“I really love the representation of lonely characters in films. There’s always some kind of magic around a lonely character.”
— director Memi Koupa
“If the sadness and the drama keep coming, it doesn’t lead anywhere, really. There is no understanding. When things are more subtle and ambiguous, you also see the funny side, the hilarious side of things that is so inherent in human nature. We are really hilarious. We are funny creatures and that’s part of what makes us human and more tolerant towards the otherness. That was the spirit behind the film.”
— director Memi Koupa
“To my students or when I’m editing people’s scripts, I’m always giving them advice of: You need to just have characters say what they need to say in as few words as possible. Like, how can you get across the message but really succinctly. Like, cut cut.”
— director Pony Nicole Herauf
“My hope for this project is to present a new kind of love story, one we meet not at the open, but the close. I want to share the final exchanges between these two people in extraordinary yet identifiable circumstances.”
— director Pony Nicole Herauf
“When you get confirmed in Catholicism, I don’t remember what grade you’re in, like six or something. I remember they had a cool speaker come in and they talked about the idea that your belief in God is like putting chocolate syrup in a glass of milk. Like, you are the milk and God is chocolate syrup. And this guy was like, ‘Whenever you’re feeling lost in this world and your belief is wavering, you can always just think, ‘Please, God, keep me chocolatey.’ And I always think, ‘Okay, how do I stay chocolatey?’”
— director Pony Nicole Herauf
“It’s a complex story, but it’s simple, a simple story, and I should present it simply because I think the impact will come through stronger.”
— director Harrison Sloan Gilbertson
“I had a friend send me a beautiful email saying that you’ve got to be prepared for the birth and death cycle of making a film, which is that the idea will be born and then it will die when you write it. And then it’ll be born when you send it off to the first person. It will die when you get your first notes… and this cycle will repeat until you are decidedly finished with it. I kept that in mind the whole way through.”
— director Harrison Sloan Gilbertson
“That’s why I love short films: when it gives you an answer, but then it also opens up a trove of other pathways, and depending on who you are, you can take it in whatever direction you want to go.”
— director Cameron Bruce Nelson
“We were not really acting. We were just really present. We did some exercises, Moara as well, to become this very specific to-be-or-not-to-be state. We worked on slowing down and getting into this liminal state of mind. Not only me and Moara, but everyone on set. We would speak slowly... It was so nice being in this kind of Jell-O warm environment and just chill out. And I’m very hyped. I’m emotional and extreme. This is my personality. For me to go up and stay there is much easier than to go down and stay there.”
— actor Katya Skakun
“It was not meant to be funny. I think it became funny because we really committed to the experience. You can always see through the film how present everyone was on set.”
— actor Katya Skakun
“That’s how Cameron is. He’s very curious about the world. On set, if you suggest something, he’s open. I think because of that, it allows the story to contain different branches of where your thoughts can go. I really enjoyed working with him, and I miss it. He’s incredibly creative, and there’s always a feeling that something unexpected can happen.”
— actor Katya Skakun
“We certainly did everything hard mode with this one, but I wouldn’t change it for the world and I think everybody learned a ton doing it. It’s a nice badge of honor. [Director of photography] Elisa [Souza] was running around in 95-degree heat with a 50-pound camera on her back. It was bonkers. But we survived.”
— director Taylor Bakken
“I find so much of my own life is me trying to find more joy, or being on the dopamine-hit journey of trying to find it. So I inevitably end up telling stories where either people are trying to find it in their own lives, trying to hold onto it, or trying to give it to other people.”
— director Taylor Bakken
“I really wanted to do something with a black hole. Not a physically real black hole, but almost like the idea of a black hole. But done in a way where the black hole is also a character, not just a symbol for something.”
— director Tim Sharp
“I don’t ever want my characters to be completely cartoonish. I think there is a real depth, even to comedy, that can come out when you have characters who seem to have an existence outside of the movie, who have their own lives and desires and wants.”
— director Tim Sharp
“There’s a line that can be drawn between a desire for control and an element of fear. I think a lot of my life has been defined by the balance between those two things. I have maybe a stronger-than-usual fear of not knowing things or not knowing how to do something. My solution to that is to put myself in a situation where I’m forced to learn it.”
— director Tim Sharp
“[In casting] we ended up with a lot of Halloween cat vibes, like sexy cats. A lot of winged eyeliner in the audition tapes. It was unexpected to me because they all read the script so I assumed they would get it, and that made me realize this isn’t necessarily easy to get on the page.”
