The sci-fi short film JETTISON follows a young woman who goes off to fight in an interstellar war

I have a short science fiction film here that you can watch today called Throw awaywhich comes from the writer and director JJ Pollack.

The film follows a restless young woman who sets off to fight an interstellar war, only to struggle with the effects of being cut off from her home by both time and space.

This short film is shared in collaboration with the FilmQuest Film Festival, where we are looking to showcase some of the amazing independent genre films and shorts that filmmakers are creating.

We’ve also included an interview with the directors below.

What was the inspiration for your film? How did the idea come to you?

There was a large (and unfortunately now defunct) science fiction film festival in Austin called Other Worlds, which at one point was awarding rather sizable grants to filmmakers to make science fiction shorts. I thought it was a super competitive process and had never thought about applying until I told a friend who knew some of the people who worked at the festival.

He told me that they had applied for two people the year before. So, knowing my odds were much better than expected, I wrote something that combined two topics I’m always interested in exploring (science fiction and veteran experiences) and surprise surprise, I got the funding to make it.

Tell us about yourself. What is your background? How long have you been a director?

Aside from a few early screenwriting attempts and the occasional casual job on local sets as a teenager (stacking cases of Mark Wahlberg’s special bottled water in The Fighter’s production office is truly an experience I’ll never forget), the Most of my background in cinema is that of a spectator, rather than that of a producer.

It wasn’t until I went to college that I really started getting into filmmaking, working on student sets every semester and directing my first short film my senior year. After graduation I moved to the independent film utopia of Austin, Texas and continued making short films, and now work there as a freelance editor.

What inspires you to work in genre cinema and tell these types of stories?

Science fiction has always been my favorite media genre, one of my earliest memories was staying up late on school nights to watch Blade Runner with my dad on VHS, and to this day I have a shelf full of science fiction books to read. it gets bigger and bigger.

For Jettison in particular, it was heavily inspired by Joe Haldemann’s The Forever War, which is probably obvious to anyone who’s read it. I also drew on more grounded media that dealt with military isolation and the effects of war and PTSD on soldiers in combat, such as Jarhead directed by Sam Mendes and Born on the Fourth of July directed by Oliver Stone.

What was your favorite part of the filmmaking process for this project?

As is usually the case for me, writing the script was my favorite part. If only because as I write this nothing has yet gone wrong, so in my mind the film is still perfect. Once production begins, reality can hit pretty hard.

What are you most proud of about this film?

Despite the low budget and short shots, I think we did a great job of building the world without relying on cheap-looking CGI and VFX, and making it feel like the characters were living in a lived-in but still futuristic universe. Science fiction can be a pretty expensive genre to work in, but if you do it intentionally, I think there are a lot of creative ways to get around budget constraints and still produce something interesting and visually appealing.

What is a favorite story or moment from the making of the film that you would like to share?

I bought, used, and then returned so many props, costumes, and set decorations from Amazon for this movie, that they messaged me saying they were worried about the environmental impact I was causing with all the boxes that had to be sent back and forth.

I don’t actually think they care about the environment, but in case you were wondering, yes, Amazon will ban you if you abuse the returns system enough in a short amount of time. So if you’re a filmmaker reading this, make sure you spread your purchases out across a few stores and scam Walmart and Target too, so no one place gets suspicious.

What was the most challenging moment or experience you had while making your film?

By far the biggest problem we encountered on set was with the costumes. Originally the soldier characters were only supposed to wear suits during the mess hall and non-combat scenes, and were supposed to wear closed spacesuits when on patrol, as the implication is that these are alien planets and would not necessarily be expected that they were. have breathable atmospheres.

Without going into too much detail, those costumes weren’t ready in time and we had to think about alternative solutions the same morning we shot the scene with the soldiers patrolling the beach.

We ended up going with an Annihilation-style look, repurposing the suits and adding backpacks and sleeping bags purchased from Walmart on the way to set (they have a very filmmaker-friendly return policy!). While it’s certainly far from perfect, I think we did a good job putting together something usable in the span of, literally, hours.

If so, how did your film change or differ from the original concept during pre-production, production, and/or post-production? How has it changed the way you approach future projects?

With the exception of a few minor changes here and there in the editing, the final film remained very close to the story and vision of the original script. The biggest change was probably deciding to make the film in black and white, even though we shot it in color.

Between the aforementioned costume issues, the lack of a huge budget to afford shooting in more exotic locations, and my desire for the visual effects to be as smooth and unobtrusive as possible, black and white was initially just our way of smoothing out some of the rougher aspects of the film. edges.

That’s the thing about art, though: constraints and mistakes in the making process can sometimes help the final product as much as hurt it. And I ended up loving the monochrome look of the film, even if that wasn’t always the plan.

Who were some of your collaborators and actors in the film? How did you start working together?

The film was shot by Garson Ormiston, who I worked with at a local equipment rental. The cast – led by Madison Wilson, Lauren Bonetti, Zachary T. Scott and John Valley – was a mix of new faces found through casting and actors I had already worked with on other projects.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a filmmaker and what would you like to say to new filmmakers?

If you plan to write the material to direct (as most directors do), develop your writing skills. Find people willing to give you honest feedback on your scripts. Be willing to listen to them. And don’t start pre-production on a project until you truly feel the script can’t improve.

The script will ultimately be the blueprint for the whole thing and a valuable tool in convincing the cast and crew to work with you, so don’t rush the process just because you’re anxious to start filming.

What are your plans for your career and what do you hope this film does for that? What kinds of stories would you like to tell moving forward?

My interests are quite broad and I love making genre films (of the sci-fi and thriller varieties) as well as simpler dramas and comedies. So I tend to choose projects based on how interesting a specific idea is to me, versus what kind of label I’m putting on myself or my career by doing it. If I could make a living writing, directing, or even editing narrative films, I would be delighted.

What’s your next project and when can we expect to see it?

I’m currently in post-production on my first feature film, a two-hander chamber drama called Nightcap. If all goes well on the festival circuit later this year, it should be released in 2025.

Where can we find more of your work and where can interested people contact you? Do you have a website or YouTube/Vimeo channel? Social media handles?

My website is jjpollack.com and I can also be found on Instagram at @gutfeelingfilms

Bonus question no. 1: What is your favorite movie of all time?

All that jazz

Bonus question no. 2: What is the film that most inspired you to become a director and/or had the greatest influence on your work?

As a child I watched Back to the Future so many times that my parents broke the VHS copy just to get me to stop. I’d say he’s a decent candidate.