Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I really want to see this movie. I love the trailers, and I’ve heard it’s a smart little piece of nihilism. Count me in. Of course, Mr. Beaks has already had a peek, and he’s already talked to the husband/wife team who produced and directed the film. Check this out...
Like so many kids who grew up in the time of Spielberg, I’ve had a fascination with sharks and shark films ever since the bearded bastard ruined swimming in the ocean with JAWS; thus, when I first read about OPEN WATER in a brief article run on NEWSWEEK’s website during the Sundance Film Festival, it instantly became a must-see for 2004. Never mind that, in the past, I’ve considered such dubious entertainments as GREAT WHITE, DEEP BLUE SEA and, hell, the three JAWS sequels to be must-sees; this one, with its actors-swimming-in-chummed-water audaciousness (or insaneness), sounded too good and too inventive to pass up.
Starting this Friday, fin freaks are finally going to get their chance to bob along in the water with Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis, the two brave, unknown actors who put their lives in the hands of Kentis and his producing partner/wife Laura Lau as they precariously filmed the story of two leisure divers stranded in shark infested waters. I’ll share my thoughts on the film later this week, but, for now, here’s the transcript from a better-than-average roundtable interview with the filmmakers in which I took part last week. For those of you who, like me, have been giddily awaiting a decent shark flick after shamefully dedicating two hours to RED WATER last year on TNT (do not judge me too harshly), this chat will hopefully serve as a nice warm-up to the looming release of this long-awaited Sundance sensation.
When did you first have the idea to make a movie based on diving and sharks?
Chris: Well, you know, we were aware of the story because Laura and I are divers. We’ve been diving for about eleven years as recreational divers. I read about it when it happened in the 1990’s, but it was about three or four years ago, with the advent of all those real affordable digital technologies that now exist, and the success with the Dogme ’95 films – a lot of accomplished filmmakers out there experimenting with this new medium – we were excited about the fact that we could afford to finance ourselves, and, thus, control completely and have the freedom to experiment and make a movie in that way.
Laura: And, also, digital video has a very distinct look to it, so we wanted to try to find a story that we felt would actually benefit from that medium, you know, that imparts a real sense of realism. Not every story should be told in this format—
Chris: Most probably benefit more from a 35mm looking…
Laura: …film. Once we knew we wanted to make a digital feature, we also wanted to try to take the medium somewhere where we hadn’t seen it before. You know, we hadn’t seen a digital feature shot in the water. We live in New York, and there are a lot of people making digital features there – you know, talking heads, which is great stuff. But we wanted to do something different. So, when this story came to mind, it felt like it really was a marriage of a lot of our interests. It was a good marriage of a story with a particular medium.
But I think it was quite daring to do a film like this, filming in the water. What gave you the confidence?
Chris: Well, it wasn’t a matter of confidence at all; it was a matter of the challenge. It was a matter of, you know, being open—
Laura: We didn’t know if it would work or not particularly. (Laughs.)
Chris: There were a lot of reasons why it probably wouldn’t work, and that was kind of the turn-on: it was going into something that we hadn’t seen before. We had an idea, obviously, that we thought we could pull it off, and it was kind of a marriage of a lot of interests of ours. And because it was such a simple storyline, which was very attractive to us, it was a chance to maybe explore some other scenes. But it was a matter of taking two unknown actors – and, consciously, we went with the unknown actors because it was part of the whole recipe of trying to make this as realistic as possible. I think movie stars, recognizable stars, would’ve shattered that illusion. But, uh, in working in seemingly one location, keeping it interesting was certainly something we were nervous about, and wanted to try to rise to that occasion.
Were you inspired by any of the other shark movies, like JAWS?
Laura: We were very conscious of JAWS, of course, but that’s a great film, and we were conscious of really wanting to not try to repeat JAWS. We wanted to try to do something different; we wanted to portray the sharks, also, in a way that we hadn’t seen done in film before.
Yeah, because after I saw the movie, I was thinking about that five minute monologue that Robert Shaw did, talking about the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis—
Chris: That’s interesting.
And no one’s ever touched that.
Chris: People have been trying for years, and it’s a dream project of mine. A lot of top directors have tried to get that project off the ground. I don’t why it hasn’t – the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis – and certainly, my knowledge of that from a lot of reading is something that I’ve always been interested in, this was a chance to explore some of the themes. If you’re not familiar, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser that went down at the end of the war, it was sunk by a—
Laura: World War II.
Chris: - by a I-58 Japanese sub. The men, about 11,000 of them – it was off Guam – were in the water for five days, and nobody knew that they were missing. But the most important factor is that we didn’t set out to make a shark film; we didn’t even really consciously set out to make a horror film. We were touched by this true story that happened. It had the right amount of challenges; it was simple enough to explore some… bigger themes that we were interested in, and, you know, if we were going to tell it properly and accurately, eventually it was a reality that sharks would be a part of the story, an element. Also, working with the sharks, it was never a matter of… I’ve read in places that we couldn’t afford digital effects, or whatever. At any budget, the key was to work with real sharks, because, as divers, we knew we could, and it was to get it as real and as right as we could. It wasn’t some stunt; it was just an element that seemed the best way to capture that on film.
I know these sharks are kind of docile, or they’re at least used to humans. Was there ever a danger of, while chumming these waters, attracting sharks that were less used to humans, and maybe a little more dangerous?
Laura: Well, safety was paramount to us, so, you know, we had the actors open water certified. During the casting process, we took them diving to make sure that they were really comfortable. And we went down and worked with Stuart Cove, you know, in Nassau Bahamas, who is, like, *the* film guy when it comes to working with sharks. He’s worked with the same population of sharks for more than a decade; he’s taken more than twenty thousand divers *a year* into the water with these sharks, so we never really for a moment felt that any of us were in danger. The actors had on anti-shark chain mail. Everything was very, very controlled.
Chris: As far as being docile, this species of shark, Gray Reefs and Bulls, the Bull is probably the most dangerous shark in the world. They’re credited with more shark attacks than any other shark in the world, and there weren’t that many of those.
Laura: They’re not docile.
Chris: And the Gray Reefs… you know, this was a population that we were working with, as Laura just said, that Stuart was familiar with, and he really understood them. But if I ran into a population of Gray Reefs anywhere else – there’s a population of them of them off the Bikini Atoll that are so aggressive that divers won’t get in the water with them. National Geographic puts robot cameras in. So, it wasn’t a matter of species – certainly, Tiger Sharks are in the area – it’s that these are Stuart’s waters, and he’s worked with all the sharks in those waters.
Laura: But I suppose you’re right that, you know, there could be an accident, and we were wary of that.
OPEN WATER is emerging in the theaters at a time when independent films are really able to compete for the first time on a major level with studio films. Were you aware of this trend when you went into making this film, or is that something you’re completely stunned by?
Laura: We’re completely stunned by it.
Chris: Beyond stunned.
Laura: It’s really quite amazing… you know, we knew from the Dogme ’95 movies that there was an audience for these kinds of films. But I think, actually, our feature, at least Lions Gate is telling us, it’s sort of an unprecedented release. Never has a digital feature been released on this kind of a scale – internationally or even domestically.
Chris: The irony to us is that, on one hand, we feel like we’re about as independent as you can get, because you’re looking (indicating the two of them) at the crew, production company, everything having to do with OPEN WATER. This is who made OPEN WATER. Her sister, she’s a lawyer, she came out and helped and made sandwiches and worked with diving equipment. But we couldn’t get more independent in our minds, and, now, we’re suddenly getting one of the largest commercial releases. I mean, we were blown away that we got into the Sundance Film Festival, that’s an honor that we don’t take lightly, but this is just surreal.
Laura: Yeah, it is. It’s really quite amazing. But I think that things like SUPER SIZE ME and FAHRENHEIT 9/11 show that audiences do… that there is room for all kinds of movies. I mean, there is an audience that is interested in things that are different. So, hopefully, we’ll see what happens.
Why do you think this happened right now?
Chris: As far as the openness to smaller films?
Uh-huh.
Chris: Well, I think it’s interesting, and I don’t pretend to know. I think it’s particularly interesting in that everything seems to be compartmentalized as far as summer is the big comic book, blockbuster movie (season), and there are the more serious films in the fall. I don’t know the “why’s”.
Laura: If we could speculate, then maybe our film is something different. Because I think a whole generation now has grown up with computer generated effects. I mean, it’s like everything in a Hollywood movie, even things that you wouldn’t think would need to be computer generated, are computer generated, and our film—
Chris: It’s amazing. I cut trailers for a living, so I’ll see movies, big movies, at all different stages, and I just can’t believe the things that used to have stunt people – jumping over a little stream – it’s computer generated. I was astonished. I’ve worked on some big movies.
Laura: Even like in a room like this, how many things would be computer generated…
Chris: Backgrounds and sets. I mean, I think more movies are shot with greenscreen than anything today. I have an issue with it. I think there are certainly times when it’s appropriate, and times when it’s amazing and magical, but it’s used so often, it takes me, as a viewer, out of a film. It’s like I’m watching two characters, and suddenly I’m watching a video game or a cartoon. So, definitely there was a reaction to that. That we wanted to…
Laura: … return to something. I think it’s funny, because even though we’re returning to something that is sort of more basic and more real. I think it’s different now.
Do you think this might usher in an era kind of like when the Neorealists and the New Wave took their cameras out to the streets, that now people are going to eschew greenscreen and CG?
Chris: We’ll usher it in, but I think it’s been ushered in, and I think we joined the wave. I don’t think we’re starting any wave; I think that the Dogme ’95 guys, you know, Thomas Vinterberg’s fabulous film (THE CELEBRATION) and Lars Van Trier and what these guys have been doing. You look at a Danny Boyle, I mean, all of these guys. Mike Figgis, Steven Soderbergh… I mean, it’s an exciting way to work. It’s a great time to be a young... or old independent filmmaker because the technology is available, and it’s affordable.
Laura: And it gives you the freedom. Because we financed it ourselves, we really had the freedom to experiment; we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted. We didn’t have someone telling us, “This is going to be tested here, and you have to do it this way, and you can’t do it that way.”
Chris: We just didn’t give a shit, which was great. There was none of, like, “Aren’t you worried that the ending’s not (right)?” No, because we didn’t make it for that reason. We made it to try to get it right; at least, what we thought was right. And challenge ourselves.
What if Hollywood wants to remake it and then change the ending?
Laura: Oh, we kid around and… (elided due to Lions Gate’s request).
Have you guys worked on any extras yet for the DVD?
Laura: Yes, actually we have. A couple of things that are important to us that I’d like to include on the DVD… one is a piece on shark conservation, and it’s sort of to educate the public about sharks. We tried very hard to portray the sharks in a way that was accurate. In fact, we had a screening last week with the Discovery Channel (during) “Shark Week”, and their shark expert who’s been all over the world told us that our film was really accurate in the portrayal of the sharks, which was great to hear.
Chris: It’s been great, because there was also a woman who was a part of one of their shows who was stranded in the water and the sharks started closing in, and she went on about how accurate (the film was). Then we had the screening for the diving industry, because they’ve been a little nervous about us, yesterday, and they were incredibly supportive of the film, which was gratifying.
Laura: So… aside from that piece, basically educating the public, because sharks have way more to fear from humans than humans from sharks. There were 100 million sharks killed by human beings last year, and that doesn’t even include illegal finning, and maybe five to fifteen (humans) a year on average are killed by sharks.
Chris: Worldwide.
Laura: Worldwide. And the other piece that I’d like to include on the DVD is a piece about water safety, and, also, what to do. You know, the characters in our film are not experts; they have no idea what to do.
Chris: Which was the key for us… and what the audience would identify with. Because we dive, and we’re not experts at all.
Laura: You don’t know. What do you do? So, that’s another piece that we’d like to put on the DVD is what do you actually do if you get in trouble on the water, and what can you do to prevent what happens in our film from happening to you. So, those are two things that I know are going to be on the DVD.
Are there any commentaries or deleted scenes?
Chris: Well, there might be deleted scenes. We did a commentary yesterday, and Daniel and Blanchard are going to do one.
Laura: And there’s also going to be, like, a film school: how to make a movie in this way type of feature.
Chris: Oh, is there really?
Laura: Yeah. (Laughs.)
Chris: That’s a new one I didn’t know about. Getting back to another thing about the sharks and showing them differently is that any film that we saw before that was great, like JAWS, or lesser ones (like the Beaks-desperately-needs-a-copy-of-classic GREAT WHITE), it’s always the same. There’s always a person in the water, and… as soon as a shark is aware of that person, it’s on them and tears them to pieces. And, as divers, and through our research, that’s just not the case. So, though we know that we didn’t exactly make a love letter to the sharks and we feel a certain responsibility now to educate, I feel we probably portrayed them in the most accurate way I’ve ever seen in a movie before. We didn’t make a shark film in our mind; we made a film that was much more about… well, it had a lot of themes that we could get into if you want to hear them, having to do with things we take for granted. What we take for granted in life: relationships, and people we share our lives with, our place in mother nature, where we fit into the equation in the world. And taking two people who are used to being in control, or at least they believe they are, and putting them in a place where they have little or no control. And, again, sharks were just an element in this, and we tried to portray them in the most realistic way we could.
Shooting on weekends… how did you do that? You had to fly a lot—
Chris: I lied a lot. I took a lot of sick days on Fridays and Mondays. (Laughs.)
Laura: We basically coordinated our schedules. Of course, the actors had to eat, too. So, you know, everyone had jobs.
Chris: Daniel would have a play and Blanchard would have a movie, so we’d have to coordinate it, and that’s why it took some time to get the film finished. But the whole key to this movie for us, the process by which we made it, was really important. Because no matter what your best efforts are, it really is a roll of the dice how it’s going to be received. And we seem to have hit the jackpot here, which we’re beyond blown away by. But the fact is: we wanted to work in this intimate, close way; in a certain kind of creative environment where it was a real… what’s the word?
Laura: Collaborative?
Chris: A real collaboration on all parts. And that was part of the casting process: finding people we were comfortable with, and having that bond of trust.
What was the actual event that inspired this film?
Chris: It was initially inspired by a story that happened in Australia in the late 1990’s off of North Queensland. What happened is that once I read about that, and we decided that we were actually going to turn it into a film, I did some research and found that it actually happened often. Not (too) often; I think the dive industry has got an extremely safe record, and it’s a rare occurrence. And if you look at any other sport you’d probably find more recklessness in those sports than you would here, but nevertheless, (it happened) enough that it was a little disconcerting. What we were interested in is the fact that this happened, how did it happen, and, especially, what was it like out there. So, you know, the personal lives and relationships between the people that it happened to, not only were they not pertinent to the story that we wanted to tell, but they were none of our business.
Laura: Out of respect for their privacy.
Chris: Yes. So, the story… what happened to the best of our knowledge is as accurate as it could be. The characters, all the characters, including the people on the boat crew… were totally fictionalized very much on purpose.
Laura: Including our location, which maybe we mentioned before, too. We really wanted to fictionalize everything.
Chris: Disguise that location, and keep it ambiguous. We shot in a lot of locations.
I have a question for you Laura. The press likes to focus a lot, when it comes to these movies, on the writer and director. How did you decide your level of involvement on the film, and, honestly, do you ever feel overshadowed by Chris because of the way the press receives filmmakers?
Laura: Well, you know, that’s been something that we really talked about. In Sundance, we really hadn’t thought about it. In the beginning… yeah, that was certainly something we talked about.
Chris: For better reason in this case than most, because the truth is it’s not really accurate to say I’m the writer and director, and Laura is just the producer. I came up with this idea, and I was very passionate about it—
Laura: I mean, this is not a story I would’ve made. He’s always had a fascination with sharks and the U.S.S. Indianapolis, and that story in the newsletter was something he couldn’t stop talking about for months.
Chris: So, I banged out a draft in about six days. Now, from that point on, the way we work is the lines are blurred – all the titles and stuff. I mean… we started working on this script together, and she’s writing the script with me. She’s directing, she’s talking to the actors… we both shot the film, I did tons of producing; you know, we made this movie together completely in every way. Now, the hope is that, on our next project – there’s a lot of things we’re being hit with now, we’re circling things – but the thing that was most important to us, and hopefully will be our next project – if not, it’ll be the one after that – is that Laura is very near completion on a script. And if she ever gets some time again, because this movie has kept us busy… she will be the writer and director, and I would be the producer. We would work in a similar capacity, but I’d be supporting her vision, which is very different than mine.
Laura: And I think it’s a couple of things: one, it’s certainly, in terms of our personal relationship, learning to collaborate. We’ve been working together for a long time; we’ve been together for fifteen years; we’ve made a short film together; we’ve written a couple of scripts together; we made another feature together, which we also wrote together. It was a little bigger than this, but still an independent film. And I think, in terms of collaboration, we didn’t really get it together until this film. I think part of one of the flaws of that first film – GRIND, which was release in ’97 – was that there really wasn’t one vision behind that film. We both had a different agenda for that film—
Chris: We had two different movies in our heads.
Laura: So, it was a series of compromises; whereas, on this film, I think the writer-director credit *does* belong to (Chris). It’s Chris’s vision. I was very clear that I was challenging him, and pushing him, and I was contributing everything that I had, but it was really his vision that I was supporting. Now, in terms of some of the more global question, absolutely it’s a struggle for women in general. I think we tend to take a supporting role, and I think that Hollywood – and I know (indicating the room) that there are a lot of women here; this is great – but, you know, it’s very dominated by men. Most of the meetings that I’ve taken, I’m the only woman sitting in the room. No offense, guys, but it is (true), and it’s… been a struggle to make myself visible, and to have the poise, and to be taken as an equal partner. It has been a challenge, and it’s been very interesting. Also, I’m Asian, and that’s a very deep conditioning. Asian people don’t stick themselves out, first of all; it’s very tacky. And second of all, as a woman, of course, in Asian society, we’re very much in the background. It’s a very patriarchal society. So, there’s been a lot of conditioning. It’s been a steep learning curve since Sundance dealing for those issues.
Chris: And she has to deal with me, and I’m a bigmouth, and I have no problem taking all the attention. (Laughter.)
Did the actors get paid?
Chris: Yes, they did get paid.
Laura: When we worked, of course, no. They worked for free upfront.
Chris: Upfront, they worked for nothing, but once we sold it, you know—
Laura: We paid them right away.
Chris: And we hope to continue to pay them. It was all deferred; it was a contract and a deal, yes.
OPEN WATER opens this Friday, August 8th, in limited release, and will go wide on August 20th.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
Thanks, man. I’ll be checking this one out the minute it opens.
"Moriarty" out.
