IR Interview: Claudio Fah & Sophie McIntosh For “No Way Up” [RJLE] - Part I - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Director Claudio Fah & Actress Sophie McIntosh talks to The Inside Reel about tension, psychology, physicality and action in regards to their new horror/thriller from RJLE Films: "No Way Up".

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:15 -Here's the hatch.

00:18 -Look, they've come to save us.

00:19 -Turn around!

00:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:38 -Like that, Sophie.

00:39 You know, it's about claustrophobia.

00:41 Claustrophobia of the self, but claustrophobia

00:45 of the space and the mind.

00:48 Could you guys talk about that in terms of No Way Up?

00:51 Because it's as much a mental thing--

00:53 it's definitely a physical thing that prevents them.

00:55 But it's also the mental element.

00:57 And it's about building that both in the psyche

00:59 of the character, Sophie, but also

01:01 in the build of the film and the tension question.

01:03 So whoever would like to start.

01:07 -Go ahead, Sophie.

01:08 -Yeah, I think claustrophobia is a big thing.

01:11 You know, I've said I think my-- I'm

01:13 very comfortable in the water.

01:14 I love the ocean.

01:15 But being trapped in the ocean is a whole other thing.

01:19 So I think just that feeling of just being completely helpless

01:22 and completely trapped kind of is just

01:25 the constant underlying tension throughout the film

01:28 of these characters.

01:29 You know, even if they had-- you know, there were no sharks

01:33 and they could breathe, you know, they're still trapped.

01:35 So that, yeah, I think that kind of really drives

01:38 that fear the whole way through.

01:40 -Yeah, I'm glad you touched on that, Tim.

01:42 I mean, very eloquently put, I think

01:44 it's a movie where Ava, the character, Sophie's character,

01:50 is sort of trapped in her own life.

01:53 She talks about being, you know, not very good under pressure.

01:56 And she has sort of the support system around her.

01:58 I mean, she's the daughter of the governor of California.

02:01 So she's used to just getting her way and being led

02:05 and being held safe, being kept safe and all that.

02:07 And she relies on that.

02:09 And once all of that goes away, she

02:11 needs to decide, can I break out of this?

02:13 Can I break out of this sort of trapped life

02:15 that I have manipulated myself into?

02:17 And then seeing her getting out of this

02:20 and finding the resilience within herself

02:22 that she didn't even know she had,

02:24 I think that's the through line of the movie.

02:25 And it's all, you know, that's kind of the scenario

02:29 that one would wish for as a director to, yes, you

02:32 have all the physical challenges of what's going on in the movie.

02:35 How do we pull this off?

02:37 But where do we find an emotional through line

02:39 and something that maybe has a bit more meaning than just

02:41 people being yanked out the plane, which is nice too.

02:44 But it's not all there is to it, no?

02:45 So yeah, I'm happy you touched on that.

02:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:51 Was that a shark?

03:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:17 What the fuck's a shark doing on a plane?

03:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:22 Yeah, you have to understand and sort of commit

03:26 to what the characters are.

03:28 I mean, you know, Ava's questioning her identity.

03:30 I mean, not her identity, but her questioning

03:33 how she lives her life.

03:35 And you see that with the boyfriend, with the friend.

03:37 But even when she looks at the little girl

03:39 and her grandmother, you see that sort of reflection.

03:41 And you create that empathy as far as like,

03:45 are they going to get out or not?

03:46 And it sort of builds that into strategy.

03:49 Sophie, could you talk about building that along the way?

03:51 I know you probably shot out a sequence.

03:53 But to sort of see that path of her sort of peeling away

03:57 the layers of her sort of resistance

04:00 to what her life is.

04:02 And then Claudio sort of using that,

04:04 but using the pressure that keeps building up

04:06 as the plane starts to drop.

04:08 And using that kind of angle to emphasize what Sophie

04:13 is going through as Ava.

04:16 Yeah, I mean, I think we were quite lucky.

04:19 A lot of it was shot in sequence,

04:21 just because of the nature of the breakdown and the water

04:24 and everything that was going on with the physical set, which

04:27 is always really helpful.

04:28 But we did also--

04:30 Claudio gave us quite a lot of time prior to shooting

04:33 to really kind of think about these characters

04:35 and develop backstories.

04:36 And also, we kind of worked together in pairs and in groups

04:39 to rehearse in character and kind of find

04:42 those relationships.

04:44 So I got to do quite a lot of work, particularly

04:47 on where Ava started and who she was prior

04:50 to walking into that airport.

04:52 So then kind of the events of the film

04:54 kind of then kind of slowly chip away at who she thought she was.

04:58 And I think it's kind of one of those things of, you know,

05:01 humans are put in the worst circumstances.

05:03 I think a lot of the pretense, it all just strips away

05:06 kind of all of the extra, the peripheral kind of disappears.

05:09 And you're left with kind of just the true person,

05:12 you know, in those really kind of terrifying circumstances.

05:16 Yeah, and I think, I mean, like you said,

05:18 the pressure grows inside where they are.

05:21 And it's almost like in the Poseidon adventure,

05:23 the world goes upside down, right?

05:24 So that says something about this.

05:26 And here, it's not dissimilar in the sense

05:28 that the things are crumbling.

05:30 And decisions are forced.

05:33 The characters need to, you know, show who they really are.

05:37 They're forced into making a decision.

05:38 And that's always a fantastic dramatic premise

05:41 because it does bring out who they really are.

05:44 Both, and not just for Ava,

05:46 I think it also really centers around Phyllis's character

05:49 who decides to hand over her most important,

05:53 you know, possession, it's not,

05:55 but her grandchild into Ava's arms.

05:58 I mean, that's a monumental decision.

06:01 But the same way we see that the ever cynic,

06:03 the cynical guy, Kyle, played by Will Attenborough,

06:06 which I think did a brilliant job

06:08 in endearing us to a guy who really just kind of

06:11 is awful at the beginning, you know, he's not very nice.

06:14 But then we understand,

06:15 and cynicism comes from a place of complete vulnerability

06:20 and insecurity.

06:21 And he's able to open up like that to Ava,

06:25 who's his best friend.

06:26 So all of those things that like,

06:28 it forces people to show what they're made from.

06:33 And so that is a good thing, I think, in this story, yeah.

06:38 - How long do you think we have?

06:40 - Three, maybe four hours.

06:42 - As if the structure holds up.

06:45 - Look, they've come to save us!

06:47 - Hey, we're over here!

06:49 - We're gonna have to find our way out.

06:58 - Before I go over to the logistics with Claudio on that,

07:01 was there a scene or a sequence

07:03 that was more challenging than others?

07:05 I mean, obviously when you're diving down,

07:07 there's that, you know,

07:09 and there's so many different things,

07:11 but without giving too much away,

07:12 what was the most challenging for you within that?

07:15 - Yeah, I think the most challenging,

07:17 there was one, I think it was like the second

07:18 to last day of shooting or something.

07:19 And there's a sequence where I'm,

07:22 without giving too much away,

07:23 I'm trying to swim to the surface

07:25 and I'm not really getting anywhere.

07:27 And to kind of create that,

07:29 what we ended up doing was harnessing me

07:31 to the bottom of this kind of 10 meter tank,

07:34 which was, I think at the time,

07:37 I was just kind of going with it,

07:38 but in retrospect, it was quite scary.

07:40 I was down there, I think for nearly 45 minutes in the end

07:43 with an incredible crew of safety dives and everything.

07:46 But yeah, that was quite scary.

07:49 And I think there was a,

07:49 we did one take where I passed out

07:53 and I couldn't really hear or see anything.

07:56 - So it's just like waiting for this.

07:57 - But see, after a stand, without giving too much away,

07:59 that part of it,

08:01 everything she's working towards builds up to that.

08:03 And so you feel sort of that pressure on her.

08:07 And obviously the effects are well done.

08:11 I mean, you obviously guys had to work

08:13 within a certain budget,

08:14 but I mean, that sequence is pretty neat

08:18 because it is yes, no, maybe, what?

08:22 And that's what you want from one of these movies.

08:25 Could you talk about,

08:26 I'll go to Claudio before I come back to you, Sophie,

08:28 on that, but thank you for sharing that.

08:30 The aspect of the logistics of making a movie such as this,

08:33 obviously you can work with gimbals,

08:35 you can work with water,

08:36 you can do so many things in a tank,

08:38 but can you talk about sort of the challenge of that for you?

08:41 I mean, you've worked on different genre films,

08:43 but I don't think you've worked on something

08:45 quite like this.

08:47 - Correct.

08:47 And nobody has so far.

08:49 (laughing)

08:50 But yes.

08:51 - I mean, if you're talking about Cameron,

08:53 I mean, he did "The Abyss,"

08:54 but that's completely different thing.

08:55 - Yes, it is.

08:57 That's true.

08:58 But "Abyss" actually was one of the movies

08:59 that we did look at in terms of look and style

09:02 and claustrophobia as well and all the rest of it.

09:05 But yeah, the logistics take up a huge section

09:08 of a very limited prep because of a limited budget.

09:11 So, and it's tricky because on the one hand, of course,

09:15 I think in this sort of genre,

09:17 you do have some license for some suspension of disbelief.

09:20 It doesn't have to follow complete physical logic

09:23 all the time, but it needs to be sold enough.

09:25 I think the trick is to pick a perspective

09:29 through which you portray what's happening

09:32 to elicit an emotion, to tell the emotional story

09:35 rather than the physical story.

09:37 And telling emotional story can have hyperbole

09:40 and can be exaggerated in doses, I suppose.

09:45 And then you hope you strike the right balance

09:48 between something that is heightened

09:50 and something that feels real.

09:51 But wherever we were able to do something physically real,

09:55 be it people being yanked out an actual plane,

09:58 we would do that for real and only paint out the wire.

10:01 Whenever we were able to be underwater,

10:02 I mean, Sophie swam the length of the cabin underwater

10:06 in complete darkness, held back by two wires.

10:09 And once she got to the bottom,

10:10 she would be yanked back to the top again.

10:13 And then swam down.

10:14 I mean, that's all real.

10:16 A credit to her.

10:17 She's incredibly fit and incredibly brave to do that.

10:22 So, and wherever it was not possible,

10:24 we would go to even stuff like virtual production

10:26 where we would shoot dry for wet

10:28 and hang Sophie from wires horizontally

10:31 with a big LED wall displaying the plane that goes down.

10:34 So it's a mix of various different approaches

10:37 that we're kind of living almost within our budget.

10:39 And then you push and you hope that people come through.

10:42 And I think they did.

10:43 (dramatic music)

10:46 (screaming)

10:48 - What's a shark doing on a plane?

10:52 - Ava.

10:53 - I'm sorry, kid.

10:56 You're gonna have to do this one on your own.

10:58 (screaming)

11:03 (dramatic music)

11:06 (dramatic music)

11:08 (horn honking)

11:15 (dramatic music)

11:18 (dramatic music)

11:21 (dramatic music)

11:24 (dramatic music)

11:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]

IR Interview: Claudio Fah & Sophie McIntosh For “No Way Up” [RJLE] - Part I

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