Improv Magic: How Sam Davis and Co redefined short film storytelling on 'The Singers'
Academy Award nominated filmmaker Sam Davis joins us to discuss 'The Singers,' his genre-bending adaptation of Turgenev's 19th-century tale that transforms a lowly pub into a stage for unexpected human connection. Working exclusively with first-time actors discovered on TikTok and YouTube, he reveals how embracing spontaneity led to moments of pure cinematic magic—including a bathroom performance that became one of the film's most powerful scenes.
Our conversation explores Sam's commitment to authenticity over convention, from shooting on film to allowing real vulnerability to emerge naturally from his cast of non-actors. He discusses subverting masculine stereotypes while capturing the raw emotional isolation that defines his characters' lives within the bar's confines.
Davis' approach blends classical filmmaking elegance with documentary unpredictability, creating something entirely unique in contemporary cinema. As our chat concludes, he hints at future projects that continue pushing the boundaries between narrative and documentary storytelling.
Transcript
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Speaker A:And this is our conversation with Sam Davies, director of the short film the Singers.
Speaker B:You know, the thing I'm proudest of is like, I can say that I've never seen anything quite like this film.
Speaker B:And you know, we didn't want it to feel like a documentary.
Speaker B:We wanted it to feel like a really elegantly, really well thought out, beautifully crafted, almost like classical piece of movie making, but within the frame, you know, the personalities and things being said and the, you know, the characters had this sort of documentary wildness and spontaneity.
Speaker A:To begin with.
Speaker A:I feel like we just have to start with this because it's so fascinating to me.
Speaker A:How did you go about the vacancy of a script?
Speaker A:Because, yeah, I have many questions about this and by that I mean many.
Speaker A:So really I'm just gonna throw a couple of them out there.
Speaker A:Like, does that mean full on improv?
Speaker A:What was the outline of the story and how did that change along the act of shooting the short?
Speaker A:The Singers.
Speaker B: ort story that was written in: Speaker B:So we at least had that, you know, there was no screenplay for the film.
Speaker B:There was sort of like an outline, but really we had the loose, very loose framework of the original short story.
Speaker B:And then the concept was really, we called it curated chaos.
Speaker B:We wanted to go in with a lot of unknowns and we spent over a year getting in touch with first time actors.
Speaker B:You know, at that point, non actors from all around the country and all around the world.
Speaker B:Someone came from Australia.
Speaker B:We found them on TikTok and YouTube.
Speaker B:Some of them were these viral singing sensations that, you know, might have appeared on Australia's Got Talent or America's Got Talent or the Voice.
Speaker B:Um, others were just random people.
Speaker B:I found sort of the depths of, of my TikTok algorithm.
Speaker B:And so yeah, we went into it really with, without a script, all of the dialogue.
Speaker B:You know, I think because none of these guys had ever acted before and they didn't have a script, all they knew how to do was be themselves.
Speaker B:And so I think the dialogue in the film feels very, almost documentary.
Speaker B:It's stuff that I could have never written.
Speaker B:You know, when people ask who wrote the script, I honestly feel like if we were to credit anyone, it would be.
Speaker B:It truly was a collaboration between myself and each of the actors who, you know, were in a given shot or scene.
Speaker B:We would sort of, you know, chaotic, improvisational, sort of live process of trying different things and seeing what, what felt true.
Speaker B:But also like what advanced the story in some way, if we needed to advance the story in that moment.
Speaker A:As someone who comes from primarily a cinematography background, do you feel this influenced your confidence in relying so heavily on visual plus musical storytelling and the moment rather than scripted dialogue?
Speaker B:Not necessarily.
Speaker B:For me to shoot and direct simultaneously feels very organic, especially in, in this case where, like, I needed to be so close to the camera because I need.
Speaker B:I needed to be close to the actors because we were literally, you know, I was, I was in their eye line, you know, basically playing across from them, or I was hiding behind the camera and feeding them an idea for a line in the middle of the take.
Speaker B:And it was this sort of, you know, call and response thing.
Speaker B:My background as a cinematographer was important, of course, because I think it's a pretty visual film, like you said, but really what we were doing was so new.
Speaker B:I had never done anything quite this unorthodox in terms of all the unknown, you know, all the variables and going about it without a script, etc.
Speaker A:Yeah, and you really did well.
Speaker A:Multiple hats on this project.
Speaker A:As in other than directing and lensing, you also edited as far as I know.
Speaker A:Plus, of course, you are a producer on it.
Speaker A:How do you navigate these different roles?
Speaker A:Do you find, or do you need to find ways to separate these responsibilities?
Speaker A:Or is this something that just kind of naturally blends together throughout the creative process?
Speaker B:You know, I think directing in cinematography is very natural because I'm right, like I said, right by the camera, obviously lighting a scene.
Speaker B:You know, I'm working with my team to light a scene.
Speaker B:Meanwhile, you know, I give them direction and then I turn back to the actors and we're talking about one thing and I look up and I'm looking at the frame and I give them a note and then I'm.
Speaker B:I'm back with the actors.
Speaker B:And editing is, you know, we shot this film on, on celluloid.
Speaker B:And because it was so improvisational, it wasn't like we could just roll constantly.
Speaker B:So we didn't slate.
Speaker B:There was no time code or, or slating because we needed to be able to roll a 15 minute take as far as the actors were concerned.
Speaker B:But little do they know I'm behind the camera and my finger is on the, on the button the whole time.
Speaker B:And I'm, I'm rolling and cutting very sporadically throughout that, just mentally editing.
Speaker B:So I'm literally editing, directing and shooting all at the same time.
Speaker B:Even though in their own respects, those roles are, you know, compartmentalized with the bulk of the Editing, of course, being done after the shoot, and.
Speaker B:But in a sense, it feels very organic, I guess.
Speaker B:And it comes from my background in documentary more than my.
Speaker B:My background in cinematography, which is just where I've become very, very comfortable with just being a filmmaker.
Speaker B:I just think of myself as a filmmaker, and these are different parts of my.
Speaker B:My role.
Speaker A:There is the aforementioned cinematography, singing, cinematography, music and visual language.
Speaker A:This is a.
Speaker A:Not just a big question, but a rather holistic one.
Speaker A:What does this synchronicity, or perhaps pun intended, symphony mean to you as a filmmaker and.
Speaker A:Yeah, a human being in general?
Speaker B:Well, music is sort of the one thing that I don't have a background in.
Speaker B:You know, I'm not.
Speaker B:I can't sing.
Speaker B:I don't play any instruments.
Speaker B:So in a way, that was the most foreign element to me.
Speaker B:And we talked about this being a docu musical, that's what I like to call it when I was pitching it, because I just have never heard of that.
Speaker B:And we were trying to do something that we had never heard of because we, for making a short film, it ought to be something we've never seen before.
Speaker B:There's just too much great stuff out there, and it's really hard to make something wholly original, I think.
Speaker B:But when you do it, when you go about it in this unique of a way, and you rely on so many different, you know, real people to help breathe life into it, it becomes and.
Speaker B:And individual, you know, respective talents, and you just kind of forget the.
Speaker B:You forget the rules of filmmaking or at least the, you know, the traditions, and do something very unique.
Speaker B:The music itself is.
Speaker B:I don't know, it was as improvisational as everything else.
Speaker B:You know, we.
Speaker B:We came up with the songs that the artists were going to sing either the day before or in some cases, the day of.
Speaker B:Judah.
Speaker B:Judah Kelly.
Speaker B:Who's.
Speaker B:Who won the Voice Australia.
Speaker B:Who is the.
Speaker B:The guy who sings in the bathroom in the film?
Speaker B:I had no plan of having him sing in the bathroom, but when we were getting ready to shoot his scene, I just was feeling like we had been in the bar too much and it was getting a little.
Speaker B:I was getting a little tired, maybe, visually.
Speaker B:And I was like, oh, man, I don't want to tell him, like, he's not going to sing in the movie.
Speaker B:He came all the way here from Australia and I'm gonna, you know, I don't have to have room for him in the movie.
Speaker B:And so I was.
Speaker B:I was stressed and I went for a walk and I went to the bathroom to go pee and I hadn't even scouted the bathroom before, not in that way anyway.
Speaker B:And it had this like rosy pink, you know, original tile.
Speaker B:You know, the walls were covered in this pink tile and sort of was glowing and it was so different than this, you know, sort of like hyper masculine looking lodge that was the rest of the bar.
Speaker B:And Judah was shy to begin with.
Speaker B:You know, he came all this way and, you know, he was a little nervous practicing and singing and has this beautiful angelic voice.
Speaker B:And so I was like, judah, what do you think about singing while you pee?
Speaker B:And he thought I was joking at first, I think, but.
Speaker B:But I convinced him to do it.
Speaker B:And when he did, you know, his voice just reverberated throughout this bathroom and.
Speaker B:And it felt very true to him and I think added another dimension to.
Speaker B:To the movie.
Speaker B:So I don't know exactly how to answer that question that.
Speaker B:But I. I think each.
Speaker B:Each of the singers brought something that feels very lived in and textured and personal to them.
Speaker B:So in that sense, you know, hopefully it sort of synthesizes with the whole aesthetic of the movie.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'd imagine having a strictly scripted film, you might not have had the chance to, for example, just come up with the idea of shooting in the bathroom and.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely not.
Speaker B:I think we, you know, you can, of course, I understand why scripts are a thing, of course, but I also think in some ways they can limit you.
Speaker B:And the whole exercise with this project was to take a big risk and see what happened if we didn't have that limitation.
Speaker B:And, you know, we didn't want it to feel like a documentary.
Speaker B:We wanted it to feel like a really elegantly, really well thought out, beautifully crafted, almost like classical piece of moviemaking, but within the frame, you know, the personalities and things being said and the, you know, the characters had this sort of documentary wildness and spontaneity.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, that was the vision to see if, like, we could.
Speaker B:We could merge those two sort of opposite ends of the spectrum in a really original way.
Speaker A:As for the type of bar scene you're depicting and the type of people who you might expect to run into.
Speaker A:What were the preconceptions or stereotypes about such spaces and places that you were interested in exploring or subverting?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, I think the main thing we're subverting is just like the helplessly sort of emotionally hardened, you know, man, really this person who has, you know, suppressed every emotion and probably is very jaded by life for whatever reason, each of them, you know, and I think you can feel that they all wear a lot on their face, but it's different that, you know, different things.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And we hear little.
Speaker B:Little clues as to what, you know, hardships they've lived through that have made them who they are and that have brought them here to this point where they're just very cold, emotionally and very disconnected and probably all very lonely.
Speaker B:You know, they're all in the same bar.
Speaker B:But for the first half of the movie, we pretty much only shoot them in singles because we wanted to, for one, showcase their, you know, those.
Speaker B:The years on their faces, but also isolate them and treat them as individuals, lonely individuals within a space.
Speaker B:And, you know, over the course of the film, we.
Speaker B:We subvert that expectation that.
Speaker B:That they don't have the capacity to be vulnerable and to connect with one another on a.
Speaker B:A deeper level than saying, it's really cold out there, or, you know, those sort of cliches.
Speaker B:There's a moment in the film where two veterans are seated next to each other and they're just sharing about their experiences.
Speaker B:One was in Vietnam, the other was in Iraq.
Speaker B:And the old man sort of gets fed up with.
Speaker B:He feels himself, you know, slipping into vulnerability.
Speaker B:You know, he feels himself getting emotional.
Speaker B:He says, I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Speaker B:And then a moment later, he says, you know, he feels bad.
Speaker B:So he says, how about that snow?
Speaker B:You know, it keeps.
Speaker B:Keeps coming down out there.
Speaker B:And so he's deflecting, and he still wants to make small talk, but doesn't want to go there.
Speaker B:And that's really what the film is trying to do very slowly throughout the 17 minutes.
Speaker B:And the movie starts with a fight and ends with a hug.
Speaker B:So it's sort of this whole.
Speaker B:The full evolution of, you know, the trope of a sad, lonely drunk at a bar.
Speaker A:And last but not least, it's obvious that you don't think of this no script thing as a. I don't know, as a gimmick, but.
Speaker A:And I'm not looking for an exact yes or no, but do you think of it as something that's worth further exploring specifically for you.
Speaker B:Like doing more projects like this?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:No, I.
Speaker B:A handful of people have inquired about, like, developing this into a.
Speaker B:Into something longer, a feature, and I don't think that's what it is.
Speaker B:I think it's a. I think this is a short.
Speaker B:Some shorts are just our shorts.
Speaker B:They're not proofs of concept, but I do think that it's a proof of concept for a very specific and pretty fresh filmmaking voice that we're honing in on here with this.
Speaker B:You know, the thing I'm proudest of is, like, I can say that I've never seen anything quite like this film, and I can't say that about any of my other.
Speaker B:My other work to date.
Speaker B:So I. Yeah, I'm really proud of that.
Speaker B:And I. I definitely want to continue to evolve that, explore that sort of that space, kind of the middle ground in between documentary and narrative and ways to subvert it.
Speaker A:Well, honestly, I can't wait to see whatever it is.
Speaker A:But until then, this film, the Singers, is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker A:I've seen it twice now and wheel many more.
Speaker A:And, yeah, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker B:Thank you, man.
Speaker B:It's not always easy to get eyeballs on a short film, so appreciate you telling the world about it.
