Since moving to Austin in the early 90s to attend film school at UT, Bryan Poyser has become a fixture in the local film scene. A co-founder of the Cinematexas Film Festival, Bryan has also spent time as a producer at SXSW Film, and is currently Director of Artist Services for the Austin Film Society.

And on top of all that, he makes movies. With two shorts and two features under his belt (one of which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination in 2004), Bryan is set to premiere his newest short, Grammy's, at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival.

We recently had a chance to talk to Bryan about his new film, South By Southwest, and the rise of Rusty Kelley.

Tell me a little bit about what Grammy’s is about, and how the project got started.

Basically, I’ve been friends with Joe Swanberg for a long time—he’s a Chicago filmmaker who’s already made like four features, and he’s only 26. Joe sent me his first movie, which he’s in, and as I was watching it I was thinking that I really wanted to try to cast him in something with Rusty Kelley, who’s the star of Dear Pillow, the first feature that I did. I wanted to cast them as brothers because I thought they had these really great, similar sort of mannerisms and they sort of looked the same. So I was obsessed with the idea of putting them together in some sort of story for about a year, and I finally came up with the idea of them going on a fishing trip and meeting this strange sort of guy, played by another Austin actor that I really like, Chris Doubek.

So we ended up doing a fundraiser to raise money for the film. I talked to the folks at the Alamo, and they let us do a double feature of Dear Pillow and Joe’s first movie, Kissing on the Mouth. We also did a raffle—I’ve been part of the Austin film community for a while, so I was able to call in favors from places like SXSW and the Austin Film Festival and the Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival to give away badges or memberships.

We did that on June 15th, and we started shooting on June 16th, so it gave the whole shooting process a sort of frantic air. We were trying to do it really fast and be excited about the process rather than obsessing over the details.

How different is it showing a short film as opposed to a feature?

Well, short films are always going to be the sort of “neglected step-cousin” to the features. And I didn’t really know that until I’d gone through the process of showing one; a short film that I did called Pleasureland played at about 25 film festivals both here and in Europe. I had a great time showing the film and having people react to it and meeting other filmmakers, but I didn’t get much press or industry attention out of it.

That kind of changed when Dear Pillow started the festival circuit though. Even though we still haven’t gotten distribution for the movie, it got nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and won some festival awards and got some great reviews and basically set things up so that we could do The Cassidy Kids, which was a feature with a real budget. And noticing that difference was pretty interesting and pretty stark.

But now that I’ve made a short film and I’m about to show it at SXSW, I’m totally okay with the idea of not getting much press. And if people end up liking it and connecting to it then that’s great.

[Grammy’s is] also the first straight-ahead comedy I’ve ever tried to do, which I discovered is really difficult. Comedy’s hard because trying to get people to laugh is such this kind of perfect storm of unexpectedness and the timing of the edit and the delivery of the line—it’s like you have to be a real scientist of comedic timing to really make that work. I’ve done stuff before where it’s funny, but the purpose was beyond just trying to make people laugh. But this one, I just want people to laugh, and I’m discovering just how hard that is.

Grammy’s is showing in front of a feature at SXSW. Would you rather have it in front of a feature than in a shorts program?

I think so. Usually short film programs get very full—you’re almost guaranteed a full-house with a short film program at SXSW. But if [your film] shows in front of a feature, it’s more likely that industry people or press people are going to see it and write about it. But the screenings at SXSW over the last couple years have been sold out over and over again, and I hope that happens again with this screening. I’m really excited about this slot. I think it’ll be fun.

Rusty Kelley, who is the star of my first feature and of Grammy’s, just got cast in Cabin Fever II, which is being directed by Ti West, who has his second feature [Trigger Man] playing at SXSW, and that’s the feature that my short is going to be playing with. Ti ended up seeing a really early cut of my short, and he was really enchanted by Rusty Kelly and wanted to cast him. So he convinced Lion’s Gate to cast this kid, who hasn’t really been in any studio movies. And so Rusty is in North Carolina right now shooting Cabin Fever II, and he’s the second male lead in it. So hopefully this little short film will lead to the rise of Rusty Kelley the movie star. I think Rusty is an amazing performer, and I’m surprised it’s taken this long for other directors to notice.

It must be cool being able to screen a film at a festival that’s in your hometown.

Oh, yeah. That’s always great. And SXSW has been a part of my life since I’ve moved here—it’s where I’ve seen the most interesting independent work. I’ve also seen the festival grow a lot. Under Matt Dentler, it’s become a really different animal, and it has a real weight in the film industry that it didn’t quite have when I was working there. And I think a lot of that is due to his savvy, and his enthusiasm for the films that he discovers. And also the fact that they’ve chosen some movies that have done really well, like Spellbound for example.

It’s great to have a film festival like that here in our hometown, and for me to have a chance to show a film for... I think this is going to be my fifth time. I know what the audiences are like and what they respond to, and over the years I’ve also met a lot of filmmakers who are coming back this year. It’s kind of the best week of the year for me, because it’s going to be a reunion of all these great people that I’ve met over the years. And we get to get drunk for free!

There are a lot of filmmakers from Texas showing films at SXSW this year. Is there anything that connects Texas films? Is there such thing as “Texas Cinema”?

In a way, the thing that’s so exceptional about it is that the movies are so diverse. Everybody outside of Texas has this idea of what Texas is like – people think that there are cowboys driving their steer through downtown, or whatever. And they don’t understand that Texas is one of the most populace states in the country, and that our cities are full of smart, vibrant, educated, creative people. And I think the movies kind of reflect that—there are documentaries about Texas or Texas issues, and then there are films made by Texans that don’t really have anything at all to do with Texas. And with the features, some of them have this kind of "authentic Texas feel", but then some of them don’t. So I think that probably the most common thread is that there isn’t one. Also, people come from all over the place to Texas and to Austin, and they bring their own history and their own sensibility with them and add them to the mix.

One of the things that people consistently tell me when I ask what makes Austin such a great city for film is that the audiences here are a special breed of film lover.

Yeah – I think even though Austin has been a film center for as long as it has, people still aren’t jaded about it. They’re still excited about the idea of a movie being shot in their backyard or in their house. Where as in LA, the first question is “how much?” So I think people are just excited about the idea of movies here. And the community is pretty tight-knit – people help each other out and work on each other’s movies and support each other.

This is the first place that felt like home to me. Within the first year of moving here, I knew I wanted to stay.

[Add Grammy's to Your Calendar on our (Unofficial) SXSW Film Other Side Guide]