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Your new movie Life
Improvised: Volume 1 - in a few words, what is it about?
Ivan Malekin: Life Improvised
is a anthological series of short stories tackling the moments
that make up relationships: A first date, being stood up, a sexual
betrayal, etc. But it isn't just romantic relationships we address – the
film looks at friendship, family, even our relationship with our own mind
during difficult times. As directors and writers Sarah and I are
fascinated by human interaction and all its rules, expectations, and
quirks. And we wanted to capture a brief snapshot of that in each story.
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing Life
Improvised: Volume 1, and is any of it based on personal
experiences?
Sarah Jayne: Real life basically and the interactions that make up our day to day lives and
the way humans react to situations out of their control. Some of it based
on personal experiences, yes, the Covid-focused stories in particular. I
guess in each story there is a little bit of relatability in terms of the
emotion, even if the situation was not my own or Ivan's, we have
experienced the emotion on some level. Life
Improvised: Volume 1 consists of a series of at least seemingly
unconnected vignettes - so why did you choose exactly these little stories
to make the movie, and do you see (or was there ever) an over-arching
theme for your film?
IM: The stories are grouped into topics and themes. These are loneliness, first
dates, betrayal and change. But Life Improvised
actually began as a web
series, a way for us to film small stories between the bigger projects we
work on, try new ideas and just get onto set as that is our happy place.
It was filmed over a period of three years whenever we were inspired to
tell a new story, or work with a particular actor, or even film in a
particular place. Hence the vignette nature of this collection and the
slice of life feeling. Do talk about your directorial
approach to your story at hand!
SJ: From a director point of view, the approach is not not set in stone. This is
because each story is stand alone to the next and each actor comes into
the shoot with varied experience and abilities. What we as directors want
from each story varies due to a number of factors such as time, location
and experience as mentioned. The common approach Ivan and I did have was
to make the characters and the story as a whole as realistic and relatable
to the audience as possible.
On Life
Improvised: Volume 1 in particular, what was the collaboration
between the two of you like? And since this isn't the first film you've
worked on with one another, how (if at all) did your working relationship
evolve over the years?
IM: It varies with each story. Some we would co-direct, some either I or Sarah
would direct alone, some I would write while Sarah would direct. We always
talk the story over, make character notes, talk to our actors about their
ideas for the character and then on the day, whoever is directing, would
guide the performance and make decisions about what dialogue to use,
camera angles, emotions, etc.
Over the years I have grown less controlling as a director, I think, as we have
explored improvisation and co-directing. I am more open to input and
letting things flow on the day and going with a moment, rather than trying
to plan everything out beforehand and having a set idea of how everything
needs to be.
What can you tell us about Life
Improvised: Volume 1's cast, and why exactly these people?
SJ: What's interesting about the cast is that each individual came on board with varied levels of acting
experience. Some had more acting training than others, and being an
international cast, all had varied life experiences which stem from
growing up in different parts of the world.
Each cast member brought something special to their role and added an
international flavour to the volume as a whole. I love all the interesting
accents that we bring together. For the Life Improvised
micro-shorts Ivan
and I often have an actor/individual we want to work with. Depending on
where we decide to shoot or where we are travelling, we will often cast a
person we have always wanted to work with, and the role is written with
them in mind, or it can also be that we open a casting call, like we did
in Croatia and Portugal for those roles. It's like a test for us – if we
like what actors do in these short snippets, we will keep them in mind for
bigger projects.
You've
shot Life Improvised:
Volume 1 pretty much all over the world - so where were your
vignettes shot, and why exactly there?
IM: We have filmed in many countries, yes, an experience which we are very
grateful for. We travel a lot and have lived in a few different countries
now. When we are in a new country for enough time, we do like to plan a Life Improvised
shoot, as it is always exciting and inspiring to work
somewhere new.
So, with
Volume 1, we filmed several stories in Malta as that is where we were
living when we began the series. We filmed in Melbourne, Australia as we
were born there and often travel to see family. We filmed in Berlin while
visiting for a cast and crew screening of a feature of ours. We filmed in
Lisbon as we ended up being stuck in Portugal for five months during the
lockdowns. And we filmed one story in Zagreb, Croatia as that is our new
home.
A few words about
the shoots as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
SJ: Since each separate film was shot with a different cast and crew and in a
different location or country, it’s impossible to answer this on
an individual basis. On a whole, generally we like to make our sets and
shoots for these snippets of life a ‘hang out’ kinda affair –
friends or collaborators getting together for a few hours or half a day,
reuniting, meeting for the first time to hit a set goal and doing what we
love – creating a small piece of cinema. We are yet to have a shoot
where there is tension or animosity in the air, only good vibes with
professional people, and I think that comes from choosing the right people
to collaborate with. The
$64-question of course, where can Life
Improvised: Volume 1 be seen?
IM: Life
Improvised: Volume 1 is available to stream free on Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/695943/life-improvised-volume-one
You can also watch each individual story on our YouTube channel. But the
stories in Volume One have been edited slightly, sometimes extended, so we
prefer this version. Volume One is like the director's cut of
Life Improvised.
The title Life
Improvised: Volume 1 alone already suggests a Volume 2 (and
maybe more) - so are there any plans for a future instalment, and/or any
other future projects you'd like to share?
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IM: Yes, I think there will be a Volume Two. We have already filmed a new episode
in the series, this time in New York. It is a great way to explore smaller
stories for us and meet new cast and work in new locations, so we can't
see ourselves stopping. But Volume One took three years to put together.
So it will be a while yet until we have enough stories for Volume Two. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
www.nexusproductiongroup.com
www.youtube.com/c/NexusProductionGroup
instagram.com/nexus_production_group
www.facebook.com/nexusproductiongroup/
Thanks
for the interview!
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