“PET NAMES follows two doddering young exes escaping the confines of their hometown to go camping for a few days together. Leigh is taking a break from playing nurse for her sick mother, Cam is in between jobs and life goals, and ends up tagging along with his decrepit pug companion, Goose. On the trip you expect them to find some closure, but things quickly become complicated as the two attempt to navigate a minefield of old wounds.” Director Carol Brandt on PET NAMES which screens at the 2018 edition of South By Southwest Film.
Congratulations on your film playing in Austin at SxSW this year! Is your first time here and are you planning to attend your screenings?
Thanks so much! It is my first time, and I’m so excited to watch the film with an audience.
So how did you get into this business? Talk to me a bit about how you got your start and what you have worked on in the past.
When I was 7 my grandma got a VHS camcorder. I fell in love with the medium immediately. She would come to the house with the camera and would have to pry it out of my hands when she left. After high school, I attended UW-Milwaukee’s film program. I knew I wanted to make a feature before I graduated, so during my sophomore and junior years, I did. The film premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival when I was 21 years old. Since then I’ve directed four features, Pet Names being the most recent.
How did this project come together for you? Give me a rundown from the preparation, to shooting, to post-production to now!
I met Meredith Johnston (writer, actress) on the set of my producing partner Martin Kaszubowski’s first feature. Meredith and I kept in touch after the film wrapped, and sent scripts back and forth often. When she sent me the first draft of Pet Names, I loved it immediately. The freshness of her writing and humor jumped off the page and punched me in the face. It was great. We’d been meaning to make the film for a few years, but this past summer opened up and we got very lucky with resources and time. The film was shot in a total of 21 days. 10 of those days the microscopic cast and crew camped together at the same campsite. We wrapped in July, and immediately began cutting the film together throughout the remaining summer and fall, trying to make the SXSW deadline. And well, now here we are!
What keeps you going while making a movie? What drives you?
Honestly, the pure adrenaline of production keeps me going. You have to wake up and orient yourself to the fact that “oh yeah, everyone on this team is depending on my brain today.” I actually try not to drink anything stronger than tea when shooting. But I drink a lot of tea on set. A lot. Meditation also helps a ton but I never do it enough.
What was your biggest challenge with this project, and the moment that was the most rewarding to you?
Typically I’m directing my own screenplays, so the biggest challenge on this project was directing words that I didn’t write myself, and really getting into the emotions of the scenes and “adopting” the film as my own.
The most rewarding moment I can remember on set was when we were shooting the last scene of the film. I specifically scheduled the last scene on the last shooting day at the very tail end of filming, because I knew Meredith would be able to emote the true catharsis of finishing her first feature. The film was written by Meredith about her own life experiences, so I can only imagine the emotional gravitas that had on her to act out these “memories” in front of a camera. We shot one take of the scene, and the emotion in it is 100% raw and real. The take ended with pretty much everyone on set crying. It was powerful. I love moments like that. You’re creating fiction, but when you’re in the thick of the scene and the emotions become very very real, you know you have something great on your hands.
I’m about to get technical, but I would love to know about the visual design of the movie; what camera did you film with, your relationship to the director of photography and how the movie was photographed.
Dana Shihadah was the very talented DP on this film and we worked very closely together before production to ensure we were on the same stylistic page. We knew we wanted to shoot the film at 4:3, we knew we wanted it to have a nostalgic, old polaroid esque feel to it. We wanted lots of headroom and footroom in the wide shots to accentuate the loneliness of the characters. Since we were shooting a lot in natural light, we opted for the A7sII, and the FS5 for pickup shoots.
What are you looking forward to the most about showing your movie here in Austin?
I’m looking forward to so many things, but hands down I’m the most excited to watch the film with an audience and the cast and crew all together. The first screening is the most magical. I get volcanic amounts of butterflies every time.
After the film screens at SxSW, where is the film going to show next? Theatrical, online, more festivals?
Definitely more festivals! They’re a great excuse to travel.
If you could show your movie in any theater outside of Austin, where would you screen it and why?
I’d love to screen at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NYC. The inside of that theater looks insane.
What would you say to someone who was being disruptive through a movie?
I actually love seeing/hearing how people would actually react to the film. If my film causes someone to look at their phone/fall asleep/ talk to their neighbor, I want to know.
We have a lot of readers on our site looking to make movies or get into the industry somehow. What is the ONE THING you would say to someone who is wanting to get into the filmmaking business?
If it terrifies you, you should probably do it.
And final question: what is the greatest movie you have ever seen at a film festival?
Oh god. I’d have to say Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women. I was floored afterward. In my humble opinion, if there’s anyone who deserves more of a spotlight in the film industry, it’s her. She’s a quiet genius.
PET NAMES screens during the 2018 edtion of SxSW as a world premiere in the VISIONS program.
Official site: www.petnamesmovie.com
Twitter: @petnamesmovie