After becoming friends in their teenage years at Fisher Middle School, Alec Goldberg and Clayton Susick have maintained a friendship and love for film. This led them to premiere their pilot “Soft Boil” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Their passion for film started early on in their lives, when they idolized films like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Lord of The Rings,” which helped cement their friendship from the get-go. Susick moved to Los Angeles to join Goldberg and tackle the film industry. They’re now making their dreams come true with “Soft Boil.” Both are graduates of Los Gatos High School (Susick in 2010, Goldberg in 2012), they describe their latest TV pilot as a complete joy to create.
When life imitates art
Goldberg met Camille Wormser at a festival they both attended. Wormser was debuting her film “Just Right.” Goldberg remembers his first impression of Wormser, “I loved what I was seeing from her,” he said. “I just thought she was brilliant and hilarious, especially with comedy.” Their meeting inspired Goldberg to write a first draft of a script. He reached out to her over Instagram and presented it. Goldberg and Wormser began working on the project together. A little while later, Goldberg introduced Susick to the team as their potential producer. “Soft Boil” is an independent pilot that introduces the rest of the season. Both Goldberg and Susick are now going around to festivals that have episodic categories, with a stop in Mountain View this month for the Cinequest Festival. They describe “Soft Boil” as “a pure comedy about a struggling actress who finds out that her boss isn’t who she expected it to be, when takes her new job as a nanny.”
“Soft Boil” delves into things that people struggle with, like not being certain about their direction in life, and grappling with the tension between pursuing passion and paying the bills. The themes draw a parallel between Goldberg and Susick’s decade-long journey into the film industry. “Just when you think you’re making the right move, something unexpected completely happens and turns your life upside-down,” explained Susick, detailing how they use comedy as a tool to tell the story of setbacks in life.
Soft Boil is a pilot about finding direction while dealing with the absurdities of modern relationships, familial dynamics and adulting.
“Growing up, we were always talking about movies when we were hanging out and when Clay moved out here, we just started working on projects together,” Goldberg said. “He’s helped me produce everything I’ve done in the last four years.” Both Susick and Goldberg say that if you’re not the 1% of Hollywood, it’s pretty easy to relate to the struggle of making it in the film industry.
The love of film
Goldberg says the first film he remembers watching was “The Wizard Of Oz” with his grandpa. Goldberg was studying architecture in college before he transferred to USC, where someone he knew brought him on set for a short film. He realized that movies are filmed out of order. And watching the process from a mentor made him change his career path. He took inspiration from Pixar and Lord of The Rings movies. Watching a set come to life felt out of this world, for him. “Alec and I were both late bloomers into realizing this was something we wanted,” Susick said. “When I started going to film school at De Anza College—and realizing how difficult it was to make even just a short film—it just made you jealous and inspired you with rage, asking myself, How do I get better at doing this?” With time, though, Susick found that you improve with each project. And this progress feeds your own inspiration.
Goldberg started his college career in architecture, Goldberg says that he believes that specific major is one of the greatest things he could study to become a director. It informed a lot of his approach to filmmaking, specifically with intention and realizing how when making creative decisions, it isn’t just for the look. Growing up in the Bay Area, Goldberg says that most of the people around him were on the trajectory of going into tech. It was pretty rare for people to go into film. “I’ve done mostly documentaries before this, which is like a totally different approach,” he said, comparing that to the scripted work he does now.
They felt that getting into the Sundance Film Festival wasn’t plausible for either of them, at least not without connections. And they say they didn’t even have expectations of being selected when making “Soft Boil.” Luckily, they received a call from the programmer, and they waited 24 hours for a follow-up email to hear back. Both describe what it was like to get this great news as a very surreal experience. Susick says that it was “magical.”
After months of editing, Goldberg says hearing the responses from a fresh audience was really great. When asked about their dreams with filmmaking, they laugh. Both say paying the bills and getting to continue making movies. Now being in their early 30s, the ultimate goal is for them to make the things that they love and get paid for doing so. They would also consider working for Netflix in their hometown of Los Gatos. An interest for Goldberg would be to make a film that mixes genres, as he personally writes sci-fi and fantasy scripts. “I feel like, if I could make three films, it would be ‘The Truman Show,’ ‘Dream Scenario’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.’ I find I’m most drawn to films that are kind of blending genres,” he said. “I think with A24, there’s a lot of filmmakers that admire them because they invest in younger, up-and-coming, original films and filmmakers.” They selected Lucas Frank to compose the score for “Soft Boil,” and they say he did a very unique job with creating an “unsettling vibes that contrasts the traditional comedy approach.”
When it comes to dealing with critics, Goldberg says he is grateful no matter how they respond, as long as they take the time to watch what they make. And in the end, both Goldberg and Susick say what’s most important: to keep the specialness of the project. Goldberg can’t imagine how they could’ve had more fun than they did making “Soft Boil.”
When asked about the possibility of filming in Los Gatos one day, they say that they remember how a portion of Los Gatos High School was used on Nickelodeon for the Amanda Bynes show. And, depending on how things play out for them, they might be able to do something like that one day, too. As far as the near future goes, “Soft Boil” will be screening in Mountain View at the Cinequest Film Festival on March 21 and 22.
