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Your new movie Left
One Alive - in a few words, what's it about?
A woman survives a monster massacre. And then her problems really
begin. The law, the media and science are bigger than one girl's pain.
And monsters are only ever monsters from a certain point of view.
With Left
One Alive being a monster movie of sorts, is that a genre
especially dear to you, and some of your genre favourites? And what can
you tell us about your movie's approach to the genre?
We play in a genre and subvert that genre without ever disrespecting
it, I think. My favorite monster movies give some humanity to the
monsters: King Kong, various
Frankensteins,
The Shape of Water. To what extent could you actually identify with Left
One Alive's protagonist Sara, and the emotional journey she's on?
As a weirdo my whole life -- too smart, too artistic, a recovering
fundamentalist and now a film producer who must fight and hurt feelings
in order to get even the tiniest movie made -- I strongly identify with
Sara and any character who doesn't quite fit in anywhere.
You also have to talk about your movie's monsters, and to what extent were you
involved in their creation?
I designed them, shepherded the assembly by artist
Hayden Bogan, tested the fit, cast the monster actors (girl dancers),
choreographed their movements and designed their language, a mix of
rodent, primate and bird calls. My goal was to create monsters that
could be scary or cute depending on the context, and which we could
produce and photograph on a tiny, tiny budget. The film-within-the-film -
how much fun was it to dream that up and to shoot? Very fun. We tweaked the camera movements, blocking,
costumes, acting, color, aspect ratio and music to make the
movie-within-the-movie cliché ... and distinct from the movie itself. A few
words about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand? With no time and no money, we had to move fast. So
almost every scene is a oner -- a long shot with no cuts. We got onto a
location, looked at the light and quickly blocked our actos so we could
move the camera through the scene and pick up all the action and
dialogue. The real challenge was to have confidence in this approach,
which is unusual and spooks overly cautious directors and editors who
just want coverage, coverage, coverage. Focus was tough, too, as we had
just one camera operator, Sarah Massey, and she had to pull her own focus.
Do talk about Left
One Alive's cast, and why exactly these people?
We'd worked with our leading lady Caylin Sams before
and had total confidence in her ability to play the necessary blend of
trauma, loneliness, anger and danger that bends Sara's arc. Many of my
other actors were veterans of my previous productions. Rachel Tracy, who
plays Sam, was a new find. What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set
atmosphere? It was a rare happy production. We moved fast and
stayed on schedule. Productions get fraught when producers and directors
can't balance their vision and the script against their budget and
schedule. But striking that balance is really what I'm good at.
Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception
of Left One Alive?
Pretty good so far! But I don't really care. The
movie makes me and my cast and crew happy and that's the most important thing. Any
future projects you'd like to share?
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We just wrapped a gritty crime thriller called
Cavegirls that blends animation and live action. Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else? We're on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/leftonealive/
Thanks for the interview!
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