MEMORANDA: Cast & Crew | Biographies | On the Road With Jacob and Josh | Synopsis

DIRECTORS' STATEMENT

Haiku Tunnel is a film about tempness versus permness, both in the workplace and in life. We’re filmmakers now, but until very recently we were "just" temps. Josh supported himself for years with his 85-words-per-minute typing. As for Jacob, until the "Haiku Tunnel" project actually got off the ground, his stock answer to questions about his job status went something like, "Well, right now I’m a P.A., but what I really want to do is make movies."

And we weren’t alone in our tempness. One thing we noticed, as we put "Haiku Tunnel" together, is how many Americans –- from clerks to CEOs -– were temping for a living. As a result, millions upon millions were facing countless temp-related challenges to their professional stability and personal identity.

Dealing with the temporary life in a comedy was an appealing challenge. But in the end, we decided to go a step further -- and focus our story on the terrifying decision that nearly all temps must face: whether to go "perm." As a temp you have your freedom but no stability; as a perm you have your "benefits" but you’re stuck. We wanted to make a film that was true to our experience of struggling with the temp-vs.-perm dichotomy as a career and life dilemma.

Enter "Josh," our passive-aggressive hero. By his own account, he is the ultimate temp: "Whenever permness looms, I always find the escape hatch." But he has reached a point in his life where -- as he looks back on an endless string of failed relationships and unfulfilling temp assignments -- he has begun to realize that he can't be a temp forever. So he goes perm, for the very first time. And immediately, of course, his fevered subconscious causes him to start messing up.

It was quite a challenge to make a movie with a plot built entirely around the excruciating drama of a guy who "forgets" to mail 17 letters. And in fact, our running joke on the set was "Lights! Cameras! Inaction!" One thing that helped was that so many members of our cast either had temped or were still temping. (An exception was Helen Shumaker, who plays the fearsome head secretary Marlina: to this day, she holds an honest-to-goodness perm position as a full-time secretary. In fact, Helen had to build up four days of sick leave so she could attend the shooting.)

We also maintained the bizarre conviction that, in some goofy way, we were actually making an action film (albeit a nontraditional one). And we're not just talking about the exploding envelope moistener in the second act (as thrilling as it is); we actually felt that all the petty triumphs, disasters, and indignities that office workers experience every day could be the stuff of high drama and raucous comedy. You just had to know where to look: in the copy room, or by the printer, or under the desk. Everyone in an office has his or her share of drama and secrets: maybe that's why they're called "secretaries."

Sure, we could have made our hero a high-powered attorney rather than a hapless temp. But there are plenty of films about high-powered attorneys -- and in any case, we didn't know too many of those guys. In the end, what excited us was the idea of telling a story that honestly reflected our own struggles on and off the job, that highlighted the humor and the darkness in the enormous daily struggle of just getting by.
As it turned out, making "Haiku Tunnel" was a blast. Now, as to whether it allows us to go "perm" as filmmakers -- well, that's something that we'll just have to wait and see.

-- Jacob and Josh Kornbluth