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‘Tangerine’ Director Sean Baker Talks Infidelity, iPhones, and LA

We got the inside scoop on the iPhone-shot Sundance breakout, which follows a pair of transgender Hollywood sex workers.
Sean Baker, director of TANGERINE. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Five features in, Sean Baker has proven himself an expert in observation, a writer/director dedicated to carving out compelling narratives within an eclectic mix of worlds: 2004’s Take Out told the social-realist tale of a New York immigrant in Chinatown trying to settle a debt; follow-up Prince of Broadway tracked a street hustler and newfound father; 2012’s Starlet fashioned an unlikely friendship between a young porn actress and an elderly woman who dreamed of acting herself.

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Baker’s latest, Tangerine, is a vibrant reinvention of form that still remains true to his immersive process. After moving to Los Angeles from New York, Baker befriended Mya Taylor, a black transgender woman, at the LGBTQ Center in central Hollywood. Through her he began to hear accounts of the transgender sex workers who frequented the area, in particular the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd. and Highland Ave.

Over time Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch collected these experiences and fashioned Tangerine, an exhilarating, brash, and electric film—shot entirely on iPhones—that follows Sin-Dee (Kitana “Kiki” Rodriguez), who gets out of jail only to find out from friend Alexandra (Taylor) that her boyfriend/pimp Chester () has been cheating on her. I met up in Los Angeles with Baker to discuss his actors, iPhone cinematography, and under-the-radar production, as well as record his commentary on three key LA locations seen in the film (watch the clips below).

Mya Taylor and Kitana ‘Kiki’ Rodriguez in TANGERINE. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

The Creators Project: Were there alternate plot lines for the film before you settled on the revenge narrative?

Sean Baker: No, we had heard a number of stories from Mya, anecdotes and vignettes that we definitely wanted to incorporate. But it wasn't until Kiki pitched this revenge story to us that we said, "That's our 'A' plot." It wasn't even something that happened in real life, it was something being contemplated.

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How did Kiki and Mya’s dynamic match to their roles?

There are definitely elements of both characters in both women, except of course Kiki isn't as… see, I don't like to call that character crazy, because in the end you realize why she is so hurt. She goes away for 28 days because of her boyfriend, and then she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. That is complete validation for me of why someone would blow up like that.

We were working with two themes in the movie: friendship and infidelity. We just thought they were universal enough that people would be able to connect with these characters on that level, in any community, no matter where you are on earth.

'Tangerine' Sean Baker Commentary - Santa Monica Blvd. from Charlie Schmidlin on Vimeo. Credits: iPhone 5s anamorphic adapter courtesy of Moondog Labs. Music courtesy of Alex Campion.

Your past films have all an extended period of research followed by a quick burst of production. How do you—and in this and Starlet’s case, you and Chris Bergogh—realize you’ve built up enough context to go into production?

It's also about setting a date; if you don't set a date you're never going to shoot. With Prince of Broadway it was about a year. It took many months to even find Prince, and then once we did it was about finding a story and also money. Then, because of the winter, we had to speed up because we wanted scenes in the snow. Same with Tangerine. It was like, “We either shoot now or we're waiting a whole year,” since it takes place at Christmas and we didn't even have the money to decorate anything. So we had to use the existing Christmas decorations and lights in LA.

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'Tangerine' Sean Baker Commentary - Donut Time from Charlie Schmidlin on Vimeo.

Was Radium [Cheung] a bit hesitant at first shooting on the iPhone?

A little bit. He saw it more as playing around at first, because he was coming from [FX series] The Americans where he was shooting 35mm. I have to say, we all felt like, "Oh boy, this is a little bit of a step back into amateur hour." [laughs] But then I thought the only way for this to be successful was to embrace it. We had to, and we had to say that we're creating a new aesthetic with our look. If we pitied ourselves, we were going to fail.

To what extent did real life creep into the shoot with such a small setup?

Stuff would happen all the time. When customers were coming into Donut Time we couldn't lock down that business; we were given permission to shoot in there but not interfere. So if a customer came in, we would just approach them right after and say, "Can you sign this release, please?" It was taking that risk that someone would say no. We had to lose a few shots on the bus because a few times people would say, "I'm not signing that." One guy started at $500. We were like, "We can't even afford $100."

'Tangerine' Sean Baker Commentary - Metro Bus #4 from Charlie Schmidlin on Vimeo.

And you grabbed a bicycle as a dolly at one point?

I was a bike messenger at one point in Manhattan, so it was easy. You're holding the handlebar with your left hand and with your right hand you're just able to get whatever shots you need. I was doing 360-degree shots around the actors. I didn't use many of them in the film though, they were really smooth but for timing reasons they didn't work.

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Some shots felt like you were dive-bombing in on the action as well.

We bought a painter's pole that you put a roller on and got it out to twenty feet, put the camera on the end, and then we would just do it a lot. There’s a shot where they're walking down the sidewalk and we dip down and then up again—we shot that about 20 times. And we could never use monitor. It just felt like was a throwback to like making movies when you were 12 years old, in a way.

Kitana ‘Kiki’ Rodriguez and Mickey O’Hagan in TANGERINE. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

For more inspiring stories of fearless filmmaking, watch the first episode of The Creators Project's Art World series, A New Wave of Iraqi Cinema:

Tangerine opens in theatres July 10th from Magnolia Pictures.

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