As an 18-year-old freshman at Berkeley, I met Michael J. Saul on a BART platform while returning from a screening of Clay Farmers, a feature directed by A. P. Gonzalez, who would later become my film professor at UCLA. Michael and I have stayed in touch for nearly four decades, each forging our own path as a filmmaker. With Michael having just wrapped filming on his latest feature, Dance of Days, I took the opportunity to interview him about his tenacity as a filmmaker and the body of work I have long admired.
As I’ve known you as a filmmaker since I was 18, tell us how you got to produce immersive media and your latest show, Terra Incognita.”
MJS: About 10 years ago I was introduced to musician/drummer James Hood (Moodswings, The Pretenders) just as I was beginning my career as an animator. He had a grand vision to create a music/entertainment-based fulldome show primarily for the local L.A. scene and asked if I would create the visuals for it. I had no knowledge of fulldome planetarium film work but I was always interested in creating visuals for music…even before the MTV days. I said ‘yes’ and the rest is history. We now have 3 shows playing in planetariums at night in nearly 100 cities worldwide. As I’ve navigated the Dome world, I’ve found it to be the most open, creative, diverse and welcoming community I could ever imagine, and working with James has been an amazing experience.
Fast-forward to the past couple of years where I’ve taken the opportunity to create a few short fulldome films of my own primarily for competition in dome festivals. The most recent is “Terra Incognita” which will be competing in festivals next year. It’s a result of my fascination with the recent technological lidar scanning technique known as Gaussian Splat, where Lidar technology is used to scan just about anything from your dog to huge architectural spaces, and through point cloud technology turn them into 3D models. From there, software is used to either use these scans in place of laborious 3D models or to add creative effects to them such as ‘exploding’ them into millions of point clouds and effecting them in unique ways. It’s a lot of fun to play with and I’m excited to do more work in this field.
And you’ve also shot a new feature film titled Dance of Days… how did your latest feature begin?
MJS: My last feature was over a decade ago. THE SURFACE was a great success for me, and afterward I was energized to do the next one. But things got in the way like the Pandemic. Also the loss of our star Harry Hains at the age of 26 had more of an emotional impact on me than I ever though it would. I got into a bit of a funk, had a few false starts, money…etc. Last year I finally came to the reality that what I really wanted to replicate the kind of filmmaking experience I had as a teenage in Ohio. Me, a camera, a few lights, get my friends together and make a low-impact film in the community. DANCE OF DAYS has always been an experimental project and it’s turning out better than I ever expected so far. My producer Savannah Maeda is connected with the local dance community here in Long Beach and has brought extraordinary people into the project and it’s been such fun getting back to basics.
Tell us about the casting and production process of Dance of Days… and what the most challenging thing you face this production?
MJS: I decided that a film about dancers needed to have…well, great dancers. That was my priority going in. Though dancers are more actors than we give them credit for, many don’t have any formal acting training, but I really wanted the dance to shine so my producer Savannah brought fantastic dancers into the project. I then surrounded them with trained actors and that has made a huge difference. We’ve also relied on local businesses and friends to help with locations at a price I could afford. So far, we’ve done very well working within the community.
The most challenging thing is scheduling. Between my own schedule and everyone else’s we’ve only been able to shoot about one day per month for the last 6 months. Though we’re 2/3 of the way through, we have a bit more to shoot. But I’m not on a schedule.
If there is a thru line between all of your feature filmmaking… what would it be?
MJS: I guess I have my favorite themes which follow through much of my work including this new film. Mostly family, fathers and sons, and creating families outside of those we were born into. Those themes seem to be the ones most of my audience identifies with, and I enjoy exploring those themes.
What motivates you every day to wake up and create?
MJS: I just love making stuff! I create far more work than anyone will ever see, so I need to make more time getting the work out into the world in one form or another. I’m mostly inspired by other artists, new technology that allows me to do more as a filmmaker, and audience reaction to the work.
Who is your favorite filmmaker and why?
MJS: Like many other filmmakers of my generation Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was the first film that inspired me to be a filmmaker. People like Kubrick, Terrence Malick, David Fincher, Lars von Trier…folks who push cinema beyond the classic 3-act formula, dare to force boundaries to fall and change our expectations of what cinema can be. These are the filmmakers who are always surprising me.
How is post-production going on Dance of Days and when will we get to see it, you think?
MJS: I’m doing moderate post on each scene we shoot just to make sure I have what I need, but full post won’t begin until spring ’27 probably. It will probably be in festivals in 2028 just because of how long it’s taking to shoot.
What’s one or two advice you would give to your young self when you started filmmaking?
MJS: Not to worry so much about what gear you use, keeping up with technology, and to trust your own creative eye. Trying to copy others or taking advice from others can be a trap. I’ve often strayed into weird spaces creatively but every time I return to my roots and my own sensibilities- that’s when I feel I succeed and enjoy the process the most.
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