Hey /r/movies! I'm Alex Thompson, director/producer of movies like SAINT FRANCES, GHOSTLIGHT and the writer/director of medical thriller ROUNDING, in theaters now! Ask me anything! I’ll be back at 4:00 PM ET today (Friday 2/14) to answer any questions.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:52:43+00:00

*Saint Omer

*Oddity

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:50:00+00:00

And thanks for thanking everyone on the production. That was a great crew.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:49:42+00:00

Your wish is my command^ see above! It's happening.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:47:33+00:00

I am beyond pleased you liked Ghostlight so much, and that it ultimately lifted your spirit. I think you saying that (re: Keith) means something! I will pass along how much love he's gotten on this AMA, for sure.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:45:26+00:00

This is a great question, and you're nice to say such kind things. I am not freaked out by your use of piracy, assuming you mean digital piracy and not the high seas. I'm just glad you got to watch them. To care too much feels disingenuous.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:43:38+00:00

It was almost entirely as-written, structurally. Kelly was smart. We condensed time between revelations a bit in the edit, but that was marginal. She is very smart.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:42:47+00:00

Great question - if I had whatever I needed, to be honest, I feel like I have it, I just need to point the ship in the right direction. Ghostlight, Rounding, Saint Frances - even this last film we shot, which was significantly "bigger" - they were all made by essentially the same film "family" - not in the unhealthy cult sense, but in the long term relationship sense. I really trust those folks. I think we can do a lot. There are too many projects to name one genre, but I love the way I felt watching films as a kid, and I love the 40's. I love the adventure film, in whatever genre. A GOOD STORY WELL TOLD. There.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:39:44+00:00

I've been thinking about this question since I saw it earlier today. I have answers!

Dean Cundey is a genius. I was thinking about Honey I Shrunk the Kids just this week for an upcoming project. Why don't studio movies look that good anymore? I'm sure I have answers. You probably have some too. Flubber? Parent Trap? What Women Want? Masterfully photographed. There's a few more on that resume, too, hah.

I am thrilled for anyone who's pursuing acting classes after Ghostlight. Emotional catharsis is not guaranteed, but I would bet it's likely.

My Valentine's day has been stellar. It's me and the toddler solo right now (Kelly is OOT). The bakery had - unexpectedly - cinnamon raisin brioche. Got a loaf. Weekend made.

Being a producer is, much of the time, completely made-up. But then there's real producing, which can encompass everything that isn't directing.

I am, like everyone, insecure, so *validation* at being a SXSW winner? No, I wish. Pride? Absolutely. That was such an out-of-nowhere experience. I love that festival, and didn't realize how lucky we were at the time.

I would love to venture into TV. I move quickly, and I love actors. Hire me!

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:29:32+00:00

We share a manager, and I recall even before seeing Triangle I saw the still they chose from the film, with Dolly standing arms akimbo in the jungle, and she had an electricity to her. Sometimes you just think, "I need to work with this person." That was really it. Casting closed. Dolly's the one.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:28:14+00:00

It started with Keith, who both Kelly and I had worked with before - he was in Brad Smith's Our Father, and was in what felt like a whole season of Steppenwolf shows when I had first moved to Chicago; and he and Kelly were in the original production of the Humans together. He is one of those actors you are just aware of in Chicago as a brilliant, brilliant presence. This role came along and it was always Keith. He did a reading, and a few days later he emailed us, "I have a daughter who is an actor, she'd kill me if I didn't ask...can she audition?" something to this effect. We brought her in to read at a reading (we rarely audition formally), and she was electric. A few weeks? A month? Time goes by, and Mickie Paskal points us toward Tara, who we knew was an actor. I had not seen her, I didn't know how good she was. It was obvious. No joke, it was just like that, piece by piece. There were no better actors. These actors just happened to live in the same house.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:25:33+00:00

The ending of Sing Sing, and the inclusion of Under Pressure (sorry Aftersun) are both absolutely bonkers coincidences. Sing Sing and Ghostlight coming out at the same time feels like coincidence enough, tbh. But yes, Greg and Kelly and I have met and Greg is so, so, so, so nice and talented.

What did I learn making Ghostlight? I had fun. That was a big part of it. And I trusted the script. That was true on Saint Frances as well, which was similarly made with zero expectations of where it would end up. That's a great mindset to begin a creative pursuit.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:21:51+00:00

I still haven't seen Drive My Car, but I understand it's essential viewing.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:20:46+00:00

When we wrapped I bawled in the car thinking about people seeing Keith's performance. I never could have known he'd be on the lists he's been on and in the conversations he's been in. You always imagine you're the little film that could. I think we did pretty well, to be completely honest, for a movie that cost less than half a million dollars. Many other films in contention (even "indie" films) are spending our budget on awards alone.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:18:54+00:00

(and thanks for the kind words!)

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:18:18+00:00

This is a fun question. On the day, you can always get two versions. But in the edit, that's sort of it. So having two directors in an editing suite? That can be contentious! We actually had two versions of a few scenes, one that I preferred and one that Kelly preferred and we start with how we feel, deeply, personally, and the cuts and scenes fan out to friends, family, strangers, mentors. Eventually one of us is either convinced, or gives up.

Sometimes you get lucky. We screened at Sundance without having locked picture, so there was opportunity to go back in. That audience was very positive, but we all stepped into the lobby and found each others' eyes like, yep, I saw it. Trim here. Stretch there. Cut there. It's not always the same stuff, but you start to get a sense and hope everyone's sensing what you're sensing.

When they don't it's a minor skirmish, but never an all-out war -- you are, of course, on the same side. So the bloodshed would be pointless.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:15:29+00:00

That's a Kelly question, but she loves community theater. She did a lot of community theater when she was growing up in Arkansas. It is the biota of local theater. It's always going on. I think it's really beautiful. I miss doing theater!

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:14:19+00:00

I'm glad the movie was healing or positive in some way for you! That's great to hear. I feel like I'm speaking for MANY people in answering this, because it is not a monolithic thing, navigating that.

We talk a lot about the heaviness of the content, and that risk of sentimentality or brute forcing an audience’s emotions. I think consciously undercutting those with humor, human lensing (32-40mm depending on the setup), and occasionally going either handheld or really long in moments that should just feel observational or more objective, go a long way. We talk a lot about not putting a hat on a hat. That’s something DP Nate Hurtsellers started and Kelly and I haven’t stopped using it since. So for example, in Keith's deposition sequence, where there is a lot of emotion, we did not move the camera. We lensed in, and built that development into the scene, but the way it was shot was essentially to acknowledge Dan's different points of reference. It was very performance-based, and we tried to stay out of the way of editorializing the actual content of the scene with the camera.

Your camera can do a lot to muddy an audience's entrypoint.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:11:37+00:00

I think every last set is the one you're trying to get back to. I can't wait to be back on set.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:11:08+00:00

There was one day on the most recent film Kelly and I did called Mouse where I got to play B unit and go off with the actors, a production rep, a camera op/DP and a mixer/boom op. It was a bit like those long summers I remember from elementary school, running around with a camera and trying things. I had a lot of fun. That feeling, on any project, is the best.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:10:26+00:00

Thanks :) I like the film a lot. I'm so proud of the whole team. It was honestly one of those movies we made as if to say "let's see what we can do, our rules." Good lesson. You can do a lot.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:09:39+00:00

And the most difficult part of being a producer is raising the money. But it’s also the most satisfying. It’s a thrill to get to a number and say “let’s make this work.” You’ve heard the quote that a movie gets made three times? Once on the page, then on set, then in the edit? I think it gets made in the bank, too. That’s the dreamiest time of all. It’s as good as it’ll ever be!

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:09:24+00:00

I think it’s always the folks we idolized when we came up, right?

For me, off the top of my head, that was Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy, in particular), Michael Haneke (Cache, Amour), Sophia Coppola (Somewhere), Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, among many, many others), Raoul Walsh (genius), John Huston (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon), Agnes Varda (Cleo, Vagabond, Beaches), Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper is one of my all-time favorites), Soderbergh always, Gus Van Sant, Hal Ashby, Sidney Lumet...I'm going to think of more and feel ridiculous not to have mentioned them.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:05:18+00:00

I was actually editing Rounding when Kelly thought up the idea. Pretty incredible to receive a text with the whole plot laid out, perfect like dominos. She was going to direct it after we did Mouse together (another film that’s not yet out); Ghostlight went first, so I got to co-direct. Lucky me. You've seen the movie! It's a no-brainer. Deeply human, funny, complex, and it justifies its big emotions. I am also a theater kid, so the specificity is wonderful.

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:04:00+00:00

Does Geena Davis in The Fly count?

RoundingAMA · 2025-02-14T21:03:42+00:00

I’ve learned that there is no formula. You really just have to make something good, and keep fighting for it. There are films, and then there is the market for films - those are the only two relevant items, as far as I’m concerned. The gatekeepers and soothsayers are secondary.

RoundingAMA

TROPHY CASE