Morgan Evans: Writer/Director/Comedian

Morgan "Dangerish" Evans is a writer/director/comedian living in New York City who has reached mild levels of fame after being the first person to successfully embed a YouTube video into a handwritten letter. In addition to being the Touchscreen Segment Producer at The Onion News Network, he sometimes stares for hours on end at a blank wall, writes stuff for The Huffington Post and eats a lot of food. You can follow his Twitter feed here, and learn more about him life-wise here.

What is the current project you are working on?

I’m working on a fifteen (maybe sixteen) episode web series. It’s a very dark/weird depiction of events from my life twisted around and turned into what some people might call comedy. There aren’t any through-lines or overarching plot-points so in that sense it’s quite different from the serialized stuff you see on YouTube or whatever. That being said it’s not like individual sketches or anything either. The best way to describe it is a series of short films that might string together tonally. (http://kck.st/rkbE9V)

Why do you want to have a bunch of different directors direct an episode of the webseries?

The “different directors for each episode” thing was, for me, an attempt at opening up a collaboration with talented individuals who I thought could bring something fresh and interesting to this project. I tried to place an emphasis on female directors for a few different reasons I don’t care to go into, suffice to say this world is a horrible place and more women should be behind the camera.

How do you measure success?

With a success-o-meter. No, I don’t know. I mean, I always have goals, and sometimes, more often than not recently, I will meet those goals but it won’t feel like a “successful” act. It’s amazing how quickly the extraordinary becomes ordinary is how my therapist put it. For example, I was up for two roles on two different TV shows and I got them both. For like two months that was all I wanted, to get those roles, and it was all I thought about, but then when it happened I didn’t really know what to do with myself but like find something else to work towards. I’d measure true success to be when you want something so badly that when you actually get it you can be completely content, but I don’t think that’s really possible. Maybe success is when you get to a point in which you stop caring about “this role or that role or this project or that project” and can just be happy knowing that you’ve done a lot of that shit already. Who knows.

How do you handle rejection?

Poorly.

Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

Not at first. I’ll elaborate in the next question.

What inspired you to become filmmaker?

I sort of started out as a child actor. I always really wanted to be Jim Carrey. When I found out I couldn’t actually be another person I decided I wanted to do whatever it was that Jim Carrey did. This was when I was five. So I got an agent and started doing commercials and stuff, and then I started getting really nerdy about how they made commercials. That’s when I started using my parents’ video camera and screaming at my little brother to hit his marks a lot.

What is the best thing about being one?

You get to scream at your little brother to hit his marks a lot.


What is the worst thing about being one?

Telling people “no”. The thing I hate most is getting asked by someone you respect or are friends with to direct an episode or sketch or short or whatever for them and having to turn them down because you’re working on your own projects or you’re already booked or whatever. It makes you feel like a dick. Who are you to tell this super talented individual who has big enough balls to be out there shooting something that you can’t do his/her project because you’re doing this short next weekend in which dogs talk?

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

Hundreds. My original sort of two-man comedy project “Tim and Morgan” has over 56 videos on our Vimeo. That’s from when I was like 13-18. New York-wise, I’ve P.A.ed or just dicked around on dozens of stuff made by UCB people, which is great and always fun. I’ve also done two pretty successful shorts “Upload” and “The Rest of Caesar” which were a lot of work and are now circulating film festivals, notably The Friars Club Comedy Film Festival and NewFilmmakers NY, respectively. Professional project-wise, not acting, I’ve done two seasons of The Onion News Network, so that’s about it.

Who is your favorite filmmaker?

Ingmar Bergman.

How has your life changed since you became a filmmaker?

I still watch movies and television but now I call them “research.”

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

Listen to the advice of people more successful than me. Or, just, you know, go do stuff. Make stuff. Get involved with The UCB and schmooze your way into an internship and then do that internship so well that they have to hire you. That’s my advice, that’s what I did.

What do you like to do besides filmmaking?

I like to eat food, go to restaurants, brunch hard, drink a lot and read. Also stand up. I really enjoy stand up. Improv is on this list as well.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become a filmmaker?

My first-ever paid job was when I got hired as a Web Producer at The Onion. I had been an intern on the TV show for a while, as an assistant to one of the directors (JJ Adler), and after Season 1 wrapped she recommended me to the digital guys because I was such a nerd (As an intern I basically managed and produced the “RECONWALL” which is a 56” fully functioning touchscreen device). Then during Season 2 I was hired on the show like a real person and given the credit “Touchscreen Segment Producer.” After Season 2 wrapped I quit The Onion digital team in order to focus on this series and do festival stuff with my short film “Upload.” If there’s a Season 3 I hope I’d be asked back.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

American Films:

Every Woody Allen movie. “Real Life” by Albert Brooks. “Terms of Endearment” by James L. Brooks. “Network” by Sydney Lumet. “Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown” by Cassavettes. “Duck Soup” by Leo McCarey. “His Girl Friday” by Howard Hawks. Harold Lloyd stuff. “Vertigo” by Hitchcock. “The Apartment” by Billy Wilder. “A New Leaf” by Elaine May.

Foreign Films:

“Fanny and Alexander” by Ingmar Bergman. “The Antoine Doinel Series” by Truffaut (specifically “Stolen Kisses”). “Juliet of The Spirits” by Fellini. “The Orpheus Trilogy” by Cocteau. All that pretentious shit. Oh also “The Rules of The Game” because of course.

Television:

Louie, The Larry Sanders Show, Murphy Brown, The Sopranos, Lost, The West Wing, Peep Show, Seinfeld, Arrested Development. Basically I like your friend’s whole Tumblr account.

Web Series:

Broad City and Duder.

How would you describe your film education?

I’m a screenwriting major at SVA. It’s fine. It forces you to write on a deadline, which you might not be doing otherwise. Career-wise I can say this; every job or industry thing I’ve booked has in no way shape or form been related to my experience at SVA. All The Onion stuff, my work for Huffington Post, any interview I’ve had with Daily Show, Fallon, or IFC has been a direct extension of what’s going on at The UCB theatre here in New York. Film school won’t get you jobs, UCB will. I promise.

How would you describe the film "scene" where you live?

I’m involved with two very disparate scenes here in New York. There’s the comedy scene in which everyone is shooting their own stuff, sketch-wise, series-wise, whatever-wise and putting it online or showing it at Channel 101 or whatever, and there’s the Toby Talbot Walter Reade Theater scene in which you go see a print of “Seventh Seal” at four in the afternoon and are the youngest person in the theater by forty years. Both are AMAZING.

How has social media changed the independent film industry?

It’s either killed it, helped it, or turned it into something new. I’m not sure. On one hand people might be less inclined to do a feature film or something because they can go make a FlipCam video that satisfies that impulse and put it up on YouTube. On the other hand maybe those people are using YouTube to post a trailer to their feature length movie they shot on a FlipCam. God, I don’t know. I imagine Twitter helps. I follow a lot of movies on there. I follow the Weinstein Company. It’s changing something I guess.

What's your opinion on crowdfunding?

I’m for it. I back stuff all the time. I’m more inclined to back physical projects like “We’re trying to fix up this basement so we can turn it into a stage!” or “We’re trying to fix up this stage so we can turn it into a basement!” than I am films and stuff. Actually that’s not true. I love both.

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

I don’t know. They both need each other and I think they both take turns setting the standards of where film is headed. ‘Breathless’ wouldn’t have existed had American-mainstream-pulpy-thriller-movies not been a thing, and the ‘Breathless’ remake with Richard Gere wouldn’t have been a thing had ‘Breathless’ not existed. I love bullshit Natalie Portman rom-coms just as much as the next totally immasculated guy, but I also really like those movies where people wonder around a desert for two hours talking about Proust. Both have a place.

You could go back in time and see any film being made. Which film would it be and why?

Probably “Animal Crackers” because it was filmed right up the block from my house. If I’m already traveling through time why bother with space?

What's your favorite movie quote and why?

The awful thing about life is this: Everybody has their reasons. – Octave, The Rules of The Game

Why? It's true.

What is your opinion on movie remakes and sequels?

Make ‘em if you got ‘em.

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptions?

I am for them. I don’t think they “ruin the books” and I don’t get mad when “it isn’t true to the book” because if it was really “true to the book” then they would have just made the movie a book, which they didn’t.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes. If you’re a creative person and terrible at scheduling, calling people, or getting meetings put together production-wise, find someone who wants to be a producer and start working together. The best thing you could do is get someone who is going to hound you about your own project and stop you from getting all “mehhhh” half-way down the line when the ship is full steam ahead, or warp speed ahead, or whatever, I don’t know what kind of ship you’re on. Mine is Matthew Hobby, and he's a genius.

Thank you Morgan for doing the interview. I wish you the best of luck with your webseries. I'll do what i can to spread the word about it.