Severn Lang

It's more of an experimental film, like an art installation, almost an art piece. There's no narrative, there's no true story of development of characters, it's not really a documentary. It's just more of an experiment, I describe it's just an art piece, like an art installation

This is my thesis film to graduate from film college at LA Film School. I had a couple projects prior to this, just a couple of narrative shorts that were exciting. One is called The Space of Peace, about a mental illness; and there's another one called Pretty Ugly Dreams, about a Broadway singer, making the wrong mistake and doing anything to get it back. This one, I filmed it during the lockdown of COVID and it was the first project I had to do everything. Original idea was a lot bigger, but this was like: Okay, I can do this on my own

Here, in Atlanta, Georgia, right when COVID happened, when we locked down in April that's when I was going to start filming, and the industry out here locked everything down. They told old actors, do not do projects, do not do this, not do that. So it was a little bit more difficult to find actors that are willing to do something that have grit in their talent. So I just went on Craigslist (A classifieds site that is very popular with American Internet users) and I went through the painstaking of trying to find the right people because to be honest Craigslistis not reliable, you know...

I think I interviewed like 50 to 100 people, went through all their information and I landed on these, because they were what I wanted - a challenge. They didn't have a whole lot of skills in acting, they were new, but they were honest about it, and that's what I was actually looking for. Basically I spent two and a half hours before I filmed, just talking to them, just interviewing them and finding out what is who they are as a person. I gave them the option to either create a character or be themselves, and all of them decide to be themselves. Then I start digging like a counselor or a therapist, just really start digging at some information that they give me. And it's a good thing that I'm a certified counselor as well so it kind of helps a lot actually. So I just kept on crying, while the camera is rolling. And then I save that information and we film the non-verbal part just as is. So I would talk to you, and you just react to me, and you don't say any words, and the camera is right on you, and that's the frame. I'll just film you reacting, we go from good, happy vibes, all the way to the sad vibes, and back up to like a peaceful meditation vibe at the very end of the project. I give them a roller coaster of stuff and each of them, each person had their own challenges, so it was really interesting, as a director, to pull what I want from them. Sometimes they just wouldn't do it, so I had to figure out another way to move them. It was a lot of stressful fun

There's the bald gentleman, he acted to react, which I didn't want. He wasn't reacting, he was acting to react. so everything was over the top. It was frustrating to calm them down: I really don't want you to react. I just want you to experience, and let the camera do the work - camera's doing all the work. It was a challenge, that one took the longest to film, but I got out of them - a lot of it was pretty solid. There's choices that as a director and an editor you have to make and unfortunately not everyone has the same amount of screen time because in a scene. If it doesn't move forward the story - it's pointless, so a lot of good nuggets just didn't make sense within the pattern that I was going with

So I'm older, I'm 42. Four and a half years ago I wanted to do a career change, I wanted to get into the film industry. I didn't want to be a production assistant for four to five years, I don't have time for that, you know, I'm not in my young 20's. So it was recommended by my contacts in the film industry, to go to school to figure out your path. To eliminate the process of learning each area of the film industry and just go to school and learn it. I chose LA Film School, because they taught classes the way I learn - one class at a time, one month at a time. I'm severely dyslexic, so if you have five classes at once, it's too much information. So they teach their classes - polar opposite what standards are - a semester, four or five classes, This is just one class, one month, and then you have a two-week break here and there, and you just keep on rolling. So what takes four years or five years to get a degree, it takes like three because it's ever flowing. The way they teach you - it makes you individual to create your own little projects, but also it trains you to be collaborative with people around, with your team. So when this thesis project came to my hand, I was ready to have a crew of 20 and a cast of 10, to nail out a really cool sci-fI thriller, 15 to 20 minutes. But COVID happens, and that ruins everything. But, at the same time, it allowed me to get creative, and problem solve. Doing it on your own is not impossible, but problematic, because there's no one to bounce ideas, no one to help you, so what would take pre-production for a group of 5 people and 3 weeks of pre-production, now it's stretched out longer, because it's just one person. How I dealt with pre-production: I just focus on one job, one day at a time. Cinematography - I took two days to problem solve that, and then for directing - I took two days, and then producing - I took like three days on that one. I took the job separately and I just solved all the problems at once. I made my apartment my living room into my own studio, because there’s no place to film. I reconstructed my living room into dampening non-reflective paints, sound absorbing blankets and mats... I did everything that you could do to make it as professional sounding as possible... The only problem I had was sound, because I'm not a sound guy. So I seeked out friends: Hey! How do I solve this problem?, and they helped me out remotely. My mistakes in editing and sound... you to get creative now you have to cover up. What would be a good filler is just ambient noise, like an AC [air conditioner] going off, you know? There's that little drone, that you hear within the short, that's covering up the holes of the vocals so. You kind of have to get creative with where you lack. In the school where I went to give us those problems, it's like having fun-solving them, team-solving them. I attacked my thesis spill through one class at a time, so one row at a time, and then a couple weeks later I started filming. It took me a couple weeks but longer, cost me a little bit more money, but it was worth it

It was about a guard, who was married, so the couple had fertility problems and he was a guard at an Area 51-G, G meaning Georgia. So he was guarding the Area 51 prison, and one of his prisoners - aliens that was then they started a bond together. And there's two paths [for the story] - the alien broke out or the guard helped him to break out, but anyway... The alien touched the guard, fast forward, all of a sudden his wife is pregnant! Then, at the end of the short, we find out that the alien confronts his wife so that's not his child it's [alien's]! He transferred his DNA through the touch or through a blood, like some type of chemical exchange by a touch technique

In the United States 75% of films are done in Atlanta, Georgia, so all the projects are all coming to Atlanta. One, because it's less expensive; two, there's a wonderful tax incentive for film productions - as long as you spend a million dollars, you get a hefty percentage back, like 30% of your spending, so it increases your budget dramatically. It's a wonderful thing, plus it's really inexpensive - the apartment that I live in, would have cost close to 4000 dollars in LA. I pay a fraction of that, so the cost of living in LA is too much. Atlanta is lots less expensive, you can live comfortably when transitioning into a new career... If I was in LA, would have been struggling and like renting a couch to sleep on, because I wouldn't be making a whole lot of money to survive and have my own place. Plus, I want my first stepson production and you go where the jobs are and that's Atlanta

Yes, uh, yeah... [shows hair] [laughs]. This experience helped in any way, yeah. I am a hair stylist, that's my first career. I am a filmmaker and I'm a film director, and a good director has to have the communication skills, to connect with people. I met directors who are cinematographers and really don't know how to talk to actors, and I think to get the best out of people, have that human contact. As a hairstylist, that's what you do, you have physical contact, mental contact with people and as a director, for myself, I use that skill set to work with actors, and also work with the crew. Since I was having that artistic mindset, or problem solving mindset, because each head is different. When you cut... I'm already problem solving naturally, with every problem pops up, I'm on problem solving as a director, as a filmmaker you're always trying to solve a problem on set, and working with my clients, and then working with crew and working with my staff in the salon, in the barber shop, it just. To me, it's a it's a skill set that i've been developing for the last 15-20 years so it's natural progression

Since I was casting, finding these people, I was interviewing the actors... And when I was editing, something was missing. I was almost done with editing, and I was like: "Man, there's just something missing! I don't know what it is". I walked away from the edit for about 5 days, just stepped away from the project. Having the subconscious mind like: "...there's something missing, something missing, what is it...", and the answer was, I need to beef it up, I need to bring a little bit more emotions! Because I wasn't always getting a lot of emotions out of people, it's fragmented. So I was like, "screw it, I'm not an actor, but I think I can do this! Sure, let's do this!". So I jumped in front of the camera, that was a task it's like set the camera there, and you roll it, and then you sit backdown. You do something, test it out and you get back up, go around the camera and you like going back in the circle. That would take regular 2 hour filming, took me 8 hours, because I was just going round and round, round and round, round and round… I chose to show vulnerability for myself... it's nothing I'm ashamed of, it's definitely something it's not talked about a lot. So I brought something to the project that is really not talked about, you know... Men do grieve about miscarriages, you know. We do. We don't express it, because it's... it's not part of our body, but it is a part of us. The miscarriage is not our burden, to give birth, but we're still connected, of some sort spiritually, faithfully, and you know, it's heartbreaking. I was going through, I moved in here with a girlfriend, broke up with a her right before the project started. So, there was a lot of therapeutical stuff coming out too. So it helped the project out, and that's what matters, so. If the job gets done by me, joining the project - okay let's get the job done

At the end there is a serenity prayer, and the idea at the end of the film. It's how do people get themselves out of ego, out of self, out of their roots, their negative thinking. And so I put the serenity prayer in there, for me it doesn't comes from a christian base, but it actually comes from AA [alcoholics anonymous]. I'm a recovered alcoholic, celebrated 8 years not too long, a couple months ago, and the surrey prayer helps. But what really helps us choose the god of our own understanding. That was an aha moment, that's what gets me the most, is that they're in my own belief. This is how I explain god - we put god in a box, okay, like this is god, put him in the box, close the lid,- this is who god is. This is all the religions understanding who god is, so we understand him, in this box, that's how we understand god, who gave you the material to build the box? God made the trees, God made the wood, God made materials to make the paddle walk, so God is allowing us to constrict him so we can understand him, okay?...

Yeah, so we can't understand God fully, but we can understand them limitedly, so if we had the full understanding of God upon us, you know... There's stories that we can combust, or we die instantly, or whatever, but we can't understand god fully. We can feel him or her, as in love or as compassion, or even even the threatening god of hate, which is, like the wrath of god. That's not hate, but wrath is, an attack, or like you're at war, you feel that type of passion. A lot of people in AA are hesitant about god, so that's why they choose the god of your own understanding. It doesn't matter what you believe in, as long as you believe in something greater than yourself. And in this film, it so happens that one actress, I didn't know about it until the very end, she's indian, so she has a totally different beliefs than I am, I'm like: Whoa! Okay! Wonderful! Give me a prayer, give me amantra, give me something, that represents you and your belief, and you hear it at the end of theof the short, it's wonderful

What I'm doing right now is, I am developing a script, and a micro budget script right now about recovery. I wanted to do my first film as a passion project, knowing that most likely I'm not going to make for a profit off of it, which I'm okay with, but I have to make sure it's a big passion project. So I'm going to be working with a non-profit organization, to help me raise money for a movie, a full feature film about recovery... I started my film productions called rustic light bulb, which is really cool. I have other scripts in mind; one's a murder mystery that frames bigfoot, and then I have a motorcycle culture finding, family style, action-packed... Those are on the hold because they cost millions of dollars to make, so I wanted to create something small and isolated to show people, like: Hey! This is what I can do with a little amount of money! How cool is this? Now you know let me do a 10 million budget type of thing

A lot of directors, that I came across, their opportunity came from themselves, because they want to prove to the studios, like: Look! I did this for like two hundred thousand dollars, and it did wonderfully and, uh... If I could do it at this level, just think what I can do for a level of like 2 million instead of 200 thousands! If I keep the structure the same, you know, hold the money back get, what I need and, you know... Just be diligent on that part, so I should be filming. This is I'm hoping to be filming in November so it's going to be good!