Avi Setton on ‘The Big Break’: Award-Winning Film Made for a Certain Audience

Director Avi Setton on The Big Break, a first feature built from four people in a room and made for his son.

Avi Setton found out his wife was pregnant, decided this might be his last real chance to make one of his own films, and cut a script down until it was four people in a room. The result is The Big Break, his first feature, and he told us he made it for his son.

According to the film’s festival listing, it follows a struggling voice actor, his AI husband and a social media-addicted houseguest. Setton described a long road to get there, through film school, low rung industry jobs, grad school and a stretch in tech. Now he is working out how to get the film seen outside the usual path from festivals to distribution.

A long detour back to the camera

Setton says he has wanted to be a filmmaker since he was a teenager. The moment that settled it was shooting on 16mm for the first time, at about 14 or 15. He did a New York Film Academy summer program, went to film school at NYU and moved to Los Angeles.

The industry did not go well. He worked on commercials and TV shows in very low roles and came away disillusioned. All the while he kept writing feature scripts on his own. He went back to grad school for English, figuring he might simply be a writer, and then worked in tech for a while.

He decided his voice was not one he could sell to a major studio, so he would make something himself. He still writes fiction and screenplays every day, and says he has for 20 years. He puts his total at about 15 scripts.

Writing around constraints

We asked whether he started with the script or with four actors he already knew. Setton says he wrote the script around constraints, with no house in mind. He wrote roles for people he knows well, and they were not actors. The exception was Luke, whom Setton calls the only real professional on set and who acted in a short film Setton made 20 years ago. The film’s site credits Luke Sholl as Charlie, the voice actor.

Setton says Charlie grew out of those constraints and from months of talks with Luke about the character’s backstory. A throwaway line about a commercial voiceover comes from Setton’s own childhood, when he did one around age 10 or 12. He also drew on his years in Los Angeles. He asks what decades of compromise leave a man with, and says the answer is both tragic and a little beautiful for its persistence. I told him what struck me was that someone so insecure would choose a job where he stays unseen.

The AI husband was cast with a human

Alan, the AI character, took a different path.

Setton says he did not know a human would play him until he talked it through with a friend from his tech years, an AI engineer. Over many conversations about how to portray Alan, the engineer convinced him Alan should be played by an actor. Setton then convinced the engineer to take the part. The film’s site credits Tim Gleason as Alan.

The crew called Alan “the puppy dog” on set, Charlie’s puppy dog. We asked what Alan thinks about fears that AI will destroy humanity. Setton deferred to the actors, who he says built their characters, and guessed Alan would agree with whatever Charlie told him.

The air mattress

I had to ask whether the air mattress ever inflated. Setton said no, and called it the biggest point of contention in post-production. He thinks it is the part viewers may find hardest to get past. He also likes that it is left hanging, because a lot in the film’s relationships is left hanging too, and he says it foreshadows what comes after. I told him I thought the pacing was fantastic.

Two years in post, and a new way to release

Setton says he has spent two years in post-production and is still fighting for the film because he believes they caught lightning in a bottle. Everything, he says, worked out far better than he imagined.

The film premiered at the Indie Gathering International Film Festival, where Setton says it won Best Comedy Feature. It won Best Feature at the WILDsound festival, and the film’s site lists screenings at the Blokhed International Film Festival and at the Indiewood Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theatres on September 16. Setton said the festival run was not perfectly planned. He kept sending rough cuts to bigger festivals because he expected to finish sooner.

He says he had assumed the industry still worked as it did in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when you went to festivals and tried to get distribution. A lot has changed, he says, and he is now working on a self-distribution model. The first test was a watch party on September 26.

Setton told me the plan was three screenings that day, at 1, 4 and 8 p.m. Pacific, each followed by a virtual Q&A. The film’s site records simultaneous screenings and Q&As in Los Angeles; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Brooklyn; Lafayette, Louisiana; London; and Portland, Oregon.

His advice to young filmmakers

We asked what he would tell a young filmmaker stuck between commercial success and passion. Setton said he would try to make the movie but not treat it as a career. Keep honing a skill, he says. For him it was writing. Keep filming on the side until you have built enough confidence to make something you are proud of.

Then, he says, “just fight like hell.”

It will take years and a lot of work, and you will need good people to help. I told him creative people need to keep creating, and he agreed.

More on the film is at thebigbreakfilm.com.

Frequently asked questions

Who plays Alan, the AI husband in The Big Break?
The film’s site credits Tim Gleason as Alan. Setton said the idea of casting a human came from an AI engineer friend, whom he then persuaded to take the part.

Did the air mattress in The Big Break ever inflate?
Setton said no. He called it the biggest point of contention in post-production, and said he likes that it is left hanging.

Which festivals has The Big Break played?
The film’s site lists the Indie Gathering International Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio, on August 14, and WILDsound in Toronto on August 27. It also lists Blokhed International Film Festival in Farmingdale, New York, on August 28, and Indiewood Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theatres in Los Angeles on September 16. Setton says it won Best Comedy Feature at Indie Gathering, and it won Best Feature at WILDsound.

How is Setton releasing The Big Break beyond festivals?
He is trying a self-distribution model built around a watch party. On September 26, the film’s site records simultaneous screenings with Q&As in six cities. Setton described the approach as something he is still figuring out.