NEMISIS - Sylvia Douglas Interview

(upbeat rock music) ♪ On this planet and I'm gonna run ♪ - Joining us on Moving Radio today is one of the filmmakers that's gonna have their short film featured as part of Northwest Fear Fest. Our guest today is Sylvia Douglas and the film we're talking about is called Nemesis. It's a short film screening as part of Alberta Kills. I don't know, I don't have to say it like that, but I just feel like saying it like that. It's Alberta Kills, the short package on Sunday, October 18th at 6.30 p.m. at the Metro Cinema Silvia. Welcome to the program. - Thank you so much. I'm really stoked to be here. Long time listener, so this is great. - Oh man, finally, the pay-old is working, right? I'm so glad. No, we're happy to have you. You do great work. And you know what's exciting too is that not only is it your short and other Alberta feature shorts, but you're gonna be there for Q and after the screening as well. So, trust me, there's lots of other things Sylvia's gonna have to say beyond what she's talking about today on Moving Radio, that's for sure. So maybe let our audience know a little bit about how Nemesis revolves around revenge and an ancient goddess coming together. - Yeah, so Nemesis is the story of teenage girls that dabble in the occult in order to enact revenge against the people that have done harm to them. But the thing I was most interested in in a revenge story especially from a youthful point of view is that power is dangerous, especially when it's occult and supernatural in nature. When you don't know the full consequences of the power that you're dabbling in, there can be unforeseen consequences of that. So yeah, I really wanted to look at the complexity of revenge and I've always wanted to tell a revenge story so I was really grateful for this script. - Yeah, and this is territory that we've seen in different films before too, this idea of the kind of coming of age, kind of revenge fantasy on all those things that we've had happened to us or just even about the idea of, you know, maturing, right? There were elements of like the craft that I thought of, maybe ginger snaps, a little bit carry, right? Tell us a little bit about what you and Andrew Foley, the writer, we're hoping to explore through these three characters, Madison Hanna and Chloe's meeting. - So definitely informed by late '90s, early odds, supernatural, female lead horror experiences. I love that you picked up on the references. Those are not an accident. They are somewhat homage and just really, we wanted to sink into a really specific aesthetic which the director of photography, Tamara Canoe, was uniquely equipped to make beautiful. And yeah, Andrew and I worked really closely on this. It is his creation. It is his screenplay. It actually is born out of a feature length that he wrote and I told him I loved it. This high school slasher, but I feel like we do, we put our own spin on it. Andrew certainly like up to the violence, which I found very exciting and wanted to be a part of as a filmmaker, but I told him, I don't know how to produce and direct a feature length yet, but I want to direct more horror. We kind of chose some scenes together and I told him if you can touch on these points, I think there's a short film in there that can be the proof of concept of your feature and proof of capability on my part to be able to produce and direct something in the genre. So the centerpiece is really around the ritual that the three main characters enact and the director of photography had this beautiful vision of having this rotating dolly shot that I think really is enchanting. It really is like mesmerizing. So you really feel like you're part of the ritual. - What's one thing I was gonna say is that, it's clear that there is definitely a familiarity for yourself in the way that it's shot with the genre itself and maybe some elements of that sprinkled throughout some of your work before, but I'm just gonna kind of compare it to something very definitely you did like the inner ring, right? A short film like that, which is very much about movement and character and that kind of connection. So with something like this, like how do you approach directing a specific genre of film? And did you feel like, you know, you just said, hey, you nailed some of the references there. Do you kind of look at it as like, this is your own stew, you know, you're putting some ingredients and things that are super familiar for you that are comfortable, but you're also like, here's my own spin 'cause I felt like there were a few moments like that as well or like, oh, this is uniquely Sylvia. - That's a fabulous question that I've never really thought about before 'cause when you're in it, like I love the analogy of the stew. When you're in the stew, like I feel, I also really enjoy cooking. So it's a wonderful analogy. I find like cooking as an art, just like filmmaking as an art. And it's yeah, it's choosing ingredients which are gonna come from familiarity definitely. I really wanted, I think, thank you for bringing up the inner ring, that is a very different film because of the movement based. But that was, they both show things I'm interested in terms of filmmaking is the show don't tell, of course. But I really like conveying feelings through images which is maybe that's very obvious, it's film. But I find sometimes people tell and don't show. And some of the films that I love are very atmospheric, they don't give you a lot of dialogue, they don't give you a lot of explicit explanation of what's happening, much more is left up to the audience. And I'm a lifelong horror fan. And because from a young age, I was transfixed by movies that made me feel bad. And I wanted to understand that yucky, awful feeling. Like when a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre makes you feel sweaty, like why is that happening? Or a movie like Alien makes you feel also kind of sweaty and damp. Or movies that feel like smelly or yucky. I, yeah, that's something that I'm interested in experimenting with, like can I transfer different senses through a moving image that are, that create a more visceral experience, I guess. - Today we're speaking of moving radio with Sylvia Douglas, the director and producer behind the short film Nemesis. You can see it as part of the Albert Kills shorts package on Sunday, October 18th at 6.30 p.m. at the Metro Cinema S part of Northwest Fear Fest. When I'm watching this film as well, you know, it taps that around like 13 minutes or so. It felt like this is a film that has boundaries that go beyond just what that 13 minutes is, because you're kind of creating a much larger world than you tend to see in films at that length. So I was fascinated by all the things that were going to be happening before and after that I haven't seen yet. And then I kind of started thinking to myself, what advantages are there to creating a film like that that feels like it does have boundaries that are going to go beyond and relationships that will deepen and characters that are going to grow. But also too, you've got to kind of put in a nice little tidy package of being like 15 minutes or less. - Thank you for picking up on the world building. That was something that was really important to Andrew and I. Also through the process of shooting. So Andrew wrote it as a feature. The in between we had three days on set. One day was prep, two days shooting, and we shot 17 pages, which is ridiculous. That was, but we made it work because we had an incredible team. So something, yeah, we were really interested in the world building. And then on our last day shooting, Andrew came to set. He's like, I haven't slept because it's not a feature. It's a series. And he has already broken out the world of nemesis as this more lived in supernatural place because I really wanted to blur the lines of what is real and what is not real and to amp up the supernatural elements and that being, we shot it all in the orange hub, which is also why we are able to shoot very efficiently. I've also really, again, have to praise Tamara's vision to use this very familiar space to almost every artist in Edmonton and to shoot it in a way where we lean into its uniqueness, lean into its weird elements and make them, again, feel kind of like saturated in this strange energy. And so, yeah, Andrews had this idea. He has all these other character moments, more backstory for Chloe and Hannah's characters and more expansion of how the supernatural elements work in this time out of time retro kind of world. So, yeah, super excited about that and his incredible vision. He's also a very talented illustrator, so a lot of the concept art and the concept of the character of nemesis. If you see the film, you'll find out what that looks like. that all came from Andrew. illustrations so it's very cool to work with someone so multi-talented and creative. You know you refer to the working relationship between you and Andrew and trying to create the story as well as cinematographers and you know I mean obviously actors they're everyone's part of that process right and then I'm constantly fascinated by you know anybody that is willing to kind of let their short film go or the first feature go to like somebody else to edit because it is a little bit of like you know letting your child go way to like college and you're just like oh no I spent 20 years with you and I don't know what to do without you but you know you had to feel very confident in having somebody like Crystal Moss editing this with you so tell us a little bit about what that's like working with somebody who maybe comes in from the outside and gives you that fresh perspective when you're going through the editing and maybe how that changed some things that maybe you didn't see when you were looking at Nemesis's director is on the set and maybe you know starting to get through the editing process. Crystal Moss is a warm delightful wonderful person like it is a gift to be able to work with such kind and generous people I think it results in better work from everybody involved. Crystal has a tremendous amount of experience in documentary and some television so initially her pacing was much different than what I would have chose and so it was very fascinating to see you know faster cuts and snappier dialogue but as we work through it together I just kept on saying I was like more space more space less you know but it made I think especially that ritual scene and and then the last scene of the film very she had that she has really great pacing instincts that I think really lent to the story and yeah I trust her 100% because we had such clear expectations of each other at the outset we had some really great in-person editing sessions she's so such a good communicator both visually and then also like verbally when we're working together and yeah I wish that I wish everyone the gift of such a such a gentle and generous editor. The score of a film is important for everything but I think even more so when you're working with something that is thriller or horror film especially so talk just a little bit about how you felt about where you wanted the score to go and then also at the end you have a fantastic song that really kind of caps it off because they're a great band so talk just a little bit about the musical influence on your short film Nemesis. Oh for sure I'm so glad you asked so the composer the original score is done by none other than Matthew Cardinal and he's actually one of the first people that I reached out to beyond so it's like Andrew and I and I told Tamara immediately because I knew I wanted to work with her again and then Matthew was this like person right after that he was for someone that's that his work isn't going to come in until post-production I knew I needed I knew I wanted his work he he's got a really wide musical language to play with but I knew I wanted something synthetic kind of like eerie and drony but also there's a moment near the beginning of the film which I call like our little girly pop moment and when I asked him I was like hey can you do something a little girly pop and he was like I'm glad you asked and you know so he just had some really great ideas and instincts so I almost like didn't have to do much like once we talked about influences he's really just talented in no story and no character so that that was amazing and then rebel girls so cool so last year to like 2025 at Purple City it's a month before we're shooting I see this riot girl punk band from Calgary playing the free block party at like noon on a Saturday and after they're set ended they're loading up and their moms are helping them get their gear into the van and I just came up to them I was like hi I'm an independent filmmaker and I'm making an occult teen slasher film I would like to pay you money to write an original song for my film and they were just like oh my god is this happening and and they were so keen and again like they just they were so perfect like this is a group of teenage girls that met at band camp and then formed this really great riot girl punk band and they have like their lead singer incredible the whole team you can see their cohesion um their creative and their friends and they totally delivered the song is is so sick and so then this year they played Purple City and they were upgraded into the free mason's hall and it was a really wonderful moment to have it come full circle where they played nemesis on the stage and they gave me a little shout out I got a really great video of them got to chat with them after I've made a little bit of a merch so I got to give them some of the some of the pins that we've made and I'm just so so impressed with their their excellence and their their creativity like I gave them the brief and they absolutely nailed it I guess I'm moving radio Sylvia Douglas we're discussing the short film nemesis it's all part about burda kills shorts package on sunday october 18th at six thirty p.m. at the metro cinema and it's part of north west fearfest of course you've been listening to Sylvia right now but you can also meet and hear more Sylvia at the Q&A following that screening as well all right Sylvia it's time for shameless self promotion we love it on this show tell people how they can connect with you in your work please come to north west fearfest the whole festival has like a wide range of horror classics to some new releases super excited for the programming on sunday night I can't wait to see the other shorts that are in the Alberta kills package I have a website it's my name Sylvia Douglas calm I have Instagram so I post some behind the scenes photos and stuff there it's at Dougie creative you can find it for my website as well but yeah the behind the scenes photos are a ton of fun just to see how a short a local short film gets made I think that's my shameless promotion and if you want nemesis merch all I don't know I'll have it on me ask me for it and give me money I love it extremely shameless that's fantastic Sylvia it's always a pleasure to talk to you really appreciate having you on the program today and friends go check it out it's nemesis at the metro cinema sunday october 18th at 6.30 pm I have a feeling while we'll be talking again in the future Sylvia you know what you do too much good work for us not to thank you Christian