culp: The first thing I knew was that I wanted this to be a comedy. Sure, this condition is embarrassing and whatnot, but I didn’t want to see it as a full drama. I grew up on Patrick Read Johnson’s ANGUS (1995) so that was a huge influence on me and that added an equal balance, too. The drama mostly comes by way of the family, bullying, and overall feelings about having this issue. The comedy aspect is mostly because we all go through things that are awful or something we want to get past, and I think comedy is my way of dealing with personal issues. You can’t apply a comedic lens to all things, but when you can, then why not laugh at your problems?
Otherwise, I wanted to have a moment to have a cathartic experience with my whole middle/high school life. I wanted to play with the bully’s role here. I wanted to give some other kids an opportunity to see themselves hereーwhether it’s gynecomastia or something else that you might get made fun of for. Growing up is hard. Why not give someone an outlet to see a little comedy with their predicament?
NFS: What camera did you shoot on and why?
Austin Culp: Early on in the process, I started having conversations with our Director of Photography, E.J. Enriquez. Coming off of seeing Sean Baker’s Red Rocket (shot by Drew Daniels, who E.J. and my producer Wilson Smith both know), I fell in love with the way that film looked and how it had some real tangible texture to it. So I started having conversations with E.J. on how we could achieve a look influenced by that film. From there, E.J. suggested the ARRI ALEXA Mini with Cooke Panchro Classic lenses.
Once we did a little tech on those, I knew he was on the right track as it captured this contemporary yet vintage look. The film is loosely based in the early 2000sーhence no iPhonesーso we wanted this film to look like it represented the past, while also looking like rural Texas.
BTS on 'TITTY BOY'
Credit: Austin Culp
NFS: There's a particularly memorable "boobies" song in the film, how did that come together?
Culp: That's the first note I ever made for this project. The idea for the film came to me while living back in my hometown so I was spending each night attached to cable TV and surfing channels. One night, while watching Starz, I remembered that they had the most memorable commercial series of my lifetime. If you know Starz, you know the one I'm talking aboutーthe singalong to Ode to Joy with the new lyrics of "Movies, Movies, Movies." So I watched a few of those and joked that I thought they were saying "Boobies" and then the rest of that is history.
From there, I started plugging that song into the crowdfunding video and eventually the rough cuts. Then, once I locked in Brian Satterwhite as the composer, we had a long conversation about the wants and needs for the film and I was deadset on having a new rendition of Ode to Joy for the final film. It was the right piece tonally to work with the film to help with some of the comedy. After that, it was a matter of pulling together a choir to perform the live music. After realizing it may be a challenge to convince a professional choir to do it, I started pulling together all of my friends who had ever been in a choir. Once we had six people in, we knew we could pull it off by recording their performance and layering it multiple times to recreate the full choir sound. That was a wild day at Austin Public, our local public access station. Anyone who was there could hear "Boobies, Boobies, Boobies" echoing down the hall.
NFS: TITTY BOY felt more like the start of a story than an end, do you have plans for turning this into a feature? (And if so, what do you plan for next?)
Austin Culp: Isn't that the dream, haha? Yes. I've been working on some form of a feature film. The original draft of this short was 30 pages, so I started with a third of a feature already written. Adding more background to all of the characters and including other subplots in the film would be the key goal. So, that feature script is currently a draft in progress.
Along those same lines, I've been exploring different aspects of my childhood or life in various short films and pilot scripts. Part of the fun of writing your true experience into these projects is that you naturally kind of have the ideas come to you. You're also able to add your truths and personal anecdotes to the films to give them real life and texture.
The next step for any filmmaker is finding funding and time to make the next one happen, and I'm no different.
'TITTY BOY'
Credit: Austin Culp
NFS: If you could give some advice to any younger writers or directors starting off on their own filmmaking careers, what insights would you pass along from your journey?
Culp: I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but this is my first short film. So, this entire journey included a lot of lessons and opportunities to grow. If I had to lay out three major things I learned and would pass on, they would be:
First, find collaborators you can trust and trust them. While I had the perspectives on what story I wanted to tell and how to tell it, I couldn't tell you the first thing about most technical aspects of the filmmaking process. At least for this first one, put your faith in the experienced crew (and I had a great one) that you trust and let them do their role during the production. Also, be sure to meet with department heads in advance of the shoot to do script run-throughs. I was balancing this short between a full-time job and life and could have used more time with the crew beforehand. A lesson I learned and will never forget.
Secondly, time is important. Don't shortchange yourself on how long you might need. We had a day that should have been two days. We managed it in one, but eventually had to go back and do a single pickup shot because we lost time and the sun went down. Summer days are long, but they don't wait on you if you're running behind. Oh, should I also say don't film in August in Texas?
Lastly, once you've set your heart on making a short, start it. I once heard this fantastic keynote speech from Mark Duplass at SXSW about how the cavalry isn't coming to help you with making your project. Nobody was driving this project forward beyond myself - while I had a lot of collaborators, they could easily lose interest if you lose interest. This is your story - your project. You're always the number one advocate for it and you should always be approaching it as that.
If you’d like to find out more about Culp and his film TITTY BOY, you can check out the project on IMDb and Letterboxd.
