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Intro:
Hey, and welcome to episode 370 of the show. This week we have Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes from horror film Sissy, which recently premiered at south by Southwest. We talked about finding the right team, wanting to add to the official canon of horror film as a genre and much more. Enjoy the interview, and I'll see you in the intermission.
Chuck:
All right. Thanks for coming. I really appreciate it. I would ask how South By is going, but it seems like it's going very well considering the recent news about Shutter. Do you want to talk about that for a second? Because that's very exciting.
Hannah:
Yeah. We're very excited and extremely grateful to have safety at such a wonderful and appropriate home.
Kane:
Yeah. And Shudder has been really great. They've been really positive about the film. We obviously love their app before being fans of horror and all things genre. And it's just been really nice to kind of have that deal in place just before the festival started, just to kind of, I guess, allow us to celebrate the festival and not stress too much about trying to sell the movie. So it's been a treat in that sense.
Chuck:
Well, was that always part of the plan? Did you have, like, a list of people like, we hope A, B, and C pick it up, but If Def does, and that's okay. What was your kind of attack plan going into South By?
Hannah:
Well, we're just the writer directors. We don't really have any control over distribution, but you, of course, have your dream list, and Shudder was right at the top. So we're just pretty stoked.
Kane:
Yeah. I think because we thought our film is such a kind of wacky horror and unconventional horror in many ways, just from what we knew of Shudder at the time, we didn't really know if we were there kind of brand, I guess, but what we learned from them and kind of meeting with them and things like that is that they are broadening that view of what the genre is, and that's really cool. They're trying to mix it up a lot. So I think once we realize that we do have a place in all that and it does kind of makes sense for their platform to have a film like ours, then we were kind of really stoked about it, for sure.
Chuck:
Yeah, man. I've had Shudder for years, and they've really just been just adding so much stuff. Whereas before I was like, all right, this is cool. It's a horror app, and maybe this will eventually be a cool thing. And now it's getting to the where I'm like, this is really worth the money. And it's so cheap. It's so crazy because there's so much stuff, cool stuff on there now.
Hannah:
Yeah. And just to be amongst some of that content feels pretty cool.
Kane:
Yes. I think when I saw that Revenge was Shudder original, which was one of the residents when we were going in, that kind of gave us a lot of, I guess, excitement just being like, well, if Revenge could be on here, then we could be on here. Yeah. When are your good films on here?
Chuck:
Well, I'm always curious how films, stories, the initial spark of any film, no matter how long, no matter how short, it's an endeavor. It's not just a project. It's a thing that you're going to be working on for years. At what point was this film? Did you know this is what we're going to be spending a significant portion of our lives on?
Hannah:
I think we came up with the concepts in 2018 and we just wanted to go down this road. I think we're big risk takers in our lives. And we just took a bet on this idea because our previous film, which is our first collaboration together for now, was a similar Cabin in the woods story, but more of a duplexian, Lynn Shelton style mumblecore road trip film. Right. That we made like 25 grand and our executive producer will give us the feedback because you love the movie. It's like if you want to make this sort of, like, commercially successful, you would have turned this film into a horror in the second half. And as fans of horror, the cogs started turning and we were like, okay, how can we do this? But elevate it build on what we've already made, and that's kind of how this came about. So it was never really a question of, should we do this project? We just kind of Dove in and made a gamble and it really worked out.
Kane:
Yeah. And I don't think you ever kind of think to yourself, this is the next two, three years of our lives. It's kind of like standing at the foot of a mountain and kind of going, oh, I got to get to the very top. It's a lot easier to just put one in front of the other and then you kind of get to the other end and then you go like, oh, shit, we're actually here now. Yeah, that's definitely I definitely think you can't look at the ad when you're at the beginning, if that makes any sense, or it's just too overwhelming to even begin.
Chuck:
Oh, yeah. And as a huge horror fan and I've written horror features myself, I'm always just kind of the back of my head thinking, I've seen so much, I've seen so many kills. How do you find original, fresh kills or anything new in the genre? Was that in the back of your mind creating this, or did you just say, we're just going to make the best film and not really worry about anything that's come before it?
Hannah:
I mean, I think if you're going to add to the canon, you need to kind of be thinking about how to reinvent the kills or contribute. Basically, it's important. Yeah. I mean, it's equal parts kind of homage and doing things that you've seen before that you love, but just kind of putting, I guess, a modern spin on it and having a moment.
Kane:
Yeah. And then thinking like, hey, if this is every version of someone who's been run over by a car, what's our version? Right. It's like a bit of boat.
Chuck:
Yeah. And I had a lot of fun watching it, and we'll talk about, I guess, the very beginnings of the story. How did you break all the characters, especially? I really admired how, I guess you could say the three main characters, three main ladies, you understood all their positions about how awkward this weekend was for everybody. And I feel like it takes a lot of character work. Did you do a lot of character back sheets and that kind of thing?
Hannah:
I think we just sort of organically followed this sounds like such a wank, but allowing the characters to sort of reveal themselves to you. There wasn't a lot of, like, trying to figure out dissect who these people were. It was just how do they fit into the story and how are they serving the message that we're trying to lay out here? So I think we studied a lot of films like Bridesmaids and Murals, Wedding and Caring and Toxic Female Friendships, because there's often a trifecta of the rescuer, perpetrator and victim. And that's kind of how we allowed Alex, Emma and Cecilia to unfold to us. But really, Cecilia was the North Star. She's the main character, so Alex and Emma kind of have to be in opposition to her.
Kane:
Yeah. And then you tweak the characters a little bit when you know who's playing them. So there was a bit of that as well.
Chuck:
Yeah. Like I said, it was really great. And I always appreciate films like that where you can just understand everybody's perspective because it makes it more intriguing. And I don't want to say more of a difficult watch, but you're like, I want to identify with one person, but I kind of get everybody's perspective here. It's a tough, tight rope to walk.
Intermission:
Hey, welcome to the Intermission. This is Chuck Just breaking in with some quick announcements. Kind of a short episode. They had a limited time to talk because it's a Press junket, so I'll keep this short. April 4, next Monday, go and bar. Monday, get the Independent. Go check it out. May 10. I'm having a read through of my script, Eight bit Blood Sport at Roll Call Theatre. Tremendous cast. It'll be a lot of fun. Come join us April 21 through May 1, Atlanta Film Festival. Lots of films, panels, etc. And of course, thanks to our sponsors, Element Certified Public Accounts as a consultant. Are you good with money? Specifically? Are you good with film finance and you want to help others with their money? Well, Element and its sister company, Storyboard Financial Services, are hiring production accountants. They are looking for entry level clerks and production accountants, assistance and keys. Full time positions include health benefits, retirement benefits and immediate room for growth. If you're interested, please contact Element by visiting Elementcpas.com and then also where you should go if you do need help with your film finances. People like me, you don't know anything about money. What is money, really? I have no idea. Couldn't tell. You wouldn't even know where to begin yet. I have a production company. I have two, actually. I have my own problems, taxes, et cetera. And I've got stuff I have to worry about. I've always got money issues floating around in my head, whether I'm on set, whether it's my production company stuff, I need help. And most likely you do, too, which is why you should go to Elementcpas.com to get help, or if you're already good at the stuff and you want to help other people and you're looking to make a change. Elm Atcpas.com, based in Atlanta. Great company, great people. They were on the show back in the day. Very nice. Go check them out. Great talking to Hannah and Kane. I should have some other South By stuff coming soon, but it was great to talk to them. They sent the film over. It's very good. If you haven't seen it, make sure to check it out as soon as you can. Not only does it add well to horror Canon, also, Australian horror Canon was his own very specific thing, so I highly recommend it. All right, I'm going to get you back to the show. Keep enjoying the interview, keep working on your own stuff so you can have your own film at South By or wherever you go, Atlanta Home Festival, wherever it is on the way. You can do that. Keep moving. All right, back to the show.
Chuck:
Well, going into production, is there anything that you remember on your first film that you talked about that you took to this film, maybe something you learned specifically on that production to do or not to do that you used on Sissy?
Kane:
Well, I mean, For Now it was a very different beast in that it was like we were just a crew of like three people.
Hannah:
We shot it in seven days with like 25 grand. So it really wasn't applicable.
Kane:
It was almost like a kind of documentary kind of run and gun approach. But I guess what you take from that is just, I guess the ability to cover scenes very quickly and minimally scenes when you're running out of a very different way of working. I mean, since it was very fast, like we have a lot of time, but it was still kind of a little more of a traditional film set. Yeah, way more. So I would just say the kind of, I guess the ability to just kind of throw something together on the fly if you are kind of running out of time or it's getting towards the end of the day, like that kind of ability to just, I guess to kind of improvise a little bit when you're problem solving.
Chuck:
Yeah. Well, speaking of problem solving, was there anything that popped up on Sissy that you just really weren't expecting that you had to deal with on the day and you very unexpected came up?
Kane:
I mean, I wouldn't say anything super unexpected. I mean, obviously when you're doing practical effects like we did, there's always that kind of fear that you've got like one shot at this and that it won't go to plan, but it did. That's always the thing that you kind of have in the back of your mind. Like, I hope we do this right because we probably don't have another one of these. We're going to have time to do another one, and it's a lot of clean up with some of those gory practical effects. I don't think there was anything super unexpected. It went fairly to plan according to we basically shot out our storyboards, or at least a kind of version of them. And I think sometimes the house that we were shooting in had, like a lot of glass windows all the way around it. And so it was a bit tricky sometimes with kind of that first scene when they arrived at the house and they all kind of Cecilia meets the group and sees Alex for the first time again. We had to split that up over three days. So it's not a very big scene, but because of where the sun was and the fact that we kind of needed, like, that late afternoon sun, we had to split a scene into three different days. So that's always kind of a bit of fun where you're picking up where you left off and the sun is in a completely different spot, but somehow it cuts together when you get in the edit. Yeah, just small logistical things like that. I guess you're adjusting on the fly.
Chuc:
Well, that's good to hear. Of course, they always say shooting outside, shooting in the woods. I talked to somebody last week. They said whenever an actress sees exterior running through the woods, they go, oh, no. But of course, there's a lot of it's pretty typical in horror. You got to have chased in the wood scene. So nothing crazy happened with that. No unexpected rain or anything.
Hannah:
Well, we had our actors. They are typical Australians. What I mean when I say that is that they're willing to literally put themselves in the mud. Okay. I guess it was unexpectedly cold for us. Sydney Ciders, who don't know otherwise, but Alex, played by Emily Margarita, she was in, I think, Ten Degree. What would that be in Fahrenheit?
Kane:
It was very cold. We were basically in Ski Parkers and it was raining and she's got worms on her and she just went for it. And the same. I think every actor on our set went through something a little grueling and they put up with it. So we're very lucky in that sense.
Kane:
Yeah. But I think we dodged rain pretty much. I don't think we had to shoot any other sets, really, or anything. So we were very fortunate in that way. But, yeah, just a little bit of late night exterior night, cold, cold night.
Hannah:
Basically switching to night shoots halfway through and back again. People were pretty remarkable attitudes considering how little sleep they were getting.
Chuck:
No, that's great. That also comes with casting the right people, just finding those people that, you know, they're going to stick with it.
Hannah:
And I'll lead Aisha. She's just such a hard worker and she just has the best attitude in the world. And we're a little biased, but we think she's pretty brilliant in the movie and she did that on such little sleep and just jumping from scene to scene is like one or two takes because that's all we had. So, yeah, we're very grateful.
Chuck:
Before we go talk a little bit about working as a team, is there any budding ahead, or do you have a system for working out issues? You're right. And direct together.
Hannah:
Yeah. We definitely, like, debate ideas until we arrive at the solution. But I think we're very fortunate in that we like the same things. Yeah, that helps. I don't think we spend a lot of time disagreeing, which is really good.
Kane:
Yeah. We kind of finish each other's sentences a little bit, which kind of obviously comes along with being in a relationship for eight years and kind of making films together. You just learn each other's language. There's definitely a shorthand.
Hannah:
We trust each other's opinions, which is nice, which has kind of allowed us to go down this road of taking a risk of writing a script for a year and a half before seeing any form of development or interest from Arcadia, our production companies.
Kane:
You got to take that kind of that gamble that I guess we took on ourselves and that we did before with our last film. I guess the hardest part of it is just when you're Kind Of Just living that uncertain life.
Hannah:
Trusting that things are going to work out, like having blind faith in such a fickle Industry. Yeah. We have to Pep each other up and sort of have each other's backs.
Kane:
Yeah. Because you've got two filmmakers in one relationship. It's not like where you have kind of someone who's the lawyer and they're on the stable income and Then the other is the artist in terms of our lives. Yeah, that's probably the biggest kind of struggle, but there's Just nothing else that We Want to do. So it's just kind of one of Those things where we don't Even really debate that. It's just we just help Each other get through the Kind of doubts of that or not even the doubts, just The Kind of uncertainty of it. But then obviously when the thing is going and you do start to make the movie, it's full steam ahead and we basically just kind Of I Don't know, I feel like we kind of carry the same load and we pick up where the other puts down. Basically.
Hannah:
We debrief. What did you do today? Oh, I did this. Well, that's really nice.
Chuck:
Well, unfortunately already out of time. I tell everyone where to find Information. Obviously you can see it On Shudder Soon. Hopefully. But Where to find information, websites and all that kind of Stuff.
Hannah:
Yeah, just let's follow at the movie. You can find us on Instagram and That's Where All the information will be Released. At SissyMovie.
Kane:
What else? Well, I Don't think we have an exact release plan just yet, but stay tuned. It'll Kind Of be later in the year on Shudder. It Will Still be available to rent on itunes and Amazon and all that as well.
Chuck:
Well, really appreciate you guys coming on Today. Good luck with the film and your future projects.