Today we’d like to introduce you to Kai Kaldro.
Hi Kai, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a native of Brooklyn, NY – born April of 2001. I’m a writer/director & editor of independent action films (of the neo-noir and cyberpunk niches) and rock music videos. My most immediate influences are Lana Wachowski, Alfred Hitchcock, Sam Raimi, Joel Schumacher, and classic MTV director Sophie Muller.
From the beginning, I always knew I was meant to be a filmmaker. As a youngster, I watched the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the DVDs for The Matrix trilogy even more than the films themselves. It was the earliest understanding of anything I ever had: I was cognizant of the chroma keying and wire-stunt work… before I even knew the days of the week!
My first filmmaking attempt was as early as age six, the summer after kindergarten– with the help of neighborhood kids, I procured a 10-minute Spider-Man short, shot on a camcorder. We utilized Halloween costumes, composited the hilariously rough “visual FX” in Microsoft Paint, and cut the whole thing together in Windows Movie Maker. Definitely something that pre-teen kids made, but at the time it felt like my first step into a larger world.
Growing up, I had other fascinations like harder rock music and comic-books, but because cinema is an amalgamation of all different art forms: I was not diverted by, but encouraged to stand by my medium and infuse my other affinities. Music translates into soundtracks and comic-books evolve into storyboards and thus, my shorts Sinner’s Lullaby (2020) and Dissolved Girl (2021) are exceedingly soundtrack-oriented, with entire sequences that emulate comic-book panels.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The hardest part of my journey thus far has undeniably been the tragic passing of my production sound mixer, friend, and mentor M Wolf Snyder (best known for his work on Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland and The Rider), just a week before his 36th birthday in March 2021. I’d never been so heartbroken.
As soon as I turned 18, I moved back to NYC, where I was born, determined to begin my path as a filmmaker. I was struggling to find the lay of the land, but Wolf treated me with the utmost respect and warmth. While so many I was meeting or working with at the time would often just dismiss me as being a stupid kid, he still handed me his business card and treated me as a peer. He didn’t subscribe to industry sycophantism and or on-set politics. He was truly one of a kind.
He gave me strong words of encouragement both professionally, as a colleague when I’d get anxious on set and doubtful of my directorial abilities, and personally as a friend, when my social anxiety and self-doubt were getting the better of me. He was honored by Chloe Zhou and Frances McDormand upon their receiving Best Picture for Nomadland at the 93rd Academy Award Ceremony. It was an honor knowing him and I’ll love & miss him always.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
With action pictures, I strive to balance stories pertaining to some kind of gritty underworld, but that also have an emotional availability and warm human touch.
From a directorial standpoint, I simply just think that’s good cinema, to have big popcorn fun whilst also being moved… but on a more spiritual level; I’ve always considered myself an emotionally available guy, but I’m oftentimes not the first person people come to when they’ve had a bad day, so for whatever I’m lacking in personal interactions, I hope to better offer universally via a motion picture.
Since 2019, I’ve written & directed and edited several half-hour shorts:
The pulpy black & white neo-noir Sinner’s Lullaby, which is in part a sendup to the classic mysteries by John Huston or Alfred Hitchcock, but also has a few modern twists that I’m sure the original Motion Picture Production Code would’ve given us hell for, pushing it closer akin to say Marvel’s Jessica Jones.
The gritty cyberpunk transmission Dissolved Girl, starring Alexandra Faye Sadeghian and Ivelaw Peters. Set during an era of heated political war between man & machine, a misunderstood young computer hacker and uncover robot cop overcome their differences whilst procuring a caper to expose the cybercrime queen of the future.
Along with the performances and chemistry between Sadeghian and Peters, the big standout is the headbanging futuristic industrial rock soundtrack ft. pop country queen Rae Radick, who teamed up with the producers at Ghidrah Music to completely redefine the industrial subgenre in a way that beautifully reflects Dissolved Girl’s edgy, yet warm & inspiring tone. You can hear her original soundtrack single “Blur The Lines” on Spotify and all major streaming platforms.
My collaborations with musicians have seen editing the music video for indie-pop star Pam Steebler’s single “Noise”, directing & editing the video for “Meant to Be” by RANN, a great NYC-based rock band who I also had the honor of hopping on stage to run camera on their opening for Jefferson Starship last summer, as well as having rolled camera on with pop-rock queen Peri El opening for Kesha. Most recently I had the privilege of directing & editing the latest music video from electronic-jazz hybrid artist DAHNA, compounding her single “Sweet Nothings”.
On the horizon is the feature-length action-packed upgrade of Sinner’s Lullaby, which will see Alexandra Faye Sadeghian as Charlotte Meridian, a rock star moonlighting as private detective, and the great Swedish actress Elvira Levin reprising her role as the wholesome but kickass lounge singer Barbara Ann Bergman; as the two must overcome their differences and band together (in the musical sense too!) on October 30th “Devil’s Night” when the criminal underworld plaguing their city is mysteriously overthrown by an even more menacing figure.
Get ready for the 3 Gs: guitars, guns, and goddesses!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For any fellow upcoming filmmakers, I cannot emphasize enough that for any scene, whether it’s subjective or illusory — like a crazy nightmare sequence with a cut that never lasts longer than half-a-second, or something as innocuous as an establishing of a character walking into their day job at the office Monday morning — A wide master shot never hurts!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kaikaldro.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaikaldro/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaiKaldro
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQhY0khNWAmFaDrUgRU6ecQ
Image Credits
Gennesis Erize Pantaleon Lidia Marukyan Chris Barcia Kai Kaldro
