Pop-Culturalist.com

Actor Kazy Tauginas has prepared his whole life to create the short film Standing Eight. It tells the story of Dusty Abrams, a professional boxer who discovers he has Lupus and is forced to retire. It’s a project that’s near and dear to Kazy, whose mother has been battling Lupus since he was born. Pop Culturalist caught up with Kazy, who wrote, produced, and stars in the short, as well as musician Jase Harley who composed the score.

PC: Tell us about Standing Eight, your character, and your connection to the story.
Kazy: Standing Eight is an award-winning short film about professional boxer Dusty Abrams, who is forced to retire after being diagnosed with Lupus prior to the fight of his life. The film follows Dusty as he tries to adjust to civilian life while being publicly shamed by his former opponent Quinn Durbin for backing out of their match.

I would say this is a bit of a coming-of-age film. Dusty finds himself in a position where he can no longer do what he’s trained his entire life to do. Not only does he lose his license to fight, but he’s also been stricken with a disease that primarily affects women. In this story, on top of being tortured by his inability to accept this sickness, he’s tortured by Quinn Durbin. Durbin trolls him relentlessly via social media and in-person. This is really about Dusty trying to find himself in a world where he can no longer be a boxer. He struggles with the concept that his life is no longer about his opponent in the ring—it’s about his opponent within himself outside of the ring, hence the film’s tagline: “Not all fights take place in the ring.”

I suppose I’ll start with my connection to the story. My mother, Victoria, has been fighting Lupus since before I was born. For those that don’t know, Lupus is an autoimmune disease wherein the body’s immune system attacks healthy organs and tissues. It can be fatal. I’ve watched my mother struggle over the years. This project was really the culmination of wanting to create content, create something meaningful, work with specific production people in my circle, and wanting to play a boxer. I’ve always been a proponent of content creation. I’ve actually been writing for years. Being that I don’t navigate the elite Hollywood circles, I came to rest on the idea of writing a short film. While conferring with my team and going back and forth on the story and using Lupus as a plot device, my co-producer Antoine Allen mentioned actually giving Lupus to the boxer, and it was off to the races after that.

PC: How did your mom’s battle with Lupus influence the film and your performance?
Kazy: I picked my mother’s brain multiple times while I was writing the first draft of the film. I also made some changes to the edit after conferring with her. I wanted the film to resonate with those who have Lupus. I just drew from my mother.

As far as preparation, I’ve been preparing my entire life, processing bits and pieces of my mother’s journey. I like to think I was able to channel some of that through my performance. There was a moment when we were on set shooting the sparring scene, and after we laid down one of the takes where Dusty says, “Everything hurts,” my father approached me and said, “That was it. You got it.” From then on, I was sure we were on the right path. You could say this story is a culmination of my family’s experience with Lupus. Unfortunately, being it was a short film, we couldn’t expand on every aspect of the disease’s effects.

PC: Is there more pressure when you’re working on a project that hits this close to home? Did it change your preparation/weight of the film?
Kazy: I think any time you helm a project there’s a ton of pressure. When we were shooting, I didn’t feel pressure on my performance at all because I had a firm handle on what was going on with my character. It was in the pre-production and Kickstarter campaigns, and then our post-production that I felt it the most.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so that can be both a positive and negative. Being that I was involved in every aspect of production, I felt various pressures every step of the way. Making a film is like painting, and despite how difficult it is to make a film, I prefer to be the painter than just the brush or a color on the palette. Standing Eight, while being meaningful to my parents and myself, is also incredibly meaningful to the Lupus community and their families. The final product of Standing Eight that you see is a firm representation of me as a creator and the fantastic production team I was blessed to assemble. Overall, I’m incredibly proud of it.

PC: What was your mom’s reaction to seeing Standing Eight?
Kazy: My mother cried.

PC: You acted in and produced the short. How challenging was it having dual roles? Do you think we’ll see you produce again in the future?
Kazy: I think acting and producing simultaneously can be tough. What I mean is you shouldn’t have to wear your producer hat while you’re acting. Luckily, I had great people on my team, so when it came to shoot the film, I was able to focus solely on my performance.

I will absolutely produce again. I’ve written numerous screenplays. My next venture will be a feature film that deals with a lot of the same elements as Standing Eight. Ideally, I would like to assemble my creative team again and again—Louis Peduto, Jase Harley, Betterdays Media, SweetArts NYC—and take our creative abilities to the next level and grow together. Like I always say, “A rising tide raises all ships.”

PC: The short is out now. What do you hope audiences take away?
Kazy: After audiences watch the film, I want them to talk about Lupus. I want them to get on their computers and Google the disease. I want this film to start a conversation and hopefully be a catalyst for understanding, awareness, and eventually a cure. I want those who have Lupus to know they have an advocate in me, and I’m just getting started.

Jase Questions

PC: What was the process like scoring Standing Eight?
Jase: The process for scoring Standing Eight was an amazing experience. I’ve always wanted to score films since I was a kid, so being invited on board this project was, in all honesty, a dream come true. Kazy and I met up and went scene by scene, trying out different melodies to get a basic sense of what he wanted. Then we went back and made it happen.

PC: What was the collaboration like with the creative team?
Jase: It was inspirational and memorable. My production team and I have been together for almost ten years; I feel we’re one of the best in the world. Collaboration with a room full of exceptional creatives is always fun, especially since we’re all longtime friends. Kazy was already familiar with my sound, so reaching common ground sonically was relatively easy.

PC: Is the overall process different than releasing original music?
Jase: Yes, it’s very much a different journey. Original music, for me, is pure unrelenting imagination, whereas film scoring is imagination set within boundaries. It’s like painting a blank canvas verses coloring between lines. The job of the music score is to enhance the visuals, not the other way around, so it takes restraint and humility to score a film. The music isn’t the center of attention; there’s also dialogue and other sounds in the film that can’t be overshadowed. In the world of filmmaking and scoring, less is usually more.

Standing Eight is available now on Amazon and Vimeo.