The magic of Sci-fi indie films with the creators of The Strange Dark

by Mila Grgas for Winter Film Festival
See the NYC Premiere of the SciFi feature film The Strange Dark on February 22 @12:00PM at LOOK Cinemas (657 West 57th Street) as part of New York City’s 13th Annual Winter Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!

Edgar believes he can see the future, but his wife thinks he’s mad, his daughter thinks he’s strange, and the agents from Double Star Accounting will stop at nothing to get their data back.

Most writing groups will gather for a month or two and call it a success. The participants will move on to the next group, still searching for the perfect artistic match. Luckily, this was definitely not the case with director Chris Messineo and producer Anthony Pettine of The Strange Dark, who met 20 years ago at Chris’s very successful and still running writing workshop.

“A bunch of us had sold options to our screenplays throughout the years, Chris had sold things, and I was just a big fan of his writing. Chris invited me to a table read of The Strange Dark. I was blown away… it came alive.” Says Pettine.

It was Messineo’s thirteenth feature script and after founding NJ Film School with his wife and teaching for fifteen years, Messineo felt like he was ignoring his own work, “if I was ever going to make my own feature it would be this.”

The Strange Dark encapsulates this kismetic collaboration which was present in the project’s inception. I spoke with Chris Messineo and Anthony Pettine about their experience shooting with most of the cast living on the set, the most important aspects of storytelling, and streaming sci-fi mini-series.

Q: What was the final push to direct your first feature? What was the collaboration process like for you both?

Messineo: It was a small cast in one location, and I felt really passionate about the story. My students were really encouraging to me. The hardest thing for me was the fear of disappointing my students because I had been a teacher for so long, and I realized that suddenly they were going to see my work. Tony and I raised 80% of our budget through a Seed and Spark campaign and %90 of those donations came from my past students. To be a teacher and have your film funded by your students, who are off in Hollywood, who are all sending me notes, now trying to encourage their teacher to do what they’ve been doing, that was really cool.

Pettine: I’ve been a script supervisor since before my beard had grey in it. Because I’ve worked on so many jobs, I’ve seen how certain situations are just magic. What I wanted to give Chris was a really professional crew and the best cast possible. I got my friend Teodoro Maniaci (award-winning Cinematographer for Fallout, Westworld) to DP and it was a great fit.

Q: What was the experience like shooting with some of the cast living in the Air B&B the film was shot in?

Messineo: The five adult actors lived in the house that we shot in. They described it like some weird summer camp for adults. It was really great for them, very bonding. Having them on set was really fantastic. My favorite part of filmmaking if I had to pick would be working with the actors. The vibe we had on set was pretty awesome.

Pettine: It was like summer camp. Everyone really wanted the movie to succeed and we just enjoyed being with each other. Some of the things that made the vibe really nice is I hired Baily Trace, who lived at the house. He cooked breakfast every day, knew everyone super well, and made everyone feel welcome. We as procedures could leave the space for Chris and the actors to play. We tented out the whole house so we could shoot night during the daytime which meant that this place had a big covered porch. You would often find the actors hanging out there, playing guitar and talking.

Q: How much did you rely on practical effects versus computer effects?

Messineo: Practical to me is always better than digital effects. I love old school practical effects. I think the practical effects were the hardest to shoot. We had a stunt coordinator, Tony Vincent, but not stunt people on set. So these are the actors who are falling down or falling out windows and you’re trying to do all of this safely. We took safety seriously so it was simultaneously fun and challenging.

Q: What is the portion of the film which was the most fun to shoot? The most challenging to shoot?

Messineo: It would be hard to pick a favorite scene since there were so many great moments. One of our actors was Bates Wilder, who has been in just tons of films. He was just a joy to be on set with; Bates is very funny. He’s the kind of actor that every take he gives you something different. So working with him was pretty fantastic. One of the most challenging scenes in the film is a romantic scene between two teenagers. We had an intimacy coordinator who did a great job and helped with that.

Q: Do you prefer to work in sci-fi? What was the most formative text for your artistic interests?

Messineo: I’ve worked in both, but my love of sci-fi goes way back. I adored the original Twilight Zone. Close encounters and E.T. — those were definitely inspirations when Teo and I were putting together a look for the film. At its heart for me, whatever genre it is, it’s about the story first and the characters. In this instance, it’s about a family. Sci-fi is the genre we’re working in but to me it’s not about the genre, its about the characters that you care about and you want to go on this adventure with for an hour and a half. Even the villains in our story are their own kind of family. I’ve watched maybe 10,000 movies. For something like this, Isaac Asimov, who wrote I, Robot, he is definitely where I first fell in love with science fiction. If I had to pick someone I would pick him.

Pettine: The science fiction stories that I responded to were the human ones. I like the science fiction films where the science fiction part of it is a surprise in the middle of a very human story, and that’s what Chris did.

Messineo: We also both love Children of Men.
Pettine: Oh Yeah!
Messineo: That’s another one that’s an inspiration for sure.

Q: What is an aspect of storytelling that you think modern fantasy/ sci-fi films need to explore more?

Messineo: I think there are brilliant current films, Like Everywhere All at Once, which is one of my favorite of the last couple of years. I feel sometimes modern films can put the effects first before the characters and nowadays, especially with the prevalence of greenscreen audiences have a sense of, ‘Is this even really happening?’. I particularly love the grittiness to indie films, sometimes, where things feel more real.

Pettine: I learned that it’s really important to have characters who are human beings with human moments. More than anything else this movie is about a family, a couple families, and I responded to that right away.

Q: Many sci-fi and fantasy works have moved to muli-episode series on streaming services. Do you think that sci-fi/fantasy work is better suited to TV or Film?

Messineo: I love them both. You know Fallout on Amazon, which I think half of our crew and Tony worked on, is amazing. For me, it’s all about a story with a beginning middle, and end. I like it when a limited series has plotted out the whole story. What I don’t like is when TV doesn’t know where it’s going. I want character arcs and a journey that I feel complete at the end of. I don’t want them to try and reinvent it and break things along the way that we loved.

Pettine: I’ve thought about this a lot. I like the limited series model with five to eight episodes of something. The reason I think that is — I was an English major — it’s more like the rhythm of a novel or a classical play. You can be episodic but you can dig into characters too. I’ve done 22 episode network TV and after two or three seasons you get into the Evil Twin scenario. There’s nothing superfluous about what Chris has done here. And that’s a testament to his good writing.

Q: What’s your advice to young filmmakers starting out in the industry?

Messineo: The quick pieces of advice I always give is its story story story. You need to learn writing. You need to share your work with people who you trust. You can’t make a good move from a bad script, so it starts with that. When you are starting out keep it simple; your first project should be more intimate. When you are indie you need to work with what you have. If you are telling a story about characters that you’re passionate about, then you’re at a great start.

Pettine: My own only advice is to treat every job like it’s the most important job of your life, no matter what it is. I think the thing with all the jobs that were successes was that the scripts were great. Spend as much time as you can on that script. A lot of people bite off more than they can chew. You have to really work at it to be a writer. Get a really good sound mixer. Make sure you can adapt. Sometimes that’s the best part of filmmaking, if you can’t control it, you have to be open to the magic.

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