molly and walker

Walker Edelman, 28,  Gaffer and Co-Owner of Production and Lighting Company, ‘I Didn’t Ask for These Pics”

Molly Leach (soon to be Edelman), 28, Actor, Writer, Director who is the other half of ‘I Didn’t Ask for These Pics”

How did you come up with the name? 

W: We were talking about so many. We were doing these music video for this artist, and when we were starting the pre-production for the music video and we decided to start a production company and decided that should be the end all, be all goal and we were rattling around names.

We wanted something funny to go behind the word “pictures,” so technically the name is “I didn't ask for these,” and it's a picture company. 

What is it about everything that you are doing that makes you want to do it? 

W: I have always been interested in film since I was like 12 and started making sketch comedy shorts with friends and since then my whole life has been trying to figure out how to make a decent living in the industry. I am borderline in love with every aspect, whether that is scoring a film to lighting a film - anything having to do with the medium and creative process I have really enjoyed. 

M: Since I was 8 I wanted to be an actor, blah blah blah, theater (laughs). But I think what has gotten more exciting as I have gotten older is having the acting background and being so in love with the action of being locked in with someone and telling a story and how that is transferred into the way I want to direct people or the way that I do direct people -  like being able to speak the same language. Directing for the actor, writing for the actor because that is in there, that is what makes me so excited. I think that is also why we compliment each other. He is way more in love with every aspect, he is so much more into the technical and I am so narrowly the creative so when we are directing with each other we can speak the same language but I know that he is going to be talking about how we are going to get the shot and I am going to be talking to the actors about what we are actually doing. 

W: Yeah, working within performance and working within the visual medium but both working within behavior. 

What is the drive behind your work?

W: Kind of what we just said, the passion that we have for the work is the drive. Also how film specifically has influenced us day by day is the motivating drive that makes us love our job and love to do these things within that medium. 

M: It’s so fun. When we are doing it, it is just so fun. I think that it's really exciting to see good stories and watch good stories. All we do is talk about good stories and then how to make them. The action of being able to direct something we have written, I mean we have only done that so far with Snip Snip, and there is something that sets your soul on fire when you are having that experience that you can't get anywhere else. At least in my life, I feel like I can’t do anything else because the feeling is unlike anything. 

What is your process as a creative? 

W: It definitely depends on the avenue or the title that we are taking. I have a buddy on the East Coast who does documentary films and he will randomly ask me to do a score for a video and that will be a completely different process than me getting a call from a director asking me to gaff a music video shoot. There is a whole different process for things like pre-production, production, or post production. But it depends on the title because I am dipping my toe in so many different things. 

M: I sometimes feel that too, I am dipping my toe into directing. But when I am getting jobs it is for acting. Sometimes, I feel like it is nice to read the script, do my job as an actor and let go a little bit but I think there is so much more responsibility when you are the parent, when you are the director. With that power comes responsibility and I think that process is a lot more of conversations with actors and us. So much of what we have been doing is writing this feature for the last three years and so much of it is just talking about how we are going to execute things. We love to do that. A lot of our process when we are making things is going on walks and talking for hours. All we do is talk about these people as if they were real people.

W: Yeah, it is a lot of preparation and thought. There are some other people who have an idea and then just go make it and it ends up being incredible and it's kinda the polar opposite of us as creatives.

M: We do have a difference in how we are able to work with each other. We are both super passionate about the story but I get caught up in my own impatience and wanting to make it now and wanting to be seen and just getting it done. And he has taught me so much about how you cannot take a single step forward until the script is bullet proof. Until you can back up everything. 

W: And all of that stuff that is coming through you is fear. Like I am going to die or people need to see that I am doing things.

M: Totally, it is comparison and fear. 

W: But everybody has that. There isn’t anybody who doesn't have that. 

M: And I know that now, after these few years and knowing myself, if I were to just squeeze something out, I wouldn't be proud of it. Instead of just spending time on telling the whole story. 

What would you tell your younger self? 

M: I think my younger self I am always trying to bring into things because I have become such a  cautious fearful rational adult. I try to bring that 8 year old into the conversation because I am often ignoring her. Bring the playfulness but also the optimistic, pure dreaming of it. The older I get, the more bitter I get, I stop listening to that kid. It’s more them telling me I am going to be fine. I would tell them keep doing what you are doing, your whole life is going to turn out differently then you expect and it is going to be for better or worse, this is your life and this is all you have so keep going. 

W: I would probably say, don’t go to college and don’t drink. Like don’t go to college and get a job. There are benefits of college but there are way too many downsides of it. 

Why don’t you quit?

W: I mean I feel like you fantasize what it would be like if I pivot careers. I think it depends on the person but I think if you have thought about something for so long and it has been a goal for so long, there is no quitting. For me, I don't want to quit nor do I see that as a viable option. But when you are like fifteen, you can really figure out if you want to do this. But then again you could change at any time but I think it is the want and love of what we do that keeps me from changing. 

M: I am obsessed with it. I think it's been so hard and I talk to myself all the time and I think I have said I want to quit at times, but I have never taken that seriously. But when I think about it, like what would be like if I started teaching, what would happen if I pivoted. But my whole struggle is insecurity. Not feeling secure financially and career wise and making it my identity, which I need to not do. But when I do think about it, I realize there is nothing else, this is it. There is a reason I am still doing this. There is a reason I will do this until I die. And it is only evolving. I started out doing musical theater, that was my major but the way that it has evolved, I mean the core of it is still acting, still saying words and any time I entertain that idea - as much as this hurts all the time and it can be agonizing, I am obsessed with it. I just can't stop. And now that I have found this confidence to make my own stories and I have this partner that I can create with, I am like we have no choice but to keep going. We are just going to do it ourselves. That is it. That is the only option, I don't have anything else. If I crumbled, at least I tried. 

W: Also, if you are someone like me who loves every aspect of filmmaking, like I could be a grip for the rest of my life and be happy. If gaffing doesn't go as planned then I could be a grip or if writing works out. There are a bunch of things in the industry that you can do if you are passionate and nice and hardworking. 

M: But also, our life together is film. The way that he and I communicate and see the world is film. I love that and I am happy about that. 

W: But like if you want to be just an actor, then that is tough. You need to have something else, you need other things to bring in money. 

What do you hope to create that will continue to repeat? 

W: Great question. With this movie that we have spent so much time on called Soul Fire we want it to be this movie that you watch every Halloween. Even though it is not like blatantly a halloween movie, but having that year watch. There are so many movies that every year we watch or growing up every year we watch the same movies. To make something that stays with you as a person is the ultimate goal. 

M: I want to create our process together and create our team, the people that we trust and then I want to repeat that over and over again. I want to be adapting stories or making our own. I want him to write something then I want to write something, just he directs or just I direct, we make this thing as one with all these people. Constantly casting our friends, getting people from the industry that he knows. One of the biggest thing about this that I love is community and that is something that I want to continue to repeat.  

W: And this massive collaboration. 

What are you on the verge of? 

M: Getting married! We are six weeks out.

W: Yeah, that is kind of what is taking up most of the space in our mind. 

M: That is the first thing, but also making this thing come to life and that we can't wait to pull people into and just get married and then try to go into pre production. What is so cool about it is that we are literally partners in life that are partners creating together. We are going to like get married and be this directing couple and be like lets go. There is something really exciting about that, it is such a big life thing.