Five Dollar Friday — William Smart & ‘Quick Fix’
A filmmaker and their short film deserving of your attention
Happy Five Dollar Friday!
This week I’m excited to introduce you to multi-hyphenate William Smart, an actor/director/writer based in LA.
His latest project is a comedy sketch-turned-film called Quick Fix.
Quick Fix starts like a classic AutoZone-style car commercial: a man working on his car with all the confidence he’s ‘supposed’ to have… until it becomes clear he’s in way over his head. As his frustration mount, so does his regret—why did he buy this car in the first place?
Quick Fix is so simple yet relatable. I enjoyed how your campaign video quickly conveyed the premise and tone and yet left room for my own imagination to fill in how hilarious the scenario might become once it starts to escalate.
You mention the film inspired by a recent breakup (sorry? congratulations? maybe both?) and also that this is the first project you’ve felt the confidence to direct and star in. I’d love to hear more about that, why you think this film in particular resonated so much that you felt it needed to go further than a comedy sketch.
Half of the film is definitely inspired by a recent breakup. As far as breakups go, it was about as amicable as you could hope for, but sometimes those hurt even more when you can't point to any sort of problem as the cause. Sometimes one person just wants it and the other doesn't.
Making this film has definitely been a cathartic process in dealing with that. I know many people have gone through something similar and I hope this resonates with audiences in that way. The last time I directed and starred in something, I was in college and I was so happy to be doing it again. I am a film school graduate, so filmmaking is something I deeply enjoy, but lately I've been more of an actor first. I think when I write my own stuff I largely write it with the idea that I will play some part in it. I think that style of writing influences the performance and visa versa.
The idea for the sketch came from my own experiences of trying to work on my car. After my first car got totaled I had the brilliant idea to get into old BMW's. I told myself I would learn how to be a mechanic and fix them myself. Well, turns out that's much easier said than done. I like to think I went through my midlife crisis a little early. I had a car get totaled, a breakup, all within a month. I knew getting a cool old car would solve all my problems.
Haha. I see you’re re-teaming with several collaborators from Month to Month. Was that the first project you worked on with them? How did working on Quick Fix with them come about?
The people from Month to Month are all people I went to college with at Syracuse. I've been truly so fortunate that we have all maintained a strong friendship and continue to work on each other's projects to this day. I have a really spectacular network of friends and classmates out here from my time at the university. I think we'll always be helping each other on stuff until we're old.
How has it been, directing yourself as an actor?
It's alright. It's always a little difficult since I can't watch my performance in real time. I think one of the things I'm best at is surrounding myself with talented people who I can trust. So while I will watch playback sometimes, I really trust the people around me when I'm not sure if a take went well. So far, that has worked out for me.
I can’t imagine acting and directing at the same time — my poor little brain couldn't handle it. Kudos to you and all the other people that are somehow able to wrap your heads around that. Was there someone in particular on the set of Quick Fix that you trusted the most?
I’ve had the good fortune of working with my producer, Joe Blank, and the DP, Logan Regnier, many times. Joe is a talented director himself and has directed me in other projects, so he knows my range well. Logan has also shot other projects that I’ve acted in. Between the two of them I knew they would let me know if any issues came up. I had complete trust in them.
There were only a couple times I asked for playback because of that trust. Many times we’d do a take and I’d just ask my DP/producer if we got it and if they said yes we would move on. Communicating what I was looking for beforehand and the trust we’ve established over the years really helped.
What was the funniest moment on set?
Funniest moment was probably shooting my ‘breakdown’ monologue. We did a bunch of different takes where I got more and more unhinged. Choosing one of those was difficult. We had a good laugh, I took some notes from crew on different funny things I could say. We had fun with it.
What was the most challenging part of the shoot?
The most challenging part was getting a shot of the car's wheel. We only use the shot for a couple seconds but we had this big car rig hanging out over the side of my car driving through Griffith Park and the Observatory. There was definitely some stress associated with that and lots of funny looks from people. I kept imagining the camera tumbling off and hitting a car behind me or something.
Now that you’ve scratched the directing itch, what do you think? Do you see yourself directing more projects in the future or do you think you’ll stick to writing and acting?
I will definitely direct more projects. It was a great experience and I'd loved to do it again.
Most important question: how’s the relationship with the cool old car going? Is it still in the picture?
The old car is still very much in the picture! My 2005 BMW is about to hit 200k miles. Still running strong, knock on wood.
Love it. Good luck to you finishing Quick Fix!
You can join me in supporting Will and his film Quick Fix by contributing to the campaign here:
Thanks to the help of paid subscribers, my weekly contribution has increased from $5 at the start of this newsletter to now $18.
Again: it’s better for everyone involved if you contribute directly to the filmmaker’s campaign yourself and don’t become a paid subscriber to this newsletter. But, if you ain’t got time for that, you can upgrade your subscription and I’ll contribute a little bit extra each week on your behalf.
💰 Vimeo is offering $30,000 grants for short films! The application window is currently open and closes April 18, 2025.
💰 Boulder Crest Foundation is offering cash prizes of up to $10,000 for short films and other video content on the theme of post-traumatic growth. The application window is currently open and closes May 23, 2025.
⏳ There’s still time to contribute to Jon Densk’s campaign for Axolodyssey, Emily Rolen’s campaign for The Shorn Lamb, and Rachael Kuecher’s campaign for The Stress of IT!
✍️ And, finally, feel free to write back if you have a question for one of the filmmakers, an update on a short film project of your own, or if you just want to say hi!