5 Questions with Tim O'Connor
The supernatural slow-burn mystery film, “The Undiscovered Country,” is a gripping portrait of grief and an impressive first feature from director Tim O’Connor. We asked O’Connor about his stylistic influences, the initial inspiration for the film and the development its central enigma…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in movies?
I grew up in central New Jersey and have been interested in making movies since I was a kid. You know the story: sneak off with the family camcorder once and then it’s all downhill from there.
I got increasingly serious about it through high school and undergrad, and then went to film school at Columbia. The output got incrementally less humiliating as I went along. This project, which is my first feature, was made in my final year in the MFA program (a piece of it — essentially the first 25 minutes or so — was my thesis). The vast majority of the crew were Columbia classmates of mine, who are wildly talented in a way that is inspiring and terrifying.
2) What was the initial inspiration for this project? What came first, the story, characters, visuals, style? And how did you start building up your elements?
The Grace character came first. I had hit a wall while working on another story, and wound up writing a series of disconnected scenes featuring her. In the beginning there wasn’t really any kind of cohesion to these scenes, just a consistent, passionate recklessness to the character that was way more interesting than the other thing I’d been working on.
Once enough of these sketches accumulated, I started roughing them into some kind of order. Pretty soon after, the supernatural element entered the picture (it wasn’t a ghost at first — the first draft had her psychically connected to an actor she’d never met?). Side characters, the locations, the zoom-heavy visual style and the rest all came together in bursts after that. Then, of course, came the unglamorous process of wrestling it into a shape that was actually somewhat coherent.
3) This was quite the ambitious undertaking for your first feature. It’s an impressive film, the rare micro-budget feature that nails an ultra stylized mystery vibe. This is kind of a simple question, but how did you learn how to make a film like this? What were some influential films, or books? Also, can you talk about a couple key figures on your team that were most instrumental in making this thing happen? Whether it be a producer, or DP, or your cast…
Thanks for the question, really appreciate the kind words! The short answer is that I in no way knew how to make a film like this — we were absolutely figuring it all out as we went along.
That said, there were a ton of references tossed around while we were planning, shooting and editing. We thought a lot about the Altman films from the 70s, 3 Women and Images in particular — the zooms, the way scenes are staged, the languid, psychological pacing. Don’t Look Now and Klute were stylistic and tonal touchstones. The later, surreal-leaning Cassavetes movies (Opening Night, Love Streams) were definitely important too, for the way they combine raw human performances with flashes of the supernatural. Also, Elena Ferrante’s first book, Troubling Love, was recommended to me early in the writing process, and it wound up being eerily relevant and very inspiring.
As far as people who were instrumental in making the movie happen… there are of course too many to name. If you subtract just about any name from the credits, the whole project would have fallen apart. But to point out just a few:
Rachel McKeon, who plays Grace, completely embodied the character and brought ideas to the table I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. Quick small example: there’s a scene towards the end where Grace talks to Vincent on his porch, shot from inside through the windows. I’d written a long dialogue scene there… but Rachel suggested that Grace would just laugh at him. Correct. It’s now one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Andrew Li, the producer, stretched our extremely thin resources in remarkable ways. Casting director Allison Twardziak believed in the script from the beginning and elevated the whole project with a cast that was way out of my league. Ryan Shreves, the composer, wrote and recorded three complete and totally different scores before landing on the final version, which I think is at once both haunting and tender. And Eric Schuman (DP), who I have consistently worked with for ten years now, was there from the beginning — he was instrumental in shaping the visual style, but also spent many long nights in front of a white board hashing out the story with me.
4) I’d love to talk a bit about the central mystery of the film - the structure and the plotting of the film generally and how you approached the writing process? Also, so much of the film is about what you learn about the characters and when - in terms of the story’s development, can you think of an example of withholding a piece of information that was at some point revealed earlier? Or vice versa?
It took a while to land on what would drive the plot… Grace coming to terms with her mother’s past after losing her wasn’t always it. Earlier versions had it more as a love story between Grace and a variation of the Richie character (Phil Ettinger). But that was never quite right. Things started to fall into place once we figured out that Grace should be haunted by her mother’s ghost. It was a better mystery for this particular character to pursue, something that makes her question the foundations of her life.
The main thing about the writing process was that it all had to happen fast. We had applied to a residency with the idea of using the grounds as a key location (the house where Grace travels to in the second half of the movie), so we had a deadline to work towards. This meant very concentrated days of shaping the story with Eric, as mentioned above. Then I would go off and draft out what we had outlined. We were feeling confident about the first movement of the story — up until she steals the car, essentially — but hadn’t worked everything out after that before we started shooting. So things were absolutely still changing by the time we got into production. There were plenty of days on set that would start with me frantically finishing or revising scenes as they were being lit.
And definitely in regards to learning about characters and how that information is doled out. Stuff like this shifted around a lot. One pretty huge example are those “vision” sequences scattered throughout the movie, starting with the opening. Early versions of the script had scenes just like this: Grace being consumed by supernatural visions in which she sees things that she doesn’t understand yet. But I actually cut them out of the shooting script. The movie as shot didn’t have these moments. After we got to the end of a very slow and dull initial rough cut, it was the editor’s idea (Sean Haynes) to bring the visions back. All those were built out in the edit. It’s very hard now to imagine the movie without them, and funny to see how ideas go away and then resurface.
5) What’s your favorite film, new or old, that you’ve seen so far this year?
I’ve watched Splendor in the Grass a couple times in the last few months. It’s incredible. You feel like you’ve lived a full lifetime by the time you get to the end. Amazing how much thematic/emotional territory they cover. And it features two of the best supporting performances I’ve ever seen— from Zohra Lampert and Barbara Loden. I could go on and on about it.
Bonus question) What’s next for you?
I’ve been working in true crime TV for the past two years or so in various capacities: in development, as a producer, writer and director. I’m working now on a new feature script based on a true story about a 1961 murder in West Texas. It’s about obsession, delusion and the ways in which our diseased American society finds ways to dispose of people it deems undesirable. Pretty heavy stuff… but it's got another rich and complex character at the center. I’m excited about it, and hope that somewhere not too far down the line it’s a movie that gets made!
Contact Info:
Email: timoconnor7@gmail.com
Website: www.timooconnor.com
IG: @teeeohseee