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Your upcoming movie The Lightest Darkness - in a few words, what is
it about?
It's a twisted story about a neurotic private eye who
struggles to finish the case. When he takes a train voyage, his own dark
secrets begin to reveal themselves. There’s also s serial killer subplot.
The Lightest Darkness
tells its story in reverse order - so what's
the idea behind this, and how easy or hard is it to not (literally) lose one's
plot in the process?
Script wise it’s a challenge. I love to read
screenwriting books, like if I write a horror, for example, I will read couple
of book on writing horror prior just to get into the mood. But there’s
actually no book that devoted to writing the story with reverse chronology.
I've only found couple of articles, so this time, I basically did the
analyzing myself. Then I've spent two months outlining the whole script
because with reverse chronology its crucial that you give away the information
at a right time, not too early. But your hero should act like he already knows
the answers and the answers have changed him because you're starting from the
end of the character's arc. And we
understand why the hero is acting in that particular way or saying those things
only later in the film and the writer can’t give away too much information
prior because that would make a film boring, so you should plan the right revealing point for every piece of information.
You also describe The Lightest Darkness
as a film noir - so
what fascinates you about that genre, and some of your genre favourites? It’s
an aesthetically amazing style that explores the archetypal themes. I also
love the way the stories are told in film noir; it matches my own inner voice.
My favorite film noir is Sweet Smell of Success, it's an unbeatable
masterpiece.
(Other)
sources of inspiration when writing The Lightest Darkness? As
usually a lot of inspiration comes from life itself, the stuff you see
around you, the stuff you experience. All the other artforms are also
inspiring. With The Lightest Darkness
I'd say architecture was
particularly inspiring. What
can you tell us about the intended look and feel of your movie? I
want the film to feel like it was really made in the 40s. It’s no set in
the 40s but it has the anachronistic elements for the 40s like the
clothing and the props. It’s like the film is set in the alternative
world. And my short teaser for the crowdfunding campaign speaks louder
than words. This is the look and feel the move it's going to have. Only
better, because we are going have a better camera. Anything
you can tell us about your key cast and crew yet, and why exactly these
people?
I
kind of promised myself to hire more women as a crew for my debut feature
to support the amazing women in film, and so far the cinematographer,
producer and 1st AD are all women, and I think this is just awesome and
I’ll try to hire more female crewmembers. As for the actors, I’m in
the process of casting the movie, but I've already cast two amazing
actresses, one of whom worked with me on my short February 28. As we speak, you're still running a fundraiser
for The Lightest Darkness
- so do talk about your campaign! I
wanted that campaign to have its own story that is related to the story of
the film, it’s a transmedia thing, you are actually learning the stuff
you wouldn’t learn otherwise from the campaign, like what happened to
some characters after the story ended. And my perks are all plot related
props that were especially made for the film and the campaign. One of the
perks is actually like a McGuffin in the film, but I won’t tell you
which one. Once
the funds are raised, what's the schedule - and even if it's waaay too
early to ask, any idea when and where the film might be released yet?
In
the ideal world, we are going to start the shooting in September, and I
want the post production to be finished on October 15th, that's going be
my 30th birthday, and I want to be one of those filmmakers who managed to
produce a debut feature before the big 30. Then I’ll start submitting
the film to the festivals. I'm not idealistic enough to believe in the
Sundance dream, but I hope the film could make it to the festivals and
eventually video on demand. Any
future projects beyond The Lightest Darkness
you'd like to share? I
really want to get the rights and produce a short based on one of the
Charles Bukowski stories, because I’m a huge fan, and I just feel that I
could tell that story. I also have an idea for my second feature, I
already outlined a couple of scenes, because I started to see them. It’s
going to be a female-driven psychological horror. I think I’ll start
writing it for real in late autumn. What
got you into filmmaking to begin with, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? Ten years ago I
was walking down the street, and I realized that I wanted to be a
filmmaker. Then I started to transform into one. Formal training doesn’t
work for me; I’m a film school drop-out. But I’m always in the process
of learning; I’ve got a schedule for this, I’ve been reading 3-4
filmmaking books every month for at least couple of years, I wish I could
read more, but I don’t have enough time for that. I also love all kinds
of workshops, seminars, webinars, you name it.
What can you tell us about your
filmwork prior to The Lightest Darkness? I’ve
made a bunch of weird shorts that were screened at more than 35 festival
in 15 counties; I also got a short horror script that’s a finalist in 7
competitions so far. How would you describe
yourself as a director? It’s a hard
question. I like the work to be done on schedule. If everything goes by
the plan, I’m a good cop. I don’t like to interrupt other people. I'm
not one of those directors who tell the cinematographers what f stop to
use, even though I’m more
into directing the camera than the actors. I believe everyone should just
do their job and that’d be great. It actually happened on all of my films
so the vibe was calm and friendly, all mutual respect and collaboration.
And the people want to work with me again; that probably means that I’m
not an evil tyrant. But who knows, maybe it's just a self-deception. Filmmakers who inspire you?
Hitchcock
is my main inspiration. I share his approach, the whole detailed planning
thing like he basically did the final cut during the pre-production. He
was such a genius; he’s the only director that is mentioned in any
filmmaking book. You read a book on editing, sound, color correction, you
name it, you’ll always find something about the way Hitchcock influenced
this particular area of filmmaking about his innovations. So his films are
like master classes in perfection. Your
favourite movies? The Holy Mountain,
Begotten, Dead Man, Persona, Tideland, Dogville, 2046, Sweet Smell of
Success, Shadow of a Doubt, Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring, to name a
few ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
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I'm trying not to judge other
people’s work like that. But I usually hate films that were made out of
the trend and not out of the a real urge to tell a story you know a lot
about and you care. This approach creates superficial films with no
substance, and when it’s usual for mainstream cinema, it’s quite sad
when fellow indie filmmakers do that. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo,
whatever else? :
https://igg.me/at/RussianFilmNoir/x/4855746
http://galimzyanova.com/
https://twitter.com/DiGalimzyanova
Anything else you are dying
to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I'm
a huge Simpsons fan, so I just like to mention this for no particular
reason. But wait, Simpsons
did really cool film noir story in one of the
Treehouse of Horror episodes. It was based on Hitchcock's Strangers on a
Train. So with the right themes and the right mood you could even turn the
Simpsons
into film noir. Thanks
for the interview!
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amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Diana Galimzyanova at adultvideouniverse.com
