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Dive into the mind-bending world of "Dead Eyes" at SXSW Film 2026 with lead actresses Ana Thu Nguyen and Mischa Heywood as well as writer/director Richard E. Williams.

Discover the unique challenges of emoting towards the camera set up as a POV and how the actors navigated split connections and found new ways to embody the characters. We also explore the power of instinct and sense memory in bringing emotional depth to the screen.

We also unpack the director's vision for creating intimate spaces and dynamic blocking within confined environments.

#DeadEyesFilm #SXSW2024 #IndieFilm #FilmMaking
Transcript
00:26This is Tim Wasper from Fast Track Unstruck TV.
00:29I'm here in Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Film Festival.
00:33Can you talk about having to emote into that?
00:35Is it just sort of, we were talking about memory, you can use sense memory, you can just
00:40use instinct.
00:41Where do you go to sort of place yourself in that space?
00:45Yeah, it was quite difficult to begin with because as an actor you're trained to just
00:51ignore the camera and the line of connection is between you and the other actor.
00:57So to hear the energy coming from Ryan off screen, but then having to act towards the
01:07camera meant splitting the two lines of connection.
01:10So that was quite difficult, especially in scenes that were overly, that were more emotive,
01:17where you have to, where Grace has to experience vulnerability or anger and the emotions were
01:25heightened because as natural for human beings, you want to talk directly to the person that
01:31you're experiencing that emotional connection with.
01:34So that was difficult to split.
01:36But I think after just doing it a few times, you get the hang of it.
01:43And for me, it was about falling in love with the camera because the camera is Sean, who I
01:51have the literal relationship with now.
01:54So it was about really endowing the camera with the aspects of a human being and my fiance.
02:11Really, it's almost like a distant memory or a lingering memory or a remembering memory.
02:18Yeah.
02:19No, I get that.
02:21Yeah, it's hard to go between the different scenes with Lily because you don't know kind
02:26of what's real and what's not.
02:29What was real to her about you, for you?
02:31For me?
02:32What did you connect with?
02:33Her emotions and her trauma.
02:35So when she was putting on her front, it was like, you could tell, but then she kind of
02:39opened up a little bit.
02:40So she's still in there, you know?
02:42And then the environment we were talking about, obviously, because the thing is,
02:48must be something so alien because to her, the idea of family is probably one thing and
02:53how she remembers me.
02:54And I think it all depends on what's like happening in the scene and, you know, what's
03:00happened previously, like before.
03:02And I think wherever Sean's at, she's kind of like following with him in his emotions
03:09because, yeah, it's up to interpretation, like for her.
03:13So then like Sean, he's such an important thing in Lily's life and Lily's important in
03:19Sean's life.
03:19So I think it's hard to like get past that.
03:23I don't know.
03:23It's also interpretation because the thing is, is that you can look at this, it's a metaphor
03:28for something else, metaphor for identity.
03:30It can be so many things, but it has to work on the basis of the weather.
03:34Could you talk about that in terms of directing your actors within that space?
03:39Well, I mean, and to bounce off what Anna was saying, having the relationship with this
03:45camera, you've got to imagine there's a guy wearing a massive five kilo camera helmet.
03:53There's a guy behind him carrying the guts of the camera on his back.
03:57There's a boom op and then there's Ryan doing the voice of Sean.
04:02So she has to, like, interact and be vulnerable with that conglomerate.
04:14Ryan's about that much taller, like a foot taller than the camera.
04:18So he just, and so like his eye line's a big one.
04:22You can imagine how hard it is sometimes to not be like.
04:25Yeah.
04:26But I mean, block, as you said, challenges, blocking with that.
04:31Yeah.
04:31I mean, the confined 360 spaces sometimes and these quick camera moves, we had guys jump
04:38into the floor, like we, and that was the funnest part about the film.
04:44Just working and going, approaching a scene and going like, oh, actually, you know, we're
04:48going to do this, this and this.
04:50Intimate spaces.
04:51Intimate spaces.
04:52Like blocking out some of those was just so fun.
04:56Wow.
04:56And trying not to break the camera operator's neck.
05:08There's a line at the end of the film where it's like, it's a gift to see into another's
05:15world, you know, and it's referencing like how an animal can see in a different bioluminescence
05:24that it's prey cannot see, which I think is just such a wild concept of what we're, what
05:31we're missing, you know, you know, whether it's spiritually, you know, it's just, is there
05:37something else?
05:38And this, this is just about a gateway into that world.
05:44And I feel like dead eyes, it's being able to see beyond.
05:49Yeah.
05:49I think there's a lot of different perspectives in it.
05:53And there's only, you've got Sean's perspective.
05:55That's what the audience is seeing.
05:57So you're kind of seeing through his eyes, which is really cool.
06:01But then you're also seeing all these different characters and their storylines, which I think
06:05is really cool.
06:06So it's like kind of adding on to what Richard said, it's like seeing like all these different
06:10point of views almost and like getting to live a life from their perspective, I guess.
06:15Yeah.
06:16I mean, there's so many perspectives that are shown, but I think underlying it all is the
06:23notion of grief and how each person deals with grief.
06:32And if you can't move past it, and if you can't really deal with your trauma, it can lead
06:41to, it can be very destructive and it can lead to death.
06:46And I think that that's just, that's another lens that you see like the dead eyes through.
06:54There's so much about death in it and death and grief and just experiencing that that's
06:59above and beyond just the horror.
07:23There's so much about death in it and death.
07:25There's so much about death.
07:26There's so much about death.
07:27There's so much about death.
07:27There's so much about death.
07:28There's so much about death.
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