Sam_MC

The Shadow Strikes

Hopefully this one will be released on DVD.

Cristofle

Yay, new movie! And already lots of pics

Sam_MC

Yeah, and the pics are really stunning.

Sam_MC

Some real life drama on set

Mischa Barton -- Movie Set Used for Real Life Criminal Getaway | TMZ.com

The Shadow Strikes

'What's more surprising -- the fact Mischa Barton is filming a new movie... [snip]'


WTF? Oh, wait... I thought that site featured proper journalism, and not just gossip. Nothing to see, just move on.

Cristofle

TMZ is consistently baselessly nasty about Mischa- when she dropped out of that film, they reported it as her partying when there's actual factual evidence that she was filming something else at the time.

ETA: but I didn't recognize that actress's name as the one who played Lyla on SoA! She's not bad.

Sam_MC

I wanna send some Q&A questions to the director, does anyone have any suggestions or anything they'd like me to ask?

Cablebot3000

Maybe ask how Mischa's performance is in this? Also, I personally am wondering of the film is more of a drama or thriller.

Cristofle

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to whether or not the desert itself is the main antagonist, or they run across some villain.

The Shadow Strikes

The 'the most stunning, but unforgiving topographical terrain on the planet' part leads me to believe that the landscape will be a the villain of the piece.

Sam_MC

Here is my Q&A, hopefully it has given a better understanding of the project

The director, Ashley, is awesome.



Deserted seems to be a passion project of yours, how long did it take you to write the script and then get the movie off the ground and into production?

It’s definitely a passion project - absolutely. I’ve written dozens of drafts of this script over the past three, three and a half years. As scripts do, Deserted has morphed and changed, ebbed and flowed.

It took about that amount of time (approximately three years) for both financing, and the right team to click into place as well.

What was your inspiration behind the screenplay?

Death Valley, first and foremost. A cinematographer I used to work with years ago showed me photos of Death Valley - the outstandingly, varying topography. Sand dunes, salt flats, mountains, pinnacles - I desperately wanted to shoot something, anything in a place like that.

Most of the screenplays I write start with a location, first. A place - a theme - and then the characters crawl out of the woodwork. I love finding them, weaving them. Watching them talk. The only thing in Deserted that’s particularly close to home for me is the relationship between Jae and Robin - I’m very close to my younger brother.

We’re excited to see Mischa film a movie helmed by a female director, how did Mischa’s involvement come about?

Thank you, that’s very kind. Jae is an incredibly complex character, and we needed an actress that could really dig deep into her psychologically. When we met with Mischa at our home in Venice - she came in with this beautiful openness and great story thoughts and questions about the script. We were all incredibly impressed.

As soon as Mischa was cast, she immediately flew into her process of getting into and understanding her character. She did a huge amount of research about women who had been incarcerated, the psychology of a character like Jae. Mischa was also great to work with on set - she worked incredibly hard, we were constantly talking about finding the truth in the dialogue and the character dynamics. Her performance truly matches how much she gave herself to the role. She was outstanding.

We have a rough synopsis of the movie, would you give us a more in-depth rundown of the overall storyline?

The story opens on a young woman (Jae) who is being released from prison. We eventually reveal that she was incarcerated right after high school (after a hellish two year trial) for killing her mother, in defense of her father. Her prison term was six years.

She leaves the prison yard to be collected by the only family member she has left - her older brother, Robin (Jackson Davis) - who she’s very close to. He takes her back to her home town in Ridgecrest.

She returns to the house where it all happened … a place that has changed, but still has the residual energy of the home she once knew. A place where these awful events happened. She finds out Robin has canceled a trip for the weekend after her release - a road trip out to a music festival in Death Valley, and asks him to go. The last place she wants to be is there, among old memories - old ghosts.

Jae joins her brother and his girlfriend Rosemary - a former classmate of Jae’s (Winter Ave Zoli), and two of Rosemary’s friends, Heather and Jasmine (Dana Rosendorff, Kelly Brannigan). On the way up, the car blows a head gasket, and they get towed into a little desert town for a repair - eventually linking up with three men going to the same festival in an RV - Troy, Dax, and Wade (Trent Ford, Michael Milford, and Tyler Sellers).

The RV tumbles into Death Valley at sunset … and the group ends up getting lost on the innumerably windy dirt roads of the 3.2 million acre park.

That’s where I’ll cap it so I don’t spoil anything, and you’ll have to see the film to find out the rest. I’ll also mention we have an outstanding supporting cast, which includes Jake Busey, Sebastian Bach, Gerry Bednob and Lance Henriksen.

Can you tell us a bit more about the character Mischa plays and the journey she’s on in the movie?

The character Mischa plays is Jae, the lead. As I mentioned above, when we meet Jae - she’s being released from prison … and in a very difficult place psychologically. She goes out to this barren place (the desert) to try to hit a reset button, of sorts. Figure out what to do, where to go next. She’s like a phoenix. She has to shed her old self, and discover a new one to survive.

What genre do you feel this movie would fit into?

We’ve been calling the film an 'artistic thriller'. The film definitely focuses on the relationships of the characters first and foremost (versus, for examples, coyotes chasing everyone or the desert being a big outrageous monster). Exploring how the group reacts to each new scenario or challenge, and how they work together - or don’t - to survive.

Does Mischa’s character have a love interest? If so, is this an important arc within the movie?

She does. Jae, having gone through what she has, connects with misfits, with people who have a broken past that she can sense. Jae ends up connecting with Troy (Trent Ford). Their dynamic within the film does have an important arc, but perhaps not in the way you’d expect.

Is there an antagonist or are the characters mainly battling the location and terrain?

A bit of both. The characters for the most part are figuring each other out, and the base human in each of them ends up coming out in different ways. We wanted to explore how people would react in a very real situation like this.

Here’s a quick story:

During our second scouting trip out to Ridgecrest last year, my fiancé (producer Edward Winters) and I were driving out to see the sand dunes we wanted to film at. Our car got stuck in the deep sand, so we dug it out - parked at a safe distance - and walked two miles or so to get out to them. We followed a dirt road, then four wheeler tracks, and eventually reached the dunes.

On the way back - we lost our tracks. We lost the four wheeler tracks, we couldn’t see the road. We got completely turned around, because everything looks the same out there. We were lost for over an hour. It was an eerie feeling. Ed ended up literally climbing up two different hills before he finally spotted the car - and when he did, it was over a mile in the opposite direction we were walking. It’s easier than you might think to get genuinely lost, out there.

So, to answer the question as best I can … the location and terrain in Deserted is inherently difficult, absolutely - and the hardships the terrain brings directly weigh on, and influence, the individual and group character dynamics - leading to allegiances, love, hate, self sacrifice - every emotion these people could possibly feel is brought out in them.

The production stills of the movie we’ve seen have been stunning, did you already have the locations in mind while writing the script?

Thank you! Our set photographer and friend, Marcelo Araujo, is ridiculously talented. He flew in from Brazil to shoot stills for the film.

The locations definitely inspired the script first - and they continued to influence the story up until filming. I did a ton of research on striking desert locations while I was writing the film, and of course - my favorite ones were often the most difficult to physically get to. We never hired a location scout. My fiancé and I (with the help of my brother Richard, an aspiring producer/director) did all of the location research and scouting over the course of four months. On our very last trip up, our (brilliant) cinematographer, Garrett O’Brien accompanied us.

When we got to our first shooting location in the desert: the Trona Pinnacles, which used to be submerged under water during the ice age, the cast and crew were stunned at how ethereal, barren, and beautiful the place was. It’s also very difficult to get to. One of our PAs, Dyllan, actually got lost driving the main cast out there on the first day. The cast in his car happened to be Mischa, Dana, and Kelly. They found it hilarious - Dyllan found it terrifying!

After that, the cast and crew ended up developing a tagline: “Doin’ It Live!”. They wrote it on the back of Dyllan’s SUV.

Did the locations create extra difficulty for shooting?

Hugely! Haha. We were dealing with sand dunes that production vehicles can’t drive on, mountain locations, dry lake beds that take an hour to get out to on a dirt road - it was a very ambitious shoot. But everyone knew that going in, and that’s what makes the project incredibly unique. It’s very tough to shoot in those conditions with a small crew, but our team pulled it off just beautifully. I’m a very lucky director to work with a crew like that.

How did the cast, and Mischa in particular, deal with filming in such remote locations?

Mischa and the rest of the cast were just great. Mischa had her little dog, Ziggy with her - who bounced around happily during the two weeks in the desert and kept Mischa and everyone company. Everyone was very gracious, and supported one another.

Are there plans to incorporate a soundtrack?

The original score will be done by Italian composer Luigi Pulcini, and we’ll be licensing some music as well.

Do you have plans to screen the movie at any upcoming festivals, and do you foresee theatrical distribution or more of a digital roll-out?

We definitely plan to have a theatrical run for Deserted - to what extent will be determined by of course, a plethora of factors with distribution (we’re already in those talks, which is great). We plan to present the project at the market at Cannes in May, as well as submit to festivals.

The route we choose to take will be the most beneficial for the film, and we hope to be able to introduce the project to as large of an audience as possible. We can’t wait to share with you what we did, out there. It was an amazing experience.

Thanks for the interview!


More set pics as well here:
Q&A with Deserted Director Ashley Avis - MISCHA-B.COM /

Cristofle

Really cool, Sam! I love hearing more about Mischa's process for stepping into a character. Also, I was wondering what role Winter had in the movie.

Cablebot3000

According to IMDB it's being released Sept 15! Hope this is true!

Cristofle

I hope so too- I'd really rather see this sooner rather than later, lol.