Local Teen Film Prodigy Set to Shoot First Feature

Julien R. Fielding

Last year, when just 17 years old, Nik Fackler was accepted to the Los Angeles Film School. And although he was excited for the opportunity to study with industry professionals, he decided he would continue learning by building an impressive list of short films that he hopes one day will open the doors of Hollywood. "Last summer I got really artsy and decided I want to teach myself," he said. "I don’t want to learn how to make [my films] like everyone else’s."

Born in Omaha to a musician father and a singer mother, Fackler started life on the other side of the camera as a child actor. During this stint, he appeared on the Fox 42 Kid’s Club and in a number of commercials, including one for Coca-Cola.

The idea of becoming a director came to him while he was sitting in class at Millard West high School; it would afford him more control over the finished project, he said. And after shooting his first film Poolcide he knew he had made the right choice.

Since then he has written, directed and coedited five shorts. His initial film (Poolcide) was shot on video and grew out of typical feelings of teen angst and the need to belong, Fackler said. His next effort, C.O.D., which stars Brigit Saint Brigit regular Scott Kurz and takes place in Shirley’s Diner, is more about "the irony of life; how it can be random." Sinless, about a young man who thinks that everyone is evil, came next. "I made all these depressing films, and then I showed them at the day care where I worked and they thought I was all freaky," he said. Out of his love for children and a desire to experiment with another genre, his next project was the three-minute short Jack & Jill. A sort of modern-day Mother’s Goose nursery rhyme, the film featured adults and starred Shawn Prouse, who some might remember as the director of Shakespeare’s Coffee.

Never one to take much of a breather, the 18-year-old has a number of projects in the works. A self-proclaimed "video game dork," Fackler has scripted and shot The Love Lives of Fairies and Elves, which is still in post-production. A kind of metaphor for interracial relationships, Love Lives explores what would happen if a fairy fell in love with an elf. This "epic fantasy" was shot in 16mm with a camera — a 16mm model from the 1970s used to film football games — that he purchased at a camera show at a Holiday Inn for $200.

As with any dedicated cineaste, Fackler is drawn to using whatever cameras and film stocks are obtainable. With only Poolcide under his belt, he went to local independent producer and director Dana Altman for advice. Sensing the potential, Altman put up some 35mm film stock and a cameraman so that Fackler could make C.O.D.

For Sinless Fackler went another direction, shooting with a digital camera. This winter he’ll make the leap and shoot his first feature-length film — a romantic comedy about two senior citizens who fall in love. He plans to contact Mannheim SteamRoller legend Chip Davis to see if he is interested in contributing a soundtrack.

But before then, Fackler will shoot another short, this one based on a play by Leo Fitzpatrick, know for his work in the 1995 Larry Clark film Kids. "He let me adapt it into a screenplay," said Fackler. He plans to shoot this 13-minute short on 24p digital video — a format that captures images at 24 frames per second and is the much cheaper version of the equipment George Lucas used to film Episode II: Attack of the Clones — simply because it’s the only format he hasn’t used. Auditions for the film were held over the past two weeks.

He also has plans to direct a project about teens who say "I Love You" too much.

For those who haven’t seen any of this award-winner’s work — a number of his shorts were shown at the Dundee Theatre as a prelude to Altman’s Private Public — there may be an opportunity in August when the Great Plains Film Festival takes place. Fackler has sent in some of his work and most likely won’t be left out, particularly since last autumn Sinless swept the Bob Swanson Film Festival, a local festival featuring short films. "I felt bad that no one else won anything," he said.

Local Teen Film Prodigy Set to Shoot First Feature was originally published in The Reader on 15 May, 2003. © 2003 Reader Publishing Inc.