Special Report: Fantasia 2022

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