This an interview with @vachemorte and @juliakponsford extracted from INFAMOUSLY FAMOUS MAGAZINE volume 10 issue 41, about their upcoming one of a kind film WORLD PREMIERE release on the decentralized social platform steemit.com
How did you get the idea for the Juju Gum Conspiracy script?
Both of us are pretty interested in conspiracy stuff, we find it highly entertaining to read about really outlandish theories and we had heard about the concept of gang stalking. There are people out there who believe they are being followed and harassed by huge gangs of people and it got us to thinking, if it were true, who would do such a thing, and how would they organize it, who would they hire to do it… so the idea for this crazy experimental research lab came up and the rest of the ideas sort of came naturally after that.
We spent a lot of time browsing conspiracy type forums and some pretty obscure youtube channels for inspiration. We always wanted to mesh that with the idea that they also used the media to attack people which is how we came up with the Juju gum company, and for the commercials we just let our imaginations go wild.
What is it like making a feature film with a two person crew?
Obviously it was really challenging wrangling a cast of 80 people, shooting everything, running up to 5 cameras, plus the audio recording and also having to lug gear, make sets, do the lighting and all that while also maintaining our regular jobs. It was quite an exhilarating experience though because we were literally allowed to do whatever we wanted which was so liberating. We would love to have a few more helping hands on set for our next film, but would probably still like to keep the crew pretty minimal.
What are the difficulties in working as a couple?
Fortunately and unfortunately we both have pretty strong opinions on how we wanted the final product to look and feel. Luckily though we agreed on the majority of things but there was a definitely a bit of push and pull sometimes and we would have to agree on something in the middle that we could both be happy with. The final product is definitely a combination of both of our visions and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
What was it like working with a mix of professional and non-professional actors?
The casting was a really interesting process, we did an open casting call and also invited a few people specifically that we had in mind and hearing people read the lines out loud is a really surreal experience. Sometimes someone would read and they weren’t at all what we imagined for that role, but they brought their own flavor to it and allowed us to really see the script in a new light. It’s almost like you go from being a creator to a witness. The ownership slips out of your control and then your character belongs to someone else, it’s a constantly evolving dynamic. We tried to encourage our actors to put their own spin on the roles and even improvise some parts which I think gave it a really natural flow. We also worked with some people who had never acted before, or had acted very little. The challenges of working with them were slightly different, but I think they brought a freshness to the film, and perhaps even an awkwardness, which we love.
What did you learn about filmmaking during this process?
@vachemorte: I’ve worked at my own commercial studio for years doing tv spots and commercial videos for a living. I used all the techniques I acquired over the years on the film to get away with murder. I was hands on at every stage of the creation of the film and I am happy about the creative control I managed to keep all the way through for the simple reason that nobody was around to take it away from me. What I learned about filmmaking during the production of this film is the way I want to do film. I could use more funding, more physical help, better gear etc but the contact with the actors at the casting and on set, editing the footage myself, mixing the sound how I envision and composing the music, those are crucial steps in the creation of a film that I wouldn’t give away.
@juliakponsford: I think one of the most important things we learned was not only what to do, but what not to do. From conception our script was somewhat complicated because it combined three stories and had lots of main actors and a lot of extras. For a first feature with such a small crew we really could have simplified things a bit. The end result was very fast paced, personally for our next film I’d like to do something a little slower with a bit more time to breathe. We could also probably learned some lessons about time management because everything always took longer than we expected.
What was the most difficult scene to film/ and also the funniest?
Most difficult was probably a scene we did in a park and these kids saw our cameras and got really excited. They kept walking back and forth in the background and yelling which was ruining our audio. We ended up having to scrap a bunch of takes because of that. The funniest was probably the TV presenter for the Juju gum commercial. We had to be really careful not to ruin the takes by laughing so we were both covering our mouths and trying to stifle it!
Who are your influences?
Our favourite films are definitely ones that are more off the wall, we tend to like things that are unusual, and watch a lot of Japanese cinema eg. films by Takashi Mikke, Hitoshi Matsumoto, and Gen Sekiguchi to name a few, which have definitely had an influence on our style. As for American filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino of course for his clever approach to storytelling, Wes Anderson for his beautiful cinematography, Kevin Smith for doing stuff that is unique, Stanley Kubrick for everything, Darren Aronofsky has done some amazing films too, we could go on forever!
What do you see for the future of film?
Making films used to be something that required a lot of money to do and also a lot of the education was restricted to those who could afford to go to film school. Nowadays the gear is getting cheaper and pretty much all the information you need to start learning is online so it‘s becoming so much more accessible. I think people who previously weren’t able to have a voice are now able to start making films and that is going to allow us to hear a lot of new voices and see more diversity in the types of films that are available. Also VR technology seems to be getting better and we can’t wait to watch films in a more immersive and perhaps interactive way. We live in an interesting time for artists, it’s exciting!
Why did you choose to release your feature film as the first ever world premiere on the platform Steemit.com?
We didn’t make this film in a traditional way and it seemed silly to try to go the traditional route for distribution. The ability to show our film and still have 100% ownership is very important to us, also even though it isn’t perfect we don’t want to be beholden to anyone else to make changes. Steemit gives us complete control over our own product and we love the direct peer to peer aspect. It feels more intimate and more current for the digital age we live in.
How can people see the film?
We will present 14 original never aired anywhere else episodes on this link @vachemorte. Starting THE 8TH OF JANUARY 2018 we will post one episode a day (8pm EST timezone) for 2 weeks straight. We will keep the video links active for one month, until the 8th of february 2018. Behind the scenes and extra content will be posted in parallel on @juliakponsford.
Thank you to Davidé Vandelay from Infamously Famous magazine for giving exposure to our film and Steemit through this article.
