A Conversation with Seth Savoy
I spoke with Cajun-American filmmaker Seth Savoy about his directorial debut Echo Boomers, available NOW in select theaters, Video on Demand and digital platforms. We also discussed his Cajun heritage and why it’s important for cinemas/movie theaters to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yanis: I was born in France and so I love Old French names like Savoy.
Seth: My family is hardcore Cajun French. My dad wrote a Cajun dictionary called The Cajun Home Companion.
Y: And do you speak French?
S: I do. I got Cajun tattoos. I’m a hardcore Cajun boy. New Orleans is my favorite city in the United States. It just has so much culture. It’s beautiful.
Y: How far back can you trace your ancestry?
S: Pretty far. My dad has a Savoy family tree that goes all the way back to the 1700s, which is pretty wild.
Y: Have you ever visited the Canadian province of New Brunswick? Many Cajuns can trace their ancestry back to New Brunswick and some of the Cajuns I’ve spoken to say their trip to New Brunswick felt like a spiritual homecoming.
S: I haven’t. Man, it’s definitely on the list.
Y: So you grew up in Arkansas?
S: I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. I went to an all-boys really strict Catholic High School with no arts program. I find that painfully ironic.
Y: Both you and Lance (Patrick Schwarzenegger)[the protagonist of Echo Boomers] came from the south and moved up to Chicago.
S: You totally caught on! You totally figured me out already.
Y: And what was that first winter like in Chicago?
S: It’s that wind. That wind will beat you up. They had this thing called the “snowpocalypse” the year before I got there. It snowed during rush hour that day and cars got stuck and couldn’t move. So everyone abandoned their cars on Lakeshore Drive, and it became this legendary winter.
I came the next year, and after seeing all that stuff it was easy. I was expecting this massive thing and it didn’t live up to that.
But the years after man, it can get down to -20 Fahrenheit.
Y: Yeah it’s no joke in Chicago. Echo Boomers is your directorial debut. Congrats! Why this story? Why this film? Why did you need to tell this story?
S: I think what kind of sparked it was in 2013 I moved to Chicago. I went to Columbia College and I spent a really ridiculous amount of my savings going to film school. I got to the finish line, and there’s no shortage of filmmakers. I had this massive debt and at the time, serendipitously enough, I was reading these articles in Chicago about these college kids that had degrees, but they were busting into the homes of the wealthy.
And weirdly enough I could relate to why they were doing this, and it just clicked. And I took that and ran with it and it became Echo Boomers. From there Sean Kaplan was the producer that I met in Chicago. We kind of crafted the story and brought it to Mike’s team and got Michael Shannon attached, and the rest is history.
Y: This is a great film. Everybody gave a great performance. Was it smooth sailing from the beginning or were there any moments of difficulty? If so, how did you overcome these moments?
S: The only part I thought I was over my head was raising this amount of money. Just because I was a first timer, it’s really hard to convince people to invest their hard earned dollars into you when you’re not really proven yet.
So that was tough, but Sean Kaplan and Byron Wetzel swept it all together. Once we got over that hump it honestly worked out great. I’m excited for the next film to be of an even bigger budget because I know what I could do with it.
Y: You definitely proved yourself on this one. Saban Films has released it. As a millennial, were you a Power Rangers fan?
S: Man. Three-year-old or four-year-old Seth would be so proud of 28-year-old Seth right now because I was the biggest Power Rangers fan in the world. I remember I was a huge Green Ranger fan. I was absolutely head over heels.
Y: How exciting is it for you to have your directorial debut released in theaters?
S: I’m so proud of Echo because it gets to be a part of this little time period in cinema history where people need to go to the theaters more than ever.
I’m so proud it gets to be a part of the solution and keep theaters alive. When theaters needed movies the most, the studios ran for it and they all pushed back. They gave people like me, these indie guys, a chance to come in and really give the theaters the movies they’ve been asking for. And I’m proud I get to be a part of that solution.
Y: Right on! The job interview scenes were a riot. Were those based on your personal experiences?
S: 100 per cent man I feel like a lot of people in our generation will laugh at those because they’re so unbelievably relatable. It’s almost undeniable.
It’s funny man. Everything happens for a reason and I truly believe that. For the longest time I wanted to work at a marketing company. I wanted to be a creative director. Getting turned down so many times actually gave me the freedom to work on Echo. So if that guy would have said “yes Seth we’ll give you this job,” I never would have made Echo which is beautifully ironic.
Y: Lance famously said rule number one is it’s all about who you know. So I’m curious who gave you your first opportunity?
S: I met an old school director named John D. Hancock. And John was nominated for an Academy Award in the late 60s or early 70s He did some movies you still see on TV every now and then like Prancer. He did Bang the Drum Slowly with Robert DeNiro. I met John in film school.
John taught me these lessons I’ve taken with me throughout this process that I started to truly digest while making Echo. “Casting is 80 per cent of directing,” and I didn’t understand what he meant by that until you have Michael Shannon in front of you, and these people who are absolute professionals. You realize they’re making your job so much easier because you did the casting properly.
Y: John D. Hancock did right by you with that advice.
S: He really did. I’m blessed to have him.
Y: How fun were those destruction scenes?
S: It was pretty fun man. I mean some actors enjoy it more than others. But it was fun, it was infectious. I mean who doesn’t want to kind of go at it and release some anger? I think everyone really enjoyed it. It was definitely a highlight of the shoot.
Y: It was fun to watch. The house in the climax was beautiful. I’m obsessed with it.
S: It was something else. Our location manager in Salt Lake was hesitant to show me it because he tried to get it for multiple movies, and it just didn’t work out. He showed it to me and I was like “Andy what do I have to do? I’ll take these guys out to dinner. I’ll do anything. Let’s just get in there” and it just kind of worked.
It was one of those things that lined up with the universe and we called them and they were like “yeah this movie sounds great, let’s do it and it’ll work out.” It’s just such a stunning house isn’t it?
Y: I loved it. Not as much as Lance and his friends loved it, but I liked it a lot.
S: That song we play in the vault. I loved playing with this idea throughout the entire movie of “they’re going into this vault and you don’t know if there’s money or not.” It seems like there is but that kind of seems outlandish. And then you get in there and they play While I Pray and it’s this beautiful, unbelievable moment which plays so well on the big screen.
Y: Agreed, people are going to love that. Was that Greta Van Fleet I was hearing in the business conference scene?
S:It was! I’m a big Greta Van Fleet fan. As a young artist to another artist I had to get them. And they were cool about it, they were hyped to be in the movie.
Y: I thought it was Led Zeppelin. I can’t tell the difference sometimes.
S: I’m the same way and I think that’s what attracts most people to them.
Y: Echo Boomers mentions rules and lessons to live by. Are there any rules or lessons you like to live by?
S: I really believe tenacity is what defines you as a filmmaker and I always believed if you knock on Hollywood’s door long enough and hard enough you’re bound to wake someone up.
That’s the approach I took to this film and I think it got finished beautifully.
You can follow Seth Savoy on Instagram.
