5 Questions with Alexandra Leinweber and Allie Scully
The stylized dark comedy, “Your Man,” by Alexandra Leinweber and Allie Scully, shows a young woman enduring a date with an overly soft/sweet man. We asked Leinweber and Scully how the project came to be, unique challenges they faced, and how they approached their visuals…
1) Can you talk briefly about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Alexandra: I grew up between Vermont and New York City, acting in local theater and painting with my grandma. I went to LaGuardia Performing Arts High School as a Drama Major and got my first taste of original scene work before moving to Philadelphia for college. At Temple, I documented an abundant underground music scene, eventually working as a photojournalist for local nightlife publications. Film for me was a natural extension of drama and photography. After graduation and a brief stint working in technology, I found a home in Cusco, Peru as a freelance videographer, creating branded content for Non Profit Organizations and tour agencies in the Sacred Valley. Two years ago, I returned to New York to fully commit to filmmaking and sharpening my technical skills. After creating a few short docu-pieces about activists in Brooklyn, I am now exploring the world of fiction.
Allie: I'm originally from Arlington, Texas where I spent most of my time performing--cheerleading (lol ew), show choir, singing, theater--and moved to New York when I graduated from high school to pursue "writing" at Sarah Lawrence College. I wanted to write the next great American novel about bulimia, and tried really hard to write heavy-handed fiction which eventually turned into dark satire. I adapted one of my short stories into a play and realized that I loved dramatic writing and script writing more than anything, and started writing a lot of short sketches. Eventually I realized that I wanted to film this stuff and write movies, which is how I ended up making shorts--especially dark, female-driven comedies.
2) How did the project start - what was the earliest inspiration that came to you, and how did you go about building from that?
Allie: This project started pretty personally for me (as everything does) after much lamenting about "soft boys" and their weird dating tactics. I was really sick of ending up in my bedroom with a dude who was like, being super sweet on the surface but also trying way too hard to sleep with me. And then a friend of mine told me a story about a young woman he knew who had a really annoying boyfriend, always following her around with milkshakes. Thus arose the character of Dan. I wrote this short based around trying to make sense of such a man's behavior, and when I met Alley in graduate school she resonated with it. So we decided to make it together. We both love Anna Biller, and the ethos about men in The Love Witch also really resonated with the script I'd written. We were really inspired by Anna Biller's style in all things. Eventually we teamed up with Maddalena, the cinematographer, who also shared the same love of Anna Biller and the cinematography of David Mullen (who also shot Jennifer's Body, another favorite of ours). There were a lot of inspiring factors and the three of us really shared the same vision, thus "Your Man" eventually came to fruition.
3) What were some of the unique challenges you felt with this film, either in terms of how you painted your characters or built your tone. And/or logistically in terms of the production of it.
Alexandra: I wanted to walk the line between comedy and horror without falling entirely into either genre. The original ending was full horror; she’d murder him and throw him down the garbage disposal, but I wanted an Ordinary Occurrence where the volume got turned up really high and our main character absolutely had it. Times up!!! Allie ran with that.
Allie’s writing has a very strong tone so we worked closely with Jess to understand the jokes and add her own inflections. Jess’s subtle faces are some of my favorite parts of the short. In real life, both Jess and Jeff (Jess and Dan) work in technology and have experience using dating apps, so we discussed those a lot to navigate the entitlement surrounding modern love in ”Your Man”.
Ultimately post production amplified the tone significantly, with rhythmic editing by musician and filmmaker Ahnmin Lee, and an original score by Noah Chevan.
4) The film has great visuals - I love the soft glow and the production design. Can you talk briefly about how you approached those elements?
Alexandra: I have a background in production design and painting, so the clouds and overall look was a lot of fun to create. It was mostly pulling from friends’ rooms, namely Allie’s and my bedrooms. On the day of the shoot our prop bed broke, which is basically a set piece, so we had to convince someone off craigslist to deliver one to Steiner Studios. They only gave us half of the support boards and we had to improvise with random pieces of wood to hold the mattress up.
The glow is an inventive trick used by Anna Biller’s cinematographer on “The Love Witch”, M. David Mullen. Our Director of Photography, Maddalena DeBeni, researched his methods and used vintage Dior stockings that create a specific prismatic glow.
Our colorist Aaron Chieply gave the film its final look with juicy reds and strong blues for contrast. So Jeff’s character only looked like bait when we wanted him to.
5) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Alexandra: During the heatwave I rewatched “Life Aquatic” and found so much joy in the details of that sardonic sea voyage. I appreciate how exposed the artifice of the film is, rougher around the edges than some of Andersen’s later works, and the playful underwater worlds made of giant fish tank decorations. The crazy part about film is that you can make a set the size of an actual ship, with one face shaved off, in a tank, with dolphins, and then that set piece only makes it into 7 minutes of the final cut. As a sucker for whimsical excursions, I am so excited to get to a point where all elements of my fantasies are in the budget!
Allie: Recently I saw Midsommar and was thoroughly engrossed and entertained by it. I loved it. I love how messy and extra the tone of that movie is. I personally felt that the overly gratuitous gore played a big role in the absurd comedy/satire of the whole thing, and I appreciated that on some level, no matter how disturbing the visuals could be. By the same token it was also incredibly beautiful cinematography. I also love a good break-up movie, and I love horror-infused comedy. This certainly covered all of those elements for me.
Bonus Question) What’s next for you?
Alexandra: I am in pre production for my next short film “Clamming” an elegy to the ever fleeting state of our oceans. When an algae bloom threatens to kill off the shellfish population of two Aquafarmers, one partner’s desire to escape causes lasting fractures in the relationship. Set in the North Fork Long Island, “Clamming” examines how we will act when what we believed to be permanent in our environment suddenly slips away.
Contact Info:
Alexandra Leinweber
Website: http://alleyelle.com
IG: @alexandramadefilms
Twitter: @itsalleyelle
Allie Scully
IG: @kittykale
Twitter: @alliescully