Do Not Disturb is the debut film of Mali Elfman, Danny Elfman’s daughter. That’s only relevant because I ask her about getting him to do the score, but Elfman produced and directed the film all on her own. The anthology features five stories set in a single hotel room, connected by the maid (Diva Zappa). It premieres on VOD, iTunes, Amazon, Playstation Network and other download services May 1st.
What instructions did you give the five writers and directors of the shorts?
Mali Elfman: "The way that it started is that each story had the characters somewhat written, their descriptions, the details about them. Then there was an idea of a story for every single one. I had written short stories for every single one. As I found the directors, none of them were actually allowed to speak to one another, except for the last two that were piggybacking. They were all given these characters and they were given eight rules that they had to follow. Now you’re going to ask me the eight rules I’m guessing."
Give us the eight rules!
Mali Elfman: "1) They had to show them entering the room. 2) They had to make a phone call while they were in the room. 3) The maid had to interact with the room in some way. 4) They had to find a prop in the room. 5) They had to leave a prop in the room. 6) There had to be some kind of twist at some point. 7) They had to use the prop. 8) At the end they had to show some kind of exit out of the room. They had to show their version of what they thought would happen behind a door."
What prompted you to just get up and make a movie yourself?
Mali Elfman: "First of all, I’d been a PA on stuff before. I had started out as a writer, trying to get gigs. I worked as an actress for a very long time. As soon as I decided I wanted to be an actress, I’d been given five jobs not being an actress so I studied and did Meisner technique at Laura Henry Acting Studio and just did acting for two years. After that, nobody would give me a job once I had the skills. I had a panic attack on my 25th birthday. I felt old and like I hadn’t done anything and just so frustrated. It’s true, but I just wanted to do this. I also felt like frankly, if you’re going to be an actress, I was already 25. All these parts, I wasn’t 18 anymore so it was already very hard. I was just like, 'F*** it,' which has been a big motto for this project. The 'F*** it, oh f***' technique was 'F*** it, I’m going to do it. Oh f***, how do I do it? Okay, f*** it I’m going to do it. F*** f*** f***, how do I do it?' That’s what this entire project was, a huge learning experience."
How would you encourage other aspiring filmmakers to do what you did?
Mali Elfman: "It’s just about getting going. I think the biggest thing is when you’re sitting in a room by yourself with some words, you feel so alone. Then you get one or two people and you still feel by yourself. It was just me talking to friends. 'Hey, I used to work as a production coordinator.' 'You did?' I guess if you life in L.A. that makes it much easier but finding people who were just willing to help, people who wanted to be involved, people who were sick of doing other stuff. Also, I did not want to make a romantic comedy. I did not want to make something simple. I did not want to do anything that I had seen before yet I wanted to do something that I could work with. Part of the way we got this shot for so cheap is that everybody was on set for one day. Entirely new crews every single day, entirely new grips every day, entirely new PA’s every day, entirely new everything every single day which also made this an extraordinarily difficult production because every day was your first day with your new crew. I would never recommend for anybody to ever do that because of how crazy that was."
But still you can just get it together and do it.
Mali Elfman: "I think the most important part is just f***ing do it. Just get up there. Just call your friends, figure it out. Maybe you can shoot a 30 second spot. Maybe you finish your script. Maybe you put on a play. Maybe you do a reading. It doesn’t matter. I watch films all day long. When I’m done with films, I go home and I watch films. I love every single aspect of this. I would be happy as a film critic. I would be happy being a writer, an actress, a producer. I love film. I love everything about film. I think that if that’s honestly who you are and that’s honestly what you love and you honestly keep doing it, you can’t fail because you will find your niche. You will find your spot. It’s going to be really hard. People are going to kick you down. There will always be things in the way no matter what stage you get to but it’s just the idea of keeping going."
Did you give Danny Elfman notes on his score?
Mali Elfman: "I did! [Laughs] I never intended to have him do the score. I tried to avoid working with him only because it’s my dad. Everybody’s expecting Danny Elfman to do my score because he’s my dad. Obviously he knew I was working on this project and he was very supportive of me the whole time through just as a father, not as any kind of producer or anything like that. I finished the rough cut literally a week after we wrapped shooting. I went over to his house and showed it to him. He sat down next to me, which is the scariest screening I’ve ever had in my life. I can take bad reviews, I can take people telling me anything but if your father hates your film that’s a whole other level. I was so nervous and then it ended. He just got up and said, 'I’ll be back.' He’s gone for 30 minutes and then he came back up and he’s like, 'I wrote you a theme.' I said, 'Can I hear it?' He said no. I said, 'Why not?' He goes, 'Well, I wouldn’t let any other director or producer hear it, so why would I let you?'"
"I had originally planned on having five different composers in the spirit of five. It actually came down to, at the end, I had to have one thing. Even though I’d had five editors, there had to be one editor that came and put it all together. There had to be one sound designer that came and did all the sound design. Otherwise it was so all over the place. I had to find a way to pull it all together. Working with five composers, it was all so different. Working with other composers, I couldn’t quite get the tone I wanted."
When did you finally get to hear Danny’s music?
Mali Elfman: "Two weeks later, my dad had nine different versions of the theme at that point. So I listened to them and tried to be like, 'I’m just listening… This is good.' As I sat there, I said, 'No, I want something bigger, I want something grander.' He listened to me and he came back a week later and he had more. He had a new theme for me. After many notes, after me sitting with him, the first theme that he wrote for me directly out of the studio is the opening credit music. That’s exactly what I needed and I ended up liking the little bit of roughness. It’s not perfect. I’d not always intended to have him but believe it or not, it was very natural for me to work with him and he knew exactly what I wanted and what I needed before I even did."
But besides that, you purposely avoided using any family connections to get your start, right?
Mali Elfman: "Yes, I really wanted this to be my project. Frankly, nobody was going to give me money. Nobody was going to trust me. Nobody was going to do anything because who was I? Aside from Danny Elfman’s daughter, which I hate going by, I am his daughter and I love my father and I’m proud to say that but when it comes to work it has nothing to do with who I am or what I’ve done. I didn’t want that to be a part of me. That’s why I didn’t go that route for any money. I went around and got some very small investors. We had a fundraiser party and raised about $4,000 that way. I really wanted to do it all on my own. At the end of the day, it was a great learning experience and it was great working with him. It’s an odd combination but I really wanted this to be my project and hopefully open the door so that I could continue to make Mali Elfman projects and not have it be anything else other than that."
How was it cheaper to build a hotel room than just rent one?
Mali Elfman: "I realized that you don’t just have to rent out that hotel room. You have to rent out all the ones around it. God forbid somebody puts a C-stand through a wall, all of a sudden you have a huge bill. We did destroy the rug that was underneath us. Somebody dropped a light on it and it burned. You get blood on it. If all that stuff had been in a hotel room it would’ve been much more expensive. The carpet we got was a carpet company going out of business and it was their carpet from the floor. We pulled it up ourselves and brought it in. Everything else, basically Ikea or Bed, Beth & Beyond. Returnable items, really important. Though we built it on set, all we paid was for electricity. We made a great deal with those guys that I’ve actually worked with again and paid for for other productions and hooked them up with other stuff. We shot over Thanksgiving weekend on another set’s set so we could steal theirs.
