IN VACUO > NOTES
In Vacuo is my third film completed but fourth produced. After shooting another, far more complicated film, I wanted to decompress by making a fun short with some of the same people. Of course, this “short” quickly expanded into a half-hour mini-feature. In contrast to The Night Man, which was a moody film driven by lengthy conversations, I wanted In Vacuo to be lean and mean, with much less dialogue. In fact, the hero spends most of the film with duct tape over his mouth. It takes place in the same world as The Surfer and The Night Man, and further chronicles the mysterious Straw Brigade’s pursuit of the Markopoulos family and its advanced DNA. That plot element appeared around the edges of the previous films, but here it takes center stage. The film is also my condensed twist on the Patty Hearst story, with a rich young heir being kidnapped by radicals, locked in a closet, and brainwashed. Kim Cash’s character ‘Tania’ was named after the alias Hearst was given by her captors of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Brandon Hill deserves the most credit for the film because I wanted to work with him and this was the project he chose out of several stories I gave him to read. Major thanks also go to Caleb White for crucial help with locations, to actress Kim Cash for her infectious enthusiasm, and to Matt Arnett for jumping aboard late in the game and hitting the ground running. |