5 Questions with Skarlett Redd and Cameron Combe
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Skarlett Redd: I’m a musical theater kid at heart and love an audience. I went to undergrad for Theater and had plans to get an MFA on the East Coast. Thank God, half way through my senior year I was like, “I’m from LA, I should not make this more difficult on myself,” and transitioned to filmmaking.
Cameron Combe: I hated my first major (Electrical Engineering) and I fell into the trap of thinking, “I like watching movies, so I’m sure I’ll like making them too.” Luckily, turns out I did like making them, but for completely different and unexpected reasons.
2) What was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
SR: Hoe Trip the song was inspired by the 2015 viral Twitter thread #TheZolaStory, where the author, Zola, goes on a “hoe trip” to Florida, and my own Florida excursion gone wrong. A huge theme from #TheZolaStory is sexual agency — Hoeism, if you will. To me, Hoeism is a radical form of self expression that works to dismantle the marginalizing double standards of the patriarchy.
In this piece, I wanted my expression of sexual agency to reflect something that straddled the line between erotic and flamboyant. So per our producer’s suggestion, I took to the limitless medium of Photoshop and began collaging our set.
CC: From there, Skarlett and I took some of the gags and story that she had in mind, and really tried to nail everything down coherently (within its own logic), plussing as much as we could ahead of production.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most?
SR: LOL. I’ll defer to Cameron for the biggest challenge — I never touched the edit but I know all that green screen magic didn’t happen overnight. For me, Hoe Trip was such a fluid process because everyone involved was extremely collaborative. I think my favorite part of the process is snacking with the team and spitballing.
CC: The biggest challenge was either fighting with my underpowered computer to get all the compositing done, or animating the two judgy women at the end (when they give each other the side glance) — their scale was so small that cutting out and manipulating their “eyes” was tough even with tweezers. Otherwise, the most fun times for me were the most collaborative times, e.g. developing the story with Skarlett or choreographing the gay cops.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
SR: Assholes (2017) written and directed Peter Vack was a theatrical masterpiece. With so many raunchy and hedonistic scenes grounded in these classic theater exercises, I felt SEEN. I can’t wait to cast my family in my butthole movie.
CC: Song of the Sea (2014) dir. Tomm Moore: It’s a kids’ movie that isn’t afraid to depict the cruelties of childhood, but also the depth of its unsullied empathy. It makes full use of the medium of animation itself, taking further advantage of masterful sakuga and 2D’s capacity for graphical abstractions that are refreshingly untethered from the limitations of 3D. It’s absolutely beautiful and I regret not seeing it when it was first released.
5) What’s next for you?
SR: 2020 is the year of narrative work! I’m going out of my songwriting comfort zone, and stepping into screenwriting. I just finished a pilot about a parody children’s show where…I guess there will still be song and dance.
CC: Mixing (audio post-production is my usual gig), jumping on Skarlett’s project(s) in whatever position she needs me in, and if the YouTube algorithm has its way with me: more meme edits.
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http://skarlettredd.com
IG: @skarlettredd
cameroncombe.com
IG: @camhcom