IR Interview: Adam Stern, Cara Gee & Peter Mooney For “Levels” [RJLE] - Part I - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Writer/Director Adam Stern and Actors Cara Gee & Peter Mooney talk to The Inside Reel about progression, the necessity of being and motivation in regards to their new science fiction film: "Levels" from RJLE.

Transcript

00:00It's time for a reboot.

00:18Is this real?

00:22First thing I'll ask Adam, because Adam looks like he has all the toys behind him,

00:26is, you know, obviously with Artifex and having that and building on that,

00:34could you talk about sort of the progression to something like levels, which has so many

00:38different levels of complication in terms of both story, effects, and then, you know,

00:45in terms of structure. Could you sort of talk about that and that approach, and then I can

00:49get into the fact that both with Peter and talk about Ash and Joe in that way.

00:55Yeah, absolutely. Sure. And thanks. And great to meet you. So, yeah, so I spent years and years

01:03working in visual effects at a small to medium sized visual effects studio here in Vancouver.

01:09And during the course of that time, I got to work on a lot of really cool projects,

01:13you know, meet a lot of really interesting filmmakers and writers and directors and

01:18performers and, you know, across the gamut. And also during that time and before that time,

01:23I've always been an extremely avid science fiction fan sort of first and foremost,

01:28it's my favorite genre. It's I truly love it. And I'm a pretty avid reader. So, you know,

01:33the whole time I'm working in visual effects, as things progressed and became more advanced,

01:40more sophisticated, it wasn't hard to sort of start drawing parallels between,

01:46you know, the material I read and loved and the work I was doing saying, well,

01:50you know, this whole concept of, you know, what is real? What are our perceptions? Who are we?

01:55Where do we fit into the scheme of things? Just became really first and foremost in my mind.

02:03And what were you reading? Adam?

02:07Yeah, I mean, look, I started way back when with classic what I guess what we'd call classic sci

02:12fi, you know, Arthur C. Clarke, and all of that kind of stuff. And I've always been on the on the

02:16screen side, I'm sort of a Star Trek kid, I've always have been. And, but, you know, back when

02:24I was much younger, William Gibson, certainly appealed very strongly to me. Then Neil Stevenson,

02:33later, Nick Harkaway, like, that's the kind of stuff I really love sinking my teeth into.

02:37And then for fun reads and stuff, you know, you know, more current day stuff,

02:41like Blake Crouch and all that. I love it. I love the thriller aspect of it.

02:44But what is most, most intriguing to me from an explorer, an explorative point of view is,

02:51is, you know, who we are in these worlds, in our world, and, and, you know,

02:59what's important in the end, regardless of what the nature of the world around us might be.

03:14There is so much this world can teach us.

03:28Joe, if you're seeing this, something's happened to me.

03:40I need your help.

03:41What is happening? I saw you die, I saw someone kill you.

03:50There's a technology, the first digital universe.

03:58I found a way in.

04:02Track him.

04:05I'm fixing it.

04:07Now, they're after you.

04:12So what does that make me?

04:15Sounds pretty heavy, but it's also, it sounds like existentialism, the notion of being,

04:19which to be very honest, keys directly in, and I'll jump over to you, Peter, directly,

04:24unless you want to go on and add the aspect of, of Joe, who am I? Where am I? Who do I need to be?

04:33You know, could you sort of talk about that? Because that keys into obviously

04:38Ash, because Ash is in the same way. But, but Peter, can you start and then I'll go over to Kara.

04:44Absolutely. I mean, these are, these are questions, I think, you know,

04:47from an acting standpoint, it was very interesting to dive in to wrestle with these things,

04:52just in terms of singular character in a singular world that we know is real,

04:58nevermind folding in, you know, the possibility of multiple levels, multiple worlds.

05:05Just the idea of like, who am I really? Does anything I do matter? Does my existence mean

05:11anything? Is I think stuff that's, you know, pretty universal questions that we all struggle with.

05:17So to put them and explore them through this frame was just super, super exciting.

05:25Kara, for you, because then because she's operating on multiple levels, like we all do.

05:31Can you talk about that? Because it's, it's, it's about an embodiment of like,

05:35as actually Adam was saying, you know, if he's a Star Trek kid, logic versus emotion,

05:41the logic pushes you, but the emotion overcomes you sometimes,

05:45you know, for all these characters, can you sort of talk about that?

05:48Well, yeah, sure. I think that that's one of the interesting things that Ash struggles with

05:54in this, you know, in her journey here is, is the ethics of what she's doing, right? Like,

06:00how is she any different than Hunter? If she's messing around, so to speak,

06:05in this digital universe, right? Sorry, I'm sorry.

06:12We're all messing around in this digital universe.

06:14Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

06:16But continue. What were you gonna say?

06:18Just that that's, you know, how is she any different? How is, how is she any different?

06:22And, and, and, and, well, she knows what she wants. That's the thing. It seems.

06:30And she's not evil. Right? Like, she's not trying to hurt anyone. But she does. I mean,

06:37she absolutely does hurt Joe in this, you know. And I think,

06:45I think Joe's up for the pain, though.

06:48I mean, she has to sort of reckon with that, right? Like the, the trauma that she is inflicting

06:55on his experience of reality, right? Like, if she hadn't inserted herself into his universe,

07:02into his world, he would have gone on blissfully unaware, right? So what, who is she to do that

07:09in the first place? And, and weighing what, what, what, how, how valuable is this experience of love

07:19and what it costs him? You know, I think that's one of the one of the really interesting and

07:27human aspects of this. You know, it's, it's, it's hard science fiction, but it's also like,

07:33it's a love story too.

IR Interview: Adam Stern, Cara Gee & Peter Mooney For “Levels” [RJLE] - Part I

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended