The choch someone for whom the most succinct definition on Urban Dictionary is probably “the biggest douche you know” is more often a figure of mockery than sympathy. In the aptly titled Choch Calgary filmmaker Brendan Prost certainly exploits some of this type’s traits for laughs. But his film is as much about understanding the choch as it is making fun of him.
“I wanted to express what it felt like to be perceived as an ugly person or to imagine that people see you as somebody ugly” says Prost a film production student at Simon Fraser University. “And to feel like that way that people see you or that you think people see you is not indicative of who you are.”
One needn’t be a choch Prost believes to identify with one. The director does not apparently drench himself in cologne wear sunglasses at night or see himself as God’s gift to women — all of which are actions often associated with choches. But he can still relate to the self-loathing of his character Tyler (Zach White) a young man whose often loutish behaviour masks a softer side.
“The notion of having these characteristics you think people despise is something I very much drew from myself” he says. “It’s a universal truth I think that there are elements of our personality that we think people despise.”
In casting Choch Prost turned to many of the same people mostly amateurs who appeared in his 2009 film Generation Why . But aside from this the two films are quite different. While Generation Why featured plenty of dialogue from its verbose characters many of the scenes in Choch involve little sound or action. In another break from its predecessor the film was shot in black-and-white a choice Prost says was deliberate.
“We were trying to de-emphasize the esthetics of the film by making it darker and uglier and grittier” he says. The choice of monochrome was also inspired because “we were dealing with issues of breaking down stereotypes seeing things in new ways and revealing the grey areas in things.”
Prost wrote a partial script for the film but much of it was improvised; this became a source of great enjoyment for the actors playing Tyler’s fellow choches. The director essentially gave them free rein to create their characters and says they found it easy to act appropriately “douchey.”
“I don’t think they found it particularly challenging” he says. “I think it was a real fun opportunity for them to get to mock people that they see on a regular basis and maybe are forced to encounter more often than they might like.”
The film is accompanied by some very un-chochy music including the mellow strains of indietronica bands The Age of Rockets and Faded Paper Figures. This contrast Prost says reflects the internal tensions Tyler is struggling with.
“It’s music that’s so kind of contrary to everything about the choch persona” he says. “It seems very delicate it seems very sentimental sensitive kind of moody and introspective. It felt so wrong for a choch kind of character but it felt so accurate for the inner voice of this particular one that we wanted to explore.”
Though Prost says most people who have seen his film have liked it he’s found the small turnout for its first two screenings disappointing. Both his hopes of entering Choch in festivals and his plans to make another feature this summer are in doubt; he now acknowledges he may have set his sights for this film too high. But when asked if he’s still glad he made Choch his response is instant and emphatic.
“I would never for a second regret making a film” he says. “Even if the film was terrible which I don’t think this is and even if the screenings were completely barren filmmaking for me is a necessity. It’s something I need to do in order to get things inside of me out.”
