Name: Nick Koetzle
Nickname: Nick
Major: marketing
Hometown: Glenville, New York
Favorite Activities: skiing, hiking, camping, making films
Her Campus: “Nick, I hear you’re a filmmaker.”
Nick Koetzle: “Yeah.”
HC: “What is your vision as a writer, director and producer?”
NK: “To make funny content. But my vision? I get inspired by cool films. Lately it’s been Tarantino. He shoots movies in such different ways. I want to try and mimic some of that feel. For example, Indiana Jones as well—anything about Spielberg, that kind of stuff—just kind of inspires me to make movies based on the way they make their movies. There’s a certain type of cinematography.”
HC: “Talk to me about your latest project, That’s Bananas!”
NK: “It’s pretty much the guys came to me and were like, ‘Let’s make a movie. Do you have something in the works?’ And I had an idea but I didn’t like it, so at the last second, I was like, ‘Let’s just go to the stupidest place on Earth.’ Which is an undisclosed location in Western New York. And we did something really stupid, with a stupid item, the banana—they were 94 cents at Tops, so I said, ‘Let’s go do something with bananas.’ And while we were there we just kind of put it all together.
HC: “What style of film do you prefer to make, documentary or Koetzle-fiction, an interpretative style of film that combines the inside of your mind with a fictional vision?”
NK: “Definitely Koetzle fiction, but documentaries are cool too.”
HC: “Which actors have you discovered in your career that are potentially A-list?”
NK: “Oh, all the guys I work with, honestly. Rojit Narmalada, Tim Rooney, Mike O’Malley made a pretty good debut in my first film.”
HC: “I hear he played a pretty good hand.”
NK: “Yeah, that’s true. They’re all—Zach too—they’re all smart and witty and resourceful and pretty fast on the spot.”
HC: “What upcoming projects do you have on the horizon?”
NK: “I’ve got a few. I’d like to do things around campus but I think people get self-conscious when you take a video camera in front of them in front of campus, you know what I mean?”
HC: “At what point does an idea you have go from being an idea to being an idea for your next fantastic film?”
NK: “Once you do it. Once you actually do it. Everything’s an idea until you do it.”
HC: “What do you say to the critics that say you are the worst thing to happen to the world?”
NK: “Oh man, they take me too seriously.”
HC: “Do you want to know who that critic was?”
NK: “Who was that critic?”
HC: “Rojit.”
NK: “Really? What?”
HC: “I went, ‘Hey Rojit, what questions should I ask Nick?’ And he said, ‘Ask him this question.’ Your response to him?”
NK: “I don’t know, maybe I’ll have to kick him out of the next film.”
HC: “That’s fair.”
NK: “Yeah.”
HC: “Where is this career going, Nick?”
NK: “Honestly I hope I can apply to a job somewhere in marketing or advertising someday, at a company that needs to make film content, or website, or YouTube videos or something like that, so I want to get good, especially at editing and shooting content. I just want to be in film. One thing interesting about That’s Bananas! is that people overlook—sorry, I should’ve mentioned this earlier—people always ask me what’s the meaning behind it. And there really is no meaning. But one of the actors in the movie, Tim Rooney? I think it was literally his attempt at making commentary on me, because the lines he used in the movie were exact lines I used to him when I was pissed off at him that he owed me money. So I think that That’s Bananas! was my own commentary, you know what I mean? Criticism on myself. It was basically about making fun of myself, which is really interesting when you think about it.”
HC: “That sounds pretty meta.”
NK: “It is pretty meta. Good for Rooney if that was his intention.”
HC: “Last question – what, exactly, is the Koetzle special?”
NK: “Oh, God. It’s an enigma. Does it exist? Does it? Anyone can get it. I mean, if you’re looking to fight me, yeah, you’re gonna get the Koetzle special. If I’m taking some girl out on a date, you know she’s gonna get the Koetzle special. You know, I’m playing video games, I sometimes unleash the Koetzle special. It’s just a word I use to describe myself dominating a situation, you know what I mean? That’s basically the Koetzle special.”
HC: “Thank you for your time Nick.”
NK: “You got it.”
To check out Nick’s latest amazing film, That’s Bananas!, check out the link right here: https://www.facebook.com/nick.koetzle/videos/776472785808096/?pnref=story