On a bright Wednesday morning in Geneva, filmmaker David Phyfer takes a meeting with his focus group — otherwise known as the play group consisting of Jack White, 3; Mackenzie Ryan, 2; Ryan Konicek, 5; and Nicholas Konicek, 3 — to preview Phyfer’s new children’s video, “Harvest.” As Susie Konicek, Ryan and Nicholas’ mom, pops the video into a VCR, Phyfer begins to describe the movie: “These are some of the tractors they use to grow the wheat to make the bread . . .”
“Really big tractor!” shouts Jack, cutting off Phyfer with a sideways glance.
Translation: “Who cares about making bread?”
“It’s going faster!” Jack says from his ottoman perch as the other kids jockey for the spot closest to the television. “Lookit, now it’s picking up something. It’s hay! Lookit, it’s hay! Now it’s putting something on a truck. I wanna ride one of those!”
Phyfer leans back and grins, not the least bit offended by Jack’s interruption. Pleased, in fact.
“Kids don’t care about how the food gets to the market. They just want to see big wheels go ’round and ’round,” he says.
Phyfer’s ability to think like a 3-year-old, a talent he says was enhanced when he became a parent 12 years ago, is what makes his children’s videos hot. “Harvest” is the latest of his “Close Up and Very Personal” series that also includes “Horses,” “Farm Animals,” “Big Rigs,” “Choo Choo Trains,” “Fruit” and “Water.” Wordless, 30-minute movies described by one reviewer as “picture books that come to life,” the “Close Up” series has a loyal following among parents of the sandbox set. Without advertising, Phyfer has sold 200,000 copies since he launched the series in 1989.
A native of Geneva who says friends remember him as the shy guy in Geneva High School’s class of ’68, Phyfer, 47, founded his film production company, Stage Fright Productions, in 1973 in San Francisco after collecting a film-television degree from Montana State University. “I named it Stage Fright because I’m more comfortable behind the camera,” he says.
After temporarily shelving Stage Fright in the late ’70s to work as a film animator and as a corporate filmmaker in Los Angeles, Phyfer resurrected the company in 1984. In 1988, he moved his company and family to Geneva. “Housing cost so much in L.A., we would have had to work long hours to pay the mortgage,” Phyfer says. “Here we could have a better standard of living, and my wife, Kathy, could be home while the kids were young.”
Today Phyfer produces films for corporate, educational and non-profit clients. But parents know Phyfer as the creator of the “Close Up” films, available through catalogs, national retailers including Borders Books and Music and independent shops including the Good Cents Children in Geneva.
Good Cents’ owner Shirley Stopka said she sells at least a dozen “Close Up” films a week, often to people who have checked them out from a library. “After they see them, they want to own them,” she said. Unlike some children’s videos that instigate rowdy behavior, the lack of narration of the “Close Up” films prompts children to provide their own.
“They give kids a chance to open up and share their thoughts,” Phyfer says. “We need more opportunities to really talk to our kids. We need rapport that isn’t `Brush your teeth’ or `Clean your room.’ “
Grownups appreciate the films’ simplicity and calming effects. “They ask us to slow down and smell the roses,” said Greg Braun, owner of GB Productions Inc. in St. Charles, which provides Stage Fright with pre- and post-production services, everything from lining up a camera crew to editing.
“Choo Choo,” especially, has plenty of fans who are older than 3. Debbie Cardiff of Cardiff Brothers Trains in Geneva said it is her best-selling train video, appealing to “kids ages 2 to 80.” One “Choo Choo” fan wrote Phyfer: “I’m 81 years old, but I love your tape. It makes me feel young.”
So contrary are the “Close Up” movies to most of today’s noisy, fast-paced films, Phyfer says some adults don’t get it. Among them is reviewer Roger Ebert, who teased Gene Siskel for praising “Farm Animals” during one of their “Siskel and Ebert’s Holiday Video Gift Guide” television specials. Siskel, a parent, got it. Ebert, not a parent, didn’t get it.
“Some grownups have asked me, `What’s the point?’ but I’ve never heard that from the kids,” Phyfer says. The father of three (Hugh, 12; Sara, 11; Will, 6), Phyfer says becoming a parent taught him to view the world through children’s eyes. He recalls a telling incident while watching a train movie with Will: “The narrator was talking and talking about the trains, and Will kept saying, `Show me! Show me!’ “
Phyfer’s favorite “Close Up” film, “Water,” has several levels of interpretation. “The 3-year-olds see the animals and fish, the parents see the `working together’ message, and everyone gets the environmental message,” he says. “Water” was a favorite among Phyfer’s peers too; it earned a silver Telly Award, a national recognition of film excellence.
Phyfer says “Water” was influenced by the teachings of the late Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. “According to Jung, we have two types of unconscious: the personal, our own private memories and experiences, and collective, a shared set of myths and symbols to which we all have access,” he says. “The collective experiences include archetypes: patterns that cultures share, like the great mother, the wise old man, the hero. In `Water,’ I try to use groups of related images to suggest archetypes, thereby tapping into a viewer’s unconscious.”
Phyfer says he is using more symbolism is his new series, “Journeys,” 30-minute films geared toward ages 5 to 10. Unlike the voiceless “Close Up” movies, the “Journeys” films have voiceover commentaries. The first three “Journeys,” due for release in 1999, are “Masks,” “Family Tree” and “Drumming.” Each is an in-depth exploration of one topic, plus a how-to lesson. “Masks,” for example, teaches children how to make their own masks after they watch the movie.
Like the “Close Up” series, “Journeys” uses local, non-professional actors and many Chicago-area locations. “Family Tree,” for example, stars the three-generation VanKerkhoff family of St. Charles.
Older children may not know Phyfer’s name, but many have been seen his work at their school child development and consumer skills classes. Phyfer has produced and directed 120 movies for Learning Seed, a Lake Zurich-based supplier of educational movies. A few of Phyfer’s titles in the Learning Seed catalog include “I’m Normal, You’re Weird; Understanding Other Cultures,” “The Truth About Sugar” and “Vitamin Basics.”
“David is our top producer,” said Learning Seed owner Jeffrey Schrank, who has contracted with many film producers over the years. “He’s both creative and organized; you have to be both to make it in this business. He’s very dedicated, willing to take the time to make it right.”
“Almost Zen-like,” Braun said. “He’s complex, a deep thinker who doesn’t do anything superficially.”
In addition to his children’s videos, educational films and array of corporate films, Phyfer has produced films for several non-profits in the area, including Peck Farm Park, an environmental education center and natural recreation area in Geneva; TriCity Family Services in Geneva; and Hesed House, an Aurora shelter for the homeless. Peck Farm manager Dilip Das said he was “blown away” when he saw the park orientation film he commissioned Phyfer to produce. “He listened to our ideas and translated them into an enthusiastic film,” Das said. “He really enjoyed making it, and that shows.”
Regardless of the client, Phyfer says his goal is constant: “To present images that speak to people in ways they can’t always express but ring true and make them feel something.” Many of these images come to him in his dreams, he says.
Tapping his dreams is a skill that pays, Phyfer says. Case in point is a film he produced for Waubonsee Community College. “I wanted to show student diversity, but just showing different types of people seemed pedestrian,” he recalls. “Then I dreamed of using a montage of hands, young and old, dirty and clean, male and female. It implied diversity in a subtle way.”
Working from his second-story office in Geneva allows him to juggle soccer parent duties with Kathy. Although his only full-time staffer is office administrator Lori Hoffman of Geneva, Phyfer’s family is involved in the filmmaking. His stepbrother, Jon Lindenberg of Chicago, composed the music for several of the “Close Up” films. His children, who do not share their father’s stage fright, appear in many of his movies. “Will, especially, is very comfortable in front of the camera,” Kathy said. “He’s the one holding the fruit in `Fruit.’ “
Someday, Phyfer plans to retire to his favorite part of the country, northern New Mexico. In the meantime, he says he’ll continue to obey the inner voice that keeps him honest and the dreams that inspire him to take ordinary stuff that others take for granted, like water or apples, and bring them to life. Asked to define his mission, Phyfer proffers: “Better to wander in uncharted areas than by a map made by tourists.”
