 
Director's Statement
BY ERIC
NAZARIAN
My family
emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the United States
in 1981. We settled in a working-class neighborhood by the
Los Angeles River near the train tracks. My grandfather Hovhannes used to take me for walks along the concrete
riverbank embellished with miles of graffiti. Before
nightfall, a soft blue haze would cast a spell over the
river running parallel to the Interstate 5 Freeway. The
sounds of the Santa Fe trains in the distant and the slow
tide of the river at dusk were my earliest memories of Los
Angeles, a far cry from the dirt roads of Hrazdan, Armenia
were I was born.
Since ’81, Los Angeles has gotten more colorful. Like the
Tower of Babel, the city is a massive jumble of languages
from around the world. Spanish, English, Korean, Mandarin,
Farsi, Greek, Armenian, Hindi, Hebrew, Russian, to name a
few. From a bird’s eye view, at any given moment there are
hundreds of tongues overlapping in the streets and
sidewalks, yet as a multiethnic society we don’t
communicate.
I wrote The Blue Hour inspired by the Los Angeles River and
a desire to make an ensemble film that relied on images to
examine the everyday lives and peripheral ties between
strangers in Los Angeles. The film is composed of four
stories. Each story is about an Angeleno from a different
culture, age group, and walk of life. The characters live
side-by-side near the river and pass by each other yet
remain unaware of their similarities and subtle
interactions. Like cars passing on the same freeway, the
characters are tuned-in to different radio stations,
clueless of the other frequencies around them.
Living in a city as spread out and disconnected like Los
Angeles, we are constantly passing by each other on the
sidewalks and freeways. Seldom do we speak or make eye
contact as we hurry to get to our destinations. Hardly ever
do we have the chance to get a “snapshot” glimpse into the
internal life of another person we pass on the street.
With The Blue Hour my hope is that these stories about
youth, adulthood, middle age and old age offer viewers “open
windows” into four lives on the “other side” of Los Angeles
and the delicate ties that bind strangers in a community.
Film Festivals
55th San Sebastian International Film
Festival
Zabaltegi New Directors
World Premiere
25th
Torino
International Film Festival
Official Selection
10th AFFMA
International Film Festival
Best
Director Award
U.S. Premiere
Sedona International Film Festival
Official Selection
The Method Fest Sunday
Official Selection
Beverly Hills
Hi-Def Film Festival
Official Selection
Golden Apricot International Film
Festival
WINNER
Best Film Armenian Panorama
WINNER Ecumenical Jury Award
WINNER The Prime Minister's Award
WINNER
Cultural Ministry Award for Directing
IV Digital Barcelona Film Festival
Official Selection
New Beijing International Movie Week
Official Selection
Brooklyn International Film Festival
Official Selection
Monaco Film Festival
Official Selection
Production Notes
"The Blue Hour"
marks the filmmaking debut of writer-director Eric Nazarian.
An ensemble piece set in contemporary Los Angeles, the film
is a multiethnic mosaic of stories set in a lesser-known
part of the city by the Los Angeles River.
Blending the lives of a graffiti muralist with a grieving
mother, a Blues musician and a pensioner all living in the
same community, The Blue Hour’s ensemble cast stars Alyssa
Milano, veteran actors Clarence Williams III and Derrick
O’Connor, Dutch actor Yorick van Wageningen and recent
newcomer Emily Rios. Produced by Lynnette Ramirez and Brian
Knappmiller, the film was shot on location in Los Angeles.
GENESIS
After returning from a photo trip to Armenia and the
Southern Caucuses, Nazarian wrote the screenplay as a way to
get back in touch with Los Angeles. “Unlike cities around
the world where rivers are romantic landscapes, in Los
Angeles, one of the most abandoned landscapes is the L.A.
River. It is made of concrete with a unique ecosystem of
ducks, dragonflies, herons, catfish and homeless people
living on islands, all running parallel to one of the
busiest freeways in Southern California,” said Nazarian.
An open-air canvas for graffiti artists, a recreational area
for weekend fishermen, cyclists, and a shelter for the
dispossessed, the “Emerald Corridor” of the L.A. River
inspired the filmmaker who grew up in a nearby neighborhood.
“I used to ride my bike by the Los Angeles River when we
first moved to L.A. It was a no man’s land and a point of
passage for many different kinds of people.” From a
storytelling perspective, the river would serve as a
narrative thread peripherally connecting the characters in
the story. Nazarian reflects, “As an immigrant and
filmmaker, I really believe in the idea that as people we
are connected in ways we sometimes don’t realize. The films
of Krzysztof Kieslowski, Robert Bresson and the New Wave of
Latin American cinema really inspired me to go out and make
a very personal, handmade film about a group of strangers
living by the L.A. River. The characters in The Blue Hour
are a mixed bag of very different people that share
similarities they have no way of knowing about. The idea was
to engage the audience in connecting the dots between the
characters and to offer a portrait of this “other” side of
Los Angeles that has no relation to the glitz or the gangs
associated with the city.” The film’s title refers to the
time of day just before twilight when a soft blue haze
blankets the neighborhood by the river.
While writing and developing The Blue Hour, Eric worked with
longtime collaborator Lynnette Ramirez and USC classmate
Brian Knappmiller. Securing financing for a feature film by
a first time writer/director was a challenge, especially an
ensemble film all to be shot on location in Los Angeles.
“From the onset the script received such positive responses
that I knew in spite of Eric being a first timer we’d be
able to raise the funds needed” said Ramirez.
In raising the financing for the film Ramirez and
Knappmiller took a homegrown approach. The film was largely
financed by longtime friends and collaborators. The goal was
to uphold Nazarian’s vision and, in a truly independent
fashion, make a first feature for an extremely low budget
with financiers that would agree on Nazarian having final
cut.
“It’s an intimate story with a unique narrative structure
that Brian and I understood was very personal to Eric. We
believed in the script so it was important we made deals
that would protect Eric’s vision,” said Ramirez. “It was
great to be in a situation where you are really able to go
the distance to assure your director’s vision was upheld.
From the script through the layback, our primary concern was
making sure that Eric’s story made it to the screen,” adds
Knappmiller.
The film would not have been possible without the support of
the communities in Boyle Heights and Atwater Village. The
filmmakers canvassed the neighborhoods, knocking on the
doors of largely immigrant communities and asking for
permission to shoot in and around their homes. Recalls
Knappmiller, “It was a great experience to really get to
know the families living in Boyle Heights and Atwater and to
be on the receiving end of so much support for our project.
The fact that we were not there to play up the tired
stereotypes of East LA opened more doors for us than we ever
imagined.” Both communities offered an outpouring of support
for the film because it explored the lives of the everyday
working-class people in Los Angeles that go largely
unrecognized by the mainstream media. Their support and
generosity offering up their homes and businesses was one of
the key elements that made filming on location possible and
preserved the authenticity of the film.
The visual palette of the film and the locations played an
integral role while Nazarian was writing the script.
Nazarian remembers, “There is a faded beauty and a harshness
that coexists in certain parts of Los Angeles that I wanted
to capture without artificially manipulating the images.
From Happy’s spray paint graffiti textures to Humphrey’s
faded yellows and thrift store colors, each character in the
story had a unique palette. The locations in the script are
set in lived-in, second-hand areas of Los Angeles you
normally don’t see in films.”
On their search to find the right locations that would
correspond with Nazarian’s vision of “thrift store Los
Angeles,” the filmmakers went about scouting the 4-mile
stretch of the Los Angeles River. The locations proved to be
a very valuable element to the film’s visual and emotional
core. But securing them was not always easy. Recalls
Knappmiller, “There were key locations that dropped out on
us last minute. We were on set at the LA River while we were
still scouting for some interiors that we were scheduled to
shoot five days later.”
Initially, the filmmaker was hoping to shoot on film in
widescreen to capture the breadth of the river. Due to film
and laboratory costs, after much research and Hi-Definition
camera tests, HD became the filmmaker’s preferred choice for
economic and artistic reasons. It allowed Nazarian greater
freedom in working with the actors and composing the images
in the widescreen 2.35 aspect ratio.
Nazarian recalls, “The actors need their emotional space
especially in the smaller locations. With HD you can be a
little bit more inconspicuous and not draw attention to the
filmmaking apparatus. The L.A. River is a wide horizontal
landscape that photographs really well in the 2.35 aspect
ratio. Since Blue Hour is an ensemble piece, I wanted the
film to have a fresco quality. Coming from a photographic
background, designing the visual palette of the film and
composing the actors within the frame is one of my favorite
parts of filmmaking. The images needed to capture both the
emotional distance of the characters as well as the intimate
moments in the story. HD helped me achieve that without
having to shoot anamorphic. I’m not a big believer in
shooting tons more just because you are working with HD
although it does help a great deal in case you need to let
the camera linger on an actor’s face.”
From the outset, Nazarian did not want to use filtration,
choosing a more ambient, naturalistic approach toward the
visual style of the film. “I didn’t want to make postcard
perfect images of L.A. or to dirty up the frame and make it
look urban and ugly. This is the Los Angeles of thrift store
clothes, old buildings, dim tungsten bulbs, and a certain
working-class melancholia that hovers in the air. I wanted
to photograph a different side of this urban city that had
certain neo-realist qualities without being gritty or
grainy. “
During the writing phase, the filmmaker worked with
long-time storyboard artist and collaborator Albert
Agazaryan. “At USC, the common wisdom for our first films
was to have everything pre-planned and drawn out to avoid
pitfalls during production. Albert sketched the key
sequences in the film shot by shot and really helped design
the color scheme. When you are working with a very tight
schedule, you have to be extra prepared because you only get
one chance to shoot a scene.”
During pre-production, Nazarian interviewed several
cinematographers before settling on Sam Levy. “It was
important to me to work hands-on with the cinematographer in
composing the images and not just shooting to capture
performance. Sam understood the palette I was going for.”
Tim Grimes, the production designer, worked with Nazarian
during pre-production to achieve the right tone for the
lived-in sets. “This was not an easy film to design. Tim
combed through probably every thrift store in L.A. to find
the right props and décor on our limited budget.”
CASTING
The challenge of casting was finding the right actors that
could carry emotions through their presence.
“Everything about the characters in the four stories is
based on people who have difficulty communicating with each
other or are simply living in their own bubbles, which is
essentially what Los Angeles is – a massive metropolis of
people coexisting side by side yet seldom communicating. I
wanted to find a rich blend of multiethnic actors that could
carry the performances to a more cinematic level. The
texture of the characters needed to be indicative of this
“other” side of Los Angeles without make-up,” says Nazarian.
Several actresses auditioned for the role of Happy, the
teenage graffiti muralist. In Emily Rios, Nazarian found a
kindred spirit who knew the world of graffiti. “The
character of Happy is a lone wolf with a spray can who
communicates with the images she draws. Almost instantly
when I saw Emily and her Los Angeles-bred passion for street
art, I felt a very strong connection to her.”
For the role of Avo, the Armenian camera repairman, he found
the right fit in Dutch actor Yorick van Wageningen. “When
casting director Valerie McCaffrey suggested Yorick, I
jumped at the chance to work with him as I was a fan of his
work in The New World. He reminded me of Russian-Armenians
I’ve seen in photos from the Soviet Union. His presence
could not have been more different than Alyssa’s which was
perfect in setting the emotional and physical distance
between them as husband and wife.”
One of the biggest challenges was finding the right actress
to play the role of Allegra, the grieving mother in A Warm
Place. During casting and auditions, several actresses
responded to the part but were hesitant to tackle the
subject of a child’s death. “Alyssa Milano really understood
the fragile nature of the character and gave it a hundred
and ten percent. She looks, feels and evokes emotions that
words could not do justice to. Her performance came from a
very honest and raw place,” said Nazarian.
For the character of Ridley the Blues guitarist, veteran
actor Clarence Williams III learned to play guitar and on
the first day of production came to set in costume.
“Clarence is a veteran of the old school. He is fully
concentrated and completely immersed in his work. Even
between takes, he wouldn’t break character and stayed fully
invested in the emotional world of Ridley,” Nazarian adds.
For the character of Humphrey, the aging pensioner, another
veteran of the English stage and film came on board, working
with Nazarian to authenticate the character. “Humphrey’s
character is a study of old age in a big metropolis. My
grandfather and Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries inspired
the character of Humphrey. The cane that he uses in the film
is my grandfather’s cane that has traveled through Iran and
the USSR, all the way to Los Angeles. His character is built
of daily habits of shopping, visiting the cemetery, having a
drink and strolling around the streets biding time and
reflecting on his life. Derrick really understood the
simplicity and contentment in Humphrey’s life and did an
amazing job.”
PRODUCTION
With casting and most of the budget in place, the filmmakers
started planning for production that started in October of
2006. When it came to the staggering logistics, Knappmiller
had this to say, “When we broke the script down we had a
combined 36 locations, 235 scenes and a 22 day schedule to
fit it all in. Why we didn’t turn and run for the hills, I
don’t know. We wound up shooting an average of 11 scenes a
day.”
“My biggest concern was never to rush the actors who all
delivered wonderful performances and really soldiered
through the trenches of ultra low budget independent
filmmaking. In the end it all worked out,” said Nazarian.
The L.A. River was photogenic and ripe for finding the right
visual grammar to explore the theme of strangers in a
community. However, it was not without its own challenges.
“Logistically the rugged terrain of the river and the noise
of the major interstate 5 freeway brought production
challenges. Thankfully the mobility of the HD camera made it
possible to shoot as quickly as needed to stay on schedule,”
adds Ramirez.
Nazarian had been working on the Payasa mural concept since
2003. “The Payasa is a symbol very indigenous to Los Angeles
Latin street culture. It is the image of a beautiful lady
painted in a clown face crying real tears,” recalls
Nazarian. “It is very much an “L.A.” image that evokes the
coexistence of laughter and tears from the hard life of the
streets. Like the river, the Payasa mural served as a visual
thread that would connect the unrelated characters, and as a
thematic symbol that related to Happy’s emotional life at
home.”
In order to stay on schedule two different versions of the
mural were done. Jun Cha, a 17-year old local artist from
Santa Monica, California, first did an outline of the Payasa
mural. While the scenes were shot of the outline, Jun worked
further down the river on a full color version. Cha was also
on hand to give Rios instructions for the mural scenes.
Graffiti in the River and along on the freeways in Los
Angeles is an ongoing city problem. “Initially the Payasa
was to be painted over after shooting wrapped. However the
residents of Atwater Village asked for it to be left up. It
still remains one year later. What is most surprising is
that it hasn’t been defaced by graffiti but left completely
in tact by the local taggers,” said Ramirez.
Nazarian’s father Haik was a key advisor to the filmmaker.
During the early 1970s Haik was a young film student in the
Soviet Union who was not allowed to complete his studies due
to mandatory service in the Red Army in Ivanovo, Siberia.
In addition to Haik’s passion for cinema and 1960s pop
culture, he had another passion that the Soviets looked down
upon – Rock n’ Roll. He named his first son after his
favorite Rock n’ Roll singer, Eric Burdon from the British
Invasion band, The Animals. After immigrating to the United
States, Haik met Burdon at a concert in California and a
family friendship was born.
At one point in the story Humphrey goes to a working-class
bar to listen to a live Blues band. One of the biggest
highlights for the filmmaker was casting Eric Burdon in the
role of the bar singer. “Eric Burdon’s music was an escape
for my father’s ‘Soviet hippy’ generation in the USSR. “We
Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “They Can’t Take Away Our
Music” were their anthems and battle cries against the
oppressive years during Brezhnev’s era. My dad has carried
Eric Burdon’s music from Siberia to Los Angeles. He [Burdon]
has been a household name since as long as I can remember.
It was a dream come true when my namesake agreed to have a
guest appearance singing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless
Child,” the great spiritual. I shot the entire scene in one
fluid take to preserve the rhythm of the slow blues and the
connection between Burdon and my dad who has a cameo in the
scene.”
POST-PRODUCTION
The Blue Hour was edited by Helen Hand and Emily Koonse.
Both worked separately with Nazarian in developing the
visual flow of the film. “It was a great experience working
with two editors who really cared about the story and the
characters. They both responded to this idea that we are
telling stories largely with images.”
Sound designer Jeremy Peirson, a close high school friend of
Knappmiller, came on board during pre-production and worked
on developing a distinct soundscape with Nazarian. “Sound
was an extremely critical factor in the film. In
pre-production we discussed the need for the sound design in
the film to have an atmospheric as well as a narrative role.
We didn’t want the sound to just insure that everything was
in-sync but to enhance the world of the story.
The idea was to create this Radio L.A. montage of voices
coming in and going out like radio frequencies of all these
tongues overlapping over the opening montage of the river
and the traffic on the freeway. Jeremy created sound motifs
that would link the characters sonically and did the entire
final mix in three days.”
For the film’s musical score, Nazarian had been interviewing
composers for several months. A week before completing the
final cut of the film, Ramirez received a random email from
Aldo Shllaku, a composer inquiring about the film. Nazarian
met with Shllaku and found a kindred spirit. Shllaku started
working on the soundtrack. “The music needed to be
minimalist, mostly strings including violin, the Armenian
kanon, and a string quartet. Aldo composed themes for each
character and delivered what I had wanted all along.”
For preexisting music to be used in the film, Nazarian had
been looking for the right blend of Hip Hop that would fit
into the character of Happy. “The Hip Hop needed to be
indigenous to Los Angeles with a street rhythm that would
flow with the images of Happy spray painting the Payasa and
sitting at home zoning out with her Walkman.”
A local artist from Boyle Heights introduced Nazarian to Hip
Hop DJ Freddy “Dub1” Amador and a musical relationship was
born. “At the time Freddy was living at a sober living
apartment complex in Skid Row off of 5th and San Pedro in
Downtown Los Angeles. “Composing the Hip Hop tracks for
Happy’s scenes was an unforgettable experience. We worked
out of Freddy’s apartment on a laptop, watching the scenes
and composing the beats. He did a wonderful job and really
captured the L.A. Latin thump I was going for,” said
Nazarian.
For the remainder of the scenes, Emily Rios who portrayed
Happy put Nazarian in touch with Omar Romero, a young Hip
Hop producer who also contributed a different blend of Hip
Hop to the soundtrack.
From the earliest drafts of the screenplay, the film was to
end over Mazzy Starr’s song, Blue Light. “I graduated from
high school the year Blue Light came out. It is a very
personal song and one that I was hoping and praying we could
get permission to use. Liza Richardson, a veteran music
supervisor and our local DJ with KCRW in Los Angeles,
generously helped us in securing the festival rights for the
song.”
On the experience of making his first feature, Nazarian had
this to say: “My father was not allowed to make films in the
Soviet Union so he wallpapered our house with magazine
cut-outs of his favorite actors and directors. He helped me
realize that movies can evoke emotions in moviegoers around
the world that don’t require words or subtitles to be
understood. Making The Blue Hour was a labor of love on
every level. The film is a very personal snapshot of the
neighborhood where I grew up and would not have been
possible without the dedication and help of many people. I
hope to make movies in different countries and examine the
slender cinematic threads that bind us as human beings. In a
sense we are all strangers on the streets and sidewalks
passing each other by throughout the course of our lives. I
hope that The Blue Hour will mean something different for
every viewer and possibly inspire the realization that as a
multinational society we have more in common than we are
able to realize.”
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