Your new movie The
Psychics - in a few words, what is it about?
The
Psychics is about a
journalist, Camilla, who makes a documentary about psychics. When using
their "vision", the psychics find clues on an unsolved crime
mystery and Camilla starts to investigate. This gets her into big
trouble as evil forces want to stop her.
The movie is now in
worldwide distribution on streaming (Prime Video, Google Play and more),
DVD and Blu-ray. Here is a link to the new trailer:
https://youtu.be/BUWV8bDWfoM
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing The
Psychics?
When writing the script
I thought of the film as a kind of paranormal TV episode where
things go terribly wrong and paranormal energies start to haunt the film
crew. TV today is flooded with paranormal content and all you get are
recontructions of ghostly encounters. Come on, show us the real
thing!
Other inspiration
sources were Funny Games, Paranormal Activity and Norwegian classics
Lake of the Dead (1958) and The Troll Hunter. And of course, the
excellent thriller Wait Until Dark from 1967. You know, it's just
unpleasant when someone breaks into your home and won't leave.
To what extent can you actually
identify with Camilla and her quest to find closure? And while we're at
it, to what extent could you identify with your own character, documentary
filmmaker Tomas? My character, Thomas,
is a tool to give the protagonist Camilla some opposition to her views
and thoughts. We see a lot of the movie through his camera. He is a
quite annoying guy, but I think I can be far more annoying than him
sometimes. It's easier for me to identify with Camilla, she is a
nosy, stubborn journalist. I am a bit like that... and like her, I want
to understand the past. Do talk about The
Psychics' approach to horror for a bit!
Well,
there are many genres in the movie: Thriller, drama, mystery and horror.
I really wanted to include supernatural elements - it's so creepy!
I was making a zero budget film, so I couldn't afford any gore and make
up and stuff. Every decision I made was related to money or rather
the lack of money. So I ended up with trying to make a suspenseful movie
with surprising twists. Horror elements such as the movie's supernatural
mystery adds a lot to suspense I think. Also, I
am a big fan of thrillers and crime movies so I tried to use elements
from films I liked in those genres.
You've
shot The Psychics
found footage style - why, and what are the advantages and challenges
shooting a movie that way?
It's
was a great advantage to shoot found footage in terms of acting. You save a lot of
time when you have a handheld camera and no lights. When shooting
a film the usual way, it takes a lot of time to prepare each shot. That
is not the case when shooting documentary style and you get more time to
rehearse with the actors. That was very important since the actors were
improvising. Also, found footage was
a good option to save money. We shot the film with a crew of three and
five actors only. I
think the documentary style can add a lot of tension to a story if the
style is used in the right way.
The
challenge was the editing. The shooting style results in a lot of
filmed material, so the editing becomes rather difficult because there
are many options when it comes to story, editing style, pacing and
length. Do talk about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand?
The most important for
me was the protagonist/antagonist-relationship, like it should
be in any story. Both protagonist and antagonist must have strong
desires so you can justify their actions. They must face dilemmas - the
antagonist must be evil for some reason, not just being evil out of the
blue!
Since the actors were
going to improvise, I was very selective during the casting process. I
didn't rush but waited until I found the right people to put in front of
the camera. I'm so happy with my actors, they did a fantastic job.
Improvising is very demanding. I'm so proud of them!
What can you
tell us about The Psychics'
cast, and why exactly these people? They did great at the
audition. It's a natural gift to be a good improviser, and all of them
have that gift. And they understand storytelling! Not all actors do
that. Addtionally, they did things simple, that's a natural gift
too.
A few words about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Most of the time the
atmosphere was good. Everyone was doing a great job and the actors were
totally into their characters. Sometimes, I gave the actors a camera to
bring home to improvise a scene and the day after they came back with
lots of footage I could use in the final film. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of The
Psychics? The reviews so far have
been good. The critics like the different approach to the genre. Found
footage movies
tend to have a very simple plot - one location, one situation that goes
from good to bad to worse to hell. The
Psychics has more plot and a lot
of different locations. Also, the antagonist is a human being – not a
supernatural force/creature. Addtionally,
the film won the Best Feature Film Award at the Crime Story Film
Festival last year, and it has also been selected for a lot of other
festivals, among others this year's Horror-on-Sea! That's a great
selection. Any future projects you'd like to
share?
I
have started on the script for my next movie now. It's a crime thriller
about an intruder terrorising a young couple. I
also have some ideas on making an found footage movie from the Second World War.
Imagine a war movie seen through the camera of a war correspondent! What got you into filmmaking in the first place,
and did you receive any formal training on the subject? I quit my university
studies in geophysics, realising I wanted to become a filmmaker. Films
had always been my big passion, but it took many years before I realised
I wanted to make films myself. I started to work on applications
to film schools. I was accepted into the London Film School and had
a fantastic time there. After graduation I started to work freelance in
Norway. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to The
Psychics? After film school I
worked on a lot of features as a location manager. After a while I
started to focus more on production and direction and made corporate
movies for various companies. At the same time I made short films.
My zero budget short comedy The Unhappy Woman did very
well on the festival circuit (award winner at Aspen Shortsfest
and more) and I realised it was possible to make a feature with very limited
resources. You don't need a big bugdet if you have a good story to tell.
How would you describe yourself as a
director? Well, I like to write,
edit and produce the films I direct. It's very satisfying to have all
these major tasks. So I look at myself more as a project manager than a
director only. When I direct I really love to work with actors and use
time to develope the story with them. It's very important to me that the
actors understand basic storytelling and basic dramatic structure, so we
sort of speak the same language. Filmmakers who inspire you? Oh yes, I love directors
like Alfred Hitchkcock, Jean Pierre Melville, Michael Haneke, Roy
Andersson and Lucio Fulci [Lucio
Fulci bio - click here]. True auteurs! Your
favourite movies?
There are so many, but
some movies I really like are Jules Dassin's old school crime movie
Rififi, Hitchcock's Wrong Man and Melville's
Le Cercle Rouge. And everything from the hands of Roy
Andersson and he Coen brothers. Other fantastic movies:
Road to Perdition, 1917, Let the Right
One in. Favourite horror movies are Halloween,
Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Hellraiser, and
Eyes Without a Face. ... and of course, films you really
deplore? I rarely deplore movies,
there are something interesting in any movie. But I find a lot of movies
boring, because they tend to have a flat dramatic structure or very
little developement in the story. Sadly, I find a lot of action
movies quite boring because they lack story. I saw Bad Boys
for Life some weeks ago and it was terrible.
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Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
Website: https://thepsychics.movie.blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePsychicsMovie/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8998610/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepsychicsmovie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AgendafilmAS
FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/ThePsychics
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Yes,
some words of wisdom to other filmmakers who consider to make a feature:
If you're making a indie movie, you have to think about the budget all
the time. Make a cheap movie, but a GOOD cheap movie. Work
hard to get a good deal with a distribution company. I have distribution
deals, for which I am very happy. It’s possible to get your
movie distributed even if it’s no-budget. Thanks for the interview!
Welcome. Thank you very
much!
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