Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Interview: HEAVY IS THE HEAD & THE FIRST (Shorts) [Waco Independent Film Festival 2025 - Waco. Texas] - Part II - video Dailymotion

Fest Track

Directors Chap Edmonson ("Heavy Is The Head") & Susan Ruth ("The First") talk to Fest Track about details, characterization and tone in regards to their respective short films playing the 2025 Waco Independent Film Festival in Waco, Texas.

Transcript

00:00And there were kind of subtleties

00:28kind of throughout.

00:29And so looking at Kim over a lifetime and really creating the crown, had it 3D printed

00:36and hand painted it, just to make sure that it came across the way that I wanted it to.

00:42And it's the same crown that is used throughout.

00:44It's not like multiple crowns for the different heads.

00:45And so the art department really worked hard to make sure it fit the heads differently.

00:50And so as the youngest version, it really doesn't fit, right?

00:55And so it's kind of hanging off and it's always in danger of kind of like, you know,

00:58because he has to grow into it.

01:00And then the kind of middle age or middle kind of school aged kid, you can almost see the

01:07spaces around it, right?

01:08Because it's something he has to grow into.

01:10And as he gets older, the image of it tilting to the side is really kind of from Biggie Smalls

01:16Kings of New York, that photo series in which, you know, the young man feels like he's the

01:21king of the world.

01:22There's this ego where what was this greatness that's inside of him then becomes almost like

01:29a plague, right?

01:31So now everyone is like, I'm the center of attention.

01:34Everyone bows down around me.

01:36And then over a lifetime, he really kind of grows into that more.

01:40And then it kind of straightens up a bit, you know, and wears it with a certain type of

01:44dignity in which when he was younger, it felt like a burden.

01:47It's almost heavy.

01:48Wow.

01:49And so the details matter.

01:50And then even how the mother touches his face to bring him up.

01:52It was just us.

01:54So we became the men of the house, young princess, soon to be kings.

02:00I was embarrassed of where I lived and the little we had.

02:06I wondered how others perceived me.

02:09There's one scene in particular that the head tilt is really borrowed from iconography and

02:17the idea of how the fingers are situated when he's older and how she tilts his head versus

02:21when he's younger, she kind of snatches his head up.

02:24When he needed her the most is when she was the most gentle and was like this godlike figure

02:30for him in that moment.

02:31And so all those kind of details really play into the film and how touch matters and how

02:36many people touch his head throughout the film in addition to his mother.

02:41They all kind of play a key element in the details of the film.

02:44Which is interesting because you haven't seen her film.

02:47I can't wait.

02:48There's a similar aspect of the way she lifts him up.

02:51That's right.

02:52And it's coming of age too.

02:53It is.

02:54It's a film about vulnerability and love and sex and power and how all those things

03:02co-mingle.

03:03Yeah.

03:04And violence.

03:05And violence.

03:06Absolutely.

03:07That's a big part of it.

03:08And the conversations around that.

03:10And what we learn as young people as to how much of ourselves we're supposed to give or

03:16not give or how we give of ourselves.

03:19But keep our actual self behind a closed door because vulnerability is so terrifying.

03:27And everyone in mind, the period is very particular because everyone can be really buttoned up.

03:36And yet there's these expectations swirling around.

03:39And my main character, Michael, I really have two main characters.

03:43But Michael, when he's in the beginning of the film and he's looking around and his father

03:47is like, oh, this is no place for girls.

03:49And he sees an inequality immediately and doesn't know how to put words to it or how to frame it.

03:56It's sort of like you were saying.

03:58It's like almost information before you're ready.

04:01Yeah.

04:02How do you move through your life with that kind of information?

04:20It's quiet, isn't it, miss?

04:22I think one of the bigger, you asked how we directed our people.

04:35And I think one of the bigger moments was for the character Aisling, who is in the hallway

04:42and directing him through the hallway, that she is also scarred.

04:46And I said to her, you are the representation of humans and what we endure and the scars we bear.

04:57And so it's pretty monumental that you're bringing him through this place.

05:04And it was really interesting.

05:06She's been phenomenal.

05:08Emma Rose is a phenomenal actress.

05:11She took that note so deeply.

05:14And there's a reservation that is so powerful that actors have that I really appreciate

05:22in that they can convey, again, these little micro movements that say a million things.

05:29And I think she really nailed that.

05:31Yeah.

05:32It's so fascinating.

05:33I cannot wait.

05:34I cannot wait.

05:35It's so zoom in.

06:00Hello?

06:02the notion of power now when i mean power i mean the power of the individual inside yeah because

06:10that's what's going to motivate them later in life but also the societal structure that is

06:15bearing down on them yeah and this both happens in different ways yeah in each of your films but

06:20can you talk about that for me it it was really about knowing the actors and so spending time

06:26with even like the the kid actors the children taj and chase to find out just notions and so

06:33talking to their parents about like okay what what does he feel like how does it and so being able to

06:38really um talk to him about moments that were real to help them understand the character they were

06:45playing better um and for me really having experienced these things in my life was really

06:53able to kind of see it when it happened again to them and so when i saw it come across in their

06:58faces okay that's it right like that that's what i was looking for did you see it in the moment or did

07:03you see it in the edit in the moment yeah so i'm a person that i have to see it in the moment in order

07:07to move on and if i see it the first time we're done like we don't i don't need to reach you we're

07:11we got it um and in the film it plays so heavy right like the external forces because that's what

07:19it is like the crown represents all of that and so in the same way that walk that you talk about

07:25i was shy and afraid of what others thought of me

07:27but she told me what carry yourself with pride

07:33but just kind of helping them understand the weight of like these these props even in like what

07:42they meant in terms of like this is what this means for you and so even the oldest character

07:47yeah um he was on set the least amount of time um but i just told him one thing this is what this

07:54moment is for you is you've given this world everything and it's still not enough what does

08:01that feel like to you and he took a beat and like you said they have this well they can just tap into

08:05crazy and then he gave me a performance and i was like great all right we're wrapped that's it

08:12for power dynamics in my film it's again it's the idea that you know we're born into this world we

08:18didn't necessarily ask to come in you know and and it's it's a it's a tricky world to navigate

08:26no matter who you are and um for michael he's he goes in the lamb to the slaughter in in a way

08:37he's so naive and buttoned up and unsure and he sees around him a power dynamic he sees it in his

08:46father he sees it when he looks across the room and he sees these people that are navigating

08:51a world of men but there's two women you know dressed like men and then there's a a sex worker

08:58i was wondering about that yeah and so he sees men who are allowed to be men he sees women who can

09:06only exist in male spaces if they present as men and then a woman who is allowed in the male spaces

09:14because she's commodified and even their names that for example the woman uh dia who played the

09:22the sex worker she is named gilda nobody ever knows anybody's name but i know as i'm writing it i know

09:30gilda means gold commodified so that's her thing

09:34i had to about my life and expose the traumas i cloned to its arm and the name of it will never happen again

09:40all the insecurities i tried to hide pierce through my skin

09:48whatever the world that told me i was never enough

09:52but my shoulders are wide

09:55because that's how she made me

09:58and i was raised to carry a crown

10:01i took an acting class just so i could talk actor and it was so fascinating to be in that class and to

10:10see how actors go through their process mad respect for what they are capable of and

10:18there is a power dynamic on a set as well and it's so i don't i'm sure for you too for me it was so

10:26important it's like listen everybody we're a team this is a community this is a family there were 65

10:33people in total on set which is a lot it's my first film so i had to entrust that they were going to

10:41trust me and they had to trust that i also had their well-being and and i could care for them

10:47and i think all of that is reflexive in the story being told and we're because i was the lamb to

10:53slaughter you know what i mean like so so yeah that power is incredibly important in a story and that

11:02quiet power things that aren't said as we've spoken before and the power of the light and the sound

11:10and there are moments where there's no sound at all in my film and that's oh that's for me a big deal

11:17you know yeah yeah silence is such a powerful thing it knocks you on the butt in a lot of ways yeah

11:24jerry sign for one said like the worst thing that can happen to him when he does a stand-up set

11:28is if people laugh or they boo you can handle it but when they say nothing there's such a power

11:35and like the silence to say like uh okay you know it's it speaks volumes

11:41so

11:48you

11:50you

11:59you

12:03you

Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Interview: HEAVY IS THE HEAD & THE FIRST (Shorts) [Waco Independent Film Festival 2025 - Waco. Texas] - Part II

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended