In this episode, Chris and Leah met with student director and filmmaker, Peter Levine '24, to discuss his honors scholar film, Remembering Colin Stall.
Click HERE to see more episodes.
Transcript
Chris Christensen 00:11
Hello, I'm Christopher Christensen. Welcome to Episode 57 of the PMA podcast. In this episode, Leah and I met with student director Peter Levine to discuss his Honors Scholar film Remembering Colin Stall. The film screening will take place on Friday, May 3 at 7:30pm, in the Schwartz Centers Kiplinger Theatre. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. Please note this film is for mature audiences only and contains material that may be triggering to some audience members.
Peter Levine 00:41
Am I good with elbows on the table?
Chris Christensen 00:43
You can do whatever you want.
Leah Ingalls 00:45
Just don't slam the table.
Chris Christensen 00:48
That will get picked up, and totally cut out the sound completely.
Peter Levine 00:53
I got scared for a second.
Chris Christensen 00:55
What did you do? You broke it. So today we have Peter Levine joining us to break the gear in the small podcast studio. We're here to talk about your senior thesis, your film thesis. Peter, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Peter Levine 01:15
I'm Peter Levine. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. So, from California originally. I am a filmmaker. I'm a former athlete, came to Cornell for track and field.
Chris Christensen 01:33
Why are you a former athlete? You’ve decided to give up on all of it?
Peter Levine 01:37
A spinal injury.
Chris Christensen 01:38
Ooh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Peter Levine 01:41
I mean, it made filmmaking possible. I couldn’t have done both at the same time.
Chris Christensen 01:48
Did that happen here at Cornell?
Peter Levine 01:49
Yeah. That sounds worse than it was okay. It's a stress fracture in my L5. So it's fine now, but at the time. Yeah. No running. No walking too fast. No lifting, no jumping. I was a long jumper. So yeah, it was a year of just complete stasis. But I realized during then that I wanted to pursue film production. And I only had the time to write my first short and direct it then because I wasn't doing track. So you know, one thing goes, and another thing comes, so.
Chris Christensen 02:30
Okay.
Leah Ingalls 02:31
So did you know coming into college that PMA and or film was something that you wanted to do?
Peter Levine 02:37
I knew I wanted to minor in film here. But originally, the plan was to major in environment sustainability. Actually it's funny, I was looking at schools for engineering for the longest time. And then Cornell came through for the track and field. And I was gonna do environmental engineering. And they were like, try to do something in the arts school. And I was like, okay. So I did environment sustainability. And I was minoring in film, and I was really just not liking the classes I was taking for my major. And I finally called up my parents and I was like, you know, I feel like this was always gonna happen. I think I'm gonna switch and they're like, yeah, if you feel like it's the right choice, go ahead and do it. And then I switched and kind of was sunk into theory for a little bit. And then my sophomore year, when I had that injury, I made the switch to practice production. So I kind of started writing and directing. And you know, everything has changed since then.
Chris Christensen 03:52
Amazing how those things happen. Yeah.
Leah Ingalls 03:57
So can you tell us a little bit about your honors thesis film?
Peter Levine 04:00
Yeah, of course. So, my thesis film is called Remembering Colin Stall, and it's about a young man, Jude who runs away from home. And on his way to his dad's house, he breaks down kind of out in the middle of nowhere, upstate New York. And an elderly couple takes him in for the night. And he has to deal with the horrors that take place in the Stall house. So it's a story that kind of tackles what it's like to be a young man and unsure of what's next and also, some of the grief that we feel when we lose somebody. So all of that in the facade of a horror, okay, which is fun.
Chris Christensen 04:49
What inspired these particular themes of the film itself?
Peter Levine 04:53
I grew up with my mom as the breadwinner in my family and my dad was kind of a stay-at-home dad. So my whole life, I've kind of had this like weird relationship with masculinity, where, you know, I played sports, I was into athletics. So this kind of burdensome, competitive, masculine figure was being promoted. And then I'd go back home and like the stay-at-home dad was being promoted. And so, I was kind of in between these two worlds constantly. And, you know, it's funny, I talked to my dad on the phone the other day, because I was writing the analytical component to my project. And I was like, Dad, can you point out like, a time when I was young, and you kind of impose some masculine principles on me, because I was trying to kind of find times in my young life where the principles of masculinity were being taught to me. And he was like, No, I can't. And I was like, Okay, great. Thanks. But like, the one thing that you were really crazy about as a kid was you were ultra-competitive. And so, I kind of went from there. And I was like, okay, as a kid, I was very sensitive, but I was also very competitive. And I had a really strong relationship with my sister and my mom. But I also had this wanting to be my dad kind of complex. And so like, I think my whole life has been kind of this mix of sensitive, warm traits, and also kind of these stronger, stoic, masculine traits, which aren't good. I mean, I'm writing about like, the self-made man of capitalism and toxic masculinity. So it's been interesting, kind of living a life where I'm like, constantly questioning, okay, like, is this what it's like to be a man? What kind of man do I want to be? And so I wrote Jude, the main character of the short as a way to kind of articulate those thoughts and also show the actions of someone that is in kind of that liminal middle space. Not to give too much away from the story, but his dad left when he was young, and his mom has had a really hard time raising him and his sister and so he's kind of stuck in between. Do I want to be the male figure of my household and raise my sister and help my mom? Or am I just a kid? And do I want to just still be a kid? And so that's where he's stuck. He's kind of stuck between the fight and flight. And he doesn't really know what to do. So I thought that conflict was interesting.
Leah Ingalls 07:53
Did you...
Chris Christensen 07:55
No I was just gonna say when you're recounting what it was like growing up, it sounds to me that you're a well-balanced human being who wasn't defined by stereotypical gender roles.
Peter Levine 08:06
Yeah, I mean, I like to think of it that way too. I think it's interesting being in very masculine spaces with that in play because I feel very great about the way I grew up. I think I'm very well rounded. And I love the fact that I'm a sensitive human being. But as soon as you're playing like competitive sports, and you're with all these macho men, and you're being told you just twisted your ankle, get up, keep on playing, or, you're being rattled on for fumbling a play. It's like, okay, how can I be the man that they want me to be right now, while also being that sensitive person that I'm trying to also be?
Leah Ingalls 08:56
Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like these ideas of masculinity and these sorts of traits that you're mentioning have been a really driving force behind the film. Would you say that your sort of creative process with this project has been overall very character driven?
Peter Levine 09:09
Yeah, I mean, it's, Jude was a character. I mean, the story started completely different. It was kind of this heartfelt story about a young man who's in the same position as Jude, finding solace with this elderly couple that he runs into while he's trying to flee his home life. And I read it to a bunch of people. And every single person was like, this is terrifying. And I was like, what do you mean? And they're like, well, you know, the elderly couple out in the middle of nowhere, taking in the kid, him spending the night with them. Like, it's a little freaky. And I was like okay. So I took some time away from the screenplay, and I worked on some other projects, and I came back to it. And I was like, you know what, let me try to reconfigure this in a horror. And it worked. And then everything started coming into place. So Jude was a character that was there the entire time. And Mark and Eileen, the Stalls, they kind of found their place in the horror, trying to figure out what motivates two people to hold hostage this kid. And so really trying to figure out their backstory, what happened to them? Why is Mark different from Eileen, what did Mark do that Eileen didn't do? And it was so fun directing on set, because I had such a strong idea of the characters that anytime we would get a take, and I had any notion of it being wrong, I knew where to go back to to figure out what was going wrong. And it was the characters. And in addition to that, my actors were so devoted to learning these characters that I could have these conversations with them, after a take and be like, I don't think that's what Eileen would have done. And they Kristin would look at me and be like, yeah, I think it would have been more aggressive. And I go, yeah, try that. And then we we'd find it. And we did some improv like that. And it was great. But yeah, that was a long-winded way of answering that yes, it has been very character driven.
Chris Christensen 11:43
So let's talk a little bit about the cast. Like, what did what did the casting process look like? How did you arrive at deciding on the cast that you selected?
Peter Levine 11:54
I started with trying to cast Jude, and that was difficult. I had done a short two years ago called The Study Group. And I was looking for a lot of young men to act in it. And I found that Cornell doesn't have a huge group of young men who like to act. It's surprising. And so I knew that it was going to be difficult finding my Jude. And so I decided that I'd pull from Cornell and then I'd also pull from Ithaca College, because they have a great theater program. And so I reached out to Jason who's my advisor, and he had some contacts at Ithaca College. And I was able to give them a casting call that they gave to all their students. And we got a good pool, I think of 8 or 10 guys that were auditioning for the role. And Jeremiah was maybe the second or the third guy to audition, and he came in and he just, I don't really know how to describe it, but it's when you just see your character. You know, I saw Jude and Jeremiah. And it's funny because I wrote Jude kind of mirroring myself in a lot of ways. And Jeremiah reminds me of a younger me and a lot of ways. And so I was like, yeah, this is perfect. And Jeremiah is so talented, you know, he really took it and ran. And so that was a really delightful casting process for Jude. It got a lot more difficult casting Mark and Eileen, because I had very specific looks in mind. And it is a type of casting where you need someone in a certain age bracket. And so I couldn't necessarily look to Cornell and Ithaca College as much because a lot of the faculty at both places weren't old enough to play these roles. I used backstage to get J. Madison Johnston, great name to play Mark. And he's from the Manhattan area. And he reached out and gave me a self-tape. And I loved the way he went about it. And actually, one thing I love about backstage is I got to...
Chris Christensen 14:09
So what's backstage, for those who don't know?
Peter Levine 14:14
Backstage is a website in which people can put up projects or put themselves up as actors and connect with projects. It's basically like having a casting agent as a website, which is really great. And you can ask them for self-tapes and give them sides to read. I gave a scene with this monologue to J. And he read it. And I loved certain deliveries and certain motivations, but it didn't love other ones. And so I reached back out to him and I was like, I want you to try it. Like you're looking inward more than projecting anger. And he immediately got what I was talking about and delivered it exactly how I had written it. Which is great, because as a director, you either want someone to do exactly what you wanted them to do, or you want them to do something that's so different than what you wanted them to do that it makes you realize something that you didn't realize before. And when you have a good mix of those two things, it makes for a great creative environment. And so J was the actor on set that just he was very methodical and technical. And so I could give him very technical notes and get a very precise performance out of him. And then, so we had Mark, we had Jude, we are trying to get Eileen, and we're about a week out from production. And we still don't have an actor to play Eileen. And so I'm freaking out, my producer is freaking out. And we're starting to reach out to anyone we really know. I'm reaching out to a director I worked with two years ago on a feature here, she grew up here, her parents know a lot of people. So we had that pool of eager, older women who were like, yeah I want to act in a film. And that was nice. Because if nothing had come through, we had that at least, but I was really hoping for someone with acting experience. Because Kristin, Eileen, the role is difficult, you have to have a lot of range to play that role. I don't want to give a lot away. When you see the film, you'll realize what I'm talking about. And Kristin came out nowhere. She sent us an email, and I don't even remember, I don't remember the friend of a friend, the middleman between me and Kristin, it almost felt like Kristin came out of nowhere. And that was fantastic. Because we set up a zoom for her to read an audition, and she goes into the Zoom. And she's like, I'm so happy to have the role. And I look at my producer, and I keep on talking to Kristin while my producer I are sharing these glances like, okay, do we tell her that we want her to read and as I talked to her, I was like, you know what? No, I trust it. I trust it. And we're in between a rock and a hard place. So I was like, okay, it's Kristin. And that's the best decision I made the entire pre-production and production. I mean, Kristin is great. And the energy she brought to the role was contagious. Everyone felt it on set. I mean, you saw some of her performances?
Leah Ingalls 17:51
Yes. They were incredible.
Peter Levine 17:54
She’s great. So yeah, I was really happy with that. But yeah, the whole casting process was pretty terrifying. It's really hard to get roles filled when you need an older demographic. And especially in Ithaca, because you don't have a huge pool of actors.
Chris Christensen 18:14
And did you mention that J is from outside Ithaca?
Peter Levine 18:17
Yeah he's from Manhattan.
Chris Christensen 18:18
A bit of a trek?
Peter Levine 18:20
Yeah. And we did an ADR session.
Chris Christensen 18:26
Which I was there for. We can talk about that a little bit later.
Peter Levine 18:30
J was like, I was talking to him about amenities. And he was like, no, it's fine. I'll just come in and do it. And I was like, you don't need me to get you an Airbnb or anything? And he was like, no, I'll just drive up and I'll do it. And I was like, okay, and then he drives up. And he's like, okay, seeyou guys. And I was like, are you driving back right now? And he's like, yeah. He drove 4 hours to do ADR for about an hour and then drove four hours back. And you really can't ask for more from your actor as a director.
Chris Christensen 19:05
Since we're talking about that we might as well delve into because here we were sitting in the podcast studio thinking we could use the gear that we have here and then we find out five minutes before we're about to record that it's not going to record in the proper format. Big props and kudos to Randy Hendrickson for helping us use another device, another Zoom recorder to record with and learning all that short notice. And yeah, totally successful. recording session and yet, J, Kristin, and Jeremiah, great to work with. And the fact that J drove up and it was all foggy all the way up here, right.
Peter Levine 19:47
Yeah. He’s talking about the fog in Pennsylvania.
Chris Christensen 19:49
So those things that you weren't thinking about that would be a problem. And we worked it.
Peter Levine 19:55
That was kind of indicative of what it’s like every day on set. That's like a microcosm f of the problem solving that you have to do when you're making a movie. You don't have the right recording device, let's talk to someone who's in the building and see if we can find one that works. And then we finished the recording session, and we export the files, and we're listening to them. And we're like, wait, it only sounds like one microphone was picking up audio. And so, I call back my actors, which I've learned, you know, don't call back the actors unless you know 100% that you need to call back the actors. And then we listened to it for a bit longer, we realized there was like multiple tracks in the file.
Chris Christensen 20:40
It was my first time using the gear as well. And it was one of those things like that we were just trying to express the most and best grace under pressure possible. Still a few flub ups here and there. Yeah.
Peter Levine 20:51
The call of shame to J when I when I had to tell him, okay, you didn't have to come back.
Chris Christensen 20:59
Thankfully you figured it out minutes after the whole thing. But we all learned something.
Peter Levine 21:05
And I mean, the audio came out great. It's with my sound people right now. And they love it. So yeah, it's cool.
Chris Christensen 21:09
Wonderful.
Leah Ingalls 21:10
Was that your first time working with actors outside the Cornell community?
Peter Levine 21:16
Yes, I think so.
Leah Ingalls 21:18
Was that any different than when you had worked with actors previously?
Peter Levine 21:24
That's a great question. I think, yeah, because the short I did my sophomore year, I went about it trying to be as professional as possible. But a lack of experience plus kind of just the adolescent vibe on set made it really casual. And that wasn't a bad thing. But it felt less casual working with actors I didn't know. And I'm really happy about that because this project, kind of the way I pitched it to the department is that it's going to be like a pre-professional experience. Because you're gonna have half of the crew being students who are learning and then the other half of the crew being professional sound recorders and DP’s, and even Alexa, you know, she's been a first assistant director for a while working professionally, and she came in, and she basically fulfilled that role to some extent, for most of the shoot. So, everyone was learning, and also getting to shadow these people that have worked in the industry, which I thought was really valuable. And I thought, okay, that's gonna make for a better outcome than when it's just me and a bunch of students trying to get something done. And so, working with those actors kind of pushed me to be the most professional I could be as a director, because it wasn't like I was working with my colleagues and I could chat colloquially with them. You know, these were real actors, these were people that were coming in to get footage for their reels and to make a name for themselves. So, I was working pretty diligently with them, which was really, really fun. I enjoyed it a lot.
Leah Ingalls 23:21
For sure.
Chris Christensen 23:23
What's your background in terms of horror film? In terms of your interest in horror? I'm just wondering how some of that might have influenced this film, or was there a background in horror for you?
Peter Levine 23:34
I kind of don't like horror. I don't like watching it. There's this movement of and people hate this term, but it's called “elevated horror.” You can point towards like, A24 for a lot of examples of that, like Hereditary, Midsommar, the VVitch, stuff like that. And that's the kind of horror that I've really liked recently, because it doesn't just lean into the scaring the hell out of me. I also get the story too. Like, I remember I was at my house in high school and my friends were over and they put on one of the Sinister movies. And I hated it. I was so scared. I was so terrified. And it's hilarious that both of the shorts I've done at Cornell have been horrors, but I think both of them have kind of that drama aspect that I think would make them be considered elevated horror. And that's the thing I like to focus on. Because the horror to me is just like, exciting the viewer. And then it's a way to kind of slip in the subliminal messaging of the themes, and what I'm really trying to say. So like keeping a balance of horror and thriller and tragedy has been fun. Because I for a long time I was like okay, well this movie isn't horror. I was calling it a suspense drama. But I think now that I've edited it and done everything for it, you know, it is a horror film. But it but it does have that sensitive side, which I'd rather it have than just being jump scares.
Chris Christensen 25:30
I like that you mentioned Midsommar and Hereditary. Have you seen those Leah?
Leah Ingalls 25:36
I haven’t, actually.
Chris Christensen 25:39
I love these films. I've never felt walked out of a theater and felt so sort of disoriented as I did watching Midsommar. My wife and I walked out and it took us a good 30 minutes to collect ourselves afterwards. And I thought boy, I would love to sit down with someone who hasn't seen either of these films, and watch them back-to-back just to get the debrief.
Peter Levine 26:02
I did that with my parents.
Chris Christensen 26:03
And how was that experience?
Peter Levine 26:04
I mean, my dad hates horror. And my mom is kind of like, she'll watch anything. And so I sat down with them. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna show you these two films, the director is Ari Aster, he's great. They're pretty scary. I'm warning you. And we watched them. And they're like, those were great. I was like, yeah, they're really well made, like really, really well made. And Hereditary, is, I would say the scariest movie I've ever seen. But it is so good. And the messages that Ari Aster is able to deliver through it are just like, really potent. He's just great. He's a great filmmaker. I love his stuff. I took a lot of visual inspiration from Hereditary.
Chris Christensen 26:53
What sort of things?
Peter Levine 26:55
I have this car sequence in my short that, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to realistically get it, because we need the car driving. And then we need a moment where the main character, Jude drives over a wood plank with nails in it, and kind of has the swerve moment in the road and then pulls off into the Stall house. And so we were thinking, okay, we have a limited budget, we don't have a stunt crew. So, we can't do something really outlandish without endangering everyone on set, which was a huge consideration. And so we looked at Hereditary for some visual references on how we could get it done. And we ended up kind of matching a lot of the lighting cues from that scene in Hereditary and not necessarily the shot compositions, just because the way they did it, they had a bigger budget, and they could get it done. But we were trying to look at the pacing of the action in that scene, and how they delivered the shock of what happened to that moment. I don't want to give it away for anyone who hasn't seen Hereditary because that scene is pretty horrific.
Chris Christensen 28:12
Yes, that's when everything shifts gears.
Peter Levine 28:17
Exactly. Like everything is bubbling under the surface. And then that's kind of when it just like flares, and you're like, Oh, God.
Chris Christensen 28:26
I know what Leah is doing as soon as she leaves the podcast. She's running right out and renting both Midsommar and Hereditary.
Leah Ingalls 28:33
No, I can't do horror.
Chris Christensen 28:33
Can’t do horror?
Leah Ingalls 28:34
I can't do it. Can't. I respect it. Massively respect it.
Chris Christensen 28:39
We’ll get you the Cliff Notes.
Leah Ingalls 28:40
Yes, I'll take it.
Peter Levine 28:42
My friend, he’ll find this funny I'm talking about this. He reads all of the synopses of films before he watches them.
Leah Ingalls 28:58
Interesting.
Peter Levine 28:59
He's kind of scared by horror too. So the way he disarms the horror is by reading what's going to happen before he watches it. Which might help. If you want the cinematic experience of Hereditary.
Leah Ingalls 29:10
That's fair. So thinking about what goes on on set when you're making a film? Did you have any moments during the process of production that you think back of as very specific memories or moments that stick out to you?
Peter Levine 29:26
Yeah. We talked about this before the recording. I'm gonna be very deliberate and how I talked about this. There is a climate in Hollywood that allows certain male directors to kind of get away with whatever they want on set. This extends towards the horrors of #MeToo, but it's also the type of behavior that doesn't get called out But it's yelling. It's aggressive. Yeah, just like aggression, it's micro aggressions too, stuff that's under the surface. And so directors have been acting this way for a really, really long time. And people kind of just call them the tortured artist and they get away with it. And I came into Cornell, or at least I came into my program, the College Scholar Program, pursuing a holistic education to build what I call the auteur education, I'll call it. And so I wanted to learn about cinematography, writing, directing, art history, anthropology, design, I wanted to kind of be a jack of all trades so I could call myself like an auteur, like I was controlling the artistic motion of the films that I was making. And I realized that being an auteur is kind of disregarding the collaborative nature of filmmaking, which, in this day and age, you just can't do, because film crews are huge nowadays. And the scopes of films are larger than they were in the 20th century. And so, to disregard collaboration is to be selfish. And so that that was one aspect of auteurism that I was like, oh, okay, I'm not really down for that. And then I had this moment on set, where we had one shot left to get, and it was this really important scene, it's a scene with one shot, but it bridges kind of the conflict to the resolution. And without it we jump from a pretty horrific sight to the next morning, which just wouldn't have worked. And we're low on time. Everyone's tired. And we have the camera on dolly in our set that was built in the Schwartz Center. And we set up camera and we set up my two actors in the room, and we block it out, and the frame is just too small. And the shot I've been seeing in my head since I started writing the short... And so I say to my DP Indeana, I say, you know, the frame is too small, I want it to be wider. And so we tried changing the lens. And I was like, no, that doesn't work, either. And I was like, I think we need to pull camera back. And she was like, well how are we going to do that? And I was like, I got permission from the construction crew to make holes in the set flats if we need to. And so we spent about 10 minutes trying to problem solve how we're gonna make this hole. And we had no equipment, and it was late at night, it was, I think, 9:30 or 10pm, the last day of the shoot. And so I finally said, I think I can make the hole with this baseball bat. And I bashed into the flat with a baseball bat. And I ended up making a hole. But I did it kind of recklessly and nd without proper safety advisory. And my DP took me to the side and she said to me, you can't ever do that again. And I said to her, well, we have our shot down. And she was like, no, that's not how this works. You go through proper protocol, and then you get your shot. And if you can't get it without doing the proper protocol, you're not getting the shot. And so we set up camera, we got the shot. And then we were wrapping and it was it was me and her and I was talking to her about it. And she was like yeah, I mean, that was dangerous. And I'm happy you got the shot you wanted. But you can't do that. And I realized like yeah, you're so right. It took about 15 minutes of coming down from the adrenaline of doing it. And, you know there's a there's a charged energy on set where you want to get things done and everyone knows the time constraints and everyone's trying to get things done on time. And so I think most of the people on set were fine with me doing that. They were a little surprised, but they were fine with it. And I realized 15 minutes after like that wasn't okay. I kind of channeled this energy that I'm not comfortable with on set, and I don't think it should be allowed on set. And so I said to my DP, you're so right. If I could have done that a different way I would have, and I'm never going to do something like that again. And I said to her, I really hope you can accept my apology. And she and I are good friends. I've worked with her a lot. And she was like, yeah, you just need to grow up a little. Which I was like, yeah, true.
Chris Christensen 35:26
That's kind of an excellent opportunity for both of you in that moment. A teachable and a learning moment.
Peter Levine 35:31
Totally. And, you know, Indeana has been one of my mentors. And so I think this was another moment of mentorship. But I am a young guy, I think 22 is pretty young in terms of filmmaking. And, you do things that you regret when you're 22, when you're looking back at it, as like a 30-year-old. So I think I'm trying to give myself the room to forgive myself for doing something like that, but also the room to know that that's something I don't want to do again. And I'm writing, as I said, in my analytical essay, about how auteurs have been allowed to do that for way too long. And how I don't want to be in auteur if that's what it means. So it's something that I'm trying to get more comfortable about talking about because it's both a moment that embarrasses me, but also a moment I think is important to reflect on. Because it allowed me to learn, and make a really strong decision to never do something like that again, and set up a line that I don't want to cross.
Chris Christensen 36:49
Thanks for taking the time to reflect on that here. In general, some people may never do that sort of work.
Peter Levine 36:59
I give it up to my mom for being a very emotionally intelligent person and passing on some of that to me. I think she's always pushed me to be very self-reflective, and, what she always says to me is, you need to act in accordance with who you want to be. And anytime you're not doing that, you're kind of disgracing your own character. And I mean that sounds more aggressive than it needs to be. But she's like, if you're doing something that you don't think is you then why are you doing it? and reconsider how you're doing it and act in accordance to who you think you are. And so bashing a hole in the wall of a set with a baseball bat? Not really me. I’m gonna reconsider it, and act according to who I think I am.
Leah Ingalls 38:01
Is there any advice or any sort of message you'd give directly to young filmmakers who are maybe coming into their first experiences on set about how they could sort of avoid perpetuating that culture that you were talking about?
Peter Levine 38:15
I think it's, it's a balance of your vision, and what you're trying to get with the resources that you have. And you need to come to terms with certain constraints. My personality is I like to reach for the stars, I'm very eager. And I love to push boundaries. And so I've always been one for trying to milk the most out of the resources I have for a very lofty goal. And I think in that moment, it was kind of that blowing up in my face. And so if I could give a message to young filmmakers, it's to realize that you need to be realistic with what you have. And nowadays, we have so many resources to make films, it's great. Like when you're talking to filmmakers from 30 years ago, they're jealous because we have cameras in our pockets and microphones in our pockets, you can do a lot of really great stuff with very little. And so if you're trying to really push the boundaries, you need to be realistic about what you can and can't do. And when you're not realistic about it I think that's what and moments like that kind of blow up. Trying to try to get something done without having the proper foundation or blueprint for it kind of working on the margins, is not good. So yeah. Planning out, being realistic. Having a lot of organization, having people help you organize, because when you're the sole person who's organizing it that's when things like that happen. And more often than just bashing a hole through a wall, if you're the director, the producer, the DP, you know, all the roles, you'll probably be doing things like that every couple minutes, because it's just too much, you can't fulfill all those roles alone. And I think that's what a lot of young filmmakers tried to do. And that's what I tried to do. Not on this set, but on other sets. And I realized that it's not realistic. So kind of knowing what you're capable of, with the skill set you have and the resources you have and not trying to do more than you can.
Chris Christensen 40:45
Thinking about the set. It's a huge part of this film. It feels like we could do an entire episode on the set alone. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Peter Levine 40:58
The set was fantastic, elaborate, kind of the baby of a lot of different people who spent a lot of time working on it. The set was born of the department wanting to use my project as a stepping stone to enable other projects to take place on that set. So when I came to them with my idea and my budget, and the pre professional scope of the project, they're like, okay, it sounds like you have kind of what you want to do figured out, we're going to build you the set. We don't want you to shoot it off location, we want you to shoot it in this set. And then we're going to repurpose the set for Film 2 and Film 1 projects for the rest of the semester. And at first, I was like, oh no. I really don't need the set. Let me do it on location. They're like, no, you're doing on the set. That's our condition. And I was like, okay, best decision ever, it was great. Because what I didn't realize is that PMA was willing to put everything into the set. I mean, Jason, my advisor is a production designer, and he was on the project with me the whole time. And I drew this doodle on a paper, just like, about yay big you can't see it, but I'm drawing it on Leah's paper.
Chris Christensen 42:39
Peter pretends to draw on table.
Peter Levine 42:43
Yeah, you can put a little caption there. And it showed the floor plan schematic of the set that I had been envisioning the entire time writing the film, because the film, writing it involves a lot of world building, kind of thinking about what is this environment where these horrors can take place. And so I had a really strong vision of what I wanted it to look like. And Jason is so talented. He has so much knowledge on period styles. And he's a whiz with Vectorworks and a whiz with everything. He's great. So Jason took that little doodle that I made and actually converted it into like a digestible floorplan. And then he also made a 3D schematic. And he worked with me and my DP Indeana. Indeana Underhill, I realized I haven't said her full name yet. He worked with us and we talked about how do we want these certain rooms to look like based on the moods of the scenes that are taking place in those rooms? What materials do we want to use? If we use a satin, is it going to reflect too much light? Is that going to mess with our shots? How are we going to make the windows, what kind of what kind of window drapes? I don't know what to call them, the drapes. What are we going to use? You know, how dark is the color palette gonna be? And we took a couple weeks just compiling reference imagery and having these Zoom meetings and finally, Jason did some illustrations and it really came to life. And then the construction crew in the scene shop spent I want to say like a month and a half building this wildly elaborate set.
Chris Christensen 44:54
Which was amazing to watch it just kind of come together over time.
Peter Levine 44:59
Yeah. I remember visiting when they just had some of the wood walls up, being like, oh, man, this is the set. And then the feeling of stepping in there for the first day of shooting in the set and seeing it be a real first floor of a house. Unreal.
Chris Christensen 45:20
Oh, yeah. The living room itself. I just walked in and I just felt like, wow, this feels like it was reminiscent of my grandparents living room. It totally evoked that.
Peter Levine 45:29
That's exactly what I was going for. I was thinking, what is this space that kind of reflects 50s 60s vibes that could be kind of held in a time capsule until now? What would it look like? How would it feel? And who are the people that would live in it? And that was kind of the whole film is like this liminal space. Tthe way that we were able to construct that was incredible. Lighting it was so much fun. Because this is amazing. Mike Garrett. He was able to actually wire in outlets into the actual set where we could plug in practicals and then connect them to dimmers that worked on the lightboard which was on the stage. And I'm using all those words because that's the best way I can describe it with the amount of knowledge I have on that kind of thing. If you ask me to elaborate, I can't.
Chris Christensen 46:35
Okay, we will not ask that question.
Peter Levine 46:38
But it was incredible. Because you would have a lamp in the living room, and a knob on the board outside of the set. And Indeana would be like Peter run around and go futz with the with the levels on that lamp. And she'd be like, try it at 60%. And so I moved the push thing on the fader... the push thing, the knob. Yeah, I push it to 60%. And she'd be like, yeah, that's great. And so depending on what we were getting we would change the levels of the practicals and it would totally change the vibe of the set. Because it was all about tempering the expectations of Jude’s character as he enters this house. And also the audience. What is the audience expecting when they see a living room and a kitchen that is this warm and comforting and nostalgic? And then how can we subvert those expectations, and that was only possible with the construction of that set. Just beyond words, so grateful for everyone that put the time into making it and, moments like that you really see the heart of PMA, everyone working together trying to get that done. And people putting in hours that that you wouldn't believe so yeah.
Chris Christensen 48:08
There's one room in there in particular, which I don't think we can really talk about, because it kind of ruins something for the film, I think. But I'll just say, Leah did you have a chance to walk out on that set at all?
Leah Ingalls 48:22
Well, I worked on it, yeah.
Chris Christensen 48:26
You did work on it. Sorry. Did I check out at some time during the podcast? Sorry about that.
Leah Ingalls 48:29
I don't think I mentioned that outright. Yeah, I was... I should be remembering this. I was a grip.
Peter Levine 48:40
I’m actually checking the document right now.
Leah Ingalls 48:45
Oh, beautiful. Thank you, Peter. Grip and electric swing. That's what it was called, grip and electric swing. I forget the terminology. Sorry.
Peter Levine 48:52
I know. Leah, you're actually the only grip. I made you grip.
Leah Ingalls 48:57
Really? Then take it back.
Peter Levine 49:01
You got upgraded. When I was compiling the final credits. I was like, Leah deserves grip.
Chris Christensen 49:07
Did you want to elaborate on that more?
Leah Ingalls 49:09
I would just say if anyone's listening to this and they are like a Freshman, Sophomore in PMA and they're like, what can I do to fast track learning more about how to do this stuff? Volunteer to help out on a thesis project. It was the single most educational and exciting experience I've had so far. I feel like I learned so much in such a short amount of time. And it was very, very cool.
Peter Levine 49:34
I'll second that. I didn't work on a PMA thesis. But my sophomore year, I worked on a UCLA thesis. And I learned everything. I mean, I went from being completely green to feeling a little bit of confidence, which is hard to get in the film industry because when you're working on set, you hear a lot of things that you don't understand, and it's easy to kind of get down on yourself. But it's like learning a language, immersion, you have to just be in it, and then you start to pick it up. And it was really fun watching my crew kind of warm up to the way that my director of photography was working because Indeana, you know, she loves teaching. I think that's one of the things that she really enjoys about being on set, but also she holds people to a pretty high standard. And so everyone started to kind of lie get her lingo and and get up to her level, which she was holding the whole time. Like she wasn't bringing down the level of quality at all to account for lack of experience, she was just trying to get everyone to motivate to bring up the quality, which was great. And it's so fun watching people learn. That's great.
Chris Christensen 51:02
Speaking of lingo and vocabulary, I'm one of those people who really enjoys sitting and watching the credits after a film and I've often seen the word grip. And I don't know what a grip does.
Leah Ingalls 51:13
Correct me if I'm wrong, Peter, I have the memory of a goldfish. Not to shame goldfish. But my understanding is that it's primarily the people carrying equipment around and sort of keeping track of what things are being carried in and setting things up. Gripping electric swings, my understanding is that they work both with setting up equipment and also the lights themselves, like helping out the gaffer and stuff like that, correct me if I'm wrong.
Peter Levine 51:44
I think in terms of our project, that is a good way of describing that. When you get into the nitty gritty of unions, it changes a little bit. A grip, and I have struggled with this definition a lot. Because I've worked as a swing on a lot of sets and working as a swing, you can touch all different types of equipment. But as soon as you are a grip, there's equipment that union-wise you are not allowed to touch. And if you're touching it, you're breaking union rules, and the production can get in trouble. So a grip, they're allowed to carry stands and equipment that shapes light. They're not allowed to carry light stands, they're not allowed to carry lights, they're not allowed to plug in lights, they're not allowed to touch lights. That's all under the gaffers department. Basically a grip is using certain tools to shape the light in the scene. And then even then, there's some equipment that only gaffers are allowed to touch. I think like silks, which are like diffusion tools. gaffers touch those not grips. So it's very specific. And it's, it's really interesting to learn about because every time I work on a production, I touch something and someone's like, no, no. Oh, so that's like another thing I'm not allowed to touch, and they’re like yeah.
Leah Ingalls 53:12
That's hilarious.
Peter Levine 51:44
Which is pretty funny. In terms of our project, I didn't feel the need to enforce union standards on everyone.
Chris Christensen 53:21
Nobody working in the union on this particular...
Peter Levine 53:25
J is apparently SAG. But yeah, no one else was union. Well, I guess Indeana, Indiana.
Leah Ingalls 53:39
So the answer is yes.
Chris Christensen 53:40
So the answer is yes.
Peter Levine 53:41
Yes but it was it was not a union set. And we made that very clear.
Chris Christensen 53:48
So the screening is quickly approaching. It's not this coming Friday, but the following. Is that true?
Leah Ingalls 53:55
May 3.
Chris Christensen 53:56
May 3.
Peter Levine 53:56
Is it a Friday? I don't know.
Chris Christensen 53:58
I said that for some reason, because we were looking at calendars earlier. And for some reason, I thought it was a Friday. I may be wrong on that. And you know what, just to be absolutely clear, I will add the correct dates at the opening of the podcast so as not to send people in the wrong direction and have people showing up to the Schwartz Center on the wrong day. Along those lines, anybody from your family coming in to see the screening?
Peter Levine 54:24
Yeah, mom and pop.
Chris Christensen 54:25
Nice.
Leah Ingalls 54:55
Nice.
Peter Levine 54:26
Yes. It's gonna be great. I haven't seen them in a while. They're coming in for the screening, and then they're coming right back for graduation. I told them about the screening. They're like, we can't miss that. And I said to them, okay, yeah, come along. And what's nice is I'm raring up to go on like a very long-winded road trip after I graduate so they're like slowly dropping off things I need. So you know, they're coming this time with a couple things and they'll come back at graduation with a couple things and will set me up for what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I'm excited for them to come. I've sent out texts to basically everyone I know to come. And I think there's this stereotype with filmmakers that you're supposed to be embarrassed by your work. And a lot of times, I do feel that way. I feel really proud of this one. And I'm really excited to exhibit it. So I'm trying to get as many eyes on it as possible.
Leah Ingalls 55:30
Definitely. And in terms of the rest of the audience, is there anything just as people are walking home, thinking about it, anything in particular that you want people to take away? Or just to sort of linger in their mind as they will go to the screen?
Peter Levine 55:44
There's a couple of things. I think there's a really interesting conversation about who's in the wrong in the film, and what was necessary and what wasn't. And I'm not going to elaborate on that, because, again, spoilers. And then there is kind of an open ending. And it's funny, I show it to kind of test audiences. And when I say test audiences, I mean, my family and my friends. And they often were like, no, it's pretty clear what he does at the end. And I was like, well, that's actually not what I think he does. And I don't know what he does. I think he does something, but I didn't write it. And I purposefully didn't write it, because I don't want to know what he does. It's kind of interesting. It's like, I think there is equal opportunity that the main character does all the different things that he could do in that moment. And I'm not trying to impose it on the audience. So I want to see what people come up with.
Chris Christensen 56:43
Okay. And of course, after the screening, not too long beyond there graduation is right around the corner as well. You're doing a road trip? Sounds like that's first and foremost. What's happening after all of that, what are plans post-graduation and post road trip?
Peter Levine 57:03
Yeah, post road trip, hopefully, a bit of an enlightened person I'm trying to...
Chris Christensen 57:11
How long’s the road trip?
Peter Levine 57:12
It’s a long road trip, like three months? I’m just gonna spend it exploring...
Chris Christensen 57:17
Gonna learn a lot about yourself in three months.
Peter Levine 57:21
Yeah, I was gonna get a dog. And then everyone I talked to was like, don't get the dog. No, yeah, it's too young. Not enough solidified. It took me a long time to come to terms with that. I've been wanting to get a dog for a very, very long time. But yes, I'm gonna wait until I have more of a structured lifestyle for a dog. So yeah, now it's completely solo, the road trip, it was gonna be semi solo with the dog. Now it's completely solo. Just exploring stuff. And then after I'm done with that, I'm settling down in LA. And kind of the first thing that I'm trying to do is exhibit this film at festivals. And the hope is that enough eyes see it, and specific eyes see it, that I can maybe get an agent. If I get an agent now that means the scripts that I have in works, I can start selling. If I don't get an agent now, it just means that I need to do more projects and build up more of a filmography. And that's kind of the goal for the next year, year and a half. It's just working. Probably having a money job.
Chris Christensen 58:40
Those are nice.
Peter Levine 58:43
It's a necessary part of working in the industry in LA, like until you've made it, you need money. And you're not getting it from the creative as much as you'd like. So, I like I like working in restaurants. So maybe I'll get a restaurant job. And working on the creative on the side. And then if that doesn't work out if I don't feel like I'm making any progress, I'm gonna consider going to graduate school.
Chris Christensen 59:13
Fantastic.
Leah Ingalls 59:14
Well, is there is there anything you wanted to mention that we did not cover?
Peter Levine 59:21
No, I think this has been great.
Chris Christensen 59:24
Yeah, I agree. We did our job. Correctly.
Leah Ingalls 59:27
Beautiful. Yes.
Chris Christensen 59:30
All right. Peter, thanks so much for joining us.
Peter Levine 59:32
Thank you for having me.
