FCLC Senior Cary Kehayan “Speaks” Through Film

Visual Arts Major Takes On Role of Screenwriter, Co-Producer And Director of Thesis Project

By MATT SURRUSCO
July 20, 2011

Film student Cary Kehayan, FCLC ’10, recruited Fordham students for the cast of his thesis film. (Courtesy of Theo Legro)

Published: May 5, 2010

“The whole film is this collection of conversations that we enter midway through and leave before they really end,” said Cary Kehayan, a visual arts major at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), who has recently completed his senior thesis film project. “It’s pieces, it’s like little slices of conversation that, when put together, hopefully come to a logical conclusion.” His short film entitled “I Speak, You Understand Me” premiered on May 4 on the FCLC campus. Beforehand, Kehayan sat down with the Observer to talk about his thesis film and what influences him as a filmmaker.

Observer: You filmed part of your senior thesis in your hometown of Glen Rock, N.J. What about your town inspires you as a filmmaker?

Cary Kehayan: I was definitely in the process of getting some sort of creative voice when I was living in Glen Rock. And so developing that was obviously influenced by a lot of the people that were making art around me. Glen Rock is an interesting town because it kind of has a little bit of everything. It’s definitely a small town atmosphere, but it has a really thriving art community and, at the same time, other disciplines that people are excelling in [as well]. I grew up with an all-star football team and, at the same time, an award-winning arts program that were all kind of meshed together. I think the amalgamation of all those different disciplines together and the fact that I was able to make early work with a lot of people who were really creative…   has driven me to where I am now.

Observer: Why did you decide to come to Fordham to study film?C.K.: Fordham’s different than a lot of schools in that there’s a very small community of film students and [there are] enough resources here where everyone can pretty much have access to whatever they need without having to put their name on long lists and be waiting and having to compete with each other…[Also, the curriculum] seemed early-on to be focused on a fairly heavy avant-garde influence, which was something that I was interested in. I knew that I wanted to be a narrative director, but I also knew that it was really important to get a background in experimental work to kind of shape that. Otherwise, you can just easily fall into the pile.

Observer: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, or George Lucas?

C.K.: All of them have definitely played some sort of a role. I mean, I’ve got “Stars Wars” memorabilia here (motions around his bedroom), and then I’ve got Scorsese there (points to a poster of Robert DeNiro in “Taxi Driver”)… Woody Allen, in particular, I think helped me because the film that I’m making for my thesis deals with similar themes as his films, or I hope it does. His way of dealing with dialogue and making the dialogue itself interesting and not forcing visuals onto narrative content was a huge inspiration to me and allowed me to trust in the dialogue itself. A lot of film students worry about budgets… and epic shots, and using all sorts of equipment they can’t afford, but Woody Allen reinvigorated my trust in dialogue in two people talking.

Observer: What’s it like being the screenwriter, director and co-producer of your own film, and have you gotten frustrated or disillusioned at all while working on such a long-term project?

C.K.: I think everybody does. But especially when there’s a certain weight to your role… having to carry a lot of different roles is something that I’m glad I did, but after experiencing it, I don’t know if I’d seriously recommend it. Or I think probably my next project I’d like to have it be a little more of a collaboration in the pre-production process. I’m happy that I gave it a shot because it… gave me experience producing and having to organize things and having to get people in certain places at certain times…There were points where I definitely hit a mark where, without having the people around me to help, I think I probably would’ve crashed and burned.

Observer: What did you look for in actors when casting your main roles?

C.K.: It’s interesting because I’ve done a lot of direction as exercise, but this was definitely the first time that I had to go through the full casting process and organize it by myself… So I used a lot of the training that I had throughout being at Fordham and being at the BBC (where Kehayan interned for a semester while studying abroad in London). We (Kehayan and his roommate Michael Savasuk, FCLC ’10) had two casting sessions… we looked at the script and psychoanalyzed it to death and had enough in mind that we knew, in general, what type of actor would be right for the role, but at the same time, kept it so that we were open to something new.

Observer: As a filmmaker and musician, playing in the band Average Girl (who recently opened for MGMT at Fordham’s Spring Weekend concert), does film and music play an equal, unequal, or collaborative role in your life?

C.K.: In many ways they’re very similar, sometimes almost identical, in the process. So when I was writing the screenplay for my thesis and then writing songs at the same time, I found that I could draw inspiration for both from the same sources. [During] the production process I was still playing shows with Average Girl… and consistently playing music has influenced the way I’m editing now. Editing is kind of like playing an instrument because there’s a rhythm to it that’s very similar to a musical rhythm, and if it’s not right then the audience [will recognize the mistake]…if something’s off, it’s kind of like playing a bad note.

Observer: Without giving too much away, what can viewers expect from “I Speak, You Understand Me?”

C.K.: A familiarity and a connection to the characters and the dialogue. I spent a lot of time analyzing conversation when I was in the research process of doing this. A big part of it for me was to try and tackle the unspoken dynamics of relationships and of dialogue. So I studied a lot of dialogue when I was writing the script—a lot of real dialogue—and much of it came from Fordham students. I tried to really get the mathematical aspects of dialogue down and the rhythms of it. I’m hoping that will be reflected, and that a Fordham student who’s in their early ’20s will relate to characters just above that age, just going into this next stage that everyone’s fairly familiar with, and hopefully will see a piece of a dialogue that they’ve had or a feeling that they’ve had reflected in the dynamics of the characters.

Following the premiere of “I Speak, You Understand Me,” Kehayan’s film will be screened for a second time, along with “Man With Strings,” the senior thesis film by Tim Jalbert, FCLC ’10, on May 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Film Video Screening room of the Visual Arts wing on the FCLC campus.

“This first show is definitely like a stepping stone for the project since I know that it’s going to evolve after the show,” Kehayan said. “I don’t see the show or the exhibition at Fordham as being the final step of the film. I’m planning on refining it afterwards and using the feedback from this to get into a new stage.”