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Beauty and Spirit Thru Sylvia’s Eyes by Don Schwartz
Sylvia Binsfeld, an actress turned director/producer, going to her Tribeca Film Festival Screening with the famous Taxi Ray. photo: Svetlana Cvetko
SYLVIA BINSFELD IS A SONOMA COUNTY-
based writer/producer/director who, had for a long time, only produced commercials and instructional or informational DVDs.
Then one day, out of the blue, she produced a sensational and seminal short entitled ‘Dorme,’ the Portuguese word for ‘sleep.’
As you’re about to read, that film has transformed her writing/producing career. Seated in my Larkspur, California living room I started at my traditional spot:
CineSource:Sylvia, where were you born?
Sylvia Binsfeld: I was born in San Francisco.
I moved to LA and lived there for five years. I was a single parent, with two girls. I was an actress, and we lived in Thousand Oaks. The trek to LA for all my auditions was really hard because there was so much traffic. And the overall environment for my kids wasn’t positive, so I decided to do all my work from here.
And that’s when I started to move to the other side of the camera, anyway. I wasn’t happy with the scripts I was getting, I didn’t like the messages that were put out in the world. I feel like, as filmmakers we have a big responsibility for what we’re putting out.
It affects people, it affects their way of thinking. I decided that there was more control on the other side of the camera, where I could have some input as to the messages I was delivering.
Going back, how did you get into acting?
That was a complete fluke. That wasn’t even a part of my personality. I was more of a homemaker kind for awhile. Now I’m so far from it, it’s not even funny.
I wanted to take a sewing class, but my girlfriend didn’t want to—she wanted to take an acting class. And I was going, ‘Hell, no, there’s no way I’m going to do an acting class.’ I was way too shy.
Finally, she agreed to do the sewing class, if I took the acting class. At the beginning of the acting class there was this big audition for the play that year, and I went with her to that, and I got the lead. [laughs]
Where was this?
In her actress incarnation, Sylvia Binsfeld, does a scene with Quentin Tarantino. photo: courtesy S. Binsfeld
This was in Santa Rosa, at the junior college. It was called ‘Fools’, a Neil Simon play; and I got the part of Sophia.
And you’d never acted before?
No. [laughs] It was comedy, and I was in a really good mood that day. You see how it is, like some days you’re more outgoing than other days. It was just a really good day.
Y’know, I had rehearsed and practiced because I didn’t want to make a complete ‘fool’ of myself...
[incredulous and jealous] You didn’t have ANY lessons, classes?!? You went in there cold?
No. Not before that... Well, I knew I needed to have a monolog, so I went in with a monolog...
Did you work with a coach on the monolog?
No.
Wow. So, that means you were a natural.
Yeah, but I think I was not quite ready. I was so nervous about that. I mean, I was excited, and it went really well, the play got great reviews. But I think that it was a lot all at once for me.
So, I got into the acting, took classes, and I got an agent, and the agent represented both actors and models. I ended up doing both.
Right around that time I also was going through a divorce. So, it ended up being really good for me to have that. I picked emotional parts [laughing] that helped me work through what I was feeling, when I was doing my auditions.
As far as the monologs I chose, it was really easy to express myself during that period. And also, it became a source of income. I did more modeling than acting in the Bay Area.
What prompted your move to Los Angeles?
There was a director, Aaron Goffman, I’d worked for in Santa Rosa. He moved to LA, and he cast me in ‘Dance Me to The End of Love.’ He had the project going with this up-and-coming director, who also wanted to act. They were looking for the romantic lead in this music video to play opposite the male lead, this new director everyone was talking about named Quentin Tarantino.
They'd gotten all these headshots, and weren’t happy with what they found, and Aaron goes, ‘You know there’s an actress in San Francisco I worked with, and I think is who you’re looking for.’ So I sent my headshot to him and I got called to LA.
Quentin was looking for somebody that looked like Julie Newmar, a Cat Woman, you know, and at that time people were telling me I had a resemblance—I feel I don’t any more. I knocked on Quentin’s door, and he opens the door, and all he says is, ‘Cat Woman!’ And I was cast just like that in a short with Quentin Tarantino.
Binsfeld and the star of her film, 'Dorme', Zachary Nascarr at the Cinequest Film Festival Screening. photo: Svetlana Cvetko
So, that was your first job in LA
That was my first job in LA, and I was pretty excited about it. It was a really great experience, everybody was great on the set. That was my first job in LA, and I was pretty excited about it. It was a really great experience, everybody was great on the set. It was a low-budget production, so we worked around the clock—long hours.
I hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before flying out. I was too excited. And then I literally only got a couple hours sleep between shoot days. Aaron, the director, had purposefully left Quentin and my love scene for the last scene on the last day, so that we had time to feel comfortable with each other, because I was going to be in this short silk nightie.
Earlier that day Quentin gave me a foot massage. I liked Quentin’s energy, he was a good guy. I was so relaxed, and actually, by that time I was suddenly so incredibly tired from lack of sleep, and the emotions I felt before flying out, that when my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.
Aaron would wake me up, but there are always camera and lighting adjustments, so by the time they were ready to shoot again, I was out again. When Aaron asked me to wake-up I would partially come to for the scene.
One person helping out on the set said jokingly that they were going to need to shake me awake, and Quentin became very protective of me. He didn’t like that joke. So my memory of the love scene is actually warm, quite fuzzy and dreamy. (laughs)
And, so then, after that I thought, ‘Okay, I’m gonna move to LA because there’s so much more work there.’ There wasn’t that much work for me in the Bay Area. I mean, they had things coming through, really, like—I’m dating myself—‘Midnight Caller’, and the good roles, really, weren’t going to any of the locals.
So, you spent five years in LA How did it go? Did you get jobs?
I got little jobs, but they were all little things like student films, stuff like that. I did do one with Robby Benson, ‘Double Exposure’, and I just had two lines. But I was dealing with my divorce—court hearings that I had to keep flying back for—my daughter broke both her arms, one in two places, roller blading at her friend's house. And that’s when I found out the kids had been taken off their dad's insurance.
So, there were all these costs, I had to work two jobs, was raising two kids, and all these things that were happening to me while trying to get to auditions usually over an hour away. I really wasn’t present to do my work as an actress. So, it went as good as it could. I had some super exciting things happen, but mostly, I felt I needed to be back in the Bay Area, where I had family.
And then you moved back to the Bay Area—both for yourself and your children—and then what happened?
Well, I was cast in this little cable show called ‘Livewire’, and I was one of the hostesses, and we basically did... It was kind of a combination of comedy like ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘Entertainment Tonight’ where we went out and interviewed people.
There was nothing scripted, and each of the hosts got to do their own segment, to produce it. And as soon as I got the taste of being able to have control over the content, I thought, ‘this is what I’d much rather be doing.’
So, then, I did a little video called ‘How to Get Your Child into TV Commercials’—because I was watching a lot of parents trying to get their kids into commercials, and I thought they were doing things that were really destructive towards the kids. So, this was something that was set up to help parents, and to protect the kids.
It got really great reviews because ‘Billboard Magazine’ was saying as soon as they saw the title, they thought, ‘oh, no, not another one of these.’ And as soon as they watched it, they were impressed that this was the first one they felt had the child’s best interest at heart.
So, did you self distribute it?
No. Tapeworm Distribution did.
So, your first piece got distributed!
Yeah! And what was really weird was I didn’t know that it was supposed to be difficult, so I just called this distribution place, and told them that they really needed this. They watched it, they liked what ‘Billboard Magazine’ had to say about it. And the ‘Video Librarian’ reviewed it nicely. And so they took it on.
And then I called F*A*O Schwarz, and somehow got through to the branding manager [laughs]. I told them that I felt this would be perfect for the store, just put it up front at the register. She goes, ‘You know, that does sound great! [laughs] And, so I got it into F*A*O Schwarz.
So, it was really weird because I just didn’t know the rules I was supposed to follow. But now that I know the rules I’m much shyer about approaching these people, right? It just had a small run for a couple years, and it did okay. Because it was a limited audience.
What happened after that?
After that, I did a commercial that was being distributed throughout the states. Have you seen the Blake Auto Body commercials, and you can tag it at the end with different auto body companies? It’s more of a story, a funny story. I did one in that type of style called ‘Fallen Angels’. It was a spoof on the term, ‘fallen angels’. It won a Telly Award.
So, I was really excited about that, and started my own production company. After that I was doing a TV commercial for a children’s boutique, and I heard this really mesmerizing Brazilian lullaby.
I don’t speak Portuguese, but it was just hypnotic. I thought, ‘This is just one of the most prettiest’... it was almost spiritual feeling. And I asked the owner, ‘Where is this music coming from?’ And she said we sell this CD, ‘Lullabies from All Over the World’.
So, I bought it right away, and I went home with that, and I was listening to it. I was laying on my bed, and this film just came to me—in its entirety. I mean every little detail. The story was to be told without words. And it just reminded me of my childhood imagination.
I think that kids grow up too fast these days, there’s so much adult information everywhere, they can’t avoid it. So, kids aren’t kids anymore. They get this information very early, before they can digest it. And, so, when I was laying there, I was reflecting on the innocence of my childhood.
I had a third child much later in life. And so, I have this baby, and I thought, ‘I would love to capture the magical imagination of childhood for him, for a little bit.’
So this film came to me. And what’s really nice, it speaks to the inner child in all of us. When it was done, it actually attracted an adult fan base, with people saying, ‘Thank you for recalling a feeling in me that I’d forgotten. This feeling of magic, and possibility, and hope.’
That’s how ‘Dorme’ came about.
What year did you make ‘Dorme’?
It was completed in 2007.
‘Dorme’ looks like an expensive short. How did you finance it?
Well, this is where it gets (laughs), it gets a little less fun. Some of it was through sponsors—like Clover Stornetta, Barbara Butler Playhouses, people who want to sponsor something for families and kids. But, the budget was really high.
It was short, but I shot it on Super 35 mm film. And then we kept it in a 2K format so that we kept all the film’s information when we were working on it. It was supposed to be awe-inspiring visually—because I wanted to move people spiritually with the visuals, and tell a story. So, that made it quite expensive.
So, you had sponsors.
So, I had the sponsors. And... [laughs] I put the rest on my home. I took out a second on my house. Financing is my Achilles’ Heel, I have a hard time asking for the money. I really would love to have an executive-producer on my next film.
And what happened, at that time, is when rates were suddenly going through the roof—and this was a variable loan—all of the sudden it became impossible to keep up with. So, I went ahead, and I saw the writing on the wall, and sold my house—still for top dollar, so I could pay that mortgage off.
So, how has ‘Dorme’ done financially?
It’s been all right. And part of it is—you know, I could use a budget to do more advertising. I look forward to getting creative with the marketing. It’s done well because I created a picture book to go with it—a 32-page picture book that has these beautiful visuals straight out of the film, with lyrical text. And, the DVD’s put in the back.
It’s sold as a set, and that made it viable—because it’s hard to sell a short. You can’t really make money on shorts unless you have another vehicle to sell it with. It’s been doing well. I just found out a couple days ago that it won the BAIPA Award (Bay Area Independent Publishers Association) so that's some positive feedback, plus this is the time of year, before the holidays, that sales pick up.
Is it self-distributed?
It is partially. It’s being distributed through Baker & Taylor to book stores. I'm focusing and working on getting it into toy and gift stores, because I feel that’s where it will do best. I had an agent, but she was going to have me change so much in the book that I wouldn’t even have recognized it. That was insane, because the film had already done so well at the film festivals. It premiered at Tribeca.
It won ‘Best Film’ at the Wine Country Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Danville Children’s Film Festival, it got a Telly Award as well. And then it won the Kids First Coalition for Quality Children’s Media Award. So, it’d done really well, and the book was going to be completely changed. It wasn’t even going to resemble the film.
There was another distributor originally interested in carrying ‘Dorme: A Magical Dreamland Visit’, who did work with toy stores. But she said that they do not ever distribute a single book, I have to have at least three books under my belt to make it worth their time and effort.
I told them how expensive it was to create, due to the companion film. I mean ‘Dorme’ had over one hundred effects. So, she let me know that she would go ahead and represent me if I had two book/DVD sets. So I'm in pre-production for my next fantasy film.
I want to go back to another one of your productions, ‘How to Get Your Film into Film Festivals: and What to Do When You Get There’.
That was just something I did rather quickly, almost like ‘How to Get Your Child into TV Commercials’. I had a really good film festival experience with ‘Dorme’. After Tribeca, we started receiving invitations, I didn’t have to keep submitting. It got into over 37 festivals. I lost count after that—because I just kept saying ‘yes,’ but I was no longer going to them. It had almost a two-year film festival run.
This guy, Dan Bennett, from the San Diego International Children's Film Festival, he kept calling me and asking me if he could show it at other festivals, and he’s run it at the same film festival several years in a row. It just showed at a festival—I think the LA Children’s Film Festival—recently, and I didn’t even know about it. [laughs]
So, it’s the ‘Wonderful Life’ version of children’s shorts.
What he said is that when it plays, the whole theater goes quiet because it’s wordless, so you have to focus to follow this boy through dreamland. And he said, ‘Even the dads sit quietly and watch.’ He loves showing it, he likes the audience reaction. And then after hurricane Katrina he had it showing in New Orleans.
So, that experience inspired your film festival DVD?
Well, it was a good experience. When people started asking about how to get into film festivals, I thought, first of all, the most important thing is to make a really good film. No getting around that. Then I just started to write down notes—and created this video for the beginning filmmaker, it’s not for people who’ve been there/done that. It’s more elementary.
So, you self-distribute this one, too?
I do, but I put no promotion behind it, except back room sales at speaking engagements for ‘Dorme’, and I mentioned it on a few filmmaker blogs. It was something I did on the side, and it sells on Amazon. I did a webinar, ‘Getting Your Indie Movie Into Film Festivals’, for Moviola. It was on how to get into film festivals, as well. That has sold much better because they put effort behind it. I'm investing my marketing energy into ‘Dorme’.
So, what are you doing now?
I really want to continue to do my own projects. I want to put things in the world that affect people. Even though ‘Dorme’ is a fantasy film, there’s a healing quality about it. A woman I know gave it to a friend of hers who has a child with autism, and she said, ‘I just feel this is something he needs.’ I want to do more of these kinds of films.
Once my child grows up, I want to do a feature. I’ve been working on a feature script, about life as a single mom—it’s a comedy. It’s not the story of my life by any means, but there’s a lot of little stories that come out of my life that will help form it. But, I want to wait on that because I know how all-consuming it is.
I’m a perfectionist in a good way. I want things done with quality. I work with a really good team. Svetlana Cvetko, the ‘Dorme’ cinematographer, was the cinematographer for ‘Inside Job’. Steve Wright did my special effects. He’s trained some of the people at Disney, he really knows his stuff. I’m a stickler for the shot looking right. Sometimes moving something over just a few frames is the difference between looking nice and magic.
Knowing what I put into just ‘Dorme’ already, if I take on a feature film, I’m going to be dead to the world for awhile because I will be so engrossed in that. So, I’m going to wait for my son to be off in college, and then I’ll jump in.
So, at this point, I want to do a series of these books with the fantasy films, that's going to keep me busy for a while.
And, so, you were alluding to what you want your productions to do. Would you talk some more about your philosophy of story-telling, filmmaking?
I wait for something to really grab me. It has to be an idea that isn’t just like, ‘Oh, this would be cool to do.’ It’s gotta be something where it just hits a deeper chord in me, and then I become impassioned with it. I really believe in the connection we have to all things. And I feel like putting something in the world that’s healing and productive, that promotes peace, compassion and connection.
I read about when the astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, was returning to Earth. He has this sensational experience of suddenly seeing all the stars, seeing our planet, seeing how everything is inter-connected—and he asked himself why are we harming each other? We are all one. That there’s this beauty, incredible beauty of the human spirit. And I want to capture the beauty of the human spirit. And I do it through fantasy, but it’s really inspired by a spiritual feeling that I have that there is so much more than meets the eye, so many more layers to existence.
We’re so busy. You know, everything keeps us busy, and we’re really in a digital age, where there’s so much information coming at us at once, that just sometimes taking the time to go into the forest, quietly connect with nature, and do some reflecting is so important. Without that quiet time we can lose touch with ourselves and a feeling of true connection with others. And I do believe that there is a common thread that runs through every single human being on this planet, regardless of race, religion, or gender. That is what I bring into my films despite the fact that they look like fantasies. There is that mystical feeling of connection I capture, and I think that’s why I have such a strong adult fan base.
The Spiritual Cinema Circle purchased ‘Dorme’ for a one-time use in their DVD of the month club, and I just got fan mail from adults, childen, men, women—they said thank you for creating such a treasure. One man said that sometimes throughout the day he hums the melody from the film, and it somehow brings him peace.
There’s so much negative information that we get, so much bad news, and people do horrible things. But I really believe in the beauty of human nature, and that is what I celebrate in my films. And it’s an innocence. I think there’s really a loss of innocence—especially for children who are inundated with far too adult information these days. It cuts childhood too short. When I talk about innocence regarding adults, I’m not talking about ignorance—because that’s something I have a really hard time tolerating. I’m talking about innocence where we do believe in the good, and we embrace the good, in all of us.
So, that innocence. A return to innocence starts with self-honesty, where we just let go of what's dark in us, work through it—again, not in an ignorant way, but always aware that it exists—confronting ourselves, which can be unpleasant sometimes, then transforming, choosing to embrace the higher potential of the human spirit, changing the world, one person at a time. And that is what I’m trying to put into my films, the beauty, because what we as filmmakers put out into the world, affects more people than we’ll ever know.
Is there anything else you want to say about your spiritual experiences?
I have had some personal spiritual experiences that have made me aware of the fact that the spirit lives on, and that the spirit is really what we’re all about, that this is a shell [indicating her body], and that people work so much on their shell. I think it’s important to stay healthy, but there’s so much focus on the physical world, and what we need to be doing is nurturing our spirit, because ultimately that’s what we’re going to be stuck with (laughs).
I had an experience where a friend of mine—we had stopped our friendship, and he had moved to Europe—and I had an experience where I felt and saw him in my room, this was at night. And I knew he had died. I called my mom the next morning, and said that I felt that Michael had died. He was only 30 years old. She said, ‘no no no no, that was just a symbolic dream about the ending of a relationship.’ And I said, ‘It did not feel anything like a dream.’ And I had all sorts of details that were not dream-like at all.
But, then, I finally partially bought into what she was saying. And then six months later, I found out from another friend that she had read in her hometown paper that he had died of a heart attack—around the time that I had had that experience of him saying a warm goodbye to me.
So, that was enough evidence for me, right there, that there’s more than what meets the eye. And that’s the world I like to delve in when I’m doing my films.