This room has a way of making you talk

Interrogation

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Director's Statement

I signed on to direct this smartly written procedural thriller the moment I met Katey Darling.  I had read it a few times and threw my hat in to direct it having connected with the well crafted arcs in the story.  Katey had an energy and professionalism to her that made me inherently know she would do whatever it took to execute this project with the highest production value possible given the limited resources we had.  

 

Besides the many plot twists that kept me reading, I felt the self contained simplicity of the piece--essentially one location--lent itself to an exercise in acting.  It was always our goal to treat it like a play and let the talent flex their muscle rather than whipping the camera around and leaning on visual effects (as is often tempting).  The writing was strong enough to carry this stripped down approach and I feel the performances held up and were served well by our
                                              minimalistic approach.  

 

That being said, it wasn’t without challenge to execute.  We lost our location a couple days prior, forcing me to build the entire set on a soundstage in 48 hours with only the help of our production designer Brian Bever.  We had to switch our lead after a half day of shooting. When we restarted the next day with Anne Asland, she got her first look at the script in the makeup chair. With the clock ticking, French first time DP Gilles Gontrand and I had to find a common language right there on set to effectively communicate my vision. The shoot was long, and cold with equipment failure and repossession at every turn. We faced sound issues constantly shooting in downtown LA, pausing to let heavy vehicles pass far enough not to be heard by sensitive microphones. It's not surprising that we went through a succession of crew, with some defecting due to the harsh conditions and primitive environment.  

 

In the end, even with all of the technical struggles, I feel that this is a project that all involved can be proud of. After the trials of production, a long post-production schedule tested the endurance of our team even further. Some may have wondered, "Where is that movie I worked on?" I'm pleased to report that their tenacity and perseverance has been rewarded. Every bit of their talent and ingenuity is up there onscreen. While I'm happy to remind viewers how hard everyone worked to transcend our limited resources, I'm more eager to watch the finished film with audiences who don't know about any of that. They're about to take the same exciting, twisting ride I took when I first read this script.