‘15 years and $1,500′ – A movie’s unlikely journey to the Austin Film Festival

Two friends, 14 years and one silly movie – that’s the strange math behind a film getting its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival this weekend, to the utter surprise of its first-time feature filmmakers.

“Subtopia: The Story of Hueco Canyon” is about the chaos that ensues around a homeowners association in a fictional Texas neighborhood.

Writers and directors Luis Caffesse and Clifford Wildman stopped by the Texas Standard studio. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: In 2010, shows like “The Office” were on TV. “Parks and Rec” had just begun. Where did the idea for this mockumentary come from?

Luis Caffesse: The idea for the film itself actually started even steps before 2010, shortly after September 11th and the passage of the Patriot Act.

Cliff and I saw kind of the extreme reaction to that and the struggle between freedom and security and everything seemed to be getting so absurd to us. And we thought if we could take that same sort of approach and put it against the backdrop of something much smaller, like a neighborhood HOA, it would kind of highlight the absurdity of what was going on.

You guys had worked on TV projects together, but this was a much bigger undertaking. What resources did you have?

Cliff Wildman: So the crew was about the average size that we work with. It was just myself and Lewis. So two people – and we got a little bit of help here and there.

And then the budget itself was exorbitant. I believe that we pegged it at around $1,500.

Caffesse: Yeah. At the end of the day, we crossed the finish line just under 15 years and $1,500.

Cliff Wildman, left, and Luis Caffesse are the primary crew behind the film “Subtopia.”

So no surprise maybe when life got in the way and this was put on the shelf. Was that something you had a conversation about?

Wildman: No, It was one of those things that I think both of us just, at a certain point, probably not at the same time, just realized you’re probably not going to be able to finish this.

And it really was a situation where I had a career change. Luis was very busy with a fairly new job and neither of us had the time to really focus on it.

Luis, what prompted you to take this up again?

Caffesse: Well, what prompted me was another huge surprise, which was when I turned 40, Cliff worked together with my family and my wife, all of them together, to give me the greatest surprise, which was they got me to a movie theater under false pretenses and surprised me with a screening of “Barry Lyndon” on the big screen because I’m a big Kubrick fan, and I had never seen it in the movie theater and I’d been waiting to see it for the first time in a theater, but nobody would ever screen it.

And that blew me away. It was one of the best days of my life. And I was like, How do you ever repay this? What do you do?

And a few years went by, and then the idea finally hit me was like, I know what I can do. I can get him to a theater and we can screen a movie, and I’m going to figure out how to screen our movie for us.

I got him to a movie theater, we walked into the theater, the theater was empty, and he and I were able to sit down and watch the movie together for the first time.

How much work was left? What did you need to do?

Caffesse: When we left the project, it was probably around 2012 or so and we had the spine of the movie. The bulk of it was done. We had a rough cut. All the interviews were cut together. So the story was there, and we sort of had talked extensively and we had notes about, “here’s what we’re going to do; here’s what we’re going to cut.”

We had to shoot a ton of B-roll additional footage. All the recreations that are in the movie had to be filmed. A lot of the fake news articles, a lot of those sort of touches and polish. But the foundation was there.

That’s why I felt confident enough to move forward on my own. I didn’t want Cliff to feel like I’d taken the movie away from him. I went back in to sort of restore the movie into the way it was meant to be without making any major, major changes.

Well, Cliff. Was it a surprise?

Wildman: It was a huge surprise. I was very excited because I assumed we would watch some movie that is a favorite of both of ours. And then that, honestly, was going to be just a fantastic 50th birthday present for me. But he totally got me. Without a question, I was completely shocked. I cried.

Because it was something I really wanted us to see. And being able to sit down together and watch that was just one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

How long ago was that – the birthday party?

Wildman: February.

And then now here we are, October. And audiences are getting to see this. What is your reaction to that?

Wildman: It’s amazing.

So the fact that it got finished was kind of the end to me in some ways as far as expectations go … I had an awesome experience with my best friend, and we were able to show it to our friends and family.

And so every little thing that happens – talking to you right now – is this extra gift … this birthday present is just lasting so much longer than either of us thought that it would.

Caffesse: It’s so surreal. It’s so surreal to be talking to you about it.

It became this thing that was just this personal project between the two of us after so long. And I finished it with the sole goal being to make Cliff laugh. I just, I wanted to hear him laugh. I wanted to see him smile and to be able to sit there and enjoy it with him.

And, you know, now, looking back, the irony sort of and the paradox of that to me is that as soon as I took my focus off anything else and just focused on making Cliff laugh, like the movie got done.

And you know, it’s clearly not the biggest budget film playing at AFF, but it is exactly what it should be. I think it feels right. It hits all the notes that we wanted it to hit. It makes us laugh. We have a great time watching it.

And if I had set my sights on getting into a festival or, you know, getting it out there in front of audiences, I think I would still be working on it. I don’t think it would ever be good enough, and I think I would have kept getting in my own way.

This started 14 years ago. You have a cast that is involved in this. What were their expectations for what happened to this? And are they surprised that you’re coming back to them with this premiere now?

Wildman: They were very surprised and very happy.

Working with this group of actors was really the highlight of the entire process and just reinforced when Luis and I went to them and said, “Hey, we finished the movie, and we’re sorry that it took so long.” And their response was, “Why are you apologizing? We got to come in and play with you.” You know, that the experience of the process of acting for them was fulfilling and that they didn’t hold all these expectations.

The important thing to say is this movie wouldn’t exist without the actors. We had an outline, but then we sat down and interviewed them as real documentarians, talking to real people and the performances that you see. If you don’t know that this is a fake documentary or a mockumentary, you think it’s real. And it’s because of these amazing actors.

Austin has this vast talent pool. You want actors, you can come here and there’s going to be so many people not only that are talented, but are just endlessly excited about the process of acting and creation.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.