INFLUX Interview Series: Colin Best Talks The Man With the Silver Case, Independent Filmmaking, and a $25,000 Mystery
Musician, filmmaker, and hotelier Colin Best has never been one to limit himself to a single creative pursuit. After leaving his job in 2012 to pursue screenwriting, Best went on to produce The Black Jacket, a vérité documentary following a former Black Panther working with gang members in South Central Los Angeles. He’s also been making music under the name The Academy of Chess and Checkers since 2005, along with another musical project, Billy Chuck: Frontier Music.
Now, Best has added feature film writer and director to his résumé with The Man With the Silver Case, a stylish black-and-white neo-noir thriller filmed over 19 demanding days in Switzerland. But Best isn’t content to let the mystery end when the credits roll. He’s taken the film’s central premise into the real world with What’s In The Silver Case?, an interactive mystery game that sends participants across Los Angeles in pursuit of a $25,000 prize.
In this installment of the INFLUX Interview Series, we talk with Best about the challenges of making his first feature, the importance of visual storytelling, his future filmmaking ambitions, and why audiences should always be willing to look a little closer.
INFLUX: What are you currently working on?
Colin Best: Right now it’s all about getting The Man With the Silver Case in front of people. The film is streaming free on Kapang at themanwiththesilvercase.kapang.com and available on Prime Video, and we’ve built a live mystery game around it in Los Angeles called What’s In The Silver Case? The first clue is hidden in the film, players register at lookagain.la, and the game moves into the city through the end of October with a $25,000 prize at the end. So in a sense, the film is still in production, just on the streets of LA now.
INFLUX: What are your hopes, expectations, and goals for your current project?
Colin Best: All I really want is for people to watch the movie. You watch most of these films and you know where they’re going from minute two; I wanted to make one that doesn’t do that. The game is the same idea: give people a reason to look again, at the film and at the city they live in. If a few thousand people watch the movie closely enough to find the clue, that’s a success.
INFLUX: What have been your greatest challenges as an indie filmmaker?
Colin Best: The shoot. Nineteen days in Switzerland, one camera, during the coldest winter the country had seen in 20 years. There are easier ways to make money than a black-and-white movie with no known actors. We shot in native black and white on a RED with 1970s lenses because we couldn’t afford film, and I wouldn’t do one camera again, but the commitment to a frame was good for the picture.
INFLUX: What has been your most significant accomplishment as a filmmaker?
Colin Best: Finishing this film with the great cast and crew we had, in those conditions. Stuart Reid was out there at zero degrees in a suit and dress shoes doing all his own stunts, with no trailer. When the crew saw a classically trained actor take that without complaining, it raised the bar for everyone. Our co-producer Joby Ogwyn did the opening helicopter jump himself, three times, because we only had the one camera.
INFLUX: Tell us about some of your past projects and where we can watch them.
Colin Best: The Man With the Silver Case is free on Kapang at themanwiththesilvercase.kapang.com and on Prime Video. The Black Jacket, the documentary I produced in 2016, follows a former Black Panther trying to change the mindsets of influential gang members. On the music side, The Academy of Chess and Checkers has eight albums out, and some of that music ended up in the film after my editor told me to get over myself and use it, because it works. Billy Chuck: Frontier Music Vol. 1–13 are out now as well.
INFLUX: What goals do you have for yourself moving forward?
Colin Best: More films. I have several screenplays ready to go, including a samurai film called Black Mountain. The plan is the same as it was for this one: keep the budget honest, film it on location, and make something that doesn’t tell you where it’s going from minute two.
INFLUX: What advice would you give to your younger self just starting out?
Colin Best: If your budget is low enough, there are ways to do it. Don’t wait for permission or for the money to look like a real movie’s money. And if it’s all dialogue, just write a play. Film is pictures first.
INFLUX: What’s In The Silver Case? How does a film turn into a live game across Los Angeles?
Colin Best: The movie is about a man carrying a case everyone wants, so it made sense to put a case into the world and let people chase the question. Watch the film free on Kapang, find the first clue, register at lookagain.la, and the rest plays out in Los Angeles through the end of October. It’s free, it’s open to anyone 18 and over in the US, and the winner takes $25,000. Official rules are at lookagain.la/rules.
Photo credit: ©2023 MWSC LLC, courtesy Jay Keitel
