William Atticus Parker – Forty Winks
We had the opportunity to interview William Atticus Parker, the filmmaker behind Forty Winks. Forty Winks is an official selection of the 12th annual Utah Film Festival.
Forty Winks follows a struggling hypnotist dealing with his monotonous day to day life, until he is blackmailed into being the world’s first hypnotist hit man after a mysterious woman finds out his degree is fake.
What was the inspiration to make Forty Winks?
I always begin with professions, and had wanted to see how hypnotism could translate cinematically, so the character of Fabio was born. The more and more time I spent writing about his day to day life, I thought about how monotonous it actually was. That was the inspiration for Connie Montoya. Then I went down the rabbit hole of what transpires.
From idea to completion, how did this production change?
It was very colorful, from proof of concepts to the actual on set costumes. But I realized that black and white would better capture the world and Fabio’s arc. That would make having those final moments in color all the more rewarding.
What was the biggest challenge in getting Forty Winks made?
It was entirely self funded and I had no producers to help out during the production. Therefore I had to take a lot on at seventeen, which was just a leap of faith for myself if anything.
What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?
How important collaboration is. The finished product will always be more developed with the ideas of others involved. Whether that’s in pre-production, on set, or while editing and sound mixing. That’s the main reason the characters are so realized, the actors really devoted their time to fleshing them out.
If you could have a do over with Forty Winks is there anything that you would do differently? If so, what would that be?
The only reason I would do it over is to have those wonderful on set moments with the cast and crew again. It was truly one of the best experiences of my life, the same goes for my second feature Atrabilious. The experience of being on set with people who care about the process is like nothing else.
What do you have next in the works?
Atrabilious is my second feature film starring Leon Addison Brown with Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, Mark Boone Junior, Jeffrey Wright, Evan Jonigkeit, Lewis Black and many, many more. It’s a cautionary tale about grief. The film is part magical realism, part dark comedy, and part psychological thriller. But really it’s all those unique elements of Forty Winks, brought to the next level with higher production values. I’m so proud of it and am forever thankful to the wonderful cast and crew. Shoutout to the crew members who were ready and working every morning, Adam Piacente, Dhamani Alexis, Sabina Friedman-Seitz, Chris Calfa, Marissa Michel, and Eli Berliner.
How can we learn more about you and your projects?
The Instagram account has updates with production on all my projects, and I’m on IMDb as well.
