“Serious People” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27 at the Library Center Theatre.
The comedy is about a music video director who hires a doppelgänger to take over his professional life so he can focus on his home life.
The film was based on the real life of co-director Pasqual Gutierrez as he and his wife, Christine Yuan, prepared to bring their first child into the world. Everyone in the film played versions of themselves, making it a crossover between reality and fiction.
“Because of everyone's schedule, we had to really truncate the narrative and focus on filming specific beats when we can,” co-director Ben Mullinkosson said. “So as a result, we had to be more strategic in our time and really dilate into becoming a narrative film rather than being a fiction film.”
The idea for the film came from a vivid dream Gutierrez had during the second trimester of his wife's pregnancy. In the dream he hired a doppelgänger to take over his career as a music video director, so he could spend more time with his family.
Mullinkosson has wanted to make a movie about Gutierrez and Yuan for years, so he was “really excited” when he got the invite to help create this film.
“I’ve always had this idea that Pasqual and Christine are very eloquent, very dynamic and very hilarious in their day to day life,” he said.
The directors did not write any dialogue for the film, instead focusing on the narrative arc and story beats they were trying to hit. Since Gutierrez was also the lead of the film, he directed through conversation.
“I would go into a scene, sometimes people wouldn’t know necessarily what the scene was supposed to be about, but I would push a conversation in the direction I was trying to make it go, or I would pull things back,” Gutierrez said. “So that’s how we got this feeling of realism every time, but still have the story beats we were trying to hit.”
The directors said everyone in the film had been friends for a long time. Miguel Huerta played a leading character and said filming was very comfortable, allowing him to be himself.
“It was pretty fun, and I thought it was natural and smooth and everything,” Huerta said.
Gutierrez described their filmmaking process as teamwork-centric.
“Everybody knew everything every step of the way,” he said. “When we were putting the camera in front of them they knew what they were going to look like, they were aware of the editing process and so I think what was unique about this film was that it was a very collaborative process.”
The film was done in Los Angeles, where Gutierrez lives, and has underlying themes that go with the setting.
Along with a doppelgänger to replace Pasqual, there are also cameos of a Christine doppelgänger and a Drake doppelgänger in the film to symbolize the replaceability of everyone in Los Angeles, Mullinkosson said.
Becca Dobbins is from Los Angeles, and loved the film.
“I work in the industry, and it was very real and made me laugh, and I just found it very relatable and authentic,” she said.
Gutierrez said many on the production team saw the film as “this glorified kind of home movie for Christine and myself and my close friends … I’m so proud that it’s here at Sundance, and I’m also just so happy that it exists because I can look back at it as a timestamp.”
Yuan said the film is a beautiful documentation of her pregnancy, and she cannot wait to show the film to their daughter when she is old enough.
The production team was happy to hear the audience laughing throughout the premiere. Mullinkosson wants audiences to be able to smile and laugh at the crazy industry they work in and love.
“Los Angeles is a comedy and I just want people to have a good time,” Mullinkosson said. “Take an honest and personal look into Pasqual and Christine's life.”