5 Questions with Zoe Jarman
In Zoe Jarman’s deadpan comedy, “Coda,” a woman named Wendy plans a bachelorette party for her friend, only to be absurdly mistreated the whole time. We asked Jarman how the project began, what the biggest challenge was, and what comes next for her…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
I was a theatre major in college and moved to LA in 2005 as an actor. I didn't consider myself a writer until I got involved in comedy, mostly improv, and decided to try writing a one woman show. Writing and performing that show was a big moment for me and made me realize I have a passion for writing and also an interest in creating material for myself as an actor. I was working as an actor when I wrote a pilot with a friend and we got hired to write as staff writers on a TV show. So since 2014 I've been working as a TV writer, now on my own not with a partner, and learning more and more about putting television together. Somewhere in there I thought now is the time to put it all together and make and direct and act in a short film. I love being on set and I think the interest in filmmaking was a combination my love of set and my curiosity about, well if I was in the center of a production and a process, what would that feel like and what would I make? I found a story I felt excited to tell, and I was compelled by the desire to have the experience, and then the experience of making Coda confirmed my interest in filmmaking.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
The backstory of Coda is my interest in understanding codependency. It's something I've struggled with in different relationships throughout my life and found myself thinking about it and reading about it a lot. My specific interest is in the agreement that a codependent person has for how they are treated-- I might be getting edged out or unfairly treated, but also in a sense I'm agreeing to the dynamic because I'm staying in it and the option of saying that doesn't work for me, or the fact that I'm being dishonest when I say this does work for me doesn't even register. How do you end that cycle? How do you break the agreement and rearrange things so that you don't end up in that dynamic again? I'd also been going to a lot of bachelorettes. And I had an idea about someone finding a homeless person's encampment but never meeting the homeless person and then finally living in the encampment themselves and all of these ideas came together to form Coda.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the best, and the least?
There were a few biggest challenges in making Coda. I'd say finding the right location that we could afford on our small budget was one of the biggest. We looked at places that had more of an outdoor space that felt remote or wooded, but the house on the property would be wrong. We only had two days to shoot everything at the house and outside and we didn't want to split the location. But we ended up finding this gorgeous old house in Mount Washington in Los Angeles that basically needed no alterations or set dressing, and we worked with the outdoor space that the house had.
The other challenges from my perspective stemmed from me not knowing what I didn't know. I prepped in the way I could for shooting and had great conversations with friends who made themselves available for questions and I had amazing producers, but I had to have the experience to understand fully what the experience was and what it demands. But I also just learn best by doing and having the experience myself.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I caught School of Rock recently on TV and remembered how much I love it. Jack Black's charisma and creativity is so well captured in it and the story is so funny and cathartic. The classic battle of the bands of the ending-- it all just really works for me and feels triumphant and exciting without feeling cheesy which is a real feat. On a more serious note, and I know this isn't a movie but it feels like one to me, I just re-watched the first season of Top of the Lake for the fourth time. I just can't get enough of the visual storytelling of that season and the way the story unfolds-- it's all so haunting.
5) What’s next for you?
I'm making another short film, my second, with Can't Not producing. I wrote and will direct and act in it again. We are filming in January-- I'm really excited to take what I learned on Coda and apply it to this process to go deeper and push myself in my storytelling. This film takes place in one room with just two characters, but it takes the hint of magical realism that is in Coda and goes way further with it. The set design and lighting play a huge role. I'm sure I will learn a ton this time around as well!
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