When I first decided to interview first-time director and longtime actor Whit Spurgeon he was in the early stages of raising funds for his directorial debut, Babysitting. In recent days, he’s met his $2,500 fundraising goal, but he still hopes to raise more funds, so he can cover  ”post-production expenses and, hopefully, more festival submissions”. Rather than trying to summarize Spurgeon’s film and fundraising efforts, I will let Spurgeon do the talking. [July 8 Update: This interview was slightly revised, due to an aspect of Spurgeon's answer that was inadvertently left out of the initial posting. The new text is in italic.]

Tim O’Shea: When did you first realize that, as much as you enjoy acting, you wanted to try your hand at directing?

Whit Spurgeon: Well, I’ve thought about directing quite a bit throughout my life, but I remained so busy as an actor while I was in Chicago the past 20 years that it never really came up. I directed a couple of staged readings for Prop Thtr there, but never a full-fledged play — just too time-consuming on top of my acting gigs — near the end of my time in Chicago I was doing about 3 or more plays a year and about half a dozen commercials a year as well as holding down a full-time job. Once I made the decision to move to LA, however, it’s like starting your career all over again. I’ve only been out here for two years, so certain casting directors are only gradually becoming aware of me — many others still haven’t seen me at all and aren’t aware I exist — so suddenly, while I build up my name recognition out here, I have more time on my hands. Ta-Da! Time enough to direct!

Read the rest of this entry »