Comedian and actors Eva Victor had previously been hired to write script, but sat down to write ”Sorry, honey“Under Covid Lockdown was different.” It was a bit rebellious, it was the script that no one asked me to write, “Victor said while a guest in this week’s episode of Filmmaker Toolkkit Podcast. “This is the movie I want to write if I die tomorrow. I just needed to get this out (from me), and it became more painful not to write it than to write it.”
It is very personal filmOne that Victor (who uses she/they pronounced) long saw themselves in the lead role, as the protagonist Agnes. But Victor feared that at the same time with the lead role and directing his first feature film would compromise on both roles. Conversely, initially entertaining the idea of getting another director made clarity to the dilemma.
“I realized that I was desperately wanted to direct it. I just felt afraid not to know (how), I never went to the movie school. My only time to do things on my own had been videos with my iPhone,” Victor said.
Victor’s iPhone comedies built an online follow -up, including director Barry Jenkinswhose pastel productions would give “sad, baby.” One thing Jenkins saw in these internet videos – although Victor did not at that time saw it – was that they already showed a strong direction sensitivity.
Jenkins and his partners in pastel, including Adele Romaneski and Mark Ceryak, would become an adviser for what they called “The Eva Victor Grade program, “which started with a question asked Victor: What do you need to prepare to direct? “I have a question,” Victor explained. “If someone asks me a question, I’ll come back with similar pages and pages with a response.”
The result is what universities can call a “self -controlled” study course, which Victor went through while a guest at Filmmaker tolkit podcast.
Starting point: A vision and time
No study course gives a director “a vision” for a movie, which is an important ingredient.
“It was about slowing down and being like,” looking, I know how I want this to look and feel. I have to surround myself as geniuses to help me do this and to help me understand why an image feels so important to me at the technical level, so I understand what story we tell and the film’s vocabulary, “Victor said.
It would take time for Victor to learn the tools and process. And while unemployment is stressful, it provided Victor for a year and a half to delve into the steps to get to the point they felt sure they could direct “sad, baby.”
The film school curriculum and books
“I would find the curriculum in a bunch of film schools,” Victor said. “I would watch the movies and I would read the books, (like) were these technical books.”
There are so many aspects of filmmaking, and movie books can lead to too extensive rabbit holes falling down. It is here, in retrospect, the self -directed nature of Victor’s deep dive was not always the most productive time, as the extent of the discussion was beyond what they felt they needed to know. What became important from this process was to understand what concrete steps and practice Victor would have to do the next.
Explained Victor, “I read the books that I think make sense to read, and now I obviously have to do something different because it is very difficult and it is not impractical, but non-practical, that is not the action of doing anything.”
Stage analysis
“(Reading movie books) became,” Ok, now I know what a shooting list is, how do you make a shooting list? How do movies do that I love shotlist? “So I analyzed movies,” Victor said. “I went through the whole”Some women‘And took a screenshot of each setting, and (SA),’ OK, so let me guess (director) Kelly ReichardtS shotlist. “”
Victor realized that there were restrictions on reconstructing Reichardt’s actual shooting list, as aspects of coverage were probably left on the editing room floor, but it became important to get into the thought process behind the elections.
“It’s an attempt to understand the scope and reasons why the camera is where it is and how you can edit things together,” Victor said.
Storyboarding and Agnes’ Cottage
Victor’s transition from stage analysis to storyboarding was seamless, because analysis of films like “some women” “quickly becomes”, that’s how she did, “explained Victor.” But how should I do it? “” Why does this coverage make sense for her story and what kind of coverage makes sense for my stories? “
Victor spent five months of storyboarding. It would prove to be one of her most valuable school steps. “(I) finally put paper that had held in my mind so that I could show people the wide (shot) of the house in the beginning, and even just to show myself,” Victor said. “It was almost like editing the movie once to see if I liked the editing.”
One of the major visual challenges that Victor would start working was that 70 of the 84 scenes in “Sorry, Baby” take place in a small cottage in New England. Practical locations with narrow internal spaces are often where independent low budget films go to die, and Victor would need the cottage to visually express distinct phases by Agnes (Victor) and best friend Lydie’s (Naomi Acka) liver. Victor would have to prove to himself, but also make the matter her knowledgeable producers, that she could withdraw what could be a significant, self -imposed limitation.
“The cottage has to do a lot, and it has to go through a transformation on its own,” Victor said. “I wanted the cottage to exist in the spectrum of a warm cozy nest when Lydie is around, and then sorts this house of horror when Agnes feels alone.”
“Sorry, Baby” is a non-linear movie, moving between the time Lydie and Agnes is a degree student who lives together in the cottage, and later when Agnes stays to teach at her university. While Agnes is isolated and feels stuck in the cottage, Lydie is to live her life in New York City and grow (discover that she is gay, in love and has a child).
“It’s really about showing someone how time goes in the same places,” Victor said. “A cabin in the forest is like a horror movie thing, and it’s also a Rome-com thing, so it’s good to have our associations with pictures and then use them to tell Agnes’s subjective experience of how this house is transformed at different moments.”
The job: Apprentice
The five months of storyboarding were advantageous, but it triggered a new fear in Victor: How does the set work as a director?
“I took five months to do storyboards, I don’t have five months to do (the movie), so I asked my friend Jane Schoen brown Going to their set and shade, ”Victor said.
The most valuable part of shadowing schoen brown was to look at them prepared ”I watched the TV glow. “Victor acknowledged that they are a completely different filmmaker, but in a way that was for the best – to see how Schoenbrun’s distinct and clear vision was translated into the” TV Glow “department heads were helpful.
Before that, Victor did not understand what happened during pre -production and comforted that there were so many meetings where all aspects of the film were discussed in detail. At the end of “I saw TV glow” shooter, the Victor called Pastel team with news: They were ready to direct “Sorry, Baby.”
An A24 edition, “Sorry, Baby” is now in limited theaters, with a nationwide edition that will follow Friday 18 July.
To hear Eva Victor’s full interview, subscribe to filmmaker Toolkit podcast on AppleThe SpotifyOr your favorite podcast platform
