Old. He is, folks, it's show people fake good money to see
this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold SODA's
corner in No monsters in the Projection Booth. Everyone for ten podcasting isn't boring.
Shut it off, Hey, folks, Welcome to the Projection Booth.
I'm your host, Mike White. On this special episode, I am talking
with a number of people who had movies at the twenty twenty two Fantasia Film
Festival. First up, we're going to hear from director Molly Elfman and actress
Katie Porter about the film Next Exit, which is currently streaming on Hulu.
After that, we'll hear from Rodrigo Godino all about his film The Breach,
which is, as far as I can tell, not out for public consumption.
Yet. The same goes for the third movie that you're going to hear
about, Relaxing from the Future, where I spoke with director Luke Higginson and
actress Gabrielle Graham. With that one, I can't even find a trailer online.
The one person you won't be hearing from his filmmaker Satoshi Miki, who
had two films at the festival. What to do with the dead Kaiju and
convenience story. Unfortunately, both mister Minki and his translator were a little too
far from the computer microphone to pick them up properly. I tried some heroic
measures to rescue that interview, but it just didn't happen, and it's so
bad that I'm not even going to be able to air it. That said,
let's go ahead and play the trailer for next exit and then our interview
right after that. It is irrefutable. Our consciousness continues beyond our physical bodies,
my life beyond study. The strictly a volunteer program. So why cannas
some people see ghosts. It's a strong connection between Rio and his father,
brought them together and the rest as well, history in the making. I'm
taking a trip. Where are you going? It's difficult to see this is
supposed to be goodbye. I'll come back and home. You are you two
together? She should be so lucky. When's your appointment? Seven days?
Mends in five? Your serial killer? Yeah? No, six am?
The car leaves sharp race up. We're not pounced. We're not in this
together. Okay. How many people know what it's like to be us right
now? At our institute. We now briched dozens of new participants day from
this world to the next. Once you're in a state of passing, who
we terminate your physical form three two one. Wait, let's try and have
some fun today, please. Okay, So what's fun? I didn't I
want my life to mean something. I don't want to hate life on my
name. Embrace what's next? You practice that you got like an Instagram handle
for the afterlone. What you do here still matters? You know that every
time you disappear, another little piece of my heartbreaks lost to everyone. So
I never even had anyone, but I did. I can't get stuff.
I see you this darkness. It's your assistible Molly. Are you related to
Richard Alman? Yes, that's my uncle. Okay, fantastic. I've had
him on the show before. I was fantastic for Witch Projects, for the
Forbidden Zone. Yeah, the new one or the other one, the original
that came out when I was very very very very very very young. I
need to watch it again as an adult. I was like, dad,
but what are you doing? It's a weird film to see your parents?
And oh, I'm sure yeah shows up in there too. Yeah, it's
fun. So were you always faded to work in show business? I tried
not to. I went to school for writing, and I've always wanted to
be a writer as a journalist for years. I was actually a professional horseback
rider for a while and was competing and doing all of that, and actually
my first job in Hollywood. I was teaching horseback riding at the time,
and one of my students was Missy Stabilee, who used to be one of
the headline producers over at Universal, and she said, you'd make a good
producer and I was like nah, And she was like, I'll tell you
what, come work for me. Will ride horses in the morning, and
then you'll learn how to produce. And I was like, life could be
worse. She was one of the most inspiring, amazing women that I have
ever met, who taught me how to produce with compassion and also strength simultaneously.
My way into the industry was actually through Missy, and honestly not through
my parents at all or my family at all. Although I do think there
was probably a piece of me in my brain that knew that I had permissioned
to. It wasn't like just to say I think I probably had permission to
it, but at the same time, my parents definitely weren't pushing me towards
it in knowing the challenges with the industry, I think it's hard for a
parent to encourage their children to know that they're going to live a very challenging,
struggling life by taking that road. Now, I do think that's why
I've got a different path with the genre though, where I do think I'm
trying to carve out a different space for myself a little bit than what I've
seen them do. Katy and acting for a long darn time, how did
you get into things? I started acting when I was about eighteen, just
doing like high school plays, and then I went to college and majored in
theater, which is a ridiculous thing to major. And if you go to
a tiny liberal arts school, I think it's different if you go to Juilliard
or like a conservatory. It's just one of those things that really made sense
to me. Just taking a body class of voice class, getting comfortable with
language, looking someone in the eye, and holding space for someone, like,
all of that stuff just really resonated with me as a young person.
I didn't really know what it meant. I just knew it felt really good,
and originally I thought I would just stay in theater and maybe go to
Chicago or New York and do regional plays. But when I was twenty twenty
twenty one, I auditioned for The Young and the Restless on a whim and
I ended up getting a part. But I met some people who really encouraged
me to go to LA. So I graduated college and went to LA at
twenty two and then just got a waitressing job and was nanny forever and just
did the hustle, no real connections to entertainment, had no idea what I
was doing. But met Mike Flannagan like a month into living in LA through
mutual friend and he obviously is like the first person to get me into a
film, and that was when I was twenty four. But it's just been
like a slow burn finding my way in the industry. One of those early
films that you mentioned, Oculus Direct to Buy Mike Flanagan, stars Karen Gillen,
and it seems like she's through line for both of y'all, because I
know that Molly, you've worked with Karen before. Next Sexit correct. Oculus
was our big project that we all met each other because I met Karen on
Oculus too. I was at the time producing a film for Mike that was
supposed to go directly after that one that never actually happened because then we ended
up making Before I Wake instead, And so I was actually prepping that one
in Alabama and stopped by set and I'm actually an extra in the auction scene.
If you want to go back and shack it out, yes, yes,
yeah. And I remember I met Karen and she showed up that day.
We're all getting loaded into the van and there was somebody running late Karen,
and she came running over and she's like, hullo, and I was
like, this woman is ridiculous and I love it. And then we met
again more formally after that, and I read her script and we worked together.
I met her there two. Yeah, I had a scene that was
actually cut out of Oculus, but Karen there briefly, and then we became
friends later on in Los Angeles. Tell me about Next Exit. How did
this project come about? No, this has been a long time in the
making for me, and it started a long time ago when I was still
trying to find my voice and figure out what I wanted to say, and
going through a lot of dark kind of stuff in my life, a lot
of tragedies, and trying to figure out my way through them. So I
started writing this. I put it down a million times. There was always
something else to do throughout all the years. And then whenever I would caught
in something and I didn't know what to do, I kept finding that I
naturally was gravitating back towards the script, kept being the thing that would bring
me out of that dark place and bring me out of the darkness. It's
actually Rose McIvor, who was four years this ago now. I was producing
a short film for her that she had written and was directing, and she
asked me what I wanted to do, and I told her about this script,
and she actually brought me to a horror convention that she was doing in
Hawaii, and she said, you're not allowed to leave this hotel room until
you finished the script. And it's silly. And it's how I realized the
beauty of that is nobody really was giving me permission to just be a writer
at that time. There was always something else I was supposed to be doing,
and being given that permission really allowed me to finally finished a draft that
I could then bring to the producers that ended up coming on board, Derek
Fische and Arna Hacopian, who also did We did many more drafts from that
that wasn't the draft by any means, And then we got Lindsay Lindsay Helms
and Jill Neviles from Helm Street to come on, and they also it is
a dream to have executive producers that actually believe in the creative. That was
an entirely different process than I'd ever had before in my entire past, So
it really was a dream. We kept saying, this isn't how it happens,
and consistently I will say, this isn't how it happens. Katie,
When do you come on board with this? Was it like end of twenty
nineteen. MSB sent me this draft of the script to me. I said
it to you right after I went with Rose there, right after I went
to Hawaii. We went like twenty eighteen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
and I was hunting Katie and Katie was it was funny because we'd wanted to
work together for so awesome yeah, and so I had to hunt her.
I was a little hesitant. I had had a lot of close calls with
casting, and then it didn't go on my way. So I think there
was a part of me that didn't quite believe the part was mine, and
I was intimidated by the part two. I wasn't really sure what to do
with it, and I think that was just like a fear response, which
usually when there's fairy should dive in because you're probably gonna grow, which I
did on our set, and with this one, she offered me the part,
which I couldn't believe out of every actor she could have hired, I
was like, really me, cool, Yeah, awesome, great, yes
me, Okay, I'm gonna do it. Yeah, that's what it felt
like that. Yeah, there was this push pull and then settled into it
commitment. How do you approach a character like Rose? How do you build
that? A lot of talking with Molly, She was really helpful with helping
me create her emotional journey. I kept trying to think about what healing looks
like and how it's a healing. Is their contractions and expansion and contractions and
expansion, and when is she contracted? And when is she exploding through pain?
When is she healing? When is she in trauma. Some of that
was manifested physically, like we talked a lot about body movement and the clothes,
the costumes that wears. That was really helpful, like feeling really layered
and then peeling off the layers and then just making choices and going into that
fear I was talking about where this could be wrong and dumb, but I'm
going to try it, and then you either pull back or you push forward.
And I had a great director who knew the characters inside and out.
It's pretty extraordinary actually to work with a writer director because they have all the
answers for you. Molly, do you always direct while you write? Thus
far? But that's not by choice necessarily. I would be very open to
working with somebody else. There is one project that I'm coming up that was
a script that was brought to me that I would intrigued by and potentially will
eve another one that I was brought and rewriting it right now. I think
it's just important for me before directing that there has to be there's a couple
very important things. That there has to be a message in it that I
relate to and can connect with and that I find important, and that there's
a reason why the film should be in the world. I am not a
nihilist and I am not someone who wants to create because it's fun to make
a movie. I do feel like if you're going to make a film,
it needs to have a spot and it needs to have an intention for what
you hope. Now, whether about that hope comes through and that intention comes
through and anything is successful, you work your best to achieve, but I
think that it's important to start with that, And for me, this film
was for anybody who has felt depression, anxiety, mentalness, darkness of any
kind, that there is hope and that it's not coming from a place if
everything will be okay. It's actually gonna be a lot of hard work and
that's going to be challenged, and actually it'll be fun too at times,
really an odd way that you're not expecting. And I really wanted to capture
that, and that's something that I really personally related to. So I am
writing a couple of things. I am starting to work with writing partners,
and I love that because I am like intention and emotion and feally love somebody
to help me with that structure. That is the one that that's why i'mde
the structure on this one's so simple, because the structure isn't necessarily my strong
suit. I think my stronger students emotions. You said that you were writing
this in twenty eighteen, give the script to Katie in twenty nineteen. I
seem to remember there was something that happened in twenty twenty that might have affected
your production. I don't know if he's gotten at all all that happened.
I'm talking to Katie. And then COVID happened, and I was actually supposed
to go make another film at that time. I was scheduled to go do
something else, and there was so much time and so much energy, and
we were casts, we were financed everything, and then it just fell apart,
and I was devastated, and I was sitting there, and once again
I went to the script. I also didn't do well at the top of
code. I had a lot of anxiety. I know some people were just
dealt with it was I thought the world was potentially That's where my headwed.
I'm a very nervous person in general, and so I went back to the
script, and actually it made so much more sense to me. The idea
of one thing happens, and then look at the ripple effect, and you
can think it's going to go one way, and it will for one person,
but it'll do something else for somebody else. And so the script became
so much more relevant. And that's actually when I started working with my producers
on the script and doing another draft to make it a little bit more timely.
Ironically enough, Helm Street, that's right when I met them, and
they were okay with making it during a pandemic. There was almost nothing else
we can make, and oddly, podding with a group of under twenty people
and driving across the country and buying out motels that nobody was in became the
safer way of doing it than trying to run it. Traditionally, the hardest
part about doing a film during COVID is how do you go home? What
about the loved ones are there? How do you We were all isolated.
We were literally in this bubble. So also it was January twenty twenty one
when we started, so we also have the insurrection in the background. We
also have the world on fire all around us, and we were in this
little pod and five Dodge caravans traveling across the country and it, oddly was
one of the most kind of heartening experiences that I could have had that,
even in some of the darkest times, that being with one another and supporting
one another life is really all about, and that is inherently part of the
message of the movie. So it was very interesting to be experiencing it while
we were making it. That's another thing is that whenever I'm in those places,
people always make me feel better. It is others. Whenever I get
too caught up a knee, I always have to look at other people and
other experiences. So I was terrified of COVID every single day, and every
single day when everybody tested negative, I felt like it was a gift,
and so I just appreciated it. Kitty, what was your experience, Like,
how was that for you? Moving throughout all these locations, And I'm
sure it was a little bit of a ghost town at times when you're showing
up in these places, it was really special. I like shooting on the
road. I learned it felt like being a part of a circus. It
felt almost like akin to being in a theater troop and like medieval times,
except we're in cars and its present day. But you know what, I
mean like a traveling circus that's coming to perform an area. There was something
really satisfying about that and bonding. So when we would go and shoot,
it felt like everybody really had each other's back and we were all in it
for the storytelling. And it was an adventure. I mean, it's always
an exciting thing to drive across the country just to see the world and see
it with people you love. And it was fun. I had a great
time. It must have been such a coordination effort just to rent all those
places, to get all those Judge caravans and just get all that stuff working.
Yeah, I are you Garre to go with my shoulder right now,
and I'm just gonna hear I can hear his break, heavy breath. Yes,
sitting as you were asking that question, it was at the same time.
I think oddly, what it does is you don't have a lot of
options, and so you'd lean into what you have. I think one of
the challenges when you get back to la is it's we can do this,
and we can do that. We're on the road, the car isn't working,
and they and these are the three places you can go. What are
you going to do? And it makes you be nimble and think on your
feet. And I also think it was such a gift. It's funny that
life sometimes gives you what you need, right. I love to plan,
I love to be organized. I love a color organized calendar and Excel sheets.
And I had to show up every single day and be like, this
wasn't what I planned, What is the intention of this scene? What do
I want from these characters? And shoot that? And it made me can
stay with the emotions and the characters and didn't let me get too heavy at
any time. And I'm so grateful for that because I got to stay in
a much more vulnerable place because of that. And now I don't want to
make a movie any other way. I would like a little bit more organization
that would be nice, and a little bit more resources and better food.
There's a couple of things that would have been nice. We were in,
like literally this place on the boarder of Texas and New Mexico that was so
lovely and hospitable to us. There was just a very few options. I
think there's a McDonald's at Taco Bell and the place that we ordered our food
from, and gluten free, dairy intolerance Molly was struggling a little bit of
that. She managed to get food poisoning as well. Yeah, of course
you did. Trying to be super healthy was the wrong way to go.
You just needed to lead the other direction. I think people doing the hash
Browns were much better off than I was. So as a writer director,
how are you with your writing, because I imagine you have to let people
improv a lot. You have to have that ability to be loose and not
have to stick to the script as far as your calendar or the script.
As far as the script goes, I think the most important thing for the
script is that you better have done your work for why those words are on
the page, so that when you go off the page, you're doing it
for the right reasons. So that's actually where I like being the writer because
I know, for instance, I've written that line fifteen different ways. They
don't know all that, they don't need to know all of that, so
when all of a sudden something's not working, I already have that in the
bank account in my brain where I can be like, actually, yeah,
let's spin this way. And we were pretty good at again always knowing the
intention of the scene and all of the big scenes. They just nailed completely
and totally, and we're very accurate. And I do want to say that
both Rabel and Katie incredibly accurate actors. And then we always did a little
bit of a fun take because I love that. I love that spontaneity,
both of them. We're throwing out things, especially when you're just driving in
a car. I would always do the full take, and then I would
just keep going and just keep throwing stuff at them, and I love that.
It also keeps it so fresh, it keeps it so open, both
of them throwing down amazing. They'd always do it the way like it was
intended, and then I'd always give them a chance to do what they wanted.
And I love those takes. That's just so much fun. But they
knew the characters. You can improve when you actually know the characters. Like
Katie, you have one of my favorite ones. You're time you're in that
person. Oh yeah, yeah that's not me, that's her but character.
Yeah. It just blew out her mouth and I was like, yes,
perfect, Yeah, she knew the character. She was so that day she
was so in the zone and it was one of my favorite monologues in the
film, and she just nailed it. And so when those things come out,
they're coming out from the right place. It's not somebody trying to fuck
with your writing or anything like that. It's wanting to enhance it. And
yeah, and very truthful and vulnerable. I know that you've played Tribecca where
else as the film played before, about to be a fantasia in about three
hours. That's our international premiere. So yeah, that's Tribecca was our premiere
a couple of weeks ago. Fantasias now the international premiere. I believe we
had of North Bend that we're going to, and then there's some other ones
that I don't know that I'm allowed to say, So I'm not going to
stay right now, do I know. And we'll play fright Fest as well
in the UK. I'm very excited about. And I think there's gonna be
a couple of others, and I think we should have some news out about
the filled soon and I'm very excited about that. Was Tribecca was the first
time you guys saw it with an audience. I did a couple of casting
crews before, so I definitely had that. It was the first time with
all strangers, but not all as our cast post there. I was so
relieved when people were laughing, Oh yeah, and you didn't get to see
that one. I actually chickened out and didn't watch Trybecca. I went out
to dinner instead. I just I wasn't ready to watch it with an audience.
But we did a screening in Los Angeles for some folks and watched it
with them in a beautiful theater and it was satisfying. Are you going to
stick around for fantasious screening? I don't know. We're in Montreal, so
I'm I've seen the movie. It's like, it's not mine, it's for
the audience. It's for the people now, so I just want people to
have their experience with it. What are you working on now? I know
you've got a lot of projects in the hopper? Have you already shot all
of Fall of the House of Baser. Yeah. I wrapped a couple of
weeks the weeks ago on that project, and I'm I think I'm unemployed right
now? Yeah, because like, I'm pretty sure I'm unemployed, just waiting
for auditions to come in. Hopefully something will come up. Am I Like?
How many projects do you work on at a time? One million.
There's a lot. I will be going into production a couple of weeks or
a film I'm producing with Laura Moss. I am in the process of setting
up the next one that I'll be directing, and very exciting about that.
Is there a good place for people to keep up with the film, to
find out where it's playing and when it's coming out on streaming or digital?
When I make it that it is our next exit underscore film on Instagram and
next exit film on Twitter. We have to update that Twitter though, because
we have a very good I'm a better at Instagram. I'd host everything on.
Molly Elseman so very excited, but yeah, we can't wait for more
people to be able to access this film and see it. I hope that
it resonates, and I hope that people enjoy it and have some fun with
it. Molly Katie, thank you so much for your time. It was
great talking with you. Good luck with your international premiere. Thanks Mike,
nice to meet you. Thank you. Amy Lefoy spotted at First Look like
a local you. I don't know how you would tell you've ever seen anything
like Christmas. This guy's insides have been shredded. It's doctor's cool persons,
physics genius. He leased to play U up in Links Creek about fifteen months
ago. I gotta head up to a Lynx creep. I'm gonna need some
transportation. Something happened to this house since I last saw it. It's not
the same. So let me see if I can get a man. What
is allways? Act Magic Richards? They are opening the gates day out here
and by telling your Parsons, he's at the center of it. What did
you do? Up? Next, we're going to hear from director and Rue
Morgue magazine Hancho Rodrigo Guccino, all about his film The Breach. Rodrigo,
thank you so much for your time today. Well, I'm very excited to
talk to you about The Breach. Do you mind know if I ask you
a little bit about The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Lee? Please go
ahead. I'm so curious as far as how you put that one together.
That was your first feature, if I'm not mistaken, what that process was
like, and that I want to compare that versus The Breach. The Last
Will and Testament of Rosald Lee is my first film. Yeah, it was
something that I wrote it came out of my heart. In my mind,
it was a horror film that had some high thematic aspirations. It was an
experiment because it was one person another person. Do you hear them, you
don't see them, another person you're seeing, you're with them. There's only
two people in the movie, but they're not connecting. They're speaking monologues and
so on. Then anyway, so it was an experimental film that I did
on one location. I found this incredible location and addressed it to suit the
movie. Now with the breach, this is very different because this is a
script that came to me. I didn't write it. I rewrote it when
it arrived on my desk. It was called Gone up River. It had
to do with people turning into bugs. I basically said, look, I'll
shoot this if I can rewrite it. They gave me the go ahead,
Raven Batter and the Craig Davidson AKA and Nick Cutter and his co writing partner
Ian Weir, and a lot of that was solving plot problems and so on
and so forth. But I wanted to obviously imbue it with my visual style
and also my kind of horror happy places as a better way of putting it
and build tension up until that final third act. For a week get to
see everything warm out of the ground, and we get to see it in
broad daylight. So they were two different processes. As I said, one
of them it was more personal. This one was a bit less, but
still really interesting and challenging and fun to do. Having the horror take place
out of doors and in broad daylight, it's so refreshing. It's so much
nicer than seeing just a creepy basement. You've got a creepy basement. You've
got a lot of creepy stuff in here, but that broad daylight really helps
mark this as a separate thing. I'm happy to hear you say that.
I think that so many horror films, yeah, rely on the dark and
the shadows to generate that sense of suspense, which is legit and totally fair.
I think that maybe something that I learned with Rosalind Lee was that the
entire movie spans one entire night, and that can be a little bit monotonous.
It was nice halfway through the movie to be able to have the light
come up, and we're just halfway through the movie. The sun's coming up
and we're going to do the rest in the full lighted day. It certainly
was challenging to shoot that way because of course weather and light doesn't cooperate.
As a night time you can really control it better. But I'm really happy
that we did it that way, and I'm glad it resonated. I was
really impressed by your sets and the amount of wires and just insanity when it
came to this electronic device that you know, we don't know what it does.
For so much of the movie, it looked fantastic and the whole cottage
in the wood looks terrific. Oh. Thanks, that was a lot of
doing. I have to thank our production design and people on set for putting
together the machine. And I should say Jim Goodall as a production designer and
with respect to the house and so and so forth, that that house was
built in a hotel ballroom, in several ballrooms in parts outside of the hotel
and so on, where we had taken over shot a good percentage of the
movie. So it was really put together piece meal or shot piece meal,
and then put together in editing to make it look like one house. But
that house as such doesn't exist. So I'm happy that you liked it so
much, and where did you get your cast? They are very solid.
A great director once said to me that casting is a ninety percent of the
role, right, You cast well and you don't have to worry about directing
the actors so much. And that's really how I came to this project.
I was looking for serious actors and I was actually surprised. I didn't think
that Alan Hawk. You never know, right, but I didn't think that
maybe some of these actors maybe when they saw the script they would be like,
oh no, this is maybe beneath me material. I was just really
happy that they that they didn't look at it that way. They were just
great sports about it. Natalie Brown, who's a stellar just a stellar actor.
She's just incredible, and she was able to get into the gooey and
the gory makeup and just go for that head wound and everything, and she
just really brought it. But also obviously outside of that, they imbued their
characters with They lifted those characters right off the page. And that's what we
need in movies and horror movies particularly a lot of times when the directors might
lose sight of acting and characterization when they have their eye on the gimmick of
the movie or the gore effects and so on and so forth. But for
me, it begins and ends with the actor. If the actor of the
characters aren't alive, if they're not three dimensional, then the movie's going to
suffer immensely. So I'm glad. I'm really happy, and you're not the
first one to mention it. So I'm happy that's that people are taking notice
of. That was fantagious, like your premiere. That was a world premiere
in the movie. Yeah, it was a great premiere. Gosh, it
sounded so good, it looks so good. I was like a kid in
a candy store. I was really happy. It's fantastic. It was just
really everything I could have hoped for. Really, how long did it take
for the whole film to come together from the time that I got the script
to the time I was shooting was actually quite fast and could have only been
a couple of months. I shot the movie in I believe it was September
at twenty twenty somewhere in there, and so ever since then I've been posting,
So the post process was quite long. It was about a year,
I would say, and the film was finished, I turned it in.
I think it was May in terms of movie standards, it was actually quite
quick. But you're looking at what a year and a half, two years,
it feels like there was something else going on in twenty twenty, maybe
like a global pandemic or something. Yeah, that was one of the things
on that script landed on my desk at that shit, I'd love to do
a movie. Come on and where everyone's stuck in this pandemic. Let's turn
this this pandemic frowning into a smiley And thank god the script was solid,
and thank god that everybody was on board for me to make some changes to
it, and away we went. Shooting the film during the pandemics really had
its challenges, but ultimately it was It was really exciting. It was really
fun, and I hope some of that translated onto the screen. I'm unfamiliar
with the original source material, which was what an Audible exclusive. It's funny.
I never read the novel and I don't know anything about it. I
know when I got the script it was called Gone up River as a movie
that was a script about people turning into bugs. So I did change quite
a bit. I changed characters, I changed relationships. I've changed some genders.
I added plot points that took out plot points, introduced the whole idea
of a breach and using Meg's character as a as as a breach, basically
that this creature uses her to get into the world. I did a bunch
of things to it. You know, the book came out later or the
audible, and it's called the Breach. Maybe I added some stuff from the
script to the book. I'm not too sure. I wanted it to be
a bit more mysterious, something a little bit less defined, a little bit
more visually interesting. So the idea of somebody trying to come into our world
and using people's bodies but failing through this machine, succeeding when he does it
through this woman's body, through her child. Basically, a lot of these
ideas are buried in the script, and if you saw alas whole testament of
rosal Late. I don't like to give people the story up front. I
like them to investigate. It's a great place to investigate the story and to
immerse yourself in it, but to be an active viewer. I wanted some
of that in this script as well in this movie. To get the audience
to not just sit there and be told the story, but to invite them
into participating in it and try to figure out what it's about and what's actually
going on. There was one name in the opening credits that surprised me,
which was Slash. How did he get involved with us? I've known Slash
for about ten years. We worked on a western together, a horror western
that never got off the ground. It was called Cutthroats nine. It was
a remake of a nineteen seventy two Italian Spanish co production, and we worked
really well together when we're working on that. It's too bad it never got
off the ground, but we saw it eyed a lot of things, and
he's got a really good eye for story. So when this came along,
I sent him the script. I said, what do you think of this?
He said this is cool? And I said, when I produced,
you want to do some music? He said, yeah, let's do it.
It just happened really organically and quite quickly, because, like I said,
but I got the script and a few months later I was shooting.
So Rodrico, where's the best place for people? Keep up with you and
keep up with the movie online? So you can checkout Romar dot com,
Rude Dashmore dot com. There'll be some updates there, but also just launched
on Instagram. I just got on Instagram eyes underscore wide, underscore cut on
Instagram and that there'll be news. I'll be posting the there about where I
am, where the movie's playing, and everything else related to the breach.
Thank you so much, trying to go really appreciate this. Thank you so
much, Mike, thank you for having me on the show. And last
but not least, we're going to hear from director Luke Higginson and star Gabrielle
Graham about Relax. I'm from the future. Enjoy the interview. Luke,
I want to start with you. Can you tell me a little bit about
you and your background. I know that you've done a ton of editing over
the years, and then tell me a little bit more about that and your
directorial efforts. I went to school, and most people go to film school
want to be writers and directors, but I went to I really fell in
love with the editing process, and I spent a lot of hours in the
editing room and that sort of became my career path. Out of school,
I immediately went into freelance editing, and did indie films, music videos,
TV, whatever, and that's been how I've made money. But I've always
wanted to do writing directing, never stopped doing that, and just done little
shorts paid for out of pocket whenever I could. Actually, the very first
thing that I edited out of film school was a microbudget feature written, directed,
starring, and produced by Tim Dorn and April Mullen of Wango Films,
who produced Relax. So literally the very beginning of my career was with these
people who helped me make my first feature, which is a very fun,
full circle thing. Gabrielle, how about yourself? When did you get into
acting. I've always been a performer, didn't get serious about it until I
went to university. Once it was time for me to graduate high school,
I was like, I either want to be a midwife or I want to
be an actor. And then I didn't have the science credits, so I
just went to York or like, I was in the conservatory there, and
then I studied there for like for five years, and then right out of
university I got an agent and then how long, I don't remember how long
ago that was. I think it might be eight or nine years now,
I think I'm guessing, but yeah, I've always loved performing and being on
screen. This was based on a short film that you made Luke back in
what was it twenty twenty thirteen, twenty thirteen. Wow, that's wild.
Can you tell me about how that was making that? Since graduating, I
just tried to make little shorts whenever I could, for as little money as
I could. And I just had this little idea stuck in my head of
I fundamentally like the idea of someone as sort of consequential as a time traveler,
having no good plan or set way of behaving, and that sort of
little seed of an idea was just stuck in the back of my head.
And I one day just sat down and banged out a script that was very
close to the finished short and sent it to some people. People liked it.
My good friend Zachary Bennett. I asked him to play the lead and
he did it for free, which is wonderful, and he's actually in the
feature right now. He plays Chuck in the feature. And yeah, it
just all came together really quickly and easily, and it was fun to make,
and people liked it pretty immediately, and they played TIFFs and the sort
of number one thing that people said when they watched it was, so,
what are you doing with this? You did in feature, You're doing a
TV show? And so I thought about that for the first time when people
started saying that, and proceeded to spend a decade banging my head against the
walls. I had to turn it into a feature script that I liked.
But it Yeah, that's how it came to be. Was there a moment
when it all came into place for you and You're like, Oh, this
is how I'm going to turn this into a feature. No, it was
more of a slow process of many versions and revisions, and the main thing
that made it fall into place was showing an early version of the script to
a few people I trusted, and across the board, the relationship between Casper
and Holly was the thing that people connected to, was the thing that people
liked, and so that went from significant but side part of the script to
really the central sort of focus and relationship of the film, which was I
think what unlocked it into being something that worked. When did you feel that
it was ready for prime time and you started to pursue this as a feature.
Basically, when Tim My producer read it and said, I think this
can be a movie. He who got really excited by it when I showed
it to him a few years ago. I was editing a film that he
produced and talking about it and he was interested and he immediately was like,
I think we can make this not going to be too expensive. I think
it's got some legs. Then we proceeded to yet try and figure out casting,
and like in Loop and Gabby here, we got all of our lead
cast in different ways. But Gabby is the one person who I found early,
and it was from watching Possessor. I was just watching Possessor Random Lakes
so long to see it, and I was immediately like, who is this?
This is this person pops on the screen incredibly and I looked her up.
I looked if she was playing a character in that movie named Holly,
which seemed magical and it's a comedy, and I was like, I wonder
if she's funny. And I looked up and so she did the Lena Waits
show twenties, and so I watched that show, which was really good,
and she's great on it. I was like, and even though it's a
really different character than Holly, she just clearly had comedic chops and had timing,
and I was moment on. I was like, this is my hallway
and we need to get her and I begged her to do it and she
said yes, I couldn't not every What did you think when you first saw
the script? Well, yeah, I just I couldn't not say as I
love the script and I love I just love the fact that I get to
it was so different from what I usually get to play. And I don't
think like I've ever seen or rarely ever see like a black like punk a
punk black girl on screen. So I was like, this is so different
from what I've done. I would love to do this and explore this world.
Like she's just so badass and unapologetically herself but also lazy. It was
like very much meat the tea and yeah and funny, and like even seeing
it, I was like, you don't realize how funny, exactly how funny
it is until you watch it, and it's even funnier watching it. So
yeah, I was like I could do it. Tell me about the actual
shooting of it, and when did you make this? Was this during the
pandemic? Yeah? We shot it end of November through December. It was
eighteen days. We I think December twenty third, twenty twenty one was the
last day of shooting. We only had rest for fifteen days. It was
a lot, a lot to get in a very short time. And as
as my ad was fond of reminding me, there's a lot of locations in
my film for a low budget movie, and it was a real organizational challenge
and a lot of lines for specifically for Gabby and rest learn and deliver a
lot of lines per day. But yeah, we got it done. It
does not look like a low budget film. I would not think that,
but it has a good sheen to it, and then I think casting some
real good faces and some real solid actors, of course Gabriel yourself included.
It is so nice because you think that you know, even the title of
it is coming from Casper, but then whole film hinges on Holly and just
her reaction to all of this, and just feed them those nachos right from
the beginning, and you don't know where we're gonna go with this. And
Julian Richings I love him and he always brings such a great presence to films,
and that face is so good. Oh yeah, absolutely. Now he's
a legend disease and I wanted him in the film and asked him to be
in it, and I was unprepared for how unbelievably sweet he would be.
He's like the nicest man in the world. And Yeah, there was a
pleasure, pleasure to work with. That's amazing. Yeah, it just feels
like you had so many moving parts. Just like you said, all the
locations and just all of these kind of monologues as far as what's going to
happen, all the characters. You just kept adding more characters. I thought
that we were done. It was going to be like a two person thing
than a three person thing, and it just kept building. I really appreciated
that my ad did not, but thank you. Yeah, I'm glad.
Gabrielle. What was your experience like on it? Oh? I love it.
I had so much fun. Like I said before, like just being
able to explore just being like a punk badass was fun. And like listening
to the music every day. I did that a lot. And working with
Yeah, even working with the Reese was final. It was interesting because we
have like nothing in common, but like on screen, there was so much
chemistry and I was like even like when I was watching it was like,
oh it actually it worked really well. But yeah, no, I had
lots of fun. That's good In praise of Dabbian Rees in particular day,
Like we said, we shot in December and Hamilton, Ontario and it was
cold, and the plan for the film was to shoot it in late summer
early fall, and that's also what sort of the wardrobe was based around,
because I didn't want people in heavy winter jackets like all the spouder cool leather
jacket. It's light, light costumes and very cold weather to get that in.
And specifically there's a scene in a playground between Holly and Casper, which
is one of my favorite scenes in the film, and it was so fucking
cold, and they were just such unbelievable champs about it. They were rushing
to the warm up van between every take and sitting on a cold metal playground
structure while they delivered these so they're very thematically important and emotional lines and that
were also add to be funny and they just nailed it. And I am
very rightful the cast. It moves so quickly. Did you end up editing
your own film or did you hire an editor. I did. Yeah,
I edited it, and then basically for the first few months I was not
comfortable letting someone else touch it. For the first little bit I needed to
cut it and do my version of the film. But then I did get
to a point where I was like, Okay, this is good, but
I am hitting a wall where I'm losing my objectivity, where I know that
this can be elevated to a new place, but I am too stuck in
what I've done and what I know about it. And we brought in this
other editor named Matthew m Asked, who has worked on the show Cardinal and
a bunch of other stuff, and who's a very accomplished editor, and he
basically took my edit and just did a past himself and just did in some
scenes just a couple of tiny little tweaks. He did one big structural change
involving Doris and the introduction of Doris, which really helped unlock the pacing of
that section of the film, and just really I can't say enough. You
just elevated. He just brought it to the next level. He was working
pretty good, and then that was what it needed to be to be polished,
yeah, which was a great collaboration. Yeah, we talked a little
bit about the cold, but what about the COVID How was that as far
as like shooting in safety conditions. Yeah, I'm very proud that no one
caught cold on our set. We were shooting in a real danger zone when
we were shooting the bunker stuff. But there was another film just across the
lot that like got shut down twice while we were there for comrading. So
I am proud. I think we did a good job of avoiding that no
one, no no cases, which is good because I don't know how we
would have afforded to keep going. Give me hand and able to see we
had shutdown, we would have been like, hey, Ray, so I
want to come back from your comedy tour to do a couple of pickup shots
in Hamilton. And I'm grateful that that worked out. Yeah. I'm not
really good at following the rules, like the COVID count of calls by keeping
my because you constantly had to go on say and then come out, and
then it's like on and off. It's not really good at that, but
I stayed pretty secluded. You're also one of the people whose job it was
to not wear a mask. So it's yeah, Gabriel, how do you
find a character like Holliger? Just what's your method when it comes to building
a character. I think I bought coaching, and it's the main thing that
my acting teacher told me to do was immerse myself in the music, just
to constantly do that and then listen to it and experiment with how Holly moves
and her voice and her attitude. So music is a big thing for me.
And then just looking at like the script as a whole, and then
looking at the trajectory of Holly's story and she makes a full circle because she
goes from not she used to care and then she just stopped caring and then
this thing happened, and she also like going back to who she really is
and how that happens and like all the important you know parts in the story
that get her to that. Yeah, by the end, you're leading an
army. It's pretty great. Yeah. Yeah, Gabby was amazing through that.
She really was so committed and so like just for to day one moment
one just had the character down and just was she was a rock to the
whole thing. Really real good actor. This Gabby helped too like just such
a bad ass. Look. Ye he said, you guys had Reese for
fifteen days? How long did the shoot take in total? It was eighteen
days in total, And yeah, so yeah short when Reese was on board.
Reese's Reesetarvey is one of the funniest people on the planet. He's unbelievably
funny, and he is an improv whiz and he is so like quick.
And when we got Reese as Casper, I immediately knew that despite our budget
level, having two cameras was probably going to be essential, Like we were
going to need Ay, we were going to need Holly and Cash we're both
there at the same time, and to have the two actors like able to
play off each other and to be able to get reactions and improv and have
all that be captured and usable in the edit. And so that was a
decision made early on that with a different actor, you might want to shoot
this a little differently in terms of how the camera would move for some of
the dialogue scenes. But like this, it was essential for who we had
and what we were doing that we shot it this way and that it was
yeah, we didn't lose anything because it was gold like the improv that gabbing
rested together was like needed you needed that on camera. It seems a little
unconventional, but I can totally see why you'd want to do that. Well,
that's not a thing at two cameras. It depends on the budget level.
It's definitely a thing if you have money, but it's a lot cheaper
to have one camera. It's the whole thing of time is money too,
and if you can get what you need with two cameras, it's probably worth
it, basically, but it's a trade off, right like that, you
having two cameras limits what you can shoot with one of the cameras because the
other camera might be in the shot. Like, you make sacrifices when you
do that. But I thought it was one that was worth making. So
when it is the first time you guys see this with an audience at the
screening at Fantasia that happened last week, I think, Gabby, you basically
hadn't seen any of it, right, Like you had seen a couple of
little clips for your ADR, which we a bit of a side note,
was a bit of a clusterfuck for Davy. We had to record a dr
to get the film ready for Fantasia and thankfully very little for for Gabby,
but there was some stuff we needed and we booked her at a recording studio
fully being like we need adr recording for a movie. And she came in
and in Ottawa where she was doing a movie, and we zoomed in and
we were just like, okay, let's see the footage up on the screen
for her to record a DR two. And they were just like, what
footage? What video? So that was a real that was a real heart
in the throat moment, and Gavey was a real pro and made it work
regardless. It was a scary situation. But the first time Gabby saw was
Fia and the first time I saw it with more than six people was that,
which was really cool. How many times did you see it? Like,
how many times did be watched it? Obviously that's yeah, counting when
I'm editing a hundreds, but like in terms of no stopping front to back
with a group of people, probably like fifteen to twenty something like that.
Yeah, but I get tired, yes, very much. But that you
like, were like, I wass say seen that I was sitting that Yeah,
yeah, yeah, that's all I see all I see is the stuff
I wish I had done differently or better. But I will say the fantageous
greeting was very special because that was seeing with an audience full of people that
laughed at all the jokes and that cheered at a couple of the big moments.
Was like that that really allowed me to silence my inner self critics for
at least a little bit and enjoy the experience. It was really great.
Yeah, I loved it. I loved it too. It was like interesting
for me too because it was the first time I saw it, so I'm
also I also have the actors bring on and I'm like, well that was
good. But well after I told you, goes like it was amazing.
It was. I loved it. It was so funny and I loved I
was surprised at how much improv that they kept. I loved the scene at
the park. Yeah, it was just so fun and I helped a lot
of people get to see it. I was very emotionally prepared for ninety minutes
of uncomfortable silence. I was really liking, like letting myself if it happens,
you just have to be ready for it for that. But yeah,
when we got the first last, I was like, okay, and then
it just kept going all through it. It was a magical experience. It
was really great. Yeah, did they laugh or react to anything that you
were surprised? Yeah, a few times. Actually they laughed at all the
stuff that I wanted them to laugh at, which was great. But yeah,
there was a few things. There was a couple times where a joke
that I was actually expecting to get a big laugh got almost drowned out by
people laughing at something a moment before that I hadn't thought was a big laugh
line, Like but it's a couple of times in your first diner scene with
Reese with with the Balls, there's some like a bunch of back and forth
patter there, and there was like I'd be like, oh, this line's
coming out, they're gonna laugh at and then they instead laughed at the line
right before it, and so yeah, but it was Yeah, it was
great. The Yeah, it was great. People people liked it. How
much when Polly's like smokes doors like me turned into dust, Like how much
of a proud moment that was for everyone. I was like, wow,
everyone was clapping and I was like whoa. Yeah, people clapping and cheering
for that sort of day climacting moment was that's I'm gonna I'm gonna remember that
for a while. That was a good seal. Yeah, So what now,
what's next for the film? Um, we are. We've submitted to
some more festivals and there's interesting people that are watching the film. We're kind
of figure out the distribution rights for North America right now. Hopefully I will
have news on that soon, but I can't say yet. But regardless,
in twenty twenty three, we'll be getting we'll be getting a wide release.
And yeah, now, is this a full time job for you now trying
to get it out there and get the distribution and all this kind of stuff,
or are you working on other things at the same time. It could
be if it paid, but no, I'm I'm I'm back to editing right
now. But I'm doing this sort of and when I'm not raising a baby
or editing for money, I'm doing stuff for relax And but yeah, it's
all going well and I've got a great The producing team on the film is
fantastic. Wangel Films has really they've been shepherding lifting the whole time and they're
on top of it. I'm excited. I'm excited for the mix ups.
Gabrielle. I know that you probably are just out there auditioning, doing your
thing, because I know it is always go for actors and actresses. Yeah
only Yeah, that's all that it is. It turned just it's like a
it's a job. So I'm doing all day every day and memorizing lines and
I'm distening memorizing line nitions, and I take classes as well, and I'm
going to go to Italy for an acting intensive. That's what I do in
between my jobs. Like I know, I see it as a sport.
Just thinking I'm tuning Italy in December sounds a lot nicer than Toronto and December.
Is there a good place for people to keep up with you guys in
the film online? Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter Luke Cut's video
and on Instagram. Relax the movie has an account that starting to get a
little more active and yeah, and look up, look up Relaxing from the
Future. And there's there's stuff coming out significantly every few days, which has
been nice, awesome. Today we're one hundred percent on Rotten Tomatoes und percent
fresh, which is pretty cool. Yeah, excellent, Gabrielle about yourself.
Are you on the socials one? I deleted my Instagram for a bit,
but it's not the activated. So if you're wonderful me mister grab my last
name, Graham, Gabrielle, Luke, Gabrielle. Thank you so much for
your time. This is such a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so
much, Mike. This thing has been great to do. Thank you.
Thanks for listening. Folks. If you want to hear more of what's playing
at the Fantasia Film Festival, be sure to check out Fantasia Festival dot com
Today to the po