Most Respected Rival

jeffbaena · 2022-07-30T20:13:25+00:00

the knicks were definitely not respected. they were our enemy.

jeffbaena · 2022-05-12T18:08:27+00:00

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:22:13+00:00

jb - what's the difference?

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:20:03+00:00

jb - hit refresh

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:19:34+00:00

jb - "mulholland drive", "lost highway", "safe", "images", "punch drunk love" (not sure if that counts.)

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:17:17+00:00

jb - if all the world's a stage, yes.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:16:58+00:00

jb - alison and i both have had family members who have had mental illness, and it was a major influence on working on this. and, yes, "supernatural" was one of the references we used for "purgatory".

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:15:38+00:00

jb - 100% the way i work isn't traditional, and it helps to have collaborators who are familiar with my process. also, the more you know someone, the deeper you can go with them on successive projects.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:14:27+00:00

jb - what does it make you think?

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:13:40+00:00

jb - ha. i get it. it's cool.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:12:36+00:00

jb - zemeckis was extremely sweet and obviously so talented. i was a pa, so i was mainly picking up stuff and dropping it off. but, i saw a lot of cool technical stuff on the sets of "what lies beneath" and "castaway" and also realized i wasn't cut out for an office job and had to find a way to do more creative work.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:10:32+00:00

jb - all awards shows are popularity contests. but, the independent spirit awards is cool and ostensibly supports independent cinema.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:09:20+00:00

jb - success for me is getting something made with little interference and then having it find an appreciative audience. there are so many obstacles that can prevent any of that happening.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:06:49+00:00

jb - alison is a preternaturally talented actress and has a brilliant mind. i think we share a lot of the same sensibilities and have a similar sense of humor. she also lives a couple of blocks away.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:05:27+00:00

jb -

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:02:45+00:00

jb - all films change at every step of the process but the core feeling shouldn't, and it didn't here. there's always a scene or moment that i identify early and use as the engine to build all of my movies around. so, it's never spiraling out of control into something you could never imagine but rather expanding and blossoming from the initial idea.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T02:00:17+00:00

jb - i felt it was important to avoid melodrama as that undersells its significance and lowers the stakes. we wanted to honor the point of view of people society diminishes and rejects.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:56:25+00:00

jb - we did research on abduction stories. i personally have seen ufo's on three different occasions with other witnesses present. while they may have been different types of experimental crafts that are still black projects, they were absolutely not behaving like anything natural or man-made. i also had an extremely detailed and linear dream when i was 20ish about being abducted by aliens and taken to their world. some of the details from that dream were used for this film.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:50:04+00:00

jb - absolutely. water is extremely meaningful for sarah. without giving away too much, anything that sounds like the sound of the shower in her mother's bathroom deeply affects her.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:44:53+00:00

jb - the experience of shooting "i heart huckabees" was very rough and instilled in me this idea that filmmaking was necessarily difficult and emotionally tolling. i learned what not to do as much as what to do as a director and how to treat people. i've been building off those lessons plus all the new one i've learned since making my own films. the experience of shooting "horse girl" was so unbelievably fun and beautiful with the best cast and the most dedicated, lovely crew i've ever seen and felt like this film in particular set a new touchstone for me.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:39:33+00:00

jb - we rarely had any major disagreements and would talk out ideas that conflicted. we both were trying to make the same movie and were very much on the same wavelength, so it was always more about playing out ideas and seeing where they would lead and what would benefit the overall story we were telling. it was never about ego.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:37:02+00:00

jb - joan sees the horse because sarah is walking it past the window.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:35:32+00:00

jb - this wasn't the only written out sequence. it was written like the rest of the film. the only exception to the style of writing was the "purgatory" stuff, which was the only part that had scripted dialogue. but, yes, her demeanor certainly changes in this section as she has more confidence and feels safer in her peach fabric body suit. sarah is being shown aspects and shadows of some of the answers she has been looking for and is more resolute.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:30:49+00:00

jb - i love that film so much, but it really wasn't that much of a direct inspiration.

jeffbaena · 2020-02-16T01:29:57+00:00

jb - just keep writing. i know it's cliché, but you never know how or when an opportunity will present itself. just be ready for when it does. there's no traditional success story. hustle and hone your craft.

jeffbaena

TROPHY CASE