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| SxSW ’08 Interview – Half Life director Jennifer Phang |
Half Life - At SxSW '08! |
by Jason Whyte
“Half-life is our glimpse into a fantastical world. A family is being pulled apart transcends our normal boundaries of reality. We mix animation and live action, drama and comedy, reality and imagination. At its core it's a simple story of a family coping with loss and survival.” Director Jennifer Phang on “Half Life” which screens at this year’s South By Southwest.
Is this your first film in the at SxSW? (Or the first film you have) Do you have any other festival experience?
We brought Half-Life to Sundance just this January. I’ve been at festivals with previous projects throughout my life as a filmmaker.
Will you be coming to Austin to attend the festival? If this is your first time, what do you expect to discover? If you have been here before, what do you love most about the city?
Yes I will! I was told to expect barbecue and beer, and an incredibly savvy and warm audience. I expect no less.
Could you give me a little look into your background and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
I grew up in Richmond, California, Malaysia, and Walnut Creek, California. For cultural reasons I was fixated on being an honor student…until in high school when I watched Kieslowski’s trilogy and was riveted by the potential for poetics and protest in imagery. I started writing poetry with friends and for underground ‘zines, and watching darker and darker movies from Europe. I studied production and editing in college and, then interned for a documentary. After that I was hungry to get into narrative storytelling and applied to AFI. I was invited to the MFA Directing program there, and fell hard for the creative and collaborative process, while directing a film about two people in a box underground. There’s a magic that you feel when everyone on a team is excited to make real something entirely imagined. Things went well at school and out of that I started to write Half-Life, brought it to the Film Independent Labs, and then the odyssey really began.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
An Astronaut-President, if you will.
While you were making the movie, were you thinking about the future release of the film, be it film festivals, paying customers, critical response, and so forth?
We focused on completing it the way we’d imagined. We spent a lot of time making sure the story and emotional arc was working for viewers and also on making something from the heart, that felt right. That moved our viewers. We spent more than a year collaborating with committed and talented artists of the 2nd and 3rd dimension, to ensure that our animated world came out right because we believed it would make all the difference. It seems to have done the trick.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
I wrote the script after I graduated from AFI. Film Independent selected it as a script to be work-shopped at their Director’s Lab. Aasulv, our DP, shot some scenes with us for the lab process, and then we raised funding using a trailer we cut from the scenes and extra footage we shot. We filmed in Northern California for about 24 days, and then shot more pickups later.
Then we went into production of animation with Matthew Pugnetti and Catherine Tate, and visual effects with Catherine and a large team of incredibly dedicated CG artists. Michael Okum spent a lot time meticulously digitally painting the 2D animation that Matthew drew, which really put the sequences with the crashing manta rays over the top. Andrew Jewell finalized timing and effects most of the 2D compositions, after I did some layout for the animatics and basic compositions in After Effects. Catherine did a lot of her finishing in Shake.
There also was the beautiful and intense process of sound design with Brian Sorbo and marathon sound editing and mix with William Storkson. Also can’t forget to mention our laborious cutting process selecting the best of all the incredible material delivered by Aasulv, our DP, and our actors. I relied on the feedback of our editors and producers and then test audiences prioritize our most effective work over some really incredible shots and scenes. I can say that across the board each of our creative keys from pre-production through post really reached for the heart of the film to connect with it and make it something they felt proud of.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
Staying committed to creating our lush animated reality was the biggest challenge to us within our budget, and those decisions to commit to animation had an effect on the schedule and the editing process. We also had a short pre-production period and some actors’ scheduling conflicts, which made production gymnastics a challenge. Also we were rained out of my dream location, but found something even better with gorgeous light for the film’s end. In the end we felt a bit blessed.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
Aasulv Wolf Austad was our DP, and his talent and precision made a commanding difference for our film. We met at AFI and had worked together on several past projects. I feel we developed a language that helped us shortcut when we needed to. I'm bringing in Aasulv here to talk a bit:
Jennifer and I did our thesis film together when we studied at the American Film Institute. We also did a few shorts and other projects and were quite familiar with each other's creative side. For Half-Life we tried to make the cinematography more realistic and natural. This was because we wanted the animated dream sequences as well as the supernatural events to stand out more.
The producers asked me to evaluate all available HD formats for Half-Life as well as various film formats. When we crunched the dollar numbers all the way, HD came out more expensive than film for this particular movie. This was due to many weather dependant day exteriors with limited access to power, often several company moves in a day, many small locations and a very tight schedule.
We decided to shoot Half-Life on a mix of S16 for the dialogue and 35mm for the wider shots. Jennifer likes to let the camera roll through entire scenes as well as using quite a bit of hand held so having a light S16 camera with 10 minutes of film in the magazine was
good. The Super 16 grain also helped with the apocalyptical feel of the movie. Then we could get the nice resolution of 35mm film for the wider panoramic shots.
Our filmstock of choice was Kodak Vision 2. We used 100T for day exteriors, 200T for interiors and 500T for night exteriors. When we did our pickups Kodak's new 50D was available, so we used that filmstock for some greenscreen shots.
There are several scenes in the movie where they have animated over live action. We shot those live action templates with a Panasonic DVX-100A. The animators then uprezzed that to 2K and painted over it. Timelapse shots were done on a mix of digital and film based Nikon SLR cameras.
Talk a bit about the festival experiences, if any, that you have had with this particular film. Have you had any interesting audience stories or questions that have arisen at screenings?
Festival audiences have truly connected with the mystery and visual ambition of Half-Life, so it’s been really uplifting to do Q&As because of the viewers’ fascination, and desire to engage us about the film. Everyone tries to get me to interpret the ending for them, and I try not to, because it’s intended to inspire a little wondering. And truly the best part is hearing what everyone thinks it means.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
Kieslowski, Todd Haynes, Ang Lee were more direct influences. I also really enjoyed the animation and themes of Waking Life, and wanted to create a film where an animated world really was a dimension we might graduate to… from the reality we know.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
I would like to work bringing to film the stories and images I value and think others will love, period. I’m happy to work in any situation that enables me and a team to present engaging stories and ideas and create new worlds.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
I’d be a painter-astronaut…which is clearly why I’m a filmmaker.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
Given the chance to turn back time, I would be thrilled to work with or near Kubrick and Kieslowski. If I had to work with the living… Paul Thomas Anderson.
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
Funny question. When does anyone make it for themselves, I wonder? I’m admittedly self-satisfied at the moment, but even more in awe of everyone who I worked with to make Half-Life what it is.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
I think it’s pretty important. We’ve been happy and glowing in our reviews though, so I only can say it’s been helpful for us.
If this film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
The White House. There’s some sort of TV in the basement and a couch, right?
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the local goo-gooplex?
If you’re weary of the predictability and formulaic feeling in a lot of the films you’ve been seeing, or if your jaded dying soul needs a little kick in the pants, come see what we did with “Half-Life”. It’s actually the stuff that happens in the end that everyone seems to want to talk about.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
It just depends where you begin, and what your assets are to begin with. Work around your assets. Seriously. Also double check everything, even your budget, with everyone, even if it gets to you. If you can make a film that’s not deeply personal the first time, you may also learn a lot so you can make your personal film even better.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
“The Last Temptation of Christ”. Its rhythm, textures, and music made me fall in love with films. It got into my head. And that’s equal with Blade Runner for succeeding in creating a world I believed in and was intoxicated by.
This film is one of the many features that will be screening at SxSW this year from March 7th to 15th. For more information on this film, its screening times and for more information on SxSW, point your browser to the official website. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2424
originally posted: 03/04/08 13:58:11
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