The Global Search for Education: Crafting Connections at 30,000 Feet: Director Mark Kiefer Discusses By The Book

Posted By C. M. Rubin on Apr 14, 2024

This month, audiences can screen By the Book on the Planet Classroom Network. This film is curated for the Planet Classroom Network by Planet Classroom.

By The Book, written, directed, produced, edited, and cinematographed by Mark Kiefer, is a charming short film blending humor and drama.

When a man seeks help falling asleep on a London-bound flight, he forms a connection with a friendly flight attendant, leading to a sweet and captivating story.

The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome Director Mark Keifer.

Mark, what was your main source of inspiration for this short film?

As it happens, I know a guy who met his wife this way – he was a passenger on a flight where she was working as a flight attendant. More generally, I was intrigued by the idea of how shared stories allow us to process grief, and how books in particular can be a means by which we connect with others. I’ve also long been a fan of stories set in a single location, and in particular where the characters are effectively trapped inside, making it a crucible of sorts (12 Angry Men, Rope, The Breakfast Club, Fury), so I was drawn to the idea of a story that takes place on an airplane. At the same time, I was intrigued by the notion that air travel allows us to get to a very different place, both literally and figuratively, in a short period of time, and allows a compact story to take place in multiple interesting environments – the airport, the airplane cabin, the aircraft galley, etc.

Why do you choose Little Women as the book used in this short film?

Greta Gerwig had recently made a very successful, and in my opinion really great, film adaptation of the book, and I was struck by how successfully that film had conveyed the ideas that motivated our story. That is, the book evidently had meant a lot to her personally when she was growing up, and this personal connection to the story seems to have really resonated with many people across the generations. And having a British character who loves a book by an American author also figuratively mirrors the meta-narrative of a literal transatlantic journey, etc.

Do you believe the relationship between the two main characters could be explored any further?

Yes, I’ve also always been drawn to endings that are really beginnings, and that prompt more questions than answers. So the hope is that the audience will wonder what happens to them next, and what other connections they might discover.

The dialogue between the two leads felt rather organic; how were you able to write the dialogue to make it seem so down to earth?

Ironically, the task is perhaps easier because of the otherwise quite regimented environment of air travel, where people in formal uniforms are making lots of formal announcements from pre-determined, carefully worded formal “scripts,” etc. With all that formality, the “moments in between” sort of beg for a more relaxed, natural conversation. Thinking about conversations I’ve had with flight attendants over the years, I’m struck by how easily they’re able to make casual but substantive conversation with people they don’t know, and I was trying to reflect that.

Thank you Mark!