Ep304 - Trent O'Donnell, Writer-Director ‘Ride the Eagle,’ ‘The Moodys,’ & ‘No Activity’

28/08/2021 22 min
Ep304 - Trent O'Donnell, Writer-Director ‘Ride the Eagle,’ ‘The Moodys,’ & ‘No Activity’

Listen "Ep304 - Trent O'Donnell, Writer-Director ‘Ride the Eagle,’ ‘The Moodys,’ & ‘No Activity’"

Episode Synopsis

Growing up on comedies like Monty Python, Trent O'Donnell has always been fascinated with “dumb comedies.” He got his start making shorts, commercials, and eventually landed some work in television. As a writer-director, he’s known for The Moodys, No Activity, and most recently, the movie Ride the Eagle.

Trent O'Donnell met Jake Johnson while directing episodes of New Girl for Fox. In their latest collaboration, Jake Johnson stars as Leif. The description reads, “Leif is left with a conditional inheritance when his estranged mother Honey dies. Before he can move into her picturesque Yosemite cabin, he has to complete her elaborate, and sometimes dubious, to-do list.”

In this interview, O'Donnell talks about making friendships rather than networking, how he got a movie made during the pandemic, writing with creative limitations, putting pressure on “the word,” how to edit improv based on story, the lack of comedy movie stars today, and how to keep minimal environments visually interesting.

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