5 Questions with Marc Ripper and Karina Lomelin Ripper
1) Can you talk briefly about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
K - My parents are both from Mexico, and as immigrants they were very skeptical of film and television. They rarely let me watch anything that wasn’t educational. When I found a media tech class in high school, it was kind of this taboo thing that I signed up for, but I quickly fell in love with the art form. My teacher played this BTS commentary for "The Graduate" for our class and that kind of blew my mind. I had no idea that everything was so meticulously thought out. I became aware of how there was so much manipulation happening on screen and the power that gave off was intoxicating. It became my calling ever since.
M - I'm from a small town in eastern Pennsylvania. We had black-box cable growing up, which gave me access to a ton of movies that I could rewatch. The "Thriller" making-of VHS is memorable to me for connecting what I was watching to what was happening behind-the-camera. Looked like the most fun thing in the world to do. Only later in high school did it feel like something I could seriously pursue. I ended up going to film school (North Carolina School of the Arts) which just really opened me up to the art of film in a new way. And also introduced me to great, like-minded people.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
The initial inspiration was in a short story from a volume of supernatural tales. It opened right after a car accident, and was really a ghost story, but it had a palpable atmosphere with few characters. Seemed like a cool way to begin a film. We also came across the story of a real highway killing where the gunman’s ex-wife told how he'd been bitten by a rattlesnake once and nearly died. She said that some people facing death return to life as a blessing, and some just look at it the other way. It was something of a spiritual irony running through it that attracted us.
When we moved to Portland from New York City, we drove across the country in a 1990 Volvo Wagon (still running). In Wyoming, we started having car troubles and got stuck about an hour away from Devil’s Tower. We had no cell reception and there were no other cars on the road. There was a moment where one of us was going to have to start walking to get help. Luckily, we were able to get the car started back up and drive out of there, but it was a little frightening being that isolated and stranded. We did a lot of location scouting, camping as the script developed. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we've both grown pretty enchanted with getting away into nature. It's a wonderful thing to experience more regularly, but there's still that vulnerable feeling that comes along with it. Those contrasting emotions felt important for the film.
Other things we were into or revisiting at the time also helped shape it, like Flannery O’Connor short stories, seeing Andrei Tarkovsky's work for the first time, and Unsolved Mysteries - that TV show is a big influence to us in general. The mix of true crime, psychics and UFOs was very formative.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most, and the least?
K - We thought it was gonna be easier to get the cars - the story always felt so small before getting into production - but it was challenging. We had this junkyard guy (we’ll call him Bob) who said he would get the car out of a stack of cars so our tow truck driver could haul it out. About a week prior, we show up and Bob’s wearing shorts and we see that he has a home arrest ankle bracelet on. Luckily, our tow truck driver was this super nice fan of movies. He had been an extra in The Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. He got the car out of Bob’s junkyard, dropped it down the hill for us and then towed back at the end.
We ended up meeting a lot of strange characters and helpful souls to make the film happen. That's a very fun part of the process.
M - We filmed in the Ochoco National Forest, which is a remote forest in Oregon. So, no cell phone reception, which was very challenging in coordinating crew if we were spread out. But the lack of outside connection was great in other ways. Because no one could be on their phones, everyone was really present for the process. Everyone bonded in this beautiful way. Our Art Director referred to it as sleep-away camp for adults who like Kubrick.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
K - "Monos" by Alejandro Landes. It’s a hypnotic thriller about 8 teenage guerrillas guarding a hostage in the jungles of Colombia. It’s disturbing, poetic, stunning - the score is by Mica Levi and it just gets in me. The film is mostly shot in exteriors, in some pretty remote environments. It’s not a documentary but it has the feeling at times of being so raw and real. The filmmakers were clearly very present in that space and used the environment and performances to feed into the story.
M - Finally saw "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" by Céline Sciamma and thought it was incredible. It's just such an achievement in economy and craft, on every level. Some movies and TV can blend form these days for me without much distinction - buried in the "content" genre. Portrait is one of those that really elevates cinema as an art.
5) What’s next for you?
Stuck inside in this uncertain time of COVID-19, finding it best to hunker down and put our anxieties into creativity.
Currently editing a new narrative short "Superfan", and working on a short-documentary series "La Tienda (The Shop)". Using this time to also write our first feature together. Otherwise, doing our best to be healthy and support our Portland film community.
Stay safe and healthy out there everyone!
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