Made on a truly DIY budget around $30,000, Unremembered explores causality and physics anomalies in a non-linear structure to tell the story of a man with no past revisiting events to repair his life.
Read on for an exclusive interview with Portland based director Greg Kerr.
Whats it about?
Unremembered (Indie Fest and Accolade award winner, feature film) is a complex thriller told in non-linear time about a man who has no past. It follows the alternate reality journey of John Outis (Tim Delaney, Indie Fest award winner, lead actor) over sixteen days as he tries to restore his fractured life history. But the more his dark past comes into focus, the more the lives of his friends, his wife, and his lover are altered.
As his past threatens to end his future, he turns to Tina Plantes (Karla Mason), a brilliant and unconventional physics professor. Drawn deeper into the bizarre events of John's life, she discovers a disturbing and far-reaching set of truths about dreams, time, and the power of the human will.
It is frequently compared to Memento and the films of David Lynch.
How long did it take to shoot?
Most of the filming was done over 3 months, with additional filming done briefly over the following two years. We've been working on this project, on and off, from writing to production to post-production for around 5 years.
What is the running time?
There are two versions: 123 min. (Special Edition DVD) and 96 min. (Theatrical Version).
What was the budget?
About $30,000 for everything, including some equipment used since I started out with nothing but a script. The film was originally longer (2 hours and 45 minutes) than the current versions. This was entirely funded by me, and I used some retirement from a previous job and credit cards to fund the bulk of it. I also paid for it as I went along, too, which in part caused the lengthy post-production time.
What's your day job?
I'm an instructor at Portland Community College and I teach multimedia writing and Web design classes. I'm also a founding member and manager of Full Brain Films LLC. Here's more info:
http://www.gregkerr.net/presskit/ff_promo/headshots.html
http://fullbrainfilms.com/about/
Anyone famous in it -- and what else were they in? How did you get them?
SAG actress Karla Mason is the most well known, although she's mostly well known in the Portland area. Music composer Nan Avant is also reasonably well known in the Seattle area. To get Karla, I had to get become a SAG signatory. This is a lot of administrative effort, but very much worth it. Your pool of talent really grows when you do this, and you attract much more serious actors. Of course, getting Karla and Nan required paying them appropriately, too.
How did you find your cast and crew? Did you pay them? How?
I paid the actors SAG wages plus bonuses for the top four actors, which was the single largest expense for the film. I paid most everyone involved. I learned a valuable lesson doing earlier films with only volunteers -- films that never got completed! I did use volunteers for production assistants, extras, and non-vital roles. For volunteers, I always provided food. It's the least you should plan to do.
Any crazy stories from production?
This was by far the easiest production I ever did. There are three stories that come to mind when I think of crazy stories:
1. We filmed the interior night scenes in the day and blacked out the windows with plastic. On one day, I recall it was one of the hottest days ever in Portland -- over 100 degrees outside. With the black plastic over the windows, and the hot lights, it was reaching 110 degrees inside. And I had the smart idea of getting pizza for lunch that had to be baked in the oven. Definitely the least popular lunch idea ever!
2. We filmed the "John walking out into the ocean" shots with our primary camera. We planned to do it with a camera that could be sacrificed, but couldn't get the look right. So my DP Robin and I trudged out with our lead actor Tim Delaney into the ocean, further and further trying to hold the camera just above the waves as they kept sweeping over us and making our footing more difficult, and putting our primary camera at greater and greater risk. And this was only halfway into filming!
3. The river sequences were filmed on the Deschutes River in some of the most intense rapids, known as The Boxcars. Lead actor Tim Delaney was up to doing any and all stunts -- a complete wild man! -- however, our support actor, Spencer Conway, who must appear to drown, wasn't a major swimmer. We were extra careful, but it was still very intense. As the freezing water was rushing over Spencer's head, I recall my Assistant Director, Shane Latimer, yelling "Greg! I think we have the coverage!" as I said, "let's try one more take."
How are you distributing the project? Where did/will it show?
It's been showing at film festivals, including winning honors at the New Jersey Film Festival, the Great Lakes Indie Film Festival, and the Eugene International Film Festival. It also played in Athens, Greece and Corvallis, Oregon at festivals. It showed online at the Manhattan Film Festival as well. At this point, I'm almost done with festivals (except for some local ones) and I'm going to work on distribution.
What's the project's official website?
www.unrememberedmovie.comWhat other projects have you completed? Which, if any, are sci-fi too?
I haven't done any other sci fi films that I've released. Unremembered is really my biggest film to date and the first one I've really worked on getting out there.
What are you working on next?
We are finalizing an intense, emotionally-charged drama (once again starring Karla Mason) called Wrong Room. We plan to release that to regional festivals and as an advertisement of our skills.
With my new company, Full Brain Films, I've joined forces with the amazing women from Unremembered (actress Karla Mason and music composer Nan Avant) among others, and we'll be working on getting investment for a much larger budget sci fi film called Immortality Me. Immortality Me is a high concept sci fi story and more information will be coming out about it in September of this year. We're also planning to do a promotional trailer for the film to encourage investment. We'll begin production on that trailer at the end of this year.
Anything else you want people to know?
Check out Full Brain Films at:
http://fullbrainfilms.com
and follow us on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/Full-Brain-Films/232403281353
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