5 Questions with William DeSena

An ultra-stylish, pitch-black descent into envy, lust and narcissism, “Wisdom 2:24,” by director William DeSena, follows a young French filmmaker working New York Fashion Week. We asked DeSena how it began, how his team captured the chaotic world, and going to the dark side…

1) I have my suspicions on how this project got started, but if you can briefly discuss how it happened? What made you want to tell this story?

Coming from Maine, fashion was such foreign territory for me.  I moved to NYC after college and immediately got thrown into Directing and DPing in the fashion industry. I couldn't wrap my head around why people took pieces of clothing so seriously, and how a white t-shirt could cost $300. Photo shoots, to private events, to Social Media, there was so much ego in it all and people cared so much about how they were perceived by the world.

This isn't meant to throw everyone in the industry under the bus. They're some really beautiful and loving people that work in fashion, some who are really good friends of mine. But after working with a lot of top-tier talent and seeing how they acted and treated people, it's astonishing to me that they are the ones praised in society. I believe it to be really unhealthy to think that highly of yourself, but to each-his-own. The more I live, the more I realize that surrounding myself with grounded, loving people is the most important thing we have.

All-in-all, the values of the industry were the polar opposite of mine and that made me want to create a film about it.

2) This is an intense world you’re entering — the world of high fashion — I like how you present it because it starts on the outside and there’s a vivid feeling of insecurity mixed with jealousy perhaps. Can you speak a bit about the world you’re capturing, and what approaches you took to create this intimidating feeling?

The protagonist is envious of others. This is important because envy is built off the idea of wanting to possess what someone else has, where jealousy is the fear of losing something they already possess. In the beginning, our protagonist doesn't have anything to lose and wants what others have, so we call him envious. But once our protagonist starts accumulating status, jealousy is an easy emotion to follow up. And yes, it's possible to experience both at the same time.

We wanted to make a stylistic piece to complement fashion itself, so we shot runway shows and campaign-like scenes, where the camera drifts peacefully around the models. We mixed that with more of a cinema-verite style of shooting, this gave us a good feeling of chaos and anxiety when following our protagonist.

3) It’s very beautifully shot. Can you talk about working with your D.P.? How much was planned out vs on-the-fly?

Mack Fisher (DP) is a truly talented man. We grew up in Maine together and went our different ways for school. We've recently been coming back together and working on a handful of projects. What I love about Mack is that he asks you simple but extremely important questions such as, "But why? What's the purpose?". He wants an answer from you, because he wants to make something that has reason, and that's everything in this day and age. Almost nothing has a reason and almost everything is oversaturated: Using a shitty hand-held camera, spinning the camera around in circles because it looks cool, using 5 mediums of film/video and making a mosh-pit of formats, using really colorful neon lights because it's hip and trendy. Trust me, I'm guilty of it too, the commercial world desires it so it's what we give them. 

But in reality, people do it because they don't know what they actually want, they don't have a clear vision in their head so they muddy it up to sell it that they know what they're doing. Mack constantly challenges me to think why we would shoot a scene a certain way, why a camera would move like that, what emotion I want the viewers to feel. He even brings this mentality into the edit bay.

To me collaboration is everything, and Mack is right there with me the whole way. He's never afraid to look at me and be like, "Will, this is dumb, here's why..." And then I embrace it and talk with him about other options, or some times I make up some bullshit and convince him I'm right. It's easy, it's fun.

I also want to give a shout out to Tyler Ben-Amotz who is a good friend of mine. He produced this entire thing with just enough money to develop the film. He was passionate about it from the first time we spoke. It's rare to find creative producers who are all ears and who get just as excited about the vision as you do.

I actually claim this film to be a failure for me. Though I'm happy with the final result, I failed on so many levels as a Director from pre-production, to production, to post. I had a vision, and then would have another one, and then another, my mind was so chaotic that at one point when shooting I started to spin it entirely into a different idea without even noticing. It's because I didn't do the correct research and preparation, I just had a feeling that I wanted to convey. Because of this, almost everything was shot on the fly. There were somethings we knew we were going to do, like poach runway shows, get a tattoo, have a weird shopping montage, etc. But almost all of it was us walking around NYC like "Ok so where are we in the film? What would come next? Ok cool, lets go try to shoot that."

4) When the character goes to the dark side, it gets dark fast (“all these miserable, ugly, status grubbing…”). Any reservations or conversations you had with collaborators on how raw this transition would be?

The lifestyle of the industry is chaotic, fast, and exhausting. We wanted to convey that through his demise and how quickly it happens to him. The industry is polluted with long nights, travel, work, long nights, work, travel, etc, etc, etc. I think people move so fast and want more and more that life finally catches up to them, and they find themselves ungrounded and in rough shape.

5) The film feels almost like a prologue or opening. Do you have any designs on expanding this, or have you thought of it? What else are you working on at the moment?

Funny you say that, a key thing for me was that I wanted it to feel almost like a trailer, like there was a bigger idea surrounding it all. And I've actually brought that concept into the commercial world, trying to tie a little bit of narrative into commercial work so it seems like there might be a bigger story that hasn't been told. 

There is no plan to expand on this. This little damn thing with a principal crew of 4 and no client caused me more damn stress than my biggest union commercials :) It has had it's time.

Right now I'm juggling Directing and DPing, which can be tough in this industry because people believe your work in each position is diluted. But the truth is, I really enjoy doing both, so gunna keep at it. I'm still doing commercial work, but trying to build a road towards a more narrative style of commercial filmmaking. A couple directing pieces coming out soon and heading off to LA for a project, more so for the warmer weather.

Contact info

TBA Films: tbafilms.com

Producer Tyler Ben-Amotz email: tyler@tbafilms.com