5 Questions with Garrett McGale ("Above the Influence")
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
My involvement with film has been predominantly through animation and visual effects. I first started learning CG to add interest to my skate videos. My skill developed until I was creating more complete environments. Over time my focus has shifted to narrative work.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
In advertising, word-of-mouth is one of the most coveted ways to advance a message. Sometimes when we’re with people we’re close to, we fall prey to this. We end up suggesting an app or a film to those around us. I think it’s a way to avoid depth. I was interested in taking this idea a step further.
I wanted to embody the artificiality. I made the entire thing artificial. It became interesting that the entire world could be constructed digitally. This added uncanny tension on set and in the final viewing experience.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
People are generally pretty technophobic and with good reason. Marvel and Star Wars and their respective corporations make focus group films. People don’t hate technology, they hate capitalism. It’s a challenge just advocating for experimental, independent cinema to reclaim visual effects. Taking that stance limits the kind of festivals and press you receive.
I prefer Woman Under the Influence, but not because of misplaced nostalgia, like ‘I want to shoot on film.’ I like that it was shot in Cassavetes’ own house, starring his wife and kids. Just work with what you got.
If you’re not intimidated by the technical aspects, you can do so much for cheap by utilizing VFX. This was shot by myself and 4 crew members. The production was actually the easiest part. We finished most days early and were all in one location: a green screen studio. I did a lot of set-up diagrams and previs so there weren’t many questions about blocking.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I saw Dancer In The Dark for the first time a couple months ago and have watched it several times since. I really envy the looseness of it. The cuts jump mid-dialogue. It was shot on DVCAM. It’s such an unprofessional look by traditional standards that it really leans on the actors’ performances for drama.
Upon listening to some interviews, I guess they had this constraint that during story dialogue scenes it would be handheld and during the musical scenes it would be fixed cameras, but 50 of them were placed all over. So the movement was created by cutting and camera placement, not by camera movement, which is pretty counterintuitive for a musical. I like conceptual impositions like that.
5) What’s next for you?
A new short I created “We Are The Future” just premiered on Adult Swim. I’m developing something else along those lines. I am also talking with producers about a feature I just finished writing.
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