5 Questions with Ray Smiling
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
I've always been really interested in film and TV. Was definitely a pop culture junkie growing up and the fascination only got more precise and deeper as the years went on. I really got the bug for filmmaking when I worked for a streetwear company and got the opportunity to direct and concept a few of their lookbook videos. It was off to the races from there.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
Initially, Konyin and I were talking about PornHub's free month of service at the beginning of quarantine.
And we both began to wonder, what kind of weird shit people were going to go looking for, with free access. That lead to discussing the most specific kinks we could think of, and that grew into finding human moments in those kinks. I can't relate to wanting to fuck a ghost, but I can relate to not getting the thing I want. Even if it's some sweet, sweet ghost sex.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this series? And the easiest part?!
The biggest challenge was figuring out a way to make it not look like a zoom call. I wanted it to maintain a degree of beauty, even while shooting the whole thing remotely. To that end I worked really hard with my DP Gaul Porat to figure a way to hijack a tech support app, to use as an impromptu monitor on our actor's iPhones. The easiest part was working with all the great actors in the series, all of whom gave amazing performances and were super willing to let us art direct their homes.
4) What’s a film (or series) you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I watched Nicholas Winding Refn's Too Old To Die Young on Amazon Prime last year and that's really stuck with me. It's simultaneously boring, intensely weird, violent, beautiful, kinky, and absurd. I think it's about fascism, but it might also just be about violence. Not sure. Never seen anything like it.
5) What’s next for you?
Working on scripts, directing some commercials.
Making anything I can, that's beautiful, absurd, and funny.
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IG: @raythedestroyer