00:00Well, actually the music was inspired by the film, so the film was the genesis, and the
00:21idea, you know, the story was inspired by an incident that had happened to me a couple
00:27of years ago, loosely inspired, and I went through something a little traumatic, performing
00:34and losing my voice in front of 80,000 people, and then quickly found out that it wasn't
00:39a physical injury, but a psychological injury, and yeah, that ended up kind of being the foundation
00:46of the tone of the film, really psychological.
00:53What drew me to the story was meeting Abel and hearing what happened to him and his
00:57ideas for this movie, and liking the guy, just like really hitting it off and feeling
01:01connected to him, and then yeah, I just got crazy inspired.
01:05I think too, playing with subjectivity and headspace, and what's real and what's not,
01:12and dream logic, that was all very exciting, because I already make subjective films, and
01:16everything, every choice I make in a movie is to put the audience in the main character's
01:21headspace and make them feel how they feel.
01:23So, I think you can naturally push things far if that's being honest to their headspace
01:27and emotion and soul in the film.
01:29So I think all of those things kind of came together and got me really, really excited
01:33about this.
01:34I think she represents the feminine piece of Abel's brain, kind of a bit that maybe
01:45his musical persona doesn't touch on as much, but it's still obviously a huge part of any
01:50individual.
01:51Annie is very emotional and sensitive and in tune with Abel, and she sees that she's hurting,
01:56and she's hurting too, because of him, so it's this weird kind of intertwined, almost
02:03persona-esque, just two becoming one, or two are already one.
02:07So it's definitely, her piece is strictly psychological, I would say.
02:14Honestly, it never really felt like I was playing myself.
02:23When I pitched the idea to Trey, I asked him if he can see himself in the script, and that
02:29that was really important for us.
02:30So I was lucky enough for him to accept it, and we kind of just kind of traded traumas,
02:37and it was kind of like a therapy session between us.
02:40And it ended up being an actual fictional character, loosely based on a reality.
02:45But the film felt like a character I had to study, and understand, and kind of just put
02:53on this costume, and then by the end of it, take it off.
02:57But it was cathartic.
02:58It did feel personal, but I didn't feel like I was playing myself.
03:06For me, it was just really organic.
03:07I said it earlier, but it just started with meeting each other, liking each other, hitting
03:12it off, and having like-minded taste, and like-minded ideas, and supporting those ideas, and building
03:17it up.
03:18So it started at the writing stage, and it just pushed that way through production, and
03:23post, and everything.
03:25And I don't know.
03:26I just love to, I said it earlier, but Abel's like me, he doesn't want to just settle for
03:32something.
03:33Let's just settle for the first version.
03:35He wants to push, and push, and push, and make something the best it can be.
03:38And that went from his character, it went to the film, it went to the music, it went
03:42to everything we did together.
03:44So, yeah.
03:45Yeah.
03:46Yeah, no, that's a good point, honestly.
03:47I felt like we were challenging each other, and the whole time I'm thinking, well, we're
03:53making something experimental, something ambitious, that hopefully this can challenge the audience.
04:00And it just, you know, it's just what it felt like.
04:02It just felt like we were pushing each other, and Jenna was pushing, and it just felt like
04:07a real, I don't know, giant therapy session.
04:10Mm-hmm.
04:11In the best way possible.
04:12Mm-hmm.
04:13Everybody was just so innovative and creative, and a lot of the shots that we were doing were
04:20unlike anything I've ever done before, so it just was incredibly exciting and thrilling.
04:24And Abel was so vulnerable in this film.
04:26It was so easy to work alongside of him because, I don't know, it's just, it was a good, fortunate
04:32connection thing where I didn't really feel like we had to struggle with any sort of chemistry.
04:37He's just a very warm person.
04:39And it was easy, and it was good, and it was, I'm really grateful for that time.
04:45Yes, vice versa, same thing, of course.
04:48But again, she is a master at her craft, and I was kind of like a, you know, a little amateur
04:55actor, so what I noticed about her is that she's really patient, very patient, and cares
05:03about the scene, cares about my performance just as much as her own performance.
05:09And she cares about the writing, and she had incredible ideas, and it just really felt
05:13like a really, truly honest collaboration.
05:18Yeah.
05:19That's what it really felt like.
05:20It felt like this was all of us.
05:22Yeah.
05:23I was a huge fan of Trey's for a while.
05:29I don't know where to go.
05:31No, I was like, I was a huge fan of Trey, Trey's work for years, and especially his film
05:40Waves, it was very, it wasn't a musical, but it was very musical.
05:43Music was such an important character, so when Reza and I were coming up with a concept,
05:48the only person we could think of the entire time was Trey, because I knew I can trust him
05:53with music.
05:56And the music in our film is such a massive character that we were able to adjust it.
06:04I could send him demos, rough ideas, unfinished records, references that he would implement
06:12into the script.
06:14And another cheat code with Trey is that he's an editor.
06:18So he's already hearing and seeing how the film's going to look.
06:21So there was a lot of trust there.
06:23I can focus on being in front of the camera, and later on working on the music and him
06:28implementing it masterfully.
06:31You're a genius.
06:32I agree.
06:33And I just love the way Abel handled it, because he didn't come to me and he was like, here's
06:36my album, now make a movie out of it.
06:37No.
06:38It was organic.
06:39He got that right from the get-go, and it was always organic.
06:43And after our first meeting, we got on the phone, he sent me some music, rough demos
06:47and stuff, and creative juices started flowing.
06:50And then the whole process kept going that way to where, you know, I feel like integrating
06:55a movie and an album could be a gimmicky forced thing, but it never became that.
06:58So it was always organic, and each bounced off of each other and evolved together in
07:03a fluid, beautiful way.
07:04So yeah, I was just grateful for getting to do it that way.
07:07It was a very special experience.
07:08That was a great experience.
07:09It was a joy.
07:16For me, I like going on a ride with a movie, you know what I mean?
07:21I like when a movie's evolving in front of me, and I can't necessarily, I don't know
07:25where it's going.
07:26It's not spoon feeding me.
07:27So that, from the get-go, I just like going on a journey with a movie and discovering
07:32new stuff as it's happening.
07:33And I think molding all of that together in an organic way and not letting it be sloppy
07:37is being honest to the main characters, you know?
07:40Being honest to their soul and their perspective and their head space.
07:44And you stay true to that and ride that.
07:47And yeah, to me, hopefully, yeah, you get a very special experience.
07:50I don't know what I hope that they're feeling, but I truly can say, from the friends and family
08:01that have seen it, from my experience working on it, anybody that I know that have seen this
08:06film, while their lifestyles or their lives or their experiences may be very different
08:10to Ables, they can't help but resonate with that feeling.
08:13And we all know what it's like to feel lost.
08:14We all know what it's like to be scared of the future, to lose trust within yourself very
08:21quickly.
08:22So it's a very emotional film.
08:23And I hope that people are able to resonate with that side of themselves and allow themselves
08:27to, you know, kind of open up and...
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