In this episode, Chris and Leah met with student director and filmmaker, Kenny Aune '24, to discuss his honors thesis film, Doomscroll.
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Transcript
Chris Christensen 00:11
Hello, I'm Christopher Christensen. Welcome to Episode 58 of the PMA podcast. In this episode, Leah and I met with student director and filmmaker Kenny Aune to discuss his Honors Scholar film DOOMSCROLL. The film screening will take place on Friday, May 3 at 7:30pm in the Schwartz Center, 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. Here we are. Kenny, thank you for joining us today.
Kenny Aune 00:45
Yeah, hello. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk for an hour.
Chris Christensen 00:49
Yeah, absolutely. And just to check, you have a time constraint. You have to be out of here by 11:15 today?
Leah Ingalls 00:57
Correct.
Chris Christensen 00:57
Okay, let's... we got plenty of time.
Leah Ingalls 01:02
Let's go editing.
Kenny Aune 01:03
Love editing. That's what I'm doing after this.
Leah Ingalls 01:06
Oh, no.
Chris Christensen 01:07
What are you working on?
Kenny Aune 01:08
My thesis. Just continuing to polish it a little bit more.
Chris Christensen 01:11
It's not done yet?
Kenny Aune 01:12
No. Still waiting for some sound effects from a friend.
Chris Christensen 01:19
What's that look like?
Kenny Aune 01:21
There's a song in DOOMSCROLL that, ideally would be there for the screening?
Leah Ingalls 01:26
Yeah, music is like the hardest part
Kenny Aune 01:28
It's the hardest part. So I'm just waiting for her to finish like a verse and a chorus of music. And then basically that's all for the thesis.
Chris Christensen 01:36
And who is this person that you're working with?
Leah Ingalls 01:38
Oh my gosh, Katherine.
Kenny Aune 01:38
Katherine Xu. Love Katherine. Bestie Katherine. Yeah, she's incredible. And she is really busy right now. So also me saying that I'm waiting for that sound bite is not a reflection on her. I'm conscious that she's doing a lot.
Leah Ingalls 01:52
Oh yeah, I've seen her incredible work in film, too. She's working very hard right now.
Chris Christensen 01:57
Nice. Well, since we're talking about it, you want to tell us a little bit about the film project itself?
Kenny Aune 02:03
Yes. Yeah, sure. So right now I'm working on my senior thesis, which is called DOOMSCROLL. It is a film that I've been working on over the last year. And I'm trying to think of the logline because it's not changed a lot. But I just am not good at loglines for this film in particular. It's essentially how would Gen Z react to an alien invasion. And so it's a comedy horror, leaning very heavy into satire. It's meant to be a big joke in a lot of ways. It's stupid. It leans into that. It's a little bit lower budget. And it's really fun. I think it's my favorite thing that I've made so far. And I'm excited for people to see it on Friday.
Chris Christensen 02:45
Cool.
Leah Ingalls 02:46
Was there anything in particular that sparked your inspiration for this film, for the concept?
Kenny Aune 02:51
Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah. So, as I mentioned, my intention for this film is for it to be more satirical. And for the last two years or so I had this image of like, orange alien light, like aliens that have orange eyes being a representation for nuclear bombs. For whatever reason, I had that linkage in my brain for a hot minute. And I think that actually stems... so this film was born out of essentially my observations of a generation that has a lot of anxieties with the current state of the world. So lots of stuff going on, lots of heavy things. And for myself, I resonate with most personally, where in 2018, there was a false missile alert that was sent to all of the state of Hawaii. Which is where I'm from. It's where I grew up. Yeah. And so when that missile alert happened, it was like, everyone in this state had thought for a second that, Oh, my God, a missile is inbound, we're all screwed, like totally screwed. And fortunately, it was not real, there was there was no missile whatsoever. And I'm here recording the podcast. But it left me an impression of anxiety about incoming conflicts like that, it made me like, more tending to doomscroll on my phone and be like, oh, what's going on in the world? What should I be afraid of? Who's going to send a missile at my house for now? And I think that anxiety is sort of where DOOMSCROLL was born from. It's kind of playing on the joke of this culture of constantly being in the know about everything that's going wrong in the world. And that addiction to keeping in tune of what is going wrong. And this film is a way of getting in touch with a little bit of anxiety and being a little bit thoughtful with it, but also laughing at it a little bit and laughing at some of the ways in which it's a little absurd at times.
Chris Christensen 03:47
Yeah. So you mentioned there's some campiness to it and, what are some of the the influences?
Kenny Aune 05:01
Yeah, totally. This film was inspired in many ways by the movement of like 80s horror super villains, 80s and 90s. Like the main alien is this looming, large, dark silhouette. And I was very inspired by how Michael Myers just like appears in a large silhouette. And to the point where when you first see Michael Myers and that goofy mask, it's like, that's a little goofy. I don't know. It's a little cheap looking mask. And I was inspired by trying to create a monster silhouette that evokes some of the same feelings in that regard. And I was also really inspired though within the dialogue of films, like more modern satire, like Bodies Bodies Bodies was a big inspiration in that it's a constant quips coming out and constant poking fun of Generation Z. That was something I also was trying to get to at the dialogue of this film.
Chris Christensen 06:03
What is your interest in 80s horror films? Like what pulled you in that direction?
Kenny Aune 06:08
Oh, I don't know. I don't know. One of the first horror movies and this is not 80s, was it early 90s? I don't know. One of the first horror movies I ever watched was Poltergeist.
Chris Christensen 06:23
The original?
Kenny Aune 06:23
The original.
Chris Christensen 06:24
Okay, so yeah, that's 80s.
Kenny Aune 06:25
That's 80s? Was it '89, I forgot?
Chris Christensen 06:27
Oh, gosh, no.
Kenny Aune 06:28
No? '83?
Chris Christensen 06:29
I think you're right. It's like '82, '83, somewhere around there..
Kenny Aune 06:33
Okay. My mom bought it for me in the checking out line of a Ross in Hawaii. And I saw the movie. And as a joke I went to my mom, I was like, hey, this would be so funny if I watch this movie as a little 10 year old. Like, you'd never let me watch something this scary, because it was a terrifying poster. And she's like, oh, that was my favorite movie as a child. Let's get it. Yeah. And so I grew up watching that and like, Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination on... my mom's car had a TV in it, and so I'd be in the backseat watching these scary movies. And I guess because I grew up with them a little bit, it's something that I find pretty nostalgic and close to home.
Leah Ingalls 06:54
(Laughs)
Chris Christensen 06:54
(Laughs) Okay.
Leah Ingalls 07:16
You mentioned a little bit about wanting to create a sort of alien silhouette. Can you speak a bit to the process of that?
Kenny Aune 07:24
Oh, yeah, totally. The costume design for the alien was one of the more anxiety inducing parts of this process for me, not in a bad way. But in that it was something I had to learn a lot about if I really wanted to pull this off. I'm not a costume designer by trade. I don't know how to sew, but I wish I did. And so also I was studying abroad last semester. So a lot of the pre production planning for this had to be done via email and FaceTime communication. And so I knew there was no world in which I was able to tackle this alone, like that would just not happen. And so I asked Caroline Ryan, who's a close friend, for their help. And also with the PMA department, basically, I was able to hand off some of my ideas for the silhouette and rough sketches that I had for this creature, and provide it to them to make it into something tangible. And so that was a really awesome process. Caroline basically would send me a bunch of lists of masks or costume pieces that they think would align with this vision. We would discuss on whether our budget could afford some of these purchases. And then we would also coordinate with both Lisa in the costume shop and then Tim with props. And they also had to coordinate together because this alien costume needed like to have its head smashed in. So it had to be somewhat malleable, and like destructible. So it was a lot of communication, essentially, three times a week, I would just do my little lap around PMA and talk with everyone and be like, hey, how's it going with the costume design? Any updates? Anything we gotta talk about? And over time, it just started turning into what I initially envisioned. My original sketch was an almost like Nosferatu silhouette, but with orange glowing eyes. And I think we got somewhere close to that in the final product.
Chris Christensen 07:27
I was walking through the scene shop at different points and was able to see the mask in its various states. I do not know what the finished product looked like. But did you see that at all when you're walking through Leah?
Leah Ingalls 09:29
I think I saw it close to its finished stages. I remember seeing Tim fiddling with it. For sure. It looked really cool.
Chris Christensen 09:36
Yeah, it was fun to watch. Any particular moments or experiences during the filming process that really kind of stick out for you?
Kenny Aune 09:45
Good question. It's all become a bit of a blur because it was seven days of shooting all going into like 1 or 2am or so. And it was during the school period, so I was like, it really all started to mush together. But I'm trying to think of key moments that were quite impactful.
Chris Christensen 10:08
I guess I could ask you the other question, so where was it filmed? On location? Did you have any sets that were already pre created?
Kenny Aune 10:16
Yeah. So I can talk a little bit about my producer in this process because it is related. Kristen Chan, love Kristen. She is one of the most reliable, dependable people on this earth and I'm very grateful she was on this project. We were able to do location scouting together while I was abroad. I knew I only needed two locations for the script, I needed an apartment and I needed a frat. And ideally within that frat, I could utilize a bunch of the different locations within there. The apartment, I was like we're shooting in my apartment, it's gonna be cheaper. I know what it looks like. I can plan the shoot a lot easier. I know what my shots will look like. And I I communicated with my roommates that this was gonna happen and then it happened. I had a little bit of anxiet, oh, no anxiety, but like, do I want to have a work and life separation? Do I want to keep that? Probably. But in the end, I'm glad that I ended up shooting in the apartment because it saved us a lot of money that we could put elsewhere, like back into the costume as opposed to getting an Airbnb somewhere to shoot. The second location was the fraternity and that was slightly more of a battle to get but still not that bad. Kristen was in contact with a mutual friend of ours, Eli Newell and he is the building manager for the fraternity Alpha Zeta. And he is such a kind person he was basically like I will do whatever it takes to make this project happen and help you however you need. So he let us shoot in the rec room of that fraternity in an empty bedroom where no one lived in and then also variously in the hallways there.
Chris Christensen 11:59
That's great.
Kenny Aune 12:00
Oh, so convenient. And we didn't have to pay a dime for that, which I was over the moon for.
Leah Ingalls 12:06
That's awesome.
Kenny Aune 12:07
Yeah, the only expense we had to carry for that essentially was giving them a thank you package for all that they've done. Because they dealt with a lot from us. We had to add an additional shoot day unfortunately. And that was another day that we had to be in the fraternity. But the whole time they were so kind and truly this could not have happened if Alpha Zeta was not so generous with their space.
Chris Christensen 12:30
Curious, did any of you roommates end up having cameos in the film at all or?
Kenny Aune 12:36
No, they did not. But a lot of cameos from a lot of friends are in it. My entire Acapella group is in the party scene. And I can even hear them singing in one of the crowd chatter foley takes that we have.
Chris Christensen 12:52
Nice.
Kenny Aune 12:53
So there's lots of cameos in it.
Chris Christensen 12:54
Very good.
Leah Ingalls 12:55
I was actually just gonna ask what did your process for sourcing casting crew look like?
Kenny Aune 13:00
Good question. All of that happened from abroad, which was stressful at the time, but I think we managed it pretty pretty well. Basically, a lot of Google Forms. I am lucky enough that I feel like I've built a bit of a network on campus for the film community and I knew a lot of people immediately I wanted to send this crew interest form to. I sent to the professional film fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha, as well as some other peers I know on Cornell's campus that I thought might be interested. And I was very fortunate that I got a lot of responses for the crew part of people that were like, Oh, I'd love to learn how to gaff or work as a sound recordist for this project. I was pretty specific with the expected time requirements that might be needed, and what I'd be expecting them to do on set and how many days that might look for. And so I was able to get a lot of quite interested people for this crew very early on. And... wait I had another thought, it's leaving me... Oh, I'm back. When finding a crew it was a lot more important to me to find passionate people who are really excited to potentially help me see this project come to life, as opposed to people who had a lot of set experience. That, frankly, to me, didn't matter, because I can help talk with people about how to set up a light in like two minutes. And now they know that forever. I can't teach people to be as excited as I am about this project.
Leah Ingalls 14:32
Right.
Kenny Aune 14:34
And I was really grateful that the team that I ended up with were all really, really committed in more ways than they frankly needed to be on this project. And so I was so grateful for the group that I had. And similarly, that came with casting. I'd send out another casting form in early January, because I wanted to start rehearsals right when we got back because there's only about three weeks between this spring semester starting and the shoot starting. And so I was worried that if I started casting right when I got back for the spring semester, there wouldn't be enough time for any rehearsals. So we casted everything during the winter break, got some self tapes and monologues. And from there I did some 1 v 1's with some of the people I thought really stood out. And there we landed on Ruby playing my main character who's also named Ruby, and oh my gosh, her audition was so good. So good. And she keeps joking about how bad it was and how her parents were in the background. And she was like, oh I can't look at this video. She killed it. She's incredible. And when I saw that her name is Ruby and my main character was already named Ruby I was like maybe this is fate. Maybe this is how it's got to be.
Chris Christensen 15:47
Is she a PMA student?
Kenny Aune 15:49
I don't think she's PMA. But she is super involved in PMA.
Chris Christensen 15:53
Okay.
Leah Ingalls 15:54
Yeah, she's been involved as well with some of the volunteer projects.
Chris Christensen 15:57
Oh, very good.
Kenny Aune 15:58
Really talented. And what really made her stand out to me is, for my vision of this project, it was very deadpanned, and dry humor, especially for the main character. And she was the only one who nailed that immediately. And so I'm really happy and I was really excited for how she's going to take on this role and add more to it.
Leah Ingalls 16:22
Yeah, I feel like that's a really good message to send to anyone who's interested in getting involved with film. Maybe you're really enthusiastic and excited, but you're worried that your experience might be a barrier. I feel like what Kenny said is very true. Like most filmmakers are looking for people who are excited to make a project happen over people who are willing to show up, but not excited about it. So yeah, worth considering.
Kenny Aune 16:45
Totally echoing that 1000 times. A lot of people even coming to the set were like, oh, but I've never touched sound equipment before. Like these lights are crazy. It takes like one day of being on set, and at least with the equipment available to us, you start to understand all of it there. And yeah, I was really excited to see how people grew comfortable over the course of the seven day shoot. It was really fun to watch.
Chris Christensen 17:10
Can cause you to change your major really fast.
Kenny Aune 17:12
Totally.
Leah Ingalls 17:12
Oh yeah.
Chris Christensen 17:15
In terms of the alien invasion itself in the film, how did you approach the way that that would play out? Any challenges in that?
Kenny Aune 17:24
Totally. I feel weird talking about myself for so long. (Laughs)
Leah Ingalls 17:28
(Laughs)
Chris Christensen 17:28
That's what we're here to do.
Kenny Aune 17:33
So the alien invasion, I knew it's gonna be a trick to capture through dialogue early on. Also I'm more of a logistics oriented person. I was keeping in mind the budget of my script pretty much the whole time. And so I had to figure out if I wanted to really go for the alien invasion, I had to figure out a way to communicate it almost entirely off screen. And so one short that Austin Bunn recommended to me that really helped inspire me with some of the world building was a short called Moshari. It was made in 2020 ish, maybe 2019.
Chris Christensen 18:09
Okay.
Kenny Aune 18:10
Produced by Monkey Paw, Jordan Peele's production company.
Chris Christensen 18:14
Sure.
Kenny Aune 18:17
Moshari means mosquito net in a different language. I do not know off the top of my head. But it's a really cool short, essentially, where it's about two sisters who are living in a post apocalyptic world where everything's overrun by vampires. And so this mosquito net moshari is a thing that covers all people to basically keep those vampires out. And the entire world of that short film was communicated through just two sets. It was communicated through the bedroom that they live in, and through them walking through a grass field and seeing one other person who's still alive. And just through those two scenes, it still communicated what kind of world they live in, how they live, what threat has basically wiped out all of existence. And so I was really inspired by how delicately they communicated this whole world through like two very small settings. And I kept that in mind when writing the script of how much do I really need? What can I say here? And strip it down, but still keep this world built. I don't know if I completely successfully did that. But the tool that I really use to help communicate when I didn't have the budget to do bigger productions was TikTok and social media itself on the phone. This film is about doomscrolling. It is about going on your phone and scrolling endlessly. And I used fictional TikTok videos and people reporting on current events to basically communicate how the aliens are impacting the world and what people are saying about it. And I used social media as a satire to essentially be like, one of the videos that was like, oh my god, aliens just crash landed in Las Vegas. But before we talk about that make sure to like and follow for more updates.
Chris Christensen 20:10
(Laughs)
Leah Ingalls 20:10
(Laughs)
Kenny Aune 20:10
That was the joke of most of the film essentially.
Chris Christensen 20:13
So, don't want to give away too much of the film and the way it plays out. So are these tight shots on a phone itself? And so you're seeing the video there? Or is it zooming in on to a screen that you've got it on a monitor or something along those lines or a mix of both?
Kenny Aune 20:28
A mix of both. But it's very much like we're doomscrolling with Ruby, the main character at a couple of different moments of this film.
Chris Christensen 20:35
Brilliant. That's a lovely way to play that out.
Leah Ingalls 20:38
Great. I feel like resourcefulness in terms of boiling down what you're working with, and especially tailoring your film to your own restrictions is the best skill that a filmmaker can have. And honestly one of the hardest things to do when it comes to filmmaking. I feel like something that we've all gone through in our first film classes is thinking, okay, well, if I just have 10 locations, I can really tell this story. And then, you know, like you said, it can only take two. I was wondering if you wanted to mention anything about the post production process, what that looks like, what it entails?
Kenny Aune 21:08
Oh my goodness. The post production process I love, but also has been fighting me with this film a lot more than once in the past. Yeah, the post production process started pretty much the day after shooting, which was I think, like March 15, so like a month and a half ago. And I really love editing, it's something that of all the film classes I've taken here, it's one of the skills that I think I've most begun to become invested in. And I have a little bit of professional editing experience. And so when I was jumping into this process, I thought I had it in the bag. But oh my gosh, this film has taken years off my life and the post production. It's only 15 minutes. But there was just a lot of sound work that I needed to do and learn how to do very quickly if I wanted to achieve some of the things that were in my head. And so it's been a lot more of a long... a significantly more intense process than I initially planned. But I'm totally okay with it. I've learned so much about editing over this last month, and I've become so much stronger. And, really grateful for that. And I do feel like the soundscape for the film is starting to become something that is pretty particular to DOOMSCROLL, I think it has an identity. And so I'm really proud of how it's turning out. I'm excited for people to see it. But yeah, it was like four hour period every day. Every day I'm in the editing room for three or four hours, watching some YouTube videos, learning what needs to get done. Yeah, I don't know.
Chris Christensen 21:29
I'm curious, so doing sound work changes everything about the way that you approach sound, the way you hear sound. Have you noticed certain things, even outside of the editing process where you're listening differently at this point?
Kenny Aune 22:59
Oh, good question. I think yeah, I wasn't doing too much Foley for DOOMSCROLL. But I am like now every time I walk anywhere, I'll hear any sound happen and be like, Oh, I could have used that for the monster. Like, I hear a metal chair slide on the ground and be like, that's so scary. That could be a monster growl right now. And so that's something I've definitely been thinking about. And now that I'm just about done editing this film, it makes me wish that on set I was more particular about some of the things that we recorded, because there's some audio in the film that I didn't advise enough. And I feel like it just didn't quite come out how I wanted it to. And there wasn't a way I could figure out how to fix it in post. And it made me wish I was more conscious a bit on set as opposed to being like, get the mic close. You know, it's not enough to just say that sometimes.
Leah Ingalls 23:59
Definitely, audio is very often the make or break for a film. I was actually wondering, you mentioned having to have another shoot day, I was wondering if that was something that you realized during the post production process, or if it was a matter of not getting everything filmed on time, or if you want to share anything about that?
Chris Christensen 24:17
Yeah, totally, happy to. It wasn't a crazy decision. But after like day three of the shoot, I realized we were moving a lot slower than I initially hoped we would. And that wasn't anyone's fault. I think I just slightly over or underestimated how much of a learning curve it would be to handle slightly newer or slightly different equipment than I used in the past. And so realizing that early on, I also saw that our last two shoot days were the same quantity of shots that we wanted to get done. But we were adding extras in and we're adding like 25 extras. And so mathematically I was like if we're moving like 30% Slower without any extras right now there's no way we're going to be able to get those shoot days done with adding a whole bunch of people that I need to communicate with. And so went back to the shot list to see if there's anything I could cut, anything that was expendable. And we got rid of a few things. But at the end, like I really wanted to get these shots that I had laid out. And so the way we operated with adding a shoot day is that I knew there was not going to be a way to ask these extras to be there for another evening, like, there's no way people are gonna want to be on my set for three, basically weekend nights for eight hour periods. So instead, with the extra scene, I extracted all of the shots in which it was just a shot on one of the main characters and extracted those to be put on a separate six hour shoot day, and kept all of the stuff with the extras. So those two nights could just be about like getting shots of people partying, getting shots of the alien at the party, oop, spoiler. (Laughs)
Leah Ingalls 26:01
(Laughs)
Chris Christensen 26:01
(Laughs)
Kenny Aune 26:01
And, yeah, like piecing apart those days, and again, Alpha Zeta was very kind to let us have one additional shoot day. And that shoot day, because it was just a couple of shots of Ruby and the other main characters, it was pretty quick to get done.
Chris Christensen 26:17
So we've heard all these stories about all the ins and outs of the making of this film and where you are on the other side of it, still working away before screening. Let's take a step way back. The you that decided that you wanted to pursue filmmaking in general. Is it everything it's cracked up to be? Is it everything you envisioned? And what pulled you into it?
Kenny Aune 26:42
So I don't even know what got me into film. Not gonna lie. Like, I feel like it just has been the roller coaster that I've been on. I started off as a performer. I tap danced for most of my childhood life. And I was a part of a musical theater company growing up. And so I was doing like 42nd street like (vocalizes) like Broadway. I wasn't on Broadway, but that's the vibe I was leaning towards.
Chris Christensen 27:07
When you say childhood, like what age?
Kenny Aune 27:10
Like 8 to 18.
Chris Christensen 27:12
Okay.
Kenny Aune 27:13
Yeah. I'll talk about that briefly. But I was in the childhood performing group called Shooting Stars, where we basically operated as an advertisement company for my local theater. And it was like 20, like, 6 to 16 year olds that would just be performing and be like come watch shows at Diamond Head Theatre. Anyway. So that was very much me growing up, and then coming to Cornell, or applying to college, really, I didn't really feel comfortable deciding whether or not I wanted to pursue performing for the rest of my life. I was like, I'm 16. Like, I did not know if this is what I want my career to be. Because I also really enjoyed mathematics in high school, and I really enjoyed STEM. And so I didn't want to give up one or the other. And so coming to Cornell University, I really appreciated that I had the opportunity to both study some of those fields and maintain my toes in performing and media arts. But over time, after taking more classes in PMA, as well as still taking classes in CS, I was like, oh, actually, I find the most joy in PMA.
Chris Christensen 28:24
I've heard this story before.
Kenny Aune 28:30
And then in my sophomore year, Sydney Relihan was a senior in 2020. And she was working on a senior thesis called Sex Shop. And she asked if I'd be willing to assistant direct. And I was like, I've never really worked on set before. But that sounds fun. And I think being on set for that extensive shoot period, which was even longer and more in depth than DOOMSCROLL. It got me really excited about working on film. And I was like, I want to do more of this. I want to keep being on set. I want to be active with my work. And so I think that's honestly the like filmic experience that really got me to start being like, I can make my own products. Like I don't have to wait for someone else to tell me what to be on my set. I can do this, especially right now while I'm in college, I have the opportunity to make my own films. And I also have always loved horror movies. I talked a little bit about that. But that's just a little bit where my narrative heart kind of lies. And so yeah, that's just how I think how I got here.
Chris Christensen 29:30
That's great that it's been that recent too. And it also reflects what you were saying earlier is you know, you come in and you workshop with some gear and the next thing you know, you're really hooked on it. Yeah, that's great.
Leah Ingalls 29:42
Do you have any idea what your after college life is gonna look like? Do you have any plans, projects, anything?
Kenny Aune 29:49
If I wasn't on a mic right now, I'd be like I'd scream. (Laughs). It's okay, it's okay. I'm just dramatic.
Leah Ingalls 29:58
(Laughs) Totally valid. I think that's the most common thing that I hear from people. (phone alarm sounding) Is that me?
Chris Christensen 30:01
(Laughs)
Leah Ingalls 30:02
It's okay.
Chris Christensen 30:11
I thought it was aliens.
Kenny Aune 30:13
Sounds like the aliens.
Leah Ingalls 30:14
It's the only one I can wake up to. I'm so sorry.
Chris Christensen 30:16
No we're keeping that, that was so perfect. That was great. I forgot to say let's all turn off our phones.
Leah Ingalls 30:23
Well, I turned off everything. I muted everything. But (whispers) not my alarms.
Chris Christensen 30:27
That was just an alarm to let us know that it's...
Kenny Aune 30:30
...time to wake up?
Leah Ingalls 30:30
No, it's not time to be done. But I guess so, time to wake up.
Chris Christensen 30:34
All right, everyone, wake up and move forward.
Leah Ingalls 30:37
But yeah, I feel like that is something that I hear pretty often. And I think that's okay. Because I think especially when it comes to creative majors, it's hard to know what lies ahead. Because, you know, with creative projects, you can't imagine what it's going to be until it exists.
Kenny Aune 30:50
Totally. Yeah.
Leah Ingalls 30:51
Yeah, I think that's okay. Do you envision your film having a life outside of PMA? Are you submitting it to any festivals or anything?
Kenny Aune 30:59
I'm going to submit it to a couple festivals. But I'm also not being like, super naive about that, if that makes sense. Like I'm hopeful for this film, I'm very proud of it. I'm not expecting this to go on to Sundance and be like, oh, you're gonna get rich off this film. I'm really excited about this product. And I'm happy of the work that I showcase in it. And I'm really excited for it to be a resume piece. And I'm excited to see if any festivals do pick it up, because I will be submitting to at least a couple. But I'm not expecting this to change the trajectory of my future. And if it does, though, I'll welcome it with open arms.
Chris Christensen 31:35
Sure why not. Any chance of like a monetized YouTube channel down the road?
Kenny Aune 31:42
Oh, yeah. Over the summer one of my things on my agenda is all of the films I made in PMA, having a little catalogue of them, but my early films or not early, like two years ago, they need to be color corrected I look back at them, what was I doing? I did not know what I was doing. That's a side tangent.
Leah Ingalls 32:02
I actually was gonna ask you about color correction, color grading, because it's hard. It's really hard. And I was just wondering if you had a specific palette or look that you're going for with color correcting with your film?
Kenny Aune 32:14
Oh, yeah. This is probably the first time that I've been really conscious of the color grade of my film while in editing, which I think shows a little bit of my immaturity with editing, but also shows how much I've learned in a short amount of time. I have been really going for a saturated, darker look. I was inspired by the color palette usage in like Euphoria. I really liked how they use vibrancy and colors to their advantage, but still make everything feel kind of moody. Moody, I didn't pronounce the D. And so that was kind of what I was channeling for this film. Every shot, I'm turning the blackstone but turning the vibrancy up essentially. And so far, I think it looks pretty good. If I have the time, I want to give everything a little bit more of a glowy feeling. And that's something I've started to do with some of the tools I have. But it's not quite there yet.
Chris Christensen 33:08
This is a perfect time to say we talk about so many different aspects of filmmaking or whatever we're talking about in a given day. And sometimes we don't get around to explaining what all of that is. So along those lines, if you're listening to the podcast, and you have questions about anything that Kenny happened to share today, or anything that comes up in regards to the podcast, please send us an email at pma@cornell.edu. And we might bring it up on the show in a future episode.
Leah Ingalls 33:36
Yeah. So Kenny, I'm gonna ask you one more question. But before I do, is there anything that we didn't cover today that you wanted to mention about your film that you want to get out there?
Kenny Aune 33:48
Oh, gosh, I don't know. If anyone listening to this is going to watch the film or is interested in watching it. Know that it's okay to laugh. Like it is funny. Like that is the intention of the film. And yeah, I don't know.
Leah Ingalls 34:04
Yeah, that was actually my question is when people are walking away from the screening, kind of like rolling the film around their head. Is there anything in particular that you want them to take away? Or remember? Or just, you know, take with them?
Kenny Aune 34:15
Good question. I think everyone is their own captain of their soul. They can take away whatever they want from this film. Like, if they're mad at it, if they liked it, if they hated it, whatever, like that truly is your prerogative. But I will say that the intention of this film was to observe and showcase a bit of an exaggerated take on how Gen Z grieves things. And so, tip toeing that line of grieving something, anything. While in this film, it there are certainly points to laugh at it and laugh at the exaggerated ways in which I feel like we grieve things. It's also okay to use it as a moment to like, remind and reflect that like maybe things aren't okay, and it's okay to not be okay sometimes. Because even though it's funny, it also is serious and it is pretty scary in the world. There's a lot of scary things going on right now. And this film was born out of my observed anxieties with it. So yeah, it's okay to laugh. It's okay to say everything's okay. It's also okay for things not to be okay.
Leah Ingalls 35:32
Absolutely.
Chris Christensen 35:33
Before we close out, if people are looking for your YouTube channel, and they want to view things do we do we want to tell them what the YouTube channel is?
Kenny Aune 35:41
The YouTube channel currently does not exist.
Leah Ingalls 35:43
(Laughs)
Chris Christensen 35:43
(Laughs)
Kenny Aune 35:43
But you can find my website at Kenny Aune k-e-n-n-y a-u-n-e.com. Where I do post all of my films that I make.
Chris Christensen 35:54
Okay, thanks so much for being on the show.
Kenny Aune 35:56
Of course. Thank you for having me. This is so fun. I already talk about myself a lot. Giving me a platform to do so is dangerous.
Chris Christensen 36:03
Maybe we'll have you back on some time. We'll phone you in remote.
Kenny Aune 36:08
Thank you.
