Special Report: Me, Myself, & The Void (2024)

and I hope you enjoy this interview. I want to talk to you about Me Myself and the Void, but I really want to know a little bit more about you and how you even got into filmmaking.

was what I did on the weekends. I would shoot things with my friends, do comedy sketches and bad James Bond rip offs, that kind of thing. But then it happened to be in that era when online video was new, and I happened to after a while, I realized that people who were just my friends or family were commenting on the work, and before you knew it, you were starting to make friends and connections online. And so I

happened to catch that early YouTube wave. I would say it was certainly a big part of my practical filmmaking experience. And this was when I was a teenager, so shortly after that, when it came time to choose what I was going to study, I chose to do a degree gold Film studies at the University of Greenwage, and so

that really set me off on that path. Like It was a combination of that opportunity to play around making my own things like true amateur just starting, and then yeah, choosing to go and study it.

I've ever made. And yeah, that came about because a couple of years ago, I had already moved to LA at this point, and through a connection somehow, I got in with the folks at Funny Would Die and they were still funding some like original comedy concepts at the time, and so we went back and forth and I pitched this idea of how to series and the first one was going to be how to Get out of the

Speeding Ticket? And I pitched them the concept for it, and then yeah, they gave us a little, very small budget to go make it, and then we went out there and yeah, that one somehow struck a chord seemingly with the Internet because because funnily enough, I know that the person I cast in it, Don Ferrah, who is a wonderful filmmaker and musician in his own right, and now he gets messaged about that a lot because it keeps finding new pockets of audience, like it shows up

on Reddit or then it shows up on TikTok or all these things. So yeah, something about that particular sketch. We told something out of the user on that one. I couldn't explain it, but it seems to have done really well, and I'm glad people enjoy it.

a sort of strange void world? But as I'm telling you that right now, I'm sure you can tell that's already a story yet. But then I think once we clicked into this idea of what if it's about a character who's trapped in a void world and the hook of the film is his earthly body is trapped in the real world somewhere and he has to figure out how he got there. And I think once we felt

like we had that, I'm a sucker for hook. Once I feel like I have something that evokes a question and has a mystery element, That's what we felt like we had something, and that then sent us off on the geney of making me myself and the void.

and are the same thing. And so for us, a lot of answers started coming once we realized, okay, once we understood better who Jack our protagonist was, and that it was really going to be a story about him reconciling the various ways in which he'd not been great to the closest people in his life, and that he in many ways is his own obstacle, and that he was gonna through the process of kind of Christmas carrolling his way through his own memories was going to be

like learning about himself and what ultimately as he uncovers his mystery, like he's sort of piroh, but he's investigating his own theaming murder or not murder. And yet once we honed in on that, that became something that we felt interested us. One thing we knew that was also fundamentally a struggle when you choose to set a film that's obviously minimalistic on purpose by design, and it's set in it kind of heightened the reality. Of course, you

want to keep the stakes very grounded and relatable. I think we found that the more we just honed in on who is this guy, We're going to keep learning more about him and he's going to start in one place, but in what way is he going to change by the end of the story and maybe reconcile the ways in which he wasn't a great guy. I think we found that the more we came back to character, the more we could find our way through the story. It had to make emotional sense. It could just be like, oh,

we're just exploring a void. Well, the newings that it all had to be filtered through who is this character and what's he going to learn?

comedy sketch together. I was such a huge fan of their work, and I was always convinced that these guys absolutely have the chops to carry a film as actors, that they would be able to take you through not just the funny and the banter and be very watchable, but that they would also be able to carry the

emotional beats that a feature film would require. So relatively early in the development process, Nick and I decided shall we just name them Chris and Jack, in the hopes that would be complimentary that by the time I approached them about it, that I would be able to say we genuinely wrote it for you, and I'm happy to report as evidence from me talking to you now that yeah, they responded to that because I think it felt like it tied in with the kind of work they're interested

in doing, like having a fantastical element but ultimately character story. So I think we share those creative values. And that's how luckily that was an easy one. I had the director in I could just reach out and be like hopefully, whereas obviously to get to Kelly we had to go through more traditional channels. So our casting directors anime were and Ashley Duancing reached out to folks at CAA and did the whole write the letter explain why I thought

she would be amazing for the role. She happened to have shared a scene with Jack in a show called Sorry for Your Loss, which she started with Elizabeth Olsen, and it was just one scene, but they were very cute together. They had a little flirtatious moment and I remember just thinking that they were they were quite charming, and so being very British, I was like, what if they're a couple who have broken up? Which twitch And yeah,

it was lovely. And I was so thrilled when you basically led to a zoom and then got a chance to meet Kelly and we had a chance to talk about what she was seeing in the script, and I was so grateful that she responded to it. And then it was such a dream come true. I know the phrase that you come back to with, like what first time filmmaking gets to work with Kelly Marie Trent in their first film, Like, what an amazing privilege to have

feel that way about cast in general. He concused and jameson and filled out the ensemble as I belluted to earlier, but so literally it's in the pantol like it takes place in a void. By default, I can't distract you withzy production design. It always comes down to the actors, right, but in this film even more so. But it's really going to come down to those actors convincing you of the emotional halts of the scene and of who these

characters are. And I truly believe if I hadn't gotten as lucky with the cast, I don't think the film would work as well as it does. I am so privileged to have gone to work with such top talent on my first film. I feel like I've almost been sent up to now be, you know, an unrealistic expectation of how films come together. I'm very lucky.

need the same door that exists. So it pretty early became apparent that we were going to have to build Jack's apartment, then strip it away to then start creating the various void landscapes. And it was certainly a challenge, yeah, because hopefully the song doesn't feel this way for a studio. It was actually a relatively small studio, so we had to try and communicate scope for somebody's mind, like these bigger sort of set pieces and landscapes, when ultimately you're

still in quite a contained space. So, for instance, the one I'm quite proud of actually is a good example is that first time they walk out into the void world and they see that long path that sort of heads out all the way into the distance. That was basically like okay, So we built a big chunk of the path and then knew we were going to have to extend it so that it would feel even bigger

and more infinite. It was just fun. It was fun solving all the challenges because for me, all filmmakers, I think are advised, especially early on in your career advice try and come up with your contained, one location movie. And I think it's hard, right, because we've all seen great examples of those movies. But I also think it's actually complicated when you dive into it, of like, Okay, why are we in this space the whole time? And

but we still make it makes sense dramatically. And my hope with me myself void was that by having a sort of void wellpot and world flashbacks of the things that you could make a sort of contained movie feel like it has bigger scope, not just in sets and the various things you're seeing, but also emotionally, right, like going deeper into the characters to hopefully paint a broader picture for what is ultimately still a very small movie.

doing in America. And it was in that time when but the comedy scene felt like actually sketch comedy felt like it was moving to the Internet at that time. But I also think more broadly, I appreciate films that have a certain heft but are able to leverage that with a certain light tone. It's funny, it's less absurdist

camp of princes. I've always loved Alexander Payne's work for a similar reason, like where if like they are these quite heartfelt stories and they really go quite deep in the character, but there's always a sort of lightness of ex future, almost like a wry sense of humor that goes along with them, So I think I'm drawn to that in my filmmaking, like I look for filmmakers who were able to like with a little bit of a wink. But then we're still going to go to some real

places over the course of the narrative. But yeah, on me, myself and the Void in particular. I actually, funnily enough, a lot of our references in developing the story weren't as comedic mi co right, Nick All the show is a stand up comedian, so that helps obviously in informing Jack's character, but also and he's always thinking jokes, happiness, and he and I certainly bond on that level. But funnily enough, our influence is going into it. Were much

more sort of eternal Sunshine, It's a Wonderful Life. More recently Pixar's Soul, like all of those films have narratives about people in various stages caught between some kind of heightened reality or life and death having to face up

to something. Those were more of our influences when writing, and then the comedy almost just came to us more naturally, but we were trying to pay more attention to those kind of grander examples and then it's been used, are more like absurdist willing to go to zany places into those films.

feature in general. Like Ryan, my producer, Ryan Bluett Eoway likes to say that when we took our first meeting, we were like freshly vaccinated and ready to take on the world. Like that's when we were having all these conversations. It's been quite a journey when I especially when I remember it in those terms.

were lucky that we shot in November, because I know that sort of end November, after that Thanksgiving period into Christmas, there was a whole other wave and I genuinely think we could have found ourselves in trouble or having to shut down if we had shot even three weeks later, honestly, So, I you know, it's another example of like that is not lost on me that I think we got very lucky to have gotten through the film and got it

all in the can. And yeah, so grateful, And obviously that was a lot of that was also coordinated so well by my producer and Blewet and by the and Eco band and like really making sure that we took all of that very seriously. And yeah, very blessed.

there talking about it, but I believe so. Our premiere was that Dancers with Films in twenty twenty three, I believe last year, and then we also screened at not Filmfest in Italy, and then we also screened at film Quest in Utah and it was great, like we were very fun experienced all the different festivals and just informative as a filmmakers were because you've lived with the film for so long and then getting to share it and share it in front of different audiences was something I

found forever fascinating, like how does an Italian, more European leaning crowd take in the same work, and then a film Quest is a bit more like fantasy audience and all these different things, and all responded to the film that had lovely things to say, but it was just interesting watching the differences and how it was received. One that always stuck with me was Ryan blewer tonight when we were at NOT Filmfest in South of Caangelo, the

Little Mania. I believe I might have butchered that, but we were there in Italy and we watched its screen and it was funny because the audience was a lot quieter actually speaking to some of the day humor, it was like they weren't laughing as much as for instance, crowd did at Duns films or even afterwards a film quest, and obviously Ryan and I a little nervous all like, so they get the back of is this bombing?

the zaniness almost as whatever. Like they were engaging with it much more like a character drama, which you know, I don't think that necessarily has to mean that's a stereotype about all Europeans or Italians for that matter, But it was just that crowd certainly engages with it much more like a drama, which was just interesting. You just learn the different ways in which it can land in

different rooms. It's endlessly fascinating, I think is obviously you're so close to it as the person who made it, it comes to that point where experiencing it with different audiences is such a gift because you get understand what you've made through other people in a way.

and hopefully we'll come together. But obviously those are bigger movements that I just have to go to the filmmaking gods and pray. But yeah, like I'm excited. I think my main thing at the moment is just talking to lovely folks like yourself and getting the word out about me and myself of the void.