5 Questions with Meg Case & Brad Porter
1) Can you talk briefly about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
MEG: Growing up, I would coerce my sisters into acting out the scenes I had written as I directed their performances. When I couldn’t persuade them to listen to me any longer, I diverted my creative energy to drawing and making art in other mediums. My deep desire to construct stories and images at a young age led me to study filmmaking at university while taking every fine art course I could. My simultaneous love for art and filmmaking pulled me into Production Design, a career I’ve pursued for the past decade working commercials and low-budget films. Recently I’ve rediscovered my childhood passion for storytelling and filmmaking as a director.
BRAD: When I was 15, I received the opportunity to work as a production assistant on a $20M film (Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius) which was lensed by the brilliant Tom Stern (Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima). Inspired by the realization that real people, who eat and laugh and struggle together, get to make films, I committed to surrounding myself with filmmaking and immersing myself into this community, so I studied it in my undergrad, worked on low/no-budget films, went back to school for my MFA in FIlm Production from Chapman, and taught filmmaking to undergrad students while continuing to make films, directing my first feature, When Icarus Fell (available on streaming services), and working as a freelance cinematographer and director on music videos and commercials.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
We found ourselves with three weeks of mandatory quarantine with no filmmaking prospects on the horizon, and we were feeling the same uncertainty, paranoia, and hopelessness shared by so many. We decided, in part for the sake of our own mental health, to shoot a film with just the two of us and whatever resources we could muster about the ideas and feelings we were experiencing.
We scratched out a script in three days and began production as soon as possible. But the delineation between the stages of film production quickly became useless as we moved between shooting and rewriting and editing and shooting. As the state-issued quarantine continued to be extended in Michigan, we found ourselves with nearly two months of time to complete the image-capture portion of making this film.
Our initial edit was an hour and ten minutes, but we quickly realized a film of that length and scope was outside our initial intent. While creating initial music and sound effects, we discovered our editing design was heavily reliant on the function of sound. Because we were creating each element ourselves, an organic, cyclical process formed a feedback loop in which the music we created would inform the sound design which would impact the edit which would then introduce a new idea for rewriting/reworking the music. We received input on our edits from filmmaker friends and colleagues; pulled the final elements of sound, color, and image together; and sent it off to get feedback from the wider filmmaking community.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
The biggest challenge was carrying the weight of a whole filmmaking crew between two individuals. Taking on this film became a bigger commitment than we had initially realized. Brad was performing complicated camera moves and setups while Meg was performing on screen for the first time, challenging herself to carry the picture in a genuine and honest way. Maintaining our shared vision for the film, while balancing the physical and emotional exhaustion of filmmaking and the pandemic, became the driving force that fueled our desire to finish the project.
This film wouldn’t have been possible without all the love and support we received from our friends and the filmmaking community. We were lent equipment for production and post-production, rounds of feedback on the edit and sound design, and constant encouragement for which we are deeply grateful.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
There are some really wonderful films we were watching which had a direct impact on Wrath. The inviting pacing, dramatic builds, and eerily-calm imagery in Red Phallus (2018); the ominous camera and musical score (by the incredible Mica Levi) in Monos (2019); and the controlled moving/zooming lens and unsettling confusion of reality and imagination in Images (1974) all contributed to our construction of Wrath.
5) What’s next for you?
We’re working on a new project titled SAMO IS DEAD, a genre-blending short-form series in which we’re collaborating with spoken word poets, musicians, designers and artists to tell the story of a survivor finding their way in a neon post-apocalyptic world, having honest conversations with those they meet along the journey, each answering the question, “How do you live a good life in times such as this?” We are currently building the team for this project and looking for additional partners.
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IG: @megmcase
IG: @brad.m.porter