How long does it take to make a feature film? While there are plenty of outliers, a typical Hollywood project—from shooting through post—requires about a year or two. On the slow side, the animated movie “The Thief and the Cobbler”  famously (or infamously) was in production for 35 years. Now, for something amazingly fast, we have a dozen feature westerns being directed this year by Travis Mills. If that doesn’t put the Arizona filmmaker into the Guinness Book of World Records, Mills has punched another ticket: “The Woman Who Robbed the Stagecoach” is the first western shot using an iPhone. Check out the trailer and the interview with the director. We’ll have more to say about the movie when it premiers in August.

Interview with Travis Mills

MobileMovieMaking: What motivated you to become a filmmaker?

Mills: Movies have been an obsession from a young age and that passion matured over time. After college, I decided to go full time filmmaker with no plan B and never look back. I’ve managed to make it work for the last 10 years. My motivation is honestly just a desire to tell stories.

MobileMovieMaking: How did you develop your moviemaking skills?

Mills: I did go to film school in Arizona but unfortunately that experience cannot be credited for much of the work I’m creating today. They didn’t teach us well nor encourage us to make many films. They also brainwashed us into a standard method of making movies: big budgets, big crews, etc. I rejected most of that when I started Running Wild Films in 2010 with one of my retired professors, Gus Edwards. He was different than the rest and encouraged me to get to know various independent movements (French New Wave, Italian Neorealism). It was watching those films that helped a lot in the early years. I basically re-taught myself by making a ton of films. In 2013, I made 52 short films in 52 weeks. This was like a film boot camp where I could experience so many trials and tribulations for future endeavors.

MobileMovieMaking: Are there any filmmakers who influenced your approach to making movies or who inspired you.

Mills: Werner Herzog is my biggest influence, not only because of his films but the way he’s made them and his philosophy of life. He will take incredible risks with his own life to get his stories made. I’ve read his interview book over and over. It’s my film bible.

MobileMovieMaking:  What gave you the idea for “The Woman Who ‘Robbed the Stagecoach”?

Mills: A friend of mine alerted me to a local newspaper article about Pearl Hart, one of the only women who ever robbed a stagecoach. At first, I didn’t see a feature-length story there, but when I was putting the 12 Westerns project together, I started to poke more into Pearl’s life. What I discovered is that the events before and after the robbery fascinated me much more, especially her issues with male relationships and how that may have effected her decisions. Once I’m hooked, it doesn’t take much to get me started on a script.

MobileMovieMaking: How did you plan the shoot?

Mills: I went through a couple drafts of the script as usual. Some of it didn’t make it on screen because of decisions we made during production. We also invent a lot in the moment so some of what you’ll see in the film was never on the page. Traditionally, I don’t storyboard.  Now and then, we’ll list the shots but for the most part I show up with the cinematographer, talk out the scenes, and choose the shot coverage the day of filming.

MobileMovieMaking: Could you talk about how you cast the movie?

Mills: For these films, I usually do a local casting call. Most of the people in the movie came from those auditions. For the lead role, I had someone in mind from L.A. who had actually played Pearl before. However, at the casting call in Globe, Arizona, a woman named Lorraine Etchell came in. She’d never acted in a film before but I felt an immediate connection with her. I have a long history of casting non-actors. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. In this case and by all accounts of those who have seen the edit, it worked very well. Lorraine was Pearl in so many ways and brought a natural energy to the role that no actress could have created.

MobileMovieMaking: Why did you decide to cast yourself in one of the key roles?

Mills: For the biggest supporting role in the movie, Joe Boot, I continued to look for an actor, trying to find someone right for the character who would convince me not to play him myself. When I’d written my take on Pearl’s accomplice in the robbery, I’d fallen in love with this European drifter, a sincere goofball. Eventually, I knew no one would come along to convince me otherwise and I am so happy I decided to play the part. Acting and directing yourself isn’t as difficult as it sounds. On one level, it’s one less person you have to communicate with on set because you know what you want. On another, I had my friend and collaborator John Marrs behind the camera for those scenes and he’d give simple notes if needed. We did a lot of playback and I’m proud of the performance.

MobileMovieMaking: What gear did you use?

Mills: We used very minimal equipment. The question arose with the cinematographer early on if we should get special lenses for the iPhone. My answer was no. Some of these iPhone features outfit the device with so many extra things that it almost defeats the purpose of shooting on one. My philosophy was to show that you could pick up the new iPhone 11 Pro Max with three lenses and shoot a film without a bunch of fancy additions.

MobileMovieMaking: What about non-camera equipment?

Mills: We did use a cheap gimbal for most of the shots, especially after discovering that stabilizing the phone on a tripod was difficult. The gimbal and lightweight phone allowed us to get shots we normally can’t capture working with a regular camera. Our lights were very simple, mostly just a small kit of little units. A lot of what you use is natural light. We obviously shot using FilmicPro and we experimented with their DoubleTake feature but did not use it as much as I hoped.

MobileMovieMaking:  What are the advantages of shooting with a mobile device rather than a traditional camera?

Mills: As mentioned above, we were able to move and maneuver the camera in a way that would be much more difficult with a Blackmagic Ursa (what we normally shoot with). I love how small the setup is with the iPhone and if you’re “stealing scenes” somewhere you don’t have permission to film, you look a lot less suspicious because you could just be snapping personal photos.

MobileMovieMaking: Any disadvantages?

Mills: It was difficult to control the image sometimes. I felt that the next improvements with the iPhone and Filmicpro need to come with focus control. Yes, I know that they have done tremendous things with these features so far and our limited experience with the app might have been the cause of our frustrations, but I’d love to see an increase in being able to really control focus pulls. Other than that, I had no complaints. We filmed in August in Arizona and if you’ve been there at that time, you know it’s hot as hell. The phone overheating became a problem with any outdoors scenes. So we developed a method of cooling it down between takes.

MobileMovieMaking: How long did the shooting take?

Mills: We filmed for a total of 15 days, three 5 day weeks.

MobileMovieMaking: During the shoot, did you encounter any unexpected problems?

Mills: In my experience, no production goes “smoothly”. Troubleshooting is what filmmaking is all about and the 12 Westerns showed that over and over again. The heat was a big deal. We’re talking temperatures over 110 degrees. It didn’t bother some of us but others were really effected by it. I think they let it get to their heads and if your mental game is losing, your body will too.

MobileMovieMaking: Anything else?

Mills: We had some creative conflicts. It isn’t unusual for an actor and director to not see eye to eye about certain things. The relationship with Lorraine, playing Pearl, was a challenging one. She questioned my direction a lot and that’s not an easy thing to deal with sometimes when you’re juggling all the other aspects of production. Ultimately, what matters is what’s on the screen and the performance she delivered. I learned a lot about what I want from an actor on this film. Finally, it’s important to remember that we did this thing with a crew of four (including myself). So just every aspect of managing that was a daily challenge.

MobileMovieMaking: Was there anything special about creating the sound track?

Mills: Songs are currently being composed by an artist named Courtney Odom. The sound I wanted for this film recalled Dylan’s score for the “Billy the Kid” western and folk music from that era from a singer named Melanie. I wanted it to have a folk/hippie vibe to it and Courtney is doing a great job of creating that so far.

MobileMovieMaking:  Could you talk about your approach to editing the movie?

Mills: I’m editing the film like I would any other, on Adobe Premiere. It would be fascinating to edit the movie on an iPhone as well but that really wasn’t the intent of this project. So I’m cutting away on a computer and would consider doing everything on an iPhone for the right project in the future. I’m actually still in the process of finishing the cut. Because we shot 12 westerns last year and have been releasing one every month this year, it’s quite a work load in post-production. The film will premiere in Arizona on August 28th and between now and then, I need to finish the cut and polish the sound.

MobileMovieMaking: How do you feel about the movie at this point?

Mills: So far, I love what I’m seeing. Yes, it has issues. Every film does. But overall, it feels different than anything I’ve made and possesses a real raw energy that I hoped to achieve from shooting on the iPhone. Of course, I can’t wait to get it out there to the public and hear their reactions.

MobileMovieMaking: Could you tell us why you decided to shoot 12 movies in 12 months? That seems like such an unusual and ambitious project.

Mills: Basically, I’m crazy. I devised a plan to make 12 western feature length films in 12 months. I picked 2020 as the year and had no idea what a crazy year it would be. However, we got it done and by December 31st, we’d produced 12 Westerns. Why do it? I wanted to challenge myself, first of all, and I also wanted to explore the genre in a dynamic way. Every one of these films is so different from the next and really proves that the Western is a diverse and varied genre.

MobileMovieMaking: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out making movies?

Mills: A lot of young filmmakers get deterred by obstacles. They might struggle to find funding. Or their own fears get the best of them. My advice is to push through and get your movie made. Don’t make excuses and don’t let problems stop you. You just have to do it. And don’t make it a precious thing. Make the film, learn the lessons, and make a better film next time.

MobileMovieMaking: What’s the best way for readers to keep up with your moviemaking?

Mills: The best places to follow my film work are Instagram,  Facebook, YouTube,  and Twitter. You can find most of my feature films on Amazon and Tubi. Just search Travis Mills

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The editors of MobileMovieMaking have chosen “The Woman Who Robbed the Stagecoach” as the Mobile Movie of the Week.