Tropfest - Phenomena
Emma is a young woman who begins to see double of herself, and must come to terms with her reality.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Izzy Stevens
Watch Phenomena on Facebook
Main image: Raechelle Banno and Karina Banno play ‘Emma’ in Phenomena.
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thanks! I wanted to put audiences into the mind and experience of someone who was losing touch with their reality. This film was also specifically made for Tropfest - it’s such a valuable and rewarding platform for filmmakers to show their work, and such an exciting event to be a part of. I have a group of amazing filmmaker friends and we love to find any excuse to work together on projects, which for me, really is reason enough!
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This is a challenging, and quite a shocking film, I don’t imagine that this will be for everyone. However, what I’ve always understood to be a key function of watching films, is to be enlightened on experiences that aren’t ours. I have always enjoyed films that make us feel something before we understand what it really is, because that’s the reality we live in every day of our lives.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film has evolved considerably since its inception. I wrote the script in mid 2016 because I kept having the same, recurring day dream, it wouldn’t leave me alone! I kept thinking about this young woman seeing herself from the outside, and what it would be like for her to try to engage with that other person, to try to understand her, as she looses touch with her reality.
The script went through many phases. After I wrote the first draft, I had very early conversations with Raechelle Banno and Karina Banno (they were two of the first people I showed it to), and they brought even more ideas to the table. It wasn’t until a year later after I had finished shooting Luke Sparke’s feature ‘Occupation’, that I really got serious about making it, and produced another series of drafts.
After we shot the film initially last August, I was sitting in the edit and realised that things needed to change again. So two months later we came back for another day of shooting, and half of the script/story changed. It went through many phases to get to the final product.
We tend usually to look at films as these complete packages, as though the final intention was there from the start, and that is of course the reality for some films, however not quite for Phenomena. I always knew what I wanted to say, however I was playing with the edit and the story altogether right up until the last minute to really make that happen, I really didn’t know how it was going to go.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I think people are certainly confronted by this film - and rightly so. I keep saying to my team how I would love to be a fly on the wall in the conversations about it, because there is nothing I like more than honest feedback, that is the juicy stuff! However we’re getting a lot of: ‘We didn’t see that coming,’ which was exactly my intention. I wanted the audience to be kind of in the dark right up until that final, shocking moment, to have that very clear ‘aha’ moment, and suddenly everything that the character has experienced makes sense: her dissociation, the hallucinations, her confusion… it’s is all justified by the trauma she is experiencing.
What is fantastic is that we’re getting a lot of people complimenting the filmmaker side of things, and that was reflected in the craft award nominations for Tropfest, we had two nominations (Cate Hartmann - Cinematographer, and John Hresc - Sound Design) which was a fantastic slice of feedback, as both of them did such incredible jobs!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It is only challenging in so far as I have worked so closely with this film for 8 months now, I wrote, directed, produced and edited it, so it’s just been existing with me, and to suddenly have it out there, to have it available for anyone and everyone to consume and interpret feels so exposing. However that’s what we have to do as filmmakers! We make films for an audience, and no one can control what they think/feel/experience, so I just have to hope that I treated this very confronting subject matter with enough sensitivity. It packs a punch, I just hope that it’s a meaningful one.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How far will our mind go to protect itself?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Everyone is working hard in the industry which is so exciting! I’m off to act in a feature film in a few months, as well as developing an exciting new project with one of Phenomena’s stars Karina Banno. Raechelle Banno can currently be seen as Olivia on channel 7’s Home and Away, Cate Hartmann is working on a fantastic documentary for the Equality Campaign, Meg Ham is currently working on ABC TV show ‘Think Tank’, and Angie Tricker can be seen in upcoming feature film ‘On Halloween’.
Interview: February 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Phenomena
Emma is a young woman who begins to see double of herself, and must come to terms with her reality.
Length: 7 minutes
Director: Izzy Stevens
Producer: Izzy Stevens
Writer: Izzy Stevens
About the writer, director and producer:
Izzy Stevens is an Australian actor, director and writer whose acting credits include the Australian TV shows ‘Underbelly: Razor’, and ‘Puberty Blues’, and feature film ‘Occupation’, premiering later this year. Izzy’s directing credits include: ‘Placidyl’, and ‘Leap’, and Izzy wrote, directed and produced short film, ‘Phenomena’ which debuted at the 2018 Tropfest.
Key cast: Raechelle Banno, Karina Banno, Angie Tricker
Social media handles:
Instagram: @phenomenafilm
Funders: Kickstarter and self-funded.
Made in association with: Tropfest
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? ABC iView, and Tropfest’s YouTube channel.