Filmmaker Taylor Shults on bringing unique twists to off-beat comedy
Taylor Shults, University of Georgia alumna and media professional, has valuable experience across documentary, television, educational, and digital content. She has worked on various projects including projects with the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy Foundation. She has been involved in projects with “The Bachelor” franchise, local Atlanta film productions, and Realize videos. She specializes in offbeat comedies that feature unique female perspectives and she loves to dabble in the absurd. She is especially inspired by her mother, an artist who is a “jack of all trades.”
Her short film “Detective Tuna,” recently won the “Tuna Cans Film Festival,” where she was awarded $25,000, along with the short being run as an ad for Bumblebee Tuna. According to Shults, the ad has over 700,000 views on TikTok. Some of her most recent short films “Ctrl, Alt, Defeat,” and “Misfortune,” were official selections for the “Athens Film Festival.” She also received “honorable mention” for her script in the TV pilot section from the Broadcast Education Association. She currently works as a social media manager for the World War II Foundation.
Could you talk to me a little bit about your film “Ctrl, Alt, Defeat?”
[My friends] were sitting around talking about A.I. [as] a scary thing because that was at the beginning of it becoming a real threat to our jobs. And in a lot of media we’ve really seen AI as this horrible thing, but we wanted to take the funnier route.
You said you were inspired by “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” Could you talk a little bit about your inspiration from Scott Pilgrim and “Ctrl Alt Defeat?”
Very fast paced editing, whip pans, elevated sound design. The goal was to not have a conversation piece where people are sitting down talking. We felt that Scott Pilgrim is very good at never sitting down. They’re always fully engaged in the blocking and the movement, and so we’re going for [the] camera work being a direct homage. But we strayed away from the “Scott Pilgrim,” style acting.
Where did the original idea for “Misfortune” come from?
That was the first [film] I directed outside of any classes. [I] just made it to have that piece and see that script all the way through to the end. It certainly lived up to its name and production. I think anything that could go wrong did go wrong and it may be slightly cursed. I think it’s a fun movie. I think for me, it’s definitely, once again, one of those visuals that’s got somewhat of an inspiration from “Scott Pilgrim,” but I pulled away from it. I didn’t want a ton of whip pans. I’ve learned from “Ctrl Alt Defeat,” that I was using whip pans and interesting camera stuff as filler that wasn’t motivated by plot. So this was a look at trying to be a little bit more intentional with that.
How do you want people to feel when they watch your films?
The first and foremost goal, as someone who mostly works within comedy, is to get people to laugh. That’s always what I’m going for, and that’s always what I really enjoy hearing and seeing when people do watch my pieces in front of me. I recently had a project— “Detective Tuna”— where I had to get people to vote for it. And so I went to UGA, and I was campaigning on the street, watching how many people scanned the QR code. A group of frat guys went, “Okay, live reaction.” Which [the film] is funny. It’s weird, but I want you to be enjoying yourself. So in that sort of moment, you’re not standing on the street talking to a stranger who’s begging you to vote for something that you don’t care about. You’re watching. You’re in the moment with that film, and you’re really enjoying the plot [and] enjoying the gags.
What was overall audience reaction for “Detective Tuna?”
I never got a negative one. People really enjoyed it.
What film are you most proud of and why?
I would probably say “Detective Tuna,” just for the fact that it’s currently being run as a social media ad for Bumblebee Tuna. They’re running it as an ad online, so it’s really cool to see. It’s got about 700,000 views on TikTok.
What makes you unique to other artists?
When you think about the options on how the film could go—if the options are A and B, I try to find C. “Where is the least likely place for it to go, and how could the characters get to that point?” And even if that’s not where the plot ends up landing, it gives me a really good look into how these characters and these people would act in that situation. Overall, it pushes me to really get to know the characters and the work before I fully land on a finalized product.
What gaps do you see in the entertainment industry that you hope to fill?
I think well-written vertical stories—from a marketing standpoint—theres a gap in that. There’s this the Brooklyn coffee shop, which is a fake coffee shop, but it’s a written-out vertical show that is basically these two horrible hipster baristas in New York that are going to charge you $20 for their in house made cashew nut latte. And to me, that thing, it has so many views. It’s so easily consumable, and people love it. It’s well written too. I think it plays on a lot of really fun tropes but it’s also kind of marketing for the coffee shop that they’re working at. I think the brands should lean more into that, and they need to do it in a way that’s authentic, because people are ad averse nowadays, so the moment they smell “this is an ad,” —they’re out of there. But if you make it a good story, you get people stick around, which is what we were aiming for with the “Detective Tuna.”
What advice would you give to college filmmakers?
Your art doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to exist. Till you actually start making things, it’s not going to be perfect. Don’t wait for the opportunity to come to you. Get your ideas onto a page, get them made. You will learn something from it and, honestly, you will have a great time.
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