Harris Kauffman graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English Literature & Creative Writing, and was also a 2020 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab Fellow. He’s been working in the industry for nearly a decade and has produced and written a variety of projects. Kauffman’s latest film is Treasure Trackers, which follows a group of middle schoolers who uncover a Halloween curse while searching for lost treasure in their town. Wanting to know more about this film and Kauffman’s career, I was able to interview him for ScifiPulse.
You can learn more about Kauffman by visiting his homepage.
Treasure Trackers will be available to purchase on Digital platforms starting 10/1, just in time of the Halloween season: Apple TV US and Fandango at Home.
Nicholas Yanes: Growing up, what were some movies you loved? Are there any you still enjoy revisiting?
Harris Kauffman: I grew up going to Blockbuster before every sleepover, picking out movies based on the VHS cover. That’s how I ended up watching Anaconda and Starship Troopers over and over again. My memories of childhood are filled with impressions from these movies. An enormous snake lurking in murky waters. A gargantuan brain-eating grub.
Yanes: Are there any you still enjoy revisiting?
Funny you should ask, I actually rewatched Starship Troopers just the other day, for the first time in maybe twenty years, and I was shocked by how viscerally I remembered every scene, and how I’d even subconsciously written moments from that movie into my future screenplays. Suffice it to say the movie has withstood the test of time.
Yanes: When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career as a professional creative? Was there a moment this goal crystalized for you?
Kauffman: I took a student-run creative writing workshop called “experimental fiction” when I was a freshman in college. I signed up on a whim just to pick up a couple credits. I was the only freshman in a class of seniors who were all applying to MFA programs and getting ready to commit themselves to lives of creativity. I was so impressed by their devotion to the craft of storytelling, by the rigor with which they approached analyzing both canonized and peer writing alike.
Mostly, I was struck by what I perceived as audacity at the time, that they believed there was a future to be forged as writers. I think that was where the germ of the idea came from. I can still see that entire workshop’s circle of faces in Wheeler Hall. I wish I knew what they were all up to now.
Yanes: You graduated from Berkeley and you were a 2020 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab Fellow. How do you think these educations shaped your approach to storytelling?
Kauffman: At UC Berkeley, I studied English with a minor in Creative Writing. I read so many books that I’d never have the time or patience for outside of an academic setting, so I feel really grateful that these texts were built into my assigned reading. I didn’t go to film school, so I often feel there’s a big gap in my cinema history, but I read an incredible amount for my degree and was forced to use language to think critically about these texts in a way that forever wired the way I think about narrative and storytelling.
I was a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow the first year of the pandemic, which meant for better or worse that the whole fellowship year of support was over Zoom. It honestly felt like group therapy a lot of times. It was an outlet to keep the creative spirit alive and share fears and desires in a really uncertain time. Beyond that, the program challenged me to reflect on what it even means to be a “creative producer”. The program was hugely instrumental in my understanding of the creative producer as an intrinsic part of the filmmaking process.
Yanes: You’ve been in the industry for about a decade. Given how wild the last decade has been, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen on the business side?
Kauffman: Oooof. Let’s see. On the more dismal side, the rise of streaming and the pandemic felt like a one-two punch to indie filmmaking. Add in a double labor strike and the advent of artificial intelligence and you start to feel like every day is day one in this business. But I think trends and instability are sort of part and parcel to “Hollywood”.
On a more positive note, the filmmaking community has become globalized in a way that I never thought possible when I moved to LA in 2013. Look at Treasure Trackers. Directors from Idaho, producers in Los Angeles and Detroit, a cast from all over the country, an amazing crew in Knoxville, Tennessee, a VFX supervisor in London, and a composer in Berlin! Sometimes in a single work day, I’ll Zoom with colleagues in Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and New York.
Yanes: Your latest film is Treasure Trackers. What was the inspiration for this story? On this note, are there specific movies that you think influenced you the most while writing it?
Kauffman: Treasure Trackers went through innumerable drafts. My work on it actually started as a subtle rewrite that became more and more substantial over the years. Like many movie development journeys, I’d do a pass, some traction would fizzle, I’d shelve it, and then I’d come back to it and still be overwhelmingly charmed by the story and its characters. The spirit of the movie was always there from the jump, and that’s what gave me and my producing partners faith in its eventual fruition. A young misfit in a new small town. A legend of improbable proportions unfurling in a backwater place. In writing the script, I really dissected the storytelling of some of the movie’s comps. Goonies is obvious, but I was also inspired by National Treasure and the way that movie dramatized riddle parsing. Of course, there’s a bit of Harry Potter in there. In terms of the emotionality I wanted to imbue, I leaned into Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” and even some more dramatic films like Stand By Me.
Yanes: While writing this script was there a moment in which you realized that this story was going to work?
Kauffman: I don’t know if there was a single moment per se but I can say that one of the great joys of the development process was writing it with the support of my producing partners at Storyboard Entertainment – Paul, Jason, and Ricky. Every screenplay is an audacious act. To believe it might be a movie is such a statistical improbability, and yet one must never doubt its potential or you’ll be creatively stymied by indecision. I’ve spent months toiling on an idea only to shelve it. Writing Treasure Trackers with my producing partners to bounce ideas off of made it a really collaborative process, and our creative conversations often ran parallel to filmmaking strategy in a way that always made me feel like I could see the movie to come.
Yanes: Drew and Nate Garcia did a fantastic job of bringing this story to life. Reflecting on the finished movie, how do you think this project has made you a better writer?
Kauffman: I’m indebted to the Garcia Brothers. Indie filmmaking requires a lot of dividing and conquering and wearing of many hats across all departments, and the same went for the Garcias as co-directors. Nevertheless, their creative vision always felt singular and decisive in approach. Watching them work, crafting scenes in onset locations and working with cast, taught me a ton about my job as a screenwriter when it comes to sitting down in front of my word processor. My approach to scene composition, dialogue, and blocking on-the-page is forever changed by watching Nate and Drew bring Treasure Trackers to life.
Yanes: From the actors to the setting to the story, everything about this story comes together. If given the chance to tell a sequel, are there any plot threads you would like to develop further?
Kauffman: I really appreciate that because that integration of story and production was baked into the process at every step. Writing, casting, location scouting, editorial, and beyond. If there was a sequel, I’d love to pick up a few years later, taking up the narrative thread of the film’s epilogue. I won’t give any spoilers, but in a lot of ways I think the film’s adventure could be conceived as a sort of origin story. There are many stones unturned in Carterville!
Yanes: When people finish Treasure Trackers, what do you hope they take away from the experience?
Kauffman: I hope adults are hit with a wave of nostalgia. And I hope kids experience a bit of wonder and whimsy. A bit of that feeling that they are the heroes of their own adventure. That is a whimsical wish fulfillment that I believe every child is entitled to, and I hope the kids who tune in get to experience a bit of that magic through Leah Weaver. There’s an epic adventure awaiting in every town. Go find it!
Yanes: Finally, what else are you working on that people can look forward to?
Kauffman: The project I developed through the Sundance labs, Chalino, written and to be directed by Jesus Celaya, is very near and dear. The film is the story of Chalino Sánchez who immigrated from Sinaloa to Los Angeles and became a Latino music icon in the 1980s by immortalizing outlaws through song. Far from a Halloween family-adventure film, but it’s a super powerful story that has mesmerized me since before I even decided to puruse a career in film. In my own writing, I always have many things cooking. A sci-fi action-comedy I’m working on, a novel manuscript, a collection of short stories. A writer is never bored!
You can learn more about Kauffman by visiting his homepage.
Treasure Trackers will be available to purchase on Digital platforms starting 10/1, just in time of the Halloween season: Apple TV US and Fandango at Home.
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