“Rene is a film student struggling to complete her thesis project. Alone and longing for connection, she finds solace in her work—a film about seven 17-year-old girls who fail their final year of high school and decide to join the Canadian army.” Directors Lev Lewis, Yonah Lewis & Calvin Thomas from SPICE IT UP which screens at VIFF 2018.
I hear you are back this year! Tell me about what you have had here in the past, and your favorite aspects of the city.
We’ve had several films play the festival in the past; THE OXBOW CURE (2013), THE INTESTINE (2016), NEVER EAT ALONE (2016) and MAISON DU BONHEUR (2017).
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.
Calvin and Yonah met at film school. Their first feature, Amy George, was shot two years after graduating. Lev Lewis wrote the score for that film and became more and more creatively involved on each subsequent film. We produced Lev’s first feature, The Intestine, in 2015.
How did this project come together for you? Give me a rundown from the preparation, to shooting, to post-production to now!
It’s a bit of a long story. Here’s the compressed version. We shot Spice It Up in the summer of 2013. We worked for about a year or two perfecting the cut, but it never came together in a way we were entirely satisfied with. So in the winter of 2016 we began to shoot a second part to the film—a film within that original film. This allowed us to add a new, exciting layer to the story and also analyze and critique the original film through our character’s mouths.
What keeps you going while making a movie? What drives you? How much coffee?
Yonah doesn’t drink coffee, Lev drinks one cup a day, Calvin, two a day.
What was your biggest challenge with this project, and the moment that was the most rewarding to you?
Locking picture in 2018, five years after beginning principal photography, was a very good feeling. The film took so long to make that it felt entirely possible it would never be finished, but we’re glad we didn’t stop and proud of what came of the effort.
I’m about to get technical, but I would love to know about the 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.
The film-within-a-film was entirely shot with two GoPro cameras. We wanted something wide, loud, lo-fi and jarring. The GoPro lens is so wide that we had to crop or paint the boom out of almost every shot.
After the film screens at Vancouver, where is the film going to show next? Theatrical, online, more festivals?
Next stop for Spice It Up is Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal.
What would you say to someone who was being disruptive through a movie?
We’re pretty big shushers.
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?
We wished someone had shown us more independent cinema in film school; movies that could actually be made with budgets that could actually be attained by young people fresh out of school. It took us a little while to figure this out on our own and pick up a camera and start shooting.
And final question: what is the greatest movie you have ever seen?
Brian De Palma’s HI, MOM was a big influence on Spice It Up, but not sure that shows.
For more information on the film screenings at VIFF, point your browser to www.viff.org!