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Your new movie 3 Lives
- in a few words, what is it about?
3 Lives
is about 3 people, Emma, Jamie and Ben, who are stranded
together in the wilderness, kidnapped with no apparent motive. The crux:
Ben got convicted 15 years ago for raping Emma. Will she stay with Jamie
and Ben or rather try to escape their kidnappers by herself? How did the project
come into being in the first place, and what were your sources of
inspirtion when dreaming up the story?
Well, I found myself in rather ugly situations in my life, like most
women at least once in their lifetime. That definitely sparked the wish
to make a film about abuse. However, the plot of
3 Lives
as such has
nothing to do with my own experiences. I wanted to create a film that looks at the victims of abuse psychologically, because all too often we
only see the male gaze. Usually female abuse survivors are pictured as
recluse, who are dealing with their trauma internally or they are
violent revenge angels. Neither of those extremes is what usually
happens in reality. Of the three
protagonists in 3 Lives,
who could you identify with the most, and why? Obviously Emma is the female protagonist, that alone makes me
root for her. What can
you tell us about 3 Lives'
screenwriter Wolf-Peter Arand, and what was your collaboration like?
Wolf joined the project early on, when I just had the idea. I love
working with him. We are on one side when we discuss the current social
(gender) issues, while he still adds, naturally, his male perspective. I
think all films can only profit if the team behind has a diverse
background. Besides that we both like brainstorming stories, but I usually get bored
when sitting down and writing them, while he enjoys exactly that. A
perfect combination.
Do
talk about 3 Lives's
approach to the thriller genre!
During the production of
3 Lives
I often said that I attempt to make a
film where the audience can either just lean back and enjoy or they can analyse
the film for a deeper meaning. The kidnappers are a symbol for example,
they are not the super violent gangsters who are the biggest threat to
our protagonists, and that is intentional. But you need to try to
understand the sub theme to actually realise why. Not everyone might
like that. Maybe, ultimately, I'd say I might have brought more female
perspective into
3 Lives
than I thought I would ;) 3
Lives is mostly an outdoors-movie - so where was it filmed, and
what were the advantages and of course also challenges filming there?
I love filming outdoors because you get the most stunning sceneries.
However, the first couple of days we had the rain of the century. All
our locations were flooded and we sometimes needed to go recce in the
morning, as we couldn't reach our initial locations (they looked
different, little trickles of water turning into serious streams,
pathways not accessible and so on). All that mud and water took a toll.
We had plenty of insect and tic bites and several visits to the hospital
because of that. What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand?
3 Lives
is filmed almost entirely handheld. We approached it like a war
movie, as it is sort of a war our character's are fighting. I like to be
close to my protagonists as well, trying to put the audience right in
the middle of their conflict. Do talk about 3
Lives' key cast, and why exactly these people?
Mhairi Calvey stars as Emma, and to cast her was I think the biggest
adventure. We had a different lead actress who pulled out just 10 days
before first day of principal photography. A nightmare. Mhairi knew our
executive producer Malcolm Winter personally and trusted him. Just
because of that she gave our script a chance, and because she was free
agreed to do the role. She learned the script on the airplane and nailed
it. I'm so glad that the universe send her our way.
Martin Kaps stars as Jamie, and I really wanted him for the role, as I
had worked with him before. Tyron Ricketts stars as Ben, and was
introduced to me through his agent Phil Martins. I think he really
shines in his role. A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
I think there's one word which sums it up: intense. As described
earlier, the weather didn't make it easy for us, and the usual issues of
a low budget production applied anyway. Specifically as actor, if you
are not used to that, it is hard to cope. Besides that everyone did their best to make the movie shine and I think
that really shows.
The
$64-question of course, where can your movie be seen?
It'll be on Amazon US. You can already pre-order a DVD here:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/
ASIN/B07TMRSP92
Starting 6th of Aug, it should be available on all the traditional
outlets. I hope Europe will follow soon after! Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of 3
Lives?
The first reviews are trickling in. Everyone so far really likes the
performance of our leads. For the kidnappers however, critical reception
are split into two sides: they either hate them, or love them. Any future projects you'd like to share?
I'm in post production of The Curse of Hobbes House, a home
invasion zombie flick, which possibly hits festivals end of 2019 and I'm
prepping Lyra's Wish: Saving Santa at the moment, a family
Christmas adventure - my 3 year old son possibly inspired this change of
genre ;)
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Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Independent filmmakers like myself are always in need of feedback (and
support!) - do get in touch and leave a review if you watch one of my
films :)
Thanks
for the interview!
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