J Paul Johnson
With her new short film, At Capacity, Spencer Jamison is making her voice heard. As a filmmaker, she’s looking to create narratives that reflect the eclecticism and generosity of the people who have shaped her life—and that reflect the complexities of the times in which she and others of her generation are making their way in the world.
At Capacity does just that, in making use of the meet-cute trope familiar to rom-com fans to explore just how people whose methods of navigating the world conflict even when their end goals might be very much alike. Taking place in the course of a single evening, it’s a film with several surprises up its sleeve and a warm, beating heart under its rom-com pretense. Jamison plays Mia, a political operative pulled into an unexpected evening with the smooth-talking but disruptive Ari (Jake Ryan Lozano): she’s there to do proxy work but finds in Ari someone whose strong ideas she can’t summarily dismiss.
Spencer Jamison is an actor and filmmaker born and raised in Richmond, VA and living in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of James Madison University and the Yale School of Drama MFA Acting Program. Jamison starred in and produced Slave Cry with her brother Jai Jamison, which won the 2019 Commonwealth Award for Best Short Film at the Virginia Film Festival. Her directorial debut, DAY 74, won the 2020 Curbside Shorts Film Challenge Grand Prize sponsored by Women in Film LA, IMDbPro, and ReFrame Project. At Capacity, which she wrote, directed, starred in, and, recently made its debut at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.
Jamison recently spoke with Film Obsessive publisher J Paul Johnson about its production. The transcript below the video has been edited for space and clarity.
Film Obsessive: Spencer, let me thank you for joining us and welcome you to Film Obsessive.
Spencer Jamison: Thank you so much for having me.
I’s a pleasure and I’m eager to talk about At Capacity. Can I cede the floor to you to describe the film a little bit?
Yes. So, At Capacity is a whimsical, romantic comedy dramedy with two people that have this unexpected evening together. They’re both sent to be the proxy breakup individuals for a couple. Neither one of the couple shows up, so it’s just two strangers there sent to do a job that they’re unable to do. And it was my way of paying homage to the romantic comedies that raised me, but also the political dramas I grew up watching, The West Wing, and really introducing the world to my voice as a filmmaker, but also putting a little bit of tenderness out there. That’s my little intent.
So let me ask you about break up by proxy because it’s a concept with which I am unfamiliar. But then again, I haven’t been on the dating scene for nearly 40 years. What is that like and how does that work?
And honestly, congratulations to you that you have not!
Thank you. I feel good about it!
It’s honestly nothing I’ve ever seen before, but that’s kind of why I wanted to start there. I sat with myself, and I was like, you know, if I was creating a meet-cute, what is the kind of outlandish way that I would want to introduce two characters that I’d never seen. And what I will say is like, people will hire people on Fiverr or Taskrabbit to do these mundane things. So I was like, Well, we’ve become so isolated and I feel like being on dating apps is really lacking this personal touch because everything is done on our phone. I was like, What if this happened and just kind of ran with it. But none of my friends have had this experience or anything.
Okay. And did you write your script essentially from that conceit, like, what would follow if? Is that the path that you were taking with it?
Yes. And I knew I wanted to kind of synthesize conversations that my friends had had or conversations with my friends and I have had in our what we call cafe, which is basically on each other’s couches. And, you know, it went through a couple of different iterations where at first I wanted them to be these political staffers that find out the next day they’re going to be like working together. And so I was like, okay, I could be talking about in the conversation gerrymandering or political parties and really getting into the nitty gritty of having a stance in that regard. But instead, I was like, what does it mean to connect with people that have similar moral values, but your means of getting to a solution are different. That it’s like we don’t all have to agree, but I think it’s really interesting to kind of navigate spaces where We’re going after the same moral things, but we want to take different pathways.
Well, right. And one of the things I was really struck by in your film is that the conventional and traditional ways of accomplishing change, have, it seems like, largely fallen by the wayside for different kinds of tactics of disinformation and I’m wondering how your generation navigates that. Do you give into it and accept it, or do you push back against it? I love how your film explores that tension.
Right. And something I wanted to give myself race in regards to that is that I don’t really know. You know, my friends and I are taking it kind of a day at a time and and doing the best we can to have empathy and be curious about what’s happening. And hold on to some sense of hope, because I think I wrote this in a moment where I was feeling really overwhelmed and my peers were feeling overwhelmed. And I was like, I could write something that is really exploring the trauma of the past four years that we’ve experienced. But instead, I wanted to write something that was like, okay, let’s spur conversation.
But also, it can be disarming to meet someone who challenges you in a way that isn’t—I don’t want to use the word aggressive because I don’t think that’s right,—but it’s like sometimes the challenge can just be in asking questions. And also, you need to know the answers, but I think the curiosity is important.
Yeah. I hear that. I mentioned that you are lead actor in the film, and your co-lead, Jake Ryan Lozano is something of a foil to you and you may be both after the same kind of thing eventually, but you have very different ideas and minds in getting there. Is he somebody that you knew and had written the role in mind with or is he somebody who came to you through a more traditional casting process?
Jake and I were classmates (at the Yale School of Drama), and he was my second scene partner. And immediately, there was a bit of chemistry. There was a bit of rapport, and now he’s become one of my closest friends. So when I was looking at the opportunities that had been offered to Jake coming out of school, I didn’t really see people shining a light on him as a leading man. But I was like, I want to put him in a position because I know how brilliant he is, I know how talented he is, and I also know that he is a very collaborative person whose very curious just like I am.
I’d written a couple drafts and I was like, Hey, Jake, I’m working on a short film. Would you be interested? You want to read this? He gave me some notes, and when he signed on to be a part of it, I was able to write to his strengths. So he was learning Japanese, and, of course, he’s Mexican American. He’s from Texas. And so I wanted to really give him the space to play and for people to see him with new eyes, basically.
And let me ask, too, in terms of casting yourself, did you always intend that you would play this role yourself? Did you think at any moment about casting someone else in it?
I wrote it for myself for sure. I know, I’m not always going to put myself in things that I write or things that I want to direct, but I knew that in order for the world to see me the way that I wanted to be seen, I had to take a step in the direction of being like, okay, well, these are some of the things that I’m interested in doing, whether it’s a political show or being a romantic lead. Also, just writing more rules for Black women. There are going to be other roles that I write that I’m like, I specifically I’ve written a couple of things where I specifically have my friends in mind—most of it with the intention of giving people the space to be seen and heard in ways that like, instead of being frustrated or complaining about what opportunities are coming up, we can create our own with a bit of intention and expansion.
That’s awesome. Now, your primary training is as an actor, right? And do you ever you find yourself in conflict with yourself as a person who’s wearing multiple hats on a small production like this? Like, do you think as a director, ever, that your actor should or could make a different choice, or as an actor, do you ever doubt the script or what the director is doing?
That’s a really fun question because I did talk about, coming out of production, my mom was asking me a ton of questions. She was like, how do you feel about wearing multiple hats? And I learned a lot for sure. What was great about working with Jake. I’ll answer it this way is that we were working on the script up until every day we would check in and be like, Okay, what changes can happen in the scripts to make it feel even more grounded and even more close to the characters. I think when I’m sitting down to write, I am very character driven/relationships point of view. And sometimes that means I have to do a little bit extra work to make sure that I’m giving them enough conflict, I’m giving the story enough set pieces or places to go so that there’s a true arc.
For At Capacity, I would say my main focus was writing because I wanted the script to be very strong. Then came the directing, making sure that everybody on the team knew what I wanted to look like, what sort of tone. I really wanted it to be warm. My DP Kuni [Kunitaro Ohi] was incredible because he just signed on and he was like, great, he’s known me since I was a teenager, he’s one my brother’s good friends and collaborators. And so shifting from an actor that he’s worked with to a director was interesting and fun because he was just so he was like, I trust you. So let’s do it.
Then I would say third came the acting because I wasn’t even watching dailies. I did have a stand in, so I could make sure I was looking at the picture and everything. But we did not have enough time to watch dailies. There are things in the edit where I was like, I would definitely change that. I would go back, and when I work on my feature, I’ll know how to really I’ll probably work with someone who was specifically looking at, Like I’ll have eyes on set for somebody who’s specifically looking at performance because everybody else was looking at the technical on At Capacity.
But no, there was no internal conflict or anything. It’s just like, go go go, get it done. Make sure the story is clear. Luckily, I’d read through this draft so many times that I knew the character because I’d written it. But also, I knew her tempo. I knew how she breathed. I knew her point of view. And there are always things that you want to go back and change. But yes. That was a long winded way of answering that question.
How long did the shoot take? You’ve got, I think, you know, it’s like a 17 minute film, right? And it’s three primary locations, I think. How long did your shoot take?
Three days.
Wow. That is really quick.
Yes. And we were able to shoot the restaurant day for night. So I really have to thank, you know, Kuni and all the team. We were able to get into this restaurant, Southern Kitchen in Richmond, Virginia, and just black out everything. So that gave us a whole day of really being able to dive into the dinner, the conversation at dinner.
Looks great, by the way. Another compliment I wanted to give the film was just on the music, and that was originally commissioned for the film, am I right?
Yes, yes. One one of my best friends, Dana McCoy, is a songwriter, singer songwriter, and we both have a love of romance and Korean dramas, and I went to her and I was like, I think this is something that you would be really great at. It’s her first time doing the score or an original song for a film. And I think it was a great learning experience for both of us. When we were filming, I sent her, I think the first day of shooting, the dailies, and she came back with the song. Like, she just knew. We had already created like a playlist of music and inspiration and done that work. So I think she was already primed and ready to go. But I was really in awe by, this original song that she created kind of reminiscent of She’s All That when she’s walking down the stairs and I know Gray’s Anatomy is known for some of the songs that they have made iconic. We wanted to have this short feel nostalgic in that way.
Dana McCoy, go listen to her music, stream it.
It It is really nice, actually. I did enjoy it quite a bit. And I think that conversation tells me a little bit about, you know, more of your influences. You know, are they like your ambitions then as well? Do you look forward to making feature length films in this same genre someday?
I would love to be genre agnostic, because I feel like whatever story it comes to me, requires it be met with a different container. And so, right now I’m developing a sci-fiction short, kind of an interrogation of my own relationship to social media. And I was working on, feature rom-com this morning. But I kind of love the way that somebody like Rob Reiner jumps effortlessly through roles as a filmmaker, but also genres. And my hope is to be able to do the same honestly.
That’s exciting. And I hope some day a year from now or two, maybe we can have a similar conversation about that film as well. I really. Did you premiere then, am I correct at LA International for Shorts?
Yes, we did. That was back in July, and our next screening, our East Coast Premiere will be at the Richmond International Film Festival, which is kind of kismet for me because I’m from Richmond, Virginia, and the film festival theme this year is rooted. And it’s like that’s where my roots were developed, where I started in the theater and did professional productions there, and that’s where we filmed this short. So it feels like a really special moment. That’ll be September 26, I believe, at the Bird Theater.
I’m sure it’ll be a warm welcome there. What was the experience like at the LA premiere for you?
Really surreal. Yeah. It’s like this started on a blank page. I started as just an idea and to see it born and to see everything on a big screen with the color, the quality of the DCP. I’m nerding out now, learning all the things about film picking. And also, Kuni was able to fly out from Virginia, and he was just so excited. We had just a lot of cast and crew there. It really felt like a celebration and the type of space I want to keep fostering and keep giving to my peers. So I’m really grateful for t. Thank you, LA Shorts. Thank you.
I know from speaking to so many filmmakers that it is overwhelming and oftentimes surreal to see that film for the first time on a screen of that size, and also with a live audience surrounding you. It can be intimidating, overwhelming, but it can also be really assuring sometimes, I know.
Yeah. Having strangers watch the film and come up to me after and say it was one of their favorite ones that they’d seen in the festival and that they really needed to hear some of the things that the characters had talked about and needed to feel something hopeful and tender was really all I was hoping for. I didn’t go into making the short film, thinking that it was going to be something that was aiming for awards or anything. I really just wanted to make something that people would want to watch again. And I feel like that’s kind of my philosophy for all the films I want to make. I want to make things that are nurturing in the ways that when I was growing up, I would watch The Sound of Music over and over again or, you know, national treasure. Or you know, just you get pulled into the filmmaking. These are the two films I’m thinking of right now, but of course, there’s so many others, and I hope that I can do the same. So the reception from the festival being so positive was really nice.
That’s really good to hear. I’m not surprised at all that it was a good experience for you, Spencer. I’ll just wish you the very best of luck as you head to Richmond in a couple of weeks, and look forward to your film appearing there. In the meantime, best of luck with it and all your future filmmaking, and thanks for taking the time to speak with us at Film Obsessive today.
Truly, thank you for creating the space to speak on it and to be seen as a filmmaker. So I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
