QUESTION 1: What about your film excites you the most?

Séance is a Victorian Gothic thriller set in 1890s California, so I'm most excited to share a period piece with the audience, which is rare for an indie feature. It's very much a throwback to the 1960s aesthetic of The Haunting and The Innocents. If you like subtext, psychological drama, and lots of candles, we're the film for you!

QUESTION 2: What is it about your current movie that will influence your next film?

How long do we have? Ha! I want to do so many things differently on my 3rd film! Like pretty much everything! This was a very stressful shoot, and I think I needed a lot more help during pre-production and production. No one on the producer team, myself included, had the level of experience to make it smooth sailing. There were so many unnecessary headaches. I learned so much on this film, but I think matching the right level of producers to fit the ambition-level and budget-level of a project is so important, so I'm very mindful of that for my next feature. The team you build is crucial. There's some people I'm very excited to work with next.

QUESTION 3: When youre shooting a film do you think of time as something you capture or something you construct?

In general, time is the enemy, because you always want more time as a director. But logistically, time is something you construct. You have to anticipate how long you need for each set-up and for the 3-4 takes or whatever, so it's got a constructed element. You set aside the 45 minutes or whatever in the schedule for this particular thing. And then of course within that brief space, you are looking to capture something transitory. It's the "hurry up and slow down" paradox of filmmaking that is so maddening and beautiful.

QUESTION 4: Whats a limitation you wish you had on your next shoot that would force you into making interesting creative decisions?

I'm planning to shoot my next feature outside of Los Angeles, so I am excited to be constrained by a more specific location. I want landscape and exteriors to play a much bigger role in my third film.

QUESTION 5: If a film shoot is like a living organism which department do you think functions as its nervous system?

Hmmm...maybe the screenplay. It's really the thing from which everything derives. It's the brain!

@seancefilm @ruedangeau

5Q's w/: Vivian Kerr "Séance" Director, Writer, Producer