Joseph Quesada – Fly

We were able to chat with Joseph Quesada about his latest movie FLY which will be screening on Friday January 6th at the Towne Hub in American Fork Utah as part of the Utah Film Festival. 

FLY is about Seventeen-year-old Maria Carbonell loves to make up stories of extraordinary characters, astonishing adventures, and unimaginable worlds.

Her latest story may be her most unexpected… Her own.

What was the inspiration to make FLY?

I’ve been telling stories in the world of superhero action adventure for most of my life, but for several years now, I’ve wanted to tell different kinds of stories. I had several concepts I was considering, but I chose FLY because it touched on so many things that were inspired by my family and friends, my love of O’Henry stories, and it was so far away from my comfort zone I couldn’t not do it.

From idea to completion, how did FLY change?  

There were two significant changes.

Because no one in the cast had any acting experience, and much of the crew had never been on a set before, to avoid multiple takes, the original screenplay was written so that the story would be told in voiceover. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but at the time, it seemed like a practical one.

On our first day of filming, I provided my two principal actors with wild lines so they would have something to banter back and forth. As we set up for the shot, I could hear them rehearsing in my headphones, and I loved how natural their deliveries were, so I wrote a few more lines and figured, let’s see what happens. They delivered the scene so beautifully that I changed gears. Every morning, two hours before call time, I would write dialog for the scenes we were shooting that day. The actors, like seasoned pros, memorized, rehearsed, and delivered them perfectly.

After we tested our first cut with family and friends, it was obvious we were missing an essential part of Maria’s emotional journey. Her mother was mentioned in the narrative, but we needed to see those moments onscreen, so we added two scenes that improved the movie considerably.

Neither of these decisions made my producer’s day, but she found a way to make it work.

What was the biggest challenge in getting FLY made? 

The biggest challenge was finding locals with experience in filmmaking, especially during Covid. But this also turned out to be the most rewarding part of the production. It was a blast to work with friends, family, and residents in our community, including some of the high school kids, and show them the ropes as we went along. When it was all said and done, I was prouder of those moments than the movie itself. The film was meant to be a love letter to Sun Valley and Idaho; the cast and crew were an everyday reminder of why I was doing it.

What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?

That the secret to flying is knowing how to fall properly.

If you could have a do over with FLY, is there anything that you would have done differently? If so, what would you change?

I was overly precious about way too many aspects of the production and wished I had allowed more of the movie to develop organically. While we had many “happy accidents,” there would have been many more if I had let the process take control from time to time.

What do you have in the works?

FLY is the first in a trilogy of shorts that takes place in Sun Valley. In the next year or so, I hope to finish the remaining two chapters, a supernatural/comedy and a Sci-fi coming-of-age story, that involve some of the same characters we met in FLY.

Yes, sh#%’s gonna get weird in Sun Valley, Idaho!

Joe Quesada is best known for his career as a driving force at Marvel Entertainment, guiding the stories of some of the world’s most beloved superheroes. Born José Luis Quesada Jr. to Cuban immigrant parents in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, Joe, a die-hard New Yorker, discovered an unexpected creative muse, Sun Valley, Idaho. Recently announcing his departure from Marvel, FLY is Joe’s inaugural foray into the world of indie filmmaking and the first in a trilogy of shorts he hopes to make about his newly adopted home and the everyday superheroes that live there.