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00:06 I got out of a four and a half year marriage.
00:09 It shook me to my core.
00:11 I felt the only way I could come out of this
00:13 was to make the film.
00:15 I wanted to tell a story that connected
00:17 with how I felt at the time, or the idea of loving somebody
00:21 so much, but yet the concept of love
00:24 is not enough to keep a relationship going.
00:27 This film took over my whole life.
00:30 Every fucking day from 11 to 5, we wrote the story in real time.
00:37 I was able to come in to sit down and watch the actors.
00:42 That's when I realized that the characters that we had built
00:44 had meat on them.
00:47 And that hit me pretty hard.
00:49 I've always had an affinity for the city.
00:54 I could not imagine the story with those type
00:56 of archetype characters that would have the same sort
00:58 of depth, meaning, familiarity, and authenticity
01:02 if it was anywhere else but San Francisco.
01:05 This Is Your Song is not really a love story.
01:15 It's a story about love.
01:17 A story about love is something that we all experience.
01:20 It's a feeling that we all connect and relate to.
01:23 The story takes place in real time.
01:26 It's the final moments of the marriage.
01:28 It's this insane roller coaster ride of emotional chaos.
01:34 The future of their existence is put at stake
01:37 through their own peeling off layers of one another.
01:40 It's such an up and down ride of moments
01:44 where you feel the characters are going to make it work
01:46 and hold on together.
01:47 And in other moments, you feel that they're
01:49 going to fall apart and kill each other.
01:56 The camera, me being the third actor,
01:59 there are these two lions trapped in a cage.
02:03 And I'm trapped there with them.
02:05 So it's very emotionally, physically,
02:09 and technically challenging.
02:12 The big and amazing part about this film
02:15 was that we pulled off a 97-minute one single take.
02:19 Peggy was carrying a very large rig of an Alexa camera
02:22 with a master prime lens on her shoulder the whole time.
02:26 Peggy's a five foot two, tiny, short little lady
02:30 that I could carry in my hand like this.
02:32 But she's strong, and she has a lot of stamina.
02:35 Hassan urged me to hire a trainer to build
02:39 my legs and my core strength.
02:43 Technically, it kept me busy for a whole year.
02:47 Lighting this with just practicals,
02:49 seeing the whole world on an 18-millimeter lens.
02:53 And then Hassan, can we hire a taller operator?
02:57 But he's like, no, I like it here.
02:59 So he likes this perspective.
03:01 This.
03:03 And his like this is my like this.
03:05 So I guess it works.
03:07 [LAUGHS]
03:10 Peggy, the DP, she herself is a character.
03:14 We had to basically do a dance with Peggy, the three of us,
03:18 when we actually did it.
03:19 Me and Jordan, we were just locked in on one another.
03:22 And we never even noticed Peggy was even there.
03:25 Did I feel this was going to be possible when
03:27 I first heard about it?
03:28 A whole movie in one take?
03:30 Fuck no.
03:32 Think about it.
03:33 That's actors hitting their marks
03:35 at the right exact moment at the right time,
03:37 together with camera, together with sound,
03:39 together with lights, together with everything else.
03:42 And how do you choreograph all of that?
03:47 The journey working with the actors
03:50 was probably one of the most difficult but most rewarding
03:55 part of making this film, building
03:56 the chemistry and the relationship between these two
03:59 where they're comfortable enough to lead
04:00 such a big feed of dialogue and emotion and physicality
04:04 for a long take.
04:06 The most memorable moment for me was our first dress rehearsal
04:10 where everything finally clicked,
04:11 the chemistry between the actress and I
04:14 having to be in those really intimate states
04:16 and having to really trust each other
04:18 was something that was a challenge,
04:19 but also really interesting and something
04:21 I really take away from.
04:22 I've never done a project where it's
04:24 just been me and one person.
04:26 I learned so much from having to be vulnerable and figure out
04:31 who Jules is while figuring out who Brianna is.
04:34 And I think we both learned from each other.
04:45 We're hoping that the film gains some attention
04:48 at some top tier festivals.
04:50 We're submitting the film to Cannes, to Sundance,
04:52 to Telluride, Toronto.
04:55 This Is Your Song offers a truly unique and nuanced perspective
05:00 on a universal theme that is as old as time.
05:04 Carefully weaved together in a single take,
05:07 I think it provides a thunder of an experience all in one
05:10 breath, leaving the audience with insight and finality
05:13 and hope.
05:15 And I truly think this film deserves a wide audience.
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05:29 [Music]
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