Derek Magyar

River of Grass provides a look into a young Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD who returns home to the Florida Everglades and joins the family’s crime business. The film was accepted into the Oscar qualifying festival Hollyshorts this summer and screened for the festival audience. Cup of Tea Critiques caught up with director and co-star Derek Magyar, who plans to shoot the full-length feature in 2025.

Derek gives us background information on the origins of River of Grass’ setting in the Vietnam era.

It's based on real events, and for one of my co-writers, it is sort of based on his family lore. And so in Everglades City, all the kind of things that happened there, which, if you Google it, is crazy. That's when this happened. So it made sense to have him come back from Vietnam, because that's when the real story takes place. 

Derek gave his perspective on who makes up the target demographic for River of Grass.

I think it has a really broad demographic. The short is exciting to 18 to 39 [year olds] because PTSD is something that a lot of people can connect to in lots of different ways. As we know, PTSD is not just one thing, and so I think that has a lot of resonance for people as well as there's some fun action stuff which happens in the second half, which I think is also really gripping. I think the older audience is really engaged by the family drama. A lot of people can connect to that time period, whether they served or not, and really relate and reminisce to what their lives were like during that period. 

Derek expanded on the process of turning the story from a TV series to an on-spec feature.

The project was brought to me as a pilot of sorts, from the guy who it's based on. Instead of a pilot, it was more like lots of episodes in one episode. He was trying to get it all out there, and we started developing it as a TV series. And then a production company got involved and asked us to write the feature on spec. I was like, “Sure, why not?” It just made sense. And then from there, it just evolved, and the writing began, and now it's going to be a feature film that we're shooting at the beginning of next year. 

River of Grass was shot with a team of about 40 to 50 people over a four-day stretch. Derek shared the most challenging aspects of the shoot.

There were a few. I would say one, certainly for me was, I've directed and acted before, but this was different. We had a very limited budget. We chose to shoot with natural light, which I always think has a better quality to it, a more honest quality. But that also comes with limited time, because the sun is only there for so long. It was very complicated for me to drop in as an actor present in the scene, and then also be able to remove myself and check monitors and make sure that I was happy with the composition of the frame, or, the performances. When you start running behind on time, that got even more complex. It was more like, “Get that, get that, cover that, cover this, let's shoot that.” And I stopped looking at the monitor because time was tight. I needed to focus on my work as an actor, and I just sort of picked off things that I knew we'd need or use. Luckily, we had two cameras, and it worked out that way, but that was really challenging. 

We had the car scene; it was a bigger scene originally, but we chose to do sort of a hood mount. That's very complicated, because you're limited on what you can do, and the setup time is a lot more than you'd expect it to be. You don't get enough sort of variety of shots. I couldn't make the scene the way I wanted to. It's worth spending a little bit more money potentially, and having a poor man's process trailer to be able to focus on the work, as opposed to, “Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.” Everything is a learning lesson, and everything is sort of complicated, especially when you're on a limited budget. It's just about making your day and making sure that your actors are happy, which is the first thing for me. My cinematographer, and everybody, luckily, who's in the nucleus of the team are all people I know and people I know well. So we have a real shorthand, and that helped make things a lot easier, thankfully. I'm very fortunate in that sense. 

Given Derek’s dual perspective of acting and directing, he can speak to both experiences. He weighed in on whether or not actors should try directing in order to step into someone else’s shoes.

It's a choice. There's a lot to learn and to take away from it. I think that depending on how focused you are in just one specific medium, which I think in today's world and in this business, it's impossible to be in one lane, unless you're extremely successful. You really have to be a “multi-hyphenate,” in which case I encourage people to direct, act, produce, write, first AD [assistant direct]; do it all, because you never know where the next paycheck is going to come from. You never know where you can fit in. I think the more that you can do on a set, the more valuable you are. So yes, I would say absolutely everyone should try it. In that sense, it's not for everyone, but I would encourage everyone to try everything. 

Directors not only dictate the look of the film but influence the acting performances. Derek shared which he enjoys more, coaching actors or composing shots.

Working with actors. I think probably because I've been an actor my whole career, pretty much before in the last sort of five or six years I was directing, but I was also acting still. I started acting when I was 10, and I've been acting all the way until a few years ago. So being connected to my actors is really something that is very important to me. I went back to school and studied at AFI [American Film Institute] and really honed my skills as a director, which I think in my first feature film was a challenge. I understood how to direct actors, how to work with actors, and I understood basic composition, but I needed to learn a lot more. It was really important for me, and it's not for everybody to go back to school and really learn the foundation, the principles of which directing are built upon. Not allowing that to totally dictate how I am or how I create on set, but to give me information and help me through the process. 

As stated above, Derek had a fellowship in the American Film Institute Directors’ Program for two years beginning in 2015. He revealed his favorite part of his experience as a fellow.

The people; meeting really amazing people, people that I work with. My cinematographer on this is someone from AFI, my production designer, producers, writers. It's about finding a family of creative people that are really cool, talented, creative people. That was by far the coolest thing about AFI. Surrounding yourself with talented people is only going to make you better and make you work harder. It's about the education, the first year especially. And I think the first year is really important. I think that you don’t necessarily need to go to get a Masters, to get that learning, but what AFI does so well is you just make movies. That's awesome, because you learn by doing, and there's no better way to learn. That was really valuable. So the people you meet, and just getting to create and make movies, there's no better way to learn than that. 

Artists of all types tend to find inspiration in their everyday lives and sometimes even their hobbies. Derek revealed what aspects of his life outside of film he believes influence his filmmaking.

I don't know about just hobby wise, but, from the birth of my daughter, to my wife, to family and friends and just ups and downs and working through challenges. I think all of those things have made me a stronger director, because they've tested my courage and they've tested my ability as a man and as a human being, and that makes you that much stronger. I think that life experiences, good and bad, as well as reading and learning and being voracious about what you do. I watch a ton of film and TV, and it's [that] work for me that I enjoy. To me, it's really all of those things that have made me a stronger filmmaker. 

I really love cinematography, so I've studied certain parts of cinematography that I also think have made me a better director. I've also learned how to direct as an actor, as opposed to just being an actor, [such as] directing actors to have more of a director’s lens on how I approach a given scene or blocking or things like that. So, I really think the biggest thing is life and just continuing to live. Ups and downs make you a stronger artist, as well as studying and learning and watching and reading. All of those things will make you an evolved artist. And you're constantly learning; you're constantly growing. You're always learning from the moment you start ‘til the end. 

River of Grass was accepted into the Hollyshorts Film Festival over the summer, one of 150 Oscar-qualifying festivals for winning short films. Derek shares on the gratifying experience of having his short screened at a prestigious event.

We had a great run. We were honored to be selected. Then we headlined the action category, which was sort of surprising to be in that category, but there is some action in it, so, still cool. We were nominated for Best Drama at the end, which was really exciting to us. We lost to a really wonderful film called Motherland. It was a great run. For our domestic US premiere, I don't think it could have gotten any better, other than I would have loved the win for Live Action, so we would have had the potential [Oscar] nomination. But we're just starting the journey, and so we're really focused on not this year's Oscars, but next year's Oscars and listen, that's shooting for the moon, right? But, just enjoying the ride while we're going through it all the way until we get there, whether it's Oscars or not. I think Hollyshorts was indicative of what we hope is to come. 

Watching other people watch your work can be an unnatural feeling. Derek dishes on what it was like for him to sit with people watching a work he produced.

Nerve wracking. Always for me, as an actor or director; I'm always anxious, nervous, and I'm always very critical. It's hard for me to not watch something and say, “Why did you do that?” As an actor, a writer, a producer, director, in all of the hats that I wear, I am picking apart everything. “Why did I have him walk over here?” Or, “Why did I deliver that line that way?” It’s challenging. I've gotten better, but it’s still tough. 

Fans of electronic dance music may recognize Derek from acting in… a Zedd video?

I did. It was before Zed blew up. That song was sort of his first, second major hit, and I had a blast doing the video, and it was actually with my ex-girlfriend from a long time ago, and we just had a lot of fun making it. It was a blast.

Zedd’s a really cool guy. We had a lot of fun making it. Great director, great team. Zedd's awesome. [Singer] Matthew Koma’s really cool. 

And what lies around the corner?

I'm definitely quite tunnel-visioned, but I do have some other things I'm working on. I have another short film that I'm really excited about that's exploring the theme of death. I think something that I hope will also be cathartic for me, and that's a project that I'm going to be working on a bit with my wife. I have mixed feelings about it, to be honest. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm also terrified to go there. But I think it's important, and I think there's a really interesting story to be told. It's something that I think everybody is afraid of in different ways, for different reasons. The idea of this story is a glimpse into the beauty of life and the suddenness of loss. I think it's something that a lot of people will be able to connect to. 

That's more on the back burner, but this short is something that we'll be working on as I'm prepping for the [River of Grass] feature, which is pretty much all I'm doing, because that's taking up all of my time. I do other work gigs, to keep me busy. I need to work and provide. I do a lot of real estate photography, videography, and I direct music videos. I direct brand videos, I direct all sorts of stuff. In terms of directing, I know I have a very diverse portfolio of stuff, so I'm always doing things like that. In terms of really creative stuff, right now, it’s that short and the feature. 

Updates on Derek’s ongoing and upcoming projects can be found on Instagram (@derekmagyar) or at Derek’s official website.