First-time director James Ward Byrkit talks cramming big sci-fi ideas into a tiny indie film.
Den of Geek: Congratulations on the film.
What came first, the experimental nature of how you shot it or the actual concept?
All those years the Ray Bradbury stories andTwilight Zonesproved that ideas were the most compelling part of science fiction.
I think its a really fertile ground.
I think its just the beginning of a renaissance of sort of big idea, small budget science fiction.
What influenced this concept?
Did you do a lot of research into it?
A lot of research, although you could do the research relatively quickly.
Theres a very powerful existential subtext to that because thats something that everybody really can feel very powerfully.
Its a universal, ground level thing.
She just didnt act when she had the chance to take this understudy role.
It wasnt even that she chose not to take it, she just didnt make the call.
She just didnt say yes.
And so that has haunted her for years.
You didnt have a screenplay in the traditional sense.
I didnt know if they had improv skills, to be honest.
I just picked smart people that I knew could generate ideas.
You shot the movie in your own house.
How naturalistic did you give a shot to make the environment?
We removed the crew so that it felt like a real dinner party.
It was just me and my DP Nic Sadler holding cameras.
But besides that, the room is absolutely empty.
Its just the actors really having a dinner party.
Youre putting on a party.
This is your house.
Where there a lot of happy accidents on set that took you by surprise?
And I had to improvise along with them.
For 45 minutes they just wouldnt let the two guys back in the house.
So that was great.
I would have never thought of that.
It was just real; it was a real response.
Does making a movie in this manner change you as a filmmaker and as a creative person?
All of that is gone.
And what can I do to anticipate that?
So its an incredible feeling.
Its so scary its like driving a racecar at 7000 miles an hour.
Would you like to keep going with this style of filmmaking?
I wouldnt make anything this bare bones just because its absolutely exhausting and its crazy to be honest.
This should have been a disaster; this should have never have worked.
I would want to have a continuity person.
I would want to have a props person.
I would want to have definitely a crew to help me out next time.
People are out there right now trying to write what they call the actor proof script.
And thats the last thing I want.
I never want to work on an actor proof script.
I want the actors to have total input and total collaboration with the project.
And I would just allow for a little more improv than is normally understood.
I would allow for overlapping dialogue and allow for a lot of happy accidents.
Would you like to do another film in the sci-fi genre?
I want to make movies for the Fantastic Fest crowd.
I want to make movies for people who actually love movies and these are them.
This is how you get to those people.
Coherenceis out now in limited release and coming soon to VOD.
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