Cagle cuts a slice of Hollywood in Beaumont, Houston
They were surrounded by the gadgets of movie magic – high-tech digital cameras, non-linear editing suites and more – but it wasn’t the stuff of movie-making that had their attention. It was the man.
All eyes were on Wyatt Cagle ’03 as he addressed the students in Lamar’s television studio one recent Saturday afternoon. Only a few years removed from being a Lamar student himself, Cagle already has developed a reputation as a can-do wizard of indie movie-making.
Their mission, Cagle relayed, was to create an eye-opening presentation for the awards program at the Spindletop/Lamar University Film Festival April 15 to 17. For the students, it would be an opportunity to showcase developing talents before industry veterans.
For Cagle, it was just another busy day.
He had arrived in Beaumont at 5 a.m. to work on a film, but he gladly took time to meet with the students, then jumped in a car with film partner Gordon Williams to shoot yet another film project. The duo is making a documentary about the Beaumont race riots.
Free time is valuable to Cagle, whose movie The Breakdance Kid was an official selection at the Austin Film Festival – a premier film festival in Texas. The 23-year-old has worn many hats on film sets, including director and editor. Cagle was director of photography on The Breakdance Kid, a
comedy shot in a documentary style. The tagline for this ’80s-era film is “A tale of love, ambition and parachute pants.”
“It’s a huge thing to be shown at the Austin Film Festival,” Cagle said.
Despite a tight shooting schedule and limited budget, Cagle had the freedom to shoot the film the way he saw it. “The director trusted me to make, visually, the best possible version of the script I could,” Cagle said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life.”
Working on an independent film project is very different from a commercial or studio film shoot, he said. “People are not there for the money, and, for most of them, it is not their full-time job. It is a passion.”
As an editor for Houston’s Wild Blue Pictures, Cagle assists in both production and post-production for television commercials, corporate videos and feature films. Most recently, he was among the Wild Blue editors working on Mr. Hell, an indie horror film shot in Houston.
Cagle recently worked a project for the Houston Advertising Federation’s ADDY Awards program, where he filmed several prominent Houston advertising executives sitting down to get tattoos. Wild Blue employees digitally added a tattoo on each executive’s arm to highlight the award categories. The theme: “Wear your art on your sleeve.”
Off the clock, Cagle directed and edited Gemini, a short film written by Williams. Many scenes were shot on the Lamar
campus. The Gemini project caught the eye of several people with Austin’s South By Southwest Film Festival, in part because of how Cagle and Williams packaged the project. The pair, who got local talent to create music for the film, is marketing the movie on DVD with a companion music CD.
“In movies, the score is as vital as any other component,” Cagle said. “Like a good script, good visuals, a good story and sound, the music can carry a scene to a whole new level. I think in Gemini that’s the case.”
Cagle enjoys spinning a yarn.
“I love telling stories. The ability to move people with a tale of romance or adventure is very powerful. It is difficult, but very rewarding.”
Although it can be terrifying to sit back and watch his film with an audience, he said, it’s incredible when the audience laughs at jokes and responds to the characters. “I guess it is all about connecting with other people. That’s what I love about this art form.”
