"Save & Continue" by Michael Felker
Video games.
That thing, if you're of a certain age, your parents didn't quite understand.
That thing, we should acknowledge, can play a pivotal role—sometimes the most pivotal role—in our early childhood, as it did for writer/director Michael Felker.
"The movie was basically a compression of a few different memories from my early childhood: my parents' divorce and learning how to read through video games."
In Save & Continue, a young girl copes with the divorce of her parents by playing late-night Zelda games with her father (A Link to the Past, one of the finest games ever created tyvm, if you're keeping track), where they're able to connect on a new level. *Pun slightly intended.
What transpires is a brief and devastatingly uplifting trip down nostalgia lane, offering a glimpse of what some of us could have had with our own parents if they would have just embraced the GLORY OF GAMING.
... but we digress ...
While Felker never likes spelling out anything explicit in his movies:
"In my experience, the lack of communication seems to be the most common symptom in fractured families, and video games can be a great tool at helping us rethink how we communicate and see how our actions can affect others. So merging these two worlds through a nearly wordless movie was something I was eager to try."
Felker went on to write and direct his feature debut, the sci-fi/thriller Things Will Be Different, which premiered at SXSW.
Save and Continue stars Casey Lynn Lopez, Nick Burr, and Candice Bolek. Watch it with the video game nerds nearest and dearest to you.
Odds & Ends
- A strangely "simple shoot," by the filmmakers' own admission. The biggest hurdle being Felker misplacing the remote for a half an hour.
- Video game footage was shot practically. Felker recorded specific gameplay moments during preproduction to be used later, burned the gameplay captures onto a DVD, then played the DVD on an old CRT TV. The actors would then mime the controls to match.
About Michael Felker
Michael Felker is a filmmaker and published author from Burbank, California. He was born and raised by a family of engineers and scientists. His award-winning feature directorial debut, Things Will Be Different (2024), premiered at SXSW and played at festivals around the globe, receiving worldwide distribution and critical acclaim with a Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Known for his love of science fiction and horror, Michael also worked as an editor on many acclaimed genre films such as The Endless, Synchronic, and Something in the Dirt.