Before to have had the possibility to talk with Jordan, I saw Ava's Possession film and the first thing I imagined was this director must to be a Giallo Fan, I don't know, because of the tremendous colorful images I seen on the film, pretty intense reds, blues, yellows, reminded me a lot to Argento and Bava films, but those people who doesn't seen it yet I totally recommend it, you will see a great film.
"Ava Dobkins is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past month, she is forced to attend a Spirit Possession Anonymous support group. As Ava struggles to reconnect with her friends, get her job back, and figure out where the huge bloodstain in her apartment came from, she's plagued by nightmarish visions - the demon is trying to come back." That is Ava's Possession plot.
First of all thank you Jordan for accept my invitation and allowed me steal a part of your time and have answered me these questions.
JG: I grew up in downtown Manhattan, seeing
movies at Angelika Film Center and Film Forum. I was very interested in theater
as well and started writing one act plays when I was 12. When one of my plays was
a finalist at the Young Playwrights competition, they told me it should be a
screenplay. So I started writing screenplays. It took a while for me to realize
that there is a very specific and rigid structure that I’d have to learn and
perfect in order for anyone in the business to actually take my screenplay
seriously and give it a thorough read. In 2004, I borrowed a friend’s digital
video camera that had a 24-frame rate setting so it looked a lot better than
video, and I set off trying to make a feature film for no money using my
friends as actors. The 90-minute version of this was unbearable to watch. As
the result of some advice from filmmakers I knew, I cut it down to 20 minutes
and submitted it around as a short. It played at some festivals, and ultimately
helped me get my first feature, ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE UNDEAD, off
the ground. My second film, ALTER EGOS, involved a lot of the same people I had
worked with on my first film.
EFF: Many possession films focuses on possession stages, but not
aftermath, what gave you the idea to make your movie with that story?
JG: I'm a fan of possession films and horror films. Especially the
stylish ones like ROSEMARY’S BABY or THE SHINING, or THE OMEN and THE
EXORCIST. I wanted to work in a similar
space, but I wasn’t going do it unless it had a fresh take on the genre,
because there are so many movies about this subject. So while I was in
post-production on my last movie working on a treatment, I tackled a possession
from different angles and finally I arrived at the idea of post-possession –
what the recovery process would be like.
When the idea occurred to me then a lot of other things just fell into
place, like the recovery group, and then the amnesia, mystery angle.
EFF: How was the production process of Ava Possession's?
JG: There are so many great people who worked on the film I wish I could
talk about all of them in detail. But to start, Maren Olson at Traction Media
had been my producing partner on this for two years, helping with development and
reaching out to investors. Because the film has so many female characters, and
I am a dude, I’d been hoping to find a woman to help out the film on a
fundamental level, keep the perspective honest and in check.
Maren is great a
producer regardless, but it was especially helpful to have her on board as a
resource for all of the layered female characters that appear in the film. My
wife Jessica helped a lot on that front as well.
EFF: What was the budget? What was most expensive?
JG: Just under a million. The most expensive day was probably one of the
all-night shoots where we had a steadicam.
EFF: What movies inspired you to make Ava Possession's?
JG: I probably mention many of the films that inspired me above, but... at
Fantasia Film Festival 2012, where my second film ALTER EGOS premiered, the
author Kier-La Janisse was promoting her book about female-centered horror and
exploitation films called “House of Psychotic Women.” The cover was a poster
from Aulawski’s 1981 film POSSESSION, which I had seen a few years earlier and
which had certainly been one of the inspirations for the script of AVA’S
POSSESSIONS that I had just completed. I bought a copy and watched every film
mentioned in that book, going down the list, from movies I had seen before like
BLACK SWAN, THE BROOD and CARRIE to movies I had never heard of like THE BABY
and BAD DREAMS. Some are masterpieces, some are barely watchable, but I felt
that Ava belonged in this family of films, and that as a character, she was
related to these other women. These films became the basis for all of my
reference bibles.
House of Psychotic Women 1981 Possession by Andrzej Zulawski
EFF: Do you have any director you like, someone you admire?
JG:So many. I can't name them all. Kubric, Scorsese, Coen Brothers, Tony
and Ridley Scott, Polanksi, Oliver Stone, Darren Aronofsky, David O Russell,
Truffaut, Almodovar, Park Chan Wook, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Spike Jonez,
Charlie Kaufman. Neil Jordan
EFF: Would you tell us how was cast selection, how you caught every
actor?
JG: Most of the actors auditioned for me and the wonderful casting
director, Stephanie Holbrook. With the exception of the following: Louisa
Krause I was a fan of before, although we'd never met. I offered her the role
based on her previous work, and then when she accepted, we finally sat down for
coffee and talked it through. Whitney Able I knew from her previous work as
well, and she was friends with some of my actors from earlier films, so that's
how I reached out to her. John Ventimiglia and Geneva Carr I worked with on my
previous two films.
EFF: Something funny that maybe
happened during the movie?
JG: On set, something would fall in the corner. Or somebody would open a
soda and it would spray everywhere and they’d say: ‘It’s the demon!’ And then,
slowly, I'd show up on set and see the crew getting serious about it. I’d
notice the crew passing bundles of sage and mumbling to themselves in Latin and
placing a stone somewhere. And I thought ‘What is going on?’
We had just filmed in the witch shop, where Carol Kane plays the
proprietor of a black magic shop. This was an actual, real place that I was
just walking by, it was near the main location. I went in and was like, ‘Can we
film here? We’re a few blocks away, we need a set like this.’ And they said, ‘Okay.’
The Art Department did an amazing job dressing it, making it more exciting, but
it turns out that as we were loading in and out of this place, the owner was
talking to the line producer and some of the crew. He started asking about the
movie, they started telling him, and he said, ‘Hold on a second – demons, you
gotta be careful.’ He just spooked the
entire crew.
No one told me. And I was
just like, ‘Guys, I wrote this. It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared. If
anyone should be scared, it’s me, not you.’ And I was just thinking like, if
this guy’s real, if this demon is real, he’s pretty obscure. I did some
research to find an obscure demon, he’s probably gonna be happy that he’s
getting some attention. And the other thing that’s interesting about it, just
is that it’s always a glass half empty half full kind of thing, if anything
went wrong, people would be like, ‘This set is cursed.’ But I was also thinking
about the luck angle.
I thought ‘Hold on guys, I feel like I’m lucky. I feel
like there are angels or demons HELPING us make the movie.’ And that happened
on “The Exorcism,” too. William Freidkin tells these stories about how the set
was cursed, but how he never felt so sure of doing things correctly, as if
guided by other forces... I feel that the movies often seep into the world of
the set.
Jordan Galland and Louisa Krause
EFF: One scene you are proud of?
JG: On this film I was in a constant state of just trying to get every
shot I wanted and trying to create a reality that was different from our own.
There was never a scene or a day that was not a struggle, if partly because of
time or wind or sunlight.
But I was very concerned with getting short “glue”
scenes – the moments alone with Ava where I knew the film would breathe. And I
knew the whole time that we were missing Ava alone in a taxi, because on the
2nd night, we managed to film Ava getting into the taxi, but the cops shut us
down before we could get the next shot. We had a permit, but our permit was up
and they were keeping a very watchful eye on us.
It was important to me to show
Ava in the taxi alone with the city in the background. And every day, I would
hope for extra time to get that shot, but there was never any time. Until
finally, on the last day, before the sun came up and we wrapped, the
cinematographer Adrian and I hailed a cab and shot Louisa in it, going back and
forth over the Williamsburg bridge while the horizon got light from the
sunrise. It was beautiful, and it felt like a magical moment. We had the whole
film in the can and I was getting the one shot that had eluded me the whole
time.
EFF: What 2016 horror movie you like the most?
JG: So many good ones. I loved THE WITCH, and HUSH and I think THE
CONJURING 2 was amazing as well, especially for a sequel. NEON DEMON I am still
wrapping my head around, but I did really love it on some level. Although I was
disappointed on another level, probably because I had been anticipating it for
too long.
EFF: Now, seeing the movie at the end, was it exactly you wanted for, or
maybe there is something you missed it?
JG: That's hard to answer. I'm proud of it. I can say that.
EFF: When I read your description about the whole crew member who helped
you in this movie, I had the sensation of gratitude, you have worked with most
of them before and now, you even waited for some of them to be free. Do you
think it is always better work with the same people over and over?
JG: I have a deep sense of gratitude for most of the cast and crew I’ve
worked with, and every day on set, I’m aware of how lucky I am to be
collaborating with people who want to see my vision come to life. It’s almost impossible to wait for one single
crew member to be available when you’re juggling so many elements, so many
moving parts. I usually base filming around an actors availability, or in some
cases a locations availability. Once you’ve locked that in, maybe you can nudge
a week or so to wait for a crew members. I’ve been lucky that the people I
wanted to work with were able to make themselves available once we had a
shooting schedule.
EFF: Why after two comedy films you made a horror film, what happened
with comedy genre for you?
JG: I’m a fan of all kinds of genres, but I found, even in ALTER EGOS,
that there was some drama I was playing out, which plays as comedy because the
actors are in nightly colored spandex with letters their chests. But I’m drawn
more too mysterious and eerie atmospheres these days— any movie I do will
always have a sense of humor though. But even the darkest, gloomiest films have
a sense of humor— even Fincher’s SE7EN has some funny moments.
EFF: You are musician too right? You have worked in many films included
yours, excluding your films, what film you worked as musician or at the
soundtrack crew you liked most?
JG: I loved doing the score to Daniel Schechter’s SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
(2012.) It was kind of the sweet spot— acoustic guitars, piano and strings,
which I could do at home, so it felt personal and intimate. I love
collaborating with Casey Neistat whenever he asks me to do the music for one of
his short films. For the same reason, kinda. I like it when films feel hand
tailored with a personal touch. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s rough around the
edges, just means it feels like a talented human being made it, rather than
committee making decisions based on what’s safe for the market place. But I do
those jobs too.
EFF: Do you think in writing all your films as director? Because all you
have done now you're also the writer.
JG: I’m very interested in directing scripts I did not write. At the
moment I’m directing a script called ORIOLE PARK, an awesome script I was sent
by some very talented writers which I
see as VIRGIN SUICIDES meets ZODIAC. But I’d also love to have a director I
admire make a film from a script I wrote, and be a part of it from that angle.
EFF: Jordan, I was about to ask you that. Your two films as upcoming, I see
"Oriole Park” and "Devil's Fork", what it is the plot about each
one and which one it's coming first?
JG: Both are on the runway, and we’ll see which takes off first. It’s
like that with film projects— you don’t really know what’s going to happen with
it until the first day of filming. And then you can say “this is the movie I’m
making next.” I have a lot of passion for both projects and plan to do both
regardless of what order.
EFF: What cameras, equipments and techniques did you use for Ava's Possession?
And for those indie filmmakers who doesn't have too much money, what do you
recommend to them?
JG: We did not have many camera toys for Ava’s Possessions so we did
what we could with lighting. It helped that we shot a lot of it at night, so
the lighting could really stand out. But night shoots take their toll on
everyone. We shot on the RED Dragon. I wanted anamorphic lenses but we couldn’t
afford them and I still regret not somehow squeezing that out of the budget,
although I know we all tried, so it’s no one’s fault. My advice to young
filmmakers is to make more than one short film, and write more than one feature
script, so you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. You can do that
approach, but wait till later on.
EFF: What advice would you say to those neophyte filmmakers or those
want-to-be ones? Looking your epic travel for to be what you are now.
JG: I can’t recommend this but, from my experience, and what I’ve
learned about the filmmakers I love that inspire me with their work, you have
to have a selfish obsession with filmmaking— you come by that naturally and it
doesn’t feel like a particularly healthy mindset, but it drives you— and also
you need some emotional support system, family or friends or both that can
handle your mood swings and give you a reality check. It’s a lot like being a
mad scientist, whether you’re making a feature film with a giant crew, or
making a short film with your iPhone— at the end of the day it comes down to
your vision, what you do with the footage in the editing room, and there is no
formula that can ensure you create something watchable, so you have explore.
EFF: If you could have the possibility to filming a horror remake, what
would you choose and why?
JG: Oh that’s a good one! Let me think… There are so many remakes these
I want to choose one that is not getting redone yet.
- NEEDFUL THINGS, because I loved it as a kid and because I think consumerism is terrifying and should be explored in this way again.
- THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, because I love photographers as protagonists. It’s similar in a way to my first short film SMILE FOR THE CAMERA.
- SLEEPWALKERS, just cuz I loved it as a kid.
EFF: What horror subgenre do you prefer: Slasher, Giallo or creature feature, etc?
JG: Giallo!
You can follow to Jordan on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/JordanGalland
Or visit his webpage: www.jordangalland.com
Ava's Possession Twitter: https://twitter.com/possessedava
Ava's Possession webpage: Avaspossessions
Alter Ego's webpage: Alteregosmovie
AVA'S POSSESION TRAILER:
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