We recently connected with Wendy Wolverton and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Wendy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
Miss Happy is a character I created in a script that became what I call a Storybook Movie. I wrote the script and the movie came about from a point of failure. I entered the short script in AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and was rejected. I wanted to make the movie so bad that I decided I would figure out a way to make it regardless. My husband and I decided to try shooting it with miniatures, having one day seen a beautiful, Godly light in our house over a small desk. It looked so realistic that we found inspiration. I visited the Goodwill, found an old castaway Barbie doll, and we began experimenting filming in various scales. We had worked on movies full scale our entire lives, but reducing the lens was something brand new. The scale was reduced, but the vision was not. Having never worked in miniatures, every day was an experiment. We didn’t use stop motion. We began filming in what I can only describe as a comic book/graphic art style. Since the characters (dolls) didn’t move, the camera did, and we conveyed motion from shot to shot. It literally became a Motion Picture – pictures that created motion. We built sets for the western film, and set them outside on the ground, so the dirt, trees, and skies were real. We used breakaway glass and created miniature scale stunts, created gunfire with incense and cigar smoke, and squib effects with a BB gun. As we continued shooting and began the edit, something was working. We had found magic in the various styles mixing live action and animation. We even used some stop motion. Having completed a short film, we decided to make it into a feature during the pandemic and built complete sets, including a 20 building (miniature) western town. We also retired Barbie and created our own Miss Happy doll. The Adventures of Miss Happy added more characters and locations as Miss Happy journeyed from the East to the West on a train, then traveled on a stagecoach, and horses, as she became an outlaw to survive, then had to fight her way back to a just world as she found her purpose and destiny.
Wendy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up riding horses and lived on ranches in the west and southwest; simultaneously wrangling horses and outriding with a stagecoach in our family business as movie livestock contractors. I attended film school at the University of Arizona and worked in movies as a set dresser. Later moving to Los Angeles, I worked in props and camera departments, while building a reel as a music video director. I studied screenwriting and wrote scripts, specializing in westerns and historical- true stories. I later worked in film post production and distribution in technical delivery. I continued to write scripts, being hired to write features and several pilot projects. My specialty is writing westerns and historical scripts with unique and untold stories that empower and inspire people to have hope and honor; and to find happiness in the world.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I have spent too many years working in a technical situation, when in fact, my creativity is my core. I’m fulfilled when I am creating, and having found the storybook film style of Miss Happy, I feel like I’m finally utilizing all the experiences of my life and creating a poetic story that matters.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think everybody has a story to tell. Not everybody knows how to tell their story, and some tell them better than others. I realized my story, my life journey, has been about survival. I started off many years ago with a dream. That dream has taken many detours and sometimes it has felt like the sun setting and the night closing in. The sun has always risen with my dream still in place. Having continued to pursue being a movie-maker after many years, I have learned as a writer what story I want to tell and as a filmmaker what story I want to show. I want to tell stories that show the journey, the struggle, the grit, and the determination as you stay the path. Life is hard. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep hope. Keep faith. Keep love. Keep happiness. That is my story. That is my message.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendywolverton.misshappy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-wolverton-a46882b6/
Image Credits
Wendy Wolverton, William Brown – photos by.