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Your new movie Inspiration
- in a few words, what is it about?
To me it's about a
break-down in trust. When we can't trust others, won't trust the visions
in our head, and cease trusting ourselves at all, things get pretty dark. Sorry for the pun,
but what inspired you to write Inspiration?
And is it in any way based on personal experiences?
While I was visiting friends who owned the primary location at
the time, the story sort of came to me. I remember walking around
the house and the trees, near the pond (iced over, but most
definitely in the film) and I started to see Samantha Kingsley out
of the corner of my mind's eye.
My primary interest, writing-wise has always been drama, but spooky movies
are an easier sell. So I guess that idea filtered into her story a little
bit. In Inspiration,
the line between (the film's) reality and its lead's nightmares and
imagination is blurred quite a bit - so how hard was it at times to not
just lose the plot, and what can you tell us about your movie's narrative
structure as such?
Inspiration
is a very deliberate film. Everything means
something. It serves a certain purpose on the surface - a creepy
tale of isolation and madness - and tells different, more meaningful
stories at deeper levels. It was clear early on than it would take a
second or third watch for those other stories to reveal themselves
to most viewers and it probably wouldn't get that chance very often.
We had to be ok with that.
So there are kind of three levels: A woman makes a poor choice and goes
a bit nuts is one. The second is a trust narrative and it looks at
motivations, all of which are in the film, but none of which are in
focus for very long. The third level is about whether the bogeyman
could, in fact, be an angel or a word of warning.
Do talk about Inspiration's
approach to horror for a bit!
I loved horror films and scary books as a kid. The first novel I
ever read was Pet Sematary - Sam Kingsley's name being a
nod a Stephen King - and I always loved a well-executed feeling of
dread.
Gore is alright, but it never really turned my crank in the sense that I
felt like I needed to splash blood and guts everywhere to scare people.
So we kept the red-stuff to a minimum and wanted to aim for characters
that give you complicated feelings going through terrible situations.
Without saying too much, the garage scene is case-in-point: Sam feels
compelled to do something unspeakable, but we watch her doing it instead
of watching it being done. It is supposed to make us feel uncomfortable.
Also, the ever-present totem of Sam's baddie (from her books) feels very
unsettling. Those are the kinds of tension we wanted to create, rather
than viscera and loud noises, not that those don't have an important
place in many films.
While we're at it, you
also have to talk about your movie's rather wonderfully creepy killer
mask! That was chosen before plague doctor masks started
popping up a lot. I stumbled across it online, being made by hand by a
leather-worker and it bothered me. I liked the way it bothered me and it
just seemed the right choice.
What can you tell us about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand?
I always tell the actors that I want the characters to feel
"lived in" and a key focus was to feel that we were privy
to a piece of some ongoing lives. We get a great sense of that early
on in the scenes between Sam (Emily Alatalo) and Mark (Ry Barrett).
There is a weariness to their relationship that feels is and worn.
I don't like to "micro-direct". It's very important to cast
actors who can inhabit your characters. I'm there to steer the ship should
it veer off course, and monitor the overall vision coming together. The
embodiment of the characters is the cast's job. Do talk
about your key cast, and why exactly these people?
I had worked with nearly all of the cast before. I love working
with Emily as she brings vulnerability, strength, and depth to her
characters. She is also very tough and down-to-earth and willing
to get very uncomfortable for the sake of the character
(case-in-point, the snow walk).
Everyone else was so great and so generous. I could go on about all of
them, but we'd run out of Internet.
There was no formal audition process, mostly just me calling people that
were awesome and asking them to jump in. And they did. And they have
(mostly) waited very patiently through a long, difficult post-production
process.
A few
words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Incredible. Everyone on set was unbelievable.
Chris, the character with the crutches and our stunt
co-ordinator was recovering from surgery for a broken ankle,
performed less than a week before we rolled. His character wasn't
originally supposed to be crippled.
Dave, our DP, cooked breakfast a few times. Everyone played grip and AC
when needed.
One night, we even sat together and had a marathon of other films we'd
worked on.
It was an incredible experience that would be tough to replicate.
The
$64-question of course, when and where will Inspiration
be released onto general audiences? We're talking with
distributors right now and as soon as I know, I'll pass the info along.
The hope is for a fall release in most territories. Anything you can
tell us about audience and critical reception of Inspiration
yet?
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Well, we've only sent it for review to a few places so
far, and it's been great to see that critics are enjoying it. I'm sure
negative reviews will come - this film isn't for everyone - but were
basking in the positivity so far! Any future projects you'd like to share?
Our film The Ghost is a Lie is in post-production
and another film with Emily, Alison Undone is also in
post and will be released in the spring.
I'd also love to have folks check out our web series 9 Days with
Cambria - not horror, but very, very unique and interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-XHkngWuOBKoLJ2KkEIrkWwKEVxQW7xA
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
The film company is at http://www.skgfilms.com,
with a fresh site and news galore coming next week.
Facebook for Inspiration
(we're just getting it rolling) is:
https://www.facebook.com/InspirationSKG/
And SKG Films is: https://www.facebook.com/skgfilms/
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? If
anyone happens to latch on to our series of films, they'll start to see
some interesting interconnections between the worlds of the films. Watch
for Inspiration's (and 48 Hours in Purgatory's) reality to turn up briefly
in The Ghost is a Lie. Thanks
for the interview!
My pleasure!
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