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Next week, our own Sarah Shapiro will premiere her short film “Sequin Raze” at South by Southwest.
“On the closing night of hit reality show The Hunk, jaded, once-feminist producer Rebecca Goldberg’s moral compass is tested when the lawless show psychologist gives her inside information on the contestant she is sent to mentally destroy.”
We talked with Sarah about her creative process, how to get talented actors to work for free, and how her W+K family helped make the project a reality.
W+K: Tell us about the film and how it came about.
Sarah Shapiro: The film is a passion project I’ve been working on for almost 4 years. It’s a story I’ve been obsessed with telling and was actually beginning pre-production on it in Portland before I was invited to be one of 8 people in the American Film Insitute’s Directing Workshop for Women.
It was much harder to shoot it in LA (my community in Portland and at W+K is so strong that shooting here was just way more appealing) but by the time that opportunity came, I had come to realize that the absolute most important element to make this film work was the actors. It’s 20 minutes of wall-to-wall dialogue with lots of pregnant pauses and subtext so I had to work with incredibly skilled thespians and I just wasn’t going to be able to fly them to Portland or convince them to do that for free.
Getting sorta known actors to work for free for 5 overnights involved making it as convenient for them as possible. Especially with someone like Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under, American Horror Story) she has something like 10 dogs and 25 cats–she’s not getting on a plane to go anywhere for free.
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Q: How did you get into filmmaking?
I started writing when I was 5 years old, and started making films at 16. It’s all I’ve wanted to do since the day I picked up a camera. I’ve sacrificed almost all of my vacation time and a lot of my nights and weekends in the pursuit of this crazed dream. When all my friends are out having brunch, I’m usually in my writing studio obsessing over which color post-it to use for plot points and writing and re-writing scripts. I take it super seriously. Almost to my own detriment at times. But I really started by interning at the Northwest Film Center in 1999 and studying fiction writing and filmmaking at Sarah Lawrence.
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Q: What has your other work been like? Does your latest film represent a new phase of growth?
A: My other work is much more experimental, arty, damaged and vague. Wack-a-doodle really. Me dancing with my cat, and my cat in a hot tub, and driving around in a glitter car in a paper-collage world….
Sequin Raze is a full-on, straight-ahead narrative film. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You can’t hide behind your mistakes and call it art. You just have to do it really, really well.
Q: Where did the seed of the idea for Sequin Raze come from? What inspired you creatively?
A: The seed of the idea is from my personal experience. That’s all I can legally say about that.
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Q: Were any other people at W+K involved in the production? Any people from Portland?
A: So many people from w+k made this happen!! Bill Davenport is the godfather of this operation, Ben Grylewicz right behind him for supporting me in all my annoying time off requests and always having my back on every level, Sally Desipio championed the project hard from the start, Patty Brebner has been one of my biggest supporters since day one and I think she’s a frigging genius, Kelly Brickner edited this, Jason Kreher was a major consultant on the edit and just a ridiculously generous friend, supporter and fan, Mike Giepert did title design, Phoeobe Owens is a true lover of art and produced my last music video–the list just goes on and on and on. W+k birthed this baby with me, for sure.
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See Sequin Raze at SXSW:
SXSW Film: Sequin Raze
The world premiere of Sequin Raze, a 20 minute short film directed by our own Sarah Shapiro, is showing three times: Saturday, March 9 (11:15am-12:45pm, Topfer Theatre at ZACH), Monday, March 11 (2-3:30pm, Rollins Theatre at The Long Center) and Wednesday, March 13 (4:30-6pm, Vimeo Theater). Event listing here.
“Sequin Raze” – starring Anna Camp (Mad Men, True Blood), Ashley Williams and Frances Conroy(Six Feet Under) explores the twisted mental anguish of ‘Goldberg’, a jaded, once-feminist producer on a hit reality show, as she psychotically tortures female contestants into on-camera meltdowns, while simultaneously destroying herself. Tonight, Goldberg, egged on by wildly disoriented and lawless show psychologist (Frances Conroy), ratchets up her interrogation to CIA levels and wages mental mortal- combat against spurned beauty queen (Anna Camp) – but she may have met her match.