1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

In 8th grade, my dad got a laptop with a webcam. You can find my first film here: youtu.be/tkelgnVadR8

My high school friends and I didn’t do drugs or party, so every weekend we would just watch movies and then try to make our own. I’m grateful because this got a lot of bad movies out of my system. When I went to college, I moved away from narrative and studied sculpture, diving deep into critical theory surrounding “images.” I still made videos, but mostly bad video art. I’ve been slowly crawling my way back to narrative filmmaking, trying to find the sweet spot between emotional, critically engaged, and not boring.

Writing is really hard for me. With film, I can communicate complex ideas without the anxiety of spelling and grammar. It’s also a language most people understand.

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

After the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, my old employer sent an all-staff email containing preparatory videos and educational films designed to help office workers survive a mass shooting. The videos were horrifying and totally seductive. I totally empathized with the “better safe than sorry” mentality, especially when the “sorry” part meant literally dead. But in order to be effectively prepared, this “training” forced me to anticipate and plan around the actions of the shooter. In a way, I was being asked to imagine myself as the shooter in order to outmaneuver him. This blur between victim and perpetrator was terrifying. I saw how dangerous this logic was; how far I was willing to go, how much I was willing to give up, in order to feel “prepared.”

I hope this film offers a moment of pause to this preparatory thinking, an opportunity to be like “is this doing more hard than good?”

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

Editing this film was a real challenge. I played with lots of different threads. I shot lots of stuff I never used, and exported like 50 different “FINAL_FINAL_FINAL_CUT_V3.” It was a balancing act. I wanted all the threads of the film to feel intertwined, not segmented. I relied heavily on feedback from friends and collaborators.

The easiest part was making so many bad versions of this film. There’s a 6-minute version that is absolutely unhinged.

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I think my sister Lena is one of the most talented people alive. She’s also my best friend. Her most recent film is really important to me: https://vimeo.com/404482118

5) What’s next for you?

I'm writing a feature loosely based on Emergency Action Plan.

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dylanredford.com | IG: @dredford_