Filmmaker Profile: Ballard C. Boyd
Ballard C. Boyd
Ballard C. Boyd is an Emmy Award-winning & Peabody Award-winning director & producer, based in New York City. and is currently a segment director and producer at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he has directed over 150 segments on CBS.
His narrative work has been broadcast on CBS, Showtime, Comedy Central, HBO Family, Logo, E!, ESPN.com, and NBC.com, and screened at over 4 dozen film festivals.
He has directed commercials and branded content for brands including Google, Wild Turkey, Captain Morgan, Mountain Dew, 3M, DICK’s Sporting Goods, Bounce, LongHorn Steakhouse, ACE Brand, NRG/Reliant, and Popular Mechanics.
In 2021, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Special (Live) for his work on Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020 on Showtime; as well as a Peabody Award for his work on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
He lives in Sunnyside, Queens, NY with his wife & daughter.
This Q&A is part of the Bushwick Film Fest Filmmaker Q&A series.
What inspired you to create this film, and how did the initial idea come to you?
The film was written by my friend David Bizzaro and me, at a time that I was away from work on parental leave and I was looking for a creative project to work on, since I know I get itchy if I not working on something. It’s been so long ago, but I believe he pitched me a premise about a therapist, and then also a separate setup involving a burglar. We didn’t use the initial burglar premise, but it inspired us to come up with “what if this happened instead”. then we ended up combining parts of the two concepts together. The comedy beats of the story (and the turns & escalations) came together really quickly in an outline, but then it took several weeks to find the actual structure of the conversation between the homeowner and burglar that became a therapy session and was woven throughout. However, the whole time we had Richard Kind in mind for the homeowner, because we’re such fans. The fact that he responded to the script when we sent it to him (which was kind of a Hail Mary approach) and agreed to do it - and then was such a joy to work with and elevated the hell out of our script - is still amazing.
Can you tell us about the central themes of your film? What message or emotion did you hope to convey?
We were really interested in the idea of two people, who otherwise shouldn’t ever meet or have a reason to interact, that end up finding a connection and helping each other, almost by accident. That shared connection and understanding that we’re all going through something hard and we don’t necessarily have to do it alone was a big part of wanting to make this short. And I also really like hiding really emotional earnest moments and ideas (in this case, confronting grief over the end of a relationship) inside of very silly high-concept comedy premises (i.e. homeowner helps a burglar rob his house). I think people can be way more receptive to a big idea or an emotional moment when they’re laughing first and they have their guard down.
Why is filmmaking important to you? Why is it important to the world?
I think stories are how we humans process the world around them. And I think we’re actually hardwired for it and it’s part of what makes us evolutionarily human. Filmmaking is just one particular extension of storytelling, but when times are tough, when work is hard, people turn to stories. They’re CRUCIAL. Some people think of it as just escapist, but it’s STORIES that humans use to keep them going, to process grief, to find joy and connection in life. Stories show us what’s possible.
How do you feel about your film being screened in front of a festival audience?
It's an incredible experience (especially when having made a comedy) to witness a live audience react to the film in front of them and have them be affected by it. The vast majority of a short film’s life will live online with people watching it by themselves on a phone or laptop, so it’s something really special to get to see it in a dark room together and get the confirmation that “Oh, yes! The jokes work! They’re laughing in all the right places!” Nothing can ever top a joke hard landing with an audience full of strangers.
Ballard C. Boyd’s Q&A is part of the Bushwick Film Fest Filmmaker Q&A series.
