Nightlight – Exclusive Interview with Filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Staci Layne Wilson
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“For years, the Covington forest has been shrouded in mystery, with a dark past as a final destination for troubled youths. Undeterred by the news of a classmate who recently took his life in those woods, five teens journey into the forest for an evening of flashlight games and ghost stories. But their plans go awry when the friends awaken a demonic presence, an unseen evil that will seize upon their deepest fears-and plunge them into a nightmare of absolute terror.”
We had a chance to catch up with the Nightlight directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who talked about what it was like to assemble a big cast – and a dog!, take them out into the forest, and pick them off one by one.
Dread Central: How do the two of you split up directing duties — who does what on any given day?
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods: We actually embrace all of the directing duties as a team. We’ve known each other since we were 11 years old and grew up making movies together and always had similar sensibilities and taste. Whenever we’re on set, we rehearse the actors together, we direct the camera together, and we make sure communication is crystal clear between us. During pre-production we’re incredibly meticulous to make sure we’re on the same page about every detail. Rarely do we disagree, but if that happens, it’s always before we’re shooting so that our vision is entirely unified.
In order to direct Nightlight, we needed to join the Directors Guild of America, but they rarely accept directing teams since they want to protect the concept of authorship. We had to go in front of the Directors Guild “Jedi Council,” which is an assembly of some incredibly talented and established filmmakers, and prove that our process was all about two people creating a singular vision. We were thankful to get their blessing, and we hope to work together for the rest of our careers.
DC: How long of a shoot was Nightlight, and what was it like shooting outdoors at night the whole time?
SB and BW: We shot for five weeks entirely on location in the forests of Utah. Because we could only shoot at night, everyone became vampires, waking up at 4PM to go to work, and then back to sleep at 7AM. It was difficult to shoot on some of the terrain, and this production definitely yielded more injuries than usual. That being said, there was an exciting energy to filming in the dark, especially in some of the sequences that featured wolves or the freight train.
DC: You cast is so likeable. Please talk a little bit about how you choose actors who really don’t have a chance to build characters (basically, they are cannon fodder) and if there were rehearsals, etc.
SB and BW: We set ourselves up for a deceptively difficult task to convey character, considering the film’s limited point-of-view. We realized this while writing the script, so in casting, we had to find actors who not only were likeable, but able to improvise and perform within our visual constraints.
The way our daily shooting schedule worked out, we were able to take a few hours at the beginning of each night to run through the scene. It was more like staging a play than a movie, and we found ourselves doing upwards of 30 takes sometimes to sell the naturalism.
DC: It’s not a secret that I, personally, am not a fan of found footage/all POV. I prefer cinematography that’s very artistic and nicely composed… however, I must say there was one shot in your film in particular that really impressed me — it’s the one where a character is killed, laying on the ground, and suddenly a growling canine appears and looks into the camera. I’d love to hear more about how you approached the cinematography for Nightlight.
SB and BW: We know what you mean about found footage and definitely feel the fatigue ourselves. That’s one of the reasons we made Nightlight, which we don’t necessarily consider found footage (there’s no camera or tape-recording of any kind). There’s a stigma against this sub-genre because found footage films tend to be either poorly shot or low-budget looking. We were constantly asking ourselves how we can evolve the sub-genre in a way that maintains all the scary claustrophobic elements of the point-of-view, but is more aesthetically beautiful and composed.
We look up to filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, who are very calculated in their choices – there’s a painter’s eye behind every frame. And because Nightlight is not technically found footage, we had license to really develop a singular look that is hopefully more bold and stylized than the sub-genre typically generates.
Our cinematographer, Andrew M. Davis, worked with Panavision to invent and build new rigs specifically so we could achieve some of the stunts and visuals. For instance, we needed cameras to roll down cliff faces, get swept into creeks, and get run over by trains. There was no handbook for how to achieve these effects, so we really loved working with our team to design new cinematic devices to tell this story. It felt like being kids again, playing with Legos in our basement.
DC: Who, would you say, is the ideal audience for Nightlight? What’s the scariest thing about it…?
SB and BW: The scariest thing about Nightlight is what you don’t see – what’s hidden in the shadows and the corners of the frame. If you were to watch the film multiple times, and really scrutinize the background, you would see all the evil things lurking in the trees, constantly closing in on our characters from as early as the first ten minutes of the film. Younger audiences have really embraced Nightlight, but we hope some of the more experienced horror fans who may have checked-out on the found footage genre give the film a chance. It was made with an adventurous spirit and is far more experimental than the typical handi-cam movie. The marketing has kept the true nature of the film’s point-of-view a secret, but we hope audiences take the leap and enjoy the ride.
Shelby Young, Chloe Bridges, Carter Jenkins, Mitch Hewer, and Taylor Murphy star.
Synopsis:
For years, the Covington forest has been shrouded in mystery with a dark past as a final destination for troubled youths. Undeterred by the news of a classmate who recently took his life in those woods, five teens journey into the forest for an evening of flashlight games and ghost stories. But their plans go awry when the friends awaken a demonic presence, an unseen evil that will seize upon their deepest fears—and plunge them into a nightmare of absolute terror.
Categorized:News
