Director’s Statement
Dale is a guy we all know - a mediocre man who resents that the world hasn’t recognized his greatness. And instead of embracing his normalcy, and finding gratitude in what he has, he does everything in his control to force the acknowledgement he feels the world owes to him - including turning himself into a villain. When he finally gains notoriety for his “greatness,” we’re left to wonder what the cost was, and how many of us are willing to cash in our supposed principals to force a destiny of self-realized importance. Side Note: while we’ve all been guilty of chasing “self-realized importance,” we promise that the only reason we co-star in our own movie is because there’s nobody else we’d feel comfortable putting through the 14 hour shoot days for no pay.
In all seriousness, it’s hard to admit, but there’s a lot of us in Dale. He's an extreme version of the way we’ve all felt from time to time - when we want something so badly and compare ourselves to other people and lose sight of who we are and what’s important. As three artists who grew up together, trained together, and began pursuing artistic careers together, we know how easy it is to fall into the trap of feeling as though you are in competition with your friends, your past, your environment, everything. This is why part of Dale’s journey includes his reflection of success in comparison to his childhood friends Jan and Karl (who are at different places in their superhero careers). Matt’s script captures this dilemma perfectly, as well as the dichotomy of how much the polarized world we live in perpetuates, rewards, and yet suffers greatly from the myth of the special young man.
And because so much of examining this topic began to pull from our own observations, experiences and things we love - applying the style of storytelling we love to this project was a no brainer. We grew up inspired by shows like “The Office” for its heart and realism, and were in awe of how “What We Do in the Shadows” perfected that style in a less realistic world. As audience members we loved getting pure, unadulterated access to characters, and seeing how characters act when they know that a camera is recording them. There is no better medium to capture Dale Dinkle’s funny, and tragic, and self absorbed journey. This is how his story became Zero Issue: the world’s first Superhero Mockumentary.
We hope you love our characters and their journeys as much as we do, and that in between a lot of dumb jokes and capes, we've successfully asked our audience: is being famous and powerful more important than being good? And as Dale Dinkle goes on that journey, we hope you smile, laugh, and sometimes get a little sad in a good way. Thank you for your consideration.
