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  • 6 months ago
Producer/Cinematographer Andrew Duensing, Writer/Director Brock Bodell and Actress Dakota Gorman talk to Fest Track about pacing, detail and psychology in regards to the world premiere of their selection film "Hellcat" playing the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec.
Transcript
00:00With a movie like this,
00:27it's about logistics, both in performance, technical,
00:31but also in pacing because it has to sort of flow the way you guys do it.
00:37Brock, first, if you could talk about sort of creating sort of that milieu
00:41to be able to do it, you know, sort of building that.
00:44And then obviously with Andrew, you know, it's about, you know,
00:48shooting and all that kind of stuff, but then you have to capture Dakota.
00:52So it's sort of three prongs.
00:53So if Brock, you could start Andrew and then Dakota.
00:58Sure.
01:01So I wrote, directed, and edited it.
01:05I've been editing for 20 years.
01:07It still feels weird to say edited it.
01:10So like pacing was always kind of like had to be at the forefront,
01:14like throughout the entire process.
01:17And when we got to the point of cutting it,
01:20there were like five different renditions of the film.
01:24One where it just like you're moving through it.
01:25You're like really powering through it to, you know,
01:28there's this fear of like, does, are people going to get fatigued in this trailer?
01:33And it was like just something that was very easily quelled by showing it to someone.
01:37They were like, no, I loved being in that space.
01:39And then it was like, okay, we don't need to power through this trailer stuff.
01:42Like we need to be in that space for longer and have those moments where Dakota's sitting there thinking
01:48and just like taking it, taking in the experience.
01:52So there was like, you know, a lot of it was, you know,
01:55like they say that there's the three movies,
01:56there's the written, the produced, directed, and then the cut one.
02:00And I think, uh, it changed a lot in pacing, like each time.
02:13And ultimately where we ended up was we wanted to build the most amount of tension and dread
02:23inside of the trailer that we possibly could.
02:25And I feel like how that needed to happen was having boom, boom, boom moments,
02:33but also moments of like quiet reflection and like internalizing fear,
02:37because this film was very much about like identity and also like dealing with trauma and,
02:42you know, uh, loss and all that.
02:45And, and she's got her baggage that she's bringing on to the,
02:48I don't want to speak to her, to Dakota too much, but, you know,
02:50she's bringing her baggage onto the trailer.
02:52So to say we had to give those moments of pauses, pregnant pauses, no pun intended that,
02:57you know, that, that she has a second to where we're just kind of with her being like,
03:03what is going on, you know?
03:05And then we're snapped right back into it.
03:06So it was like about finding those, like the push and pull and dynamic in the,
03:10in the pacing.
03:10But, um, yeah, it was a lot of trial and error.
03:13Um, and just like trying to figure out what we were trying to make people experience at
03:19the heart of it and what it ultimately ended up being and always really was,
03:23was dread and anxiety and tension.
03:28Who are you?
03:29I wish I could tell you what you want to hear.
03:38But it's also the details, you know, um, Andrew, if you could talk about it,
03:41because I know when we get to Dakota, you get, there's so much, um, things to unpack with
03:47this character.
03:48Um, but can you talk, uh, Andrew about the details?
03:51Because capturing certain details, obviously that was important with Brock, but like,
03:54whether it be the needle, the handcuffs, you know, the photos, all these things had to
03:59reflect, but even, you know, with Dakota, with, when the shirt's overhead and she's,
04:04you know, looking through, trying to see like a haunted house, it's very specific.
04:09Could you talk about that?
04:10And then I'll go to Dakota.
04:11Yeah.
04:12I mean, I think, um, you know, this is kind of building on the first question and Brock's
04:17answer.
04:17I think the guiding light was always, uh, Lena's perspective and experiencing everything in
04:24the film through her perspective.
04:25So, cause it's so closed off and kind of like always pulling back on information, uh,
04:31that, you know, if she doesn't have the information, the audience shouldn't have the
04:34information so that we can always ground the audience experience in Lena's experience.
04:38And that's why those details were so important.
04:41And, and, you know, to be frank, we actually went back and did a number of pickups because
04:46some of those, uh, inserts and some of the kind of more, uh, like those little, little
04:51moments that Brock was talking about that helped build that tension.
04:54And that pacing, we didn't, we, we didn't have time to do in our 12 days of principal
05:04photography.
05:05So, so it was really important to find that.
05:08And that, that really helped kind of bring her world to life.
05:10And I think bring the trailer to life.
05:12And then like, you know, a director tells you like, we're doing a movie, um, and the sun
05:18is not in a single shot, uh, as a DP, it's kind of a double-edged sword, right?
05:23You get really excited because it means every, every piece of light you have control over.
05:26Um, but also it's, you know, it's hard to light in a, in a little tiny box.
05:31So we were really, you know, we, that entire trailer was built out, um, with, you know,
05:36we basically had the shell and then kind of built it out to our specs and like put our
05:40lights in it, which helped us, uh, you know, control, control the space, um, such that we
05:45could really carve out not only the, those kind of like detail moments, but also kind
05:50of like give each section of the trailer kind of its own feel, even though you walk
05:55in and you feel like, you know, Dakota and I would walk onto set and it was like, we
05:58were like on top of each other immediately.
06:00So, but like, you know, we would, we did everything we could to still give it, um, to make every
06:06piece of it feel like it was kind of like, again, grounded in her journey and following
06:10her kind of psychological experience through the movie.
06:18But I can't.
06:20Yeah.
06:21Could you speak about that?
06:22Yeah.
06:22And the psychological experience because it's claustrophobic, but you have to be powerful
06:27through it, but you have to be being hit by all different sides of what you're feeling.
06:31You know, how this is moving through your veins and obviously everything else going around
06:36relationships, mother, father, guy up front, all this.
06:40Could you talk about?
06:42Yeah, there are a lot of variables you're all right to consider because it was like,
06:46okay, I'm in pain, but knowing like certain things that happen in the movie, it's like,
06:50am I feeling the pain to this intensity at this moment?
06:54So just really, I mean, our communication was constant, uh, in working together.
07:01I'm just, what are we trying to capture in this moment and how does it play into the grander
07:06story?
07:06Because also this moment may not be rooted in reality.
07:12So it's, it's kind of figuring that out.
07:15And I just knew because of the intensity it would ramp up to, to start in a place that
07:21was a little more contained, which was within a contained environment.
07:25And then having these moments of outbursts to like indicate what was to come.
07:31That was what I wanted to mine out.
07:33And I think the internal struggle of Lena was really fun to play with because it's like,
07:40no one knows what she's thinking or feeling.
07:43And I think that leads to the mystery of like, what is her deal?
07:48Like, where did she come from?
07:49Like, who are we supposed to trust in this scenario?
07:52And so I, I didn't want to approach it too much in like this, if this situation was exactly
07:57with the information we have, as it is, this is the reaction because it's not that at all.
08:13Like, who are we supposed to trust in this scenario?
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