Rhode Island International Film Festival - The Eyes
When six strangers with unspeakable pasts wake up imprisoned in an abandoned warehouse, they discover they are being forced to participate in an evil experiment; Five must die. One can live. And they have two hours to decide amongst themselves who survives. The clock is ticking and if they don’t decide… they all die.
Interview with Director/Producer Robbie Bryan
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Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I had and still to this day, have been trying to make a feature film called BLACK HAT, a sort of Little Miss Sunshine set in the world of anime and manga with a strong anti-bullying message. http://www.blackhatmovie.com/
Our facebook page has over 600,000 likes. But when you're trying to produce something i.e. rasie money for a project like this for so long, you get stale creatively. So I decided to group together with a couple of friends, who are Producers and actors, pool some money, find a script that would be interesting and marketable and make a feature. I got a couple of people interested, and chose The Eyes, which we found on Ink.Tip.com because it was an interesting challenge as a director, having it mostly in one room, and trying to make it visually compelling. The other reason was for it's statement on how "big brother" is always watching.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I think we do a great job in making you compelled to want to know what is happening next. Who these characters are, who is going to make it out of the room, and I believe again, we have used nice camera movement, interesting composition, variety of characters to make it engrossing to watch.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Basically, the human desire to want to survive, to figure out the answer to the problem,
when and where to allow your inner demons to be exposed to outsiders and as mentioned
how much our world has become such an open book in that anyone can easily look into
your personal affairs.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
When we first optioned the script it was very interesting with an awesome twist ending. People today have been trained to figure these things out so it's fun to watch people be surprised at the conclusion.
Our writer Bob Roe did a wonderful job. Still, I felt it needed elements like a ticking clock, and earlier deaths, to make the situation more dire and to keep the audience at the end of their seat. Little nuances to make it feel like time is literally and figuratively running out for these people. And shooting in sequence was a rarity and made it simultaneous for the characters to get to know each other, at the same time the actors did.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
It has being truly amazing and exciting, People have really started to rally and been so pleased
with the film. And we just went to our first festival, which was the first we had entered, and won the Grand Prize for Vortex Sci Fi and Fantasy. So that's a nice validation and very cool.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
No, it's interesting to see the reactions and just challenges me to want to tell other stories.
This is mostly an entertaining film, a great ride for the audience for 90 minutes, but
it does speak to not judging a book by it's proverbial cover.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
First an foremost awareness, exposure, and letting people know that we are a company
that likes to tell stories of various genres with multi gender, multi ethnic and multi dimensional characters.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We are close to signing a deal with a distributor, we certainly will need a Sales Agent.We would love for the Festival programmers at a few of the major festivals we have applied to to program us, such as Austin, Toronto, Vancouver, Screamfest, Slamdance Telluride Horror Fest, and many others whoI believe we would successfully play at their wonderful events. And of course, all the press wecan get. I love talking about the film.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want people to think about how the world, through technology, is changing, of course.
It's simply ridiculous that I can - let's say - book a flight to New Orleans and immediately
I am getting Facebook ads for hotels and restuarants 10 seconds later. That kind
of infringement is truly scary, as people know where you are, where your children are etc.
But I also believe that films still can and should entertain. They are not curing cancer, at least
most aren't, and that is coming from someone who had to stop production of The Eyes
to battle oral cancer for months, going through chemo and radiation.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Has the use of technology gone too far in infringing in our lpersonal lives?
Would you like to add anything else?
Now just please check us out at www.goodtobeseenfilms.com And our FB page @theeyesmovie
and my twitter @robbiebryan
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Right now I am getting The Eyes out there, going back to getting Black Hat made, and vetting
scripts with my partner Christie Botelho, to make a vehicle for Nick Turturro's next film project
One of our actors Danny Flaherty goes back to THE Americans, another of our stars Ana Isabelle is singing and dancing in a play in NYC, Greg Davis is making videos under his moniker KLARITY where he has almost 3 billion Vine hits and our Prodcuer Spero Stamboulis just wrapped WARNING SHOT with David Spade and Tammy Blanchard
Interview: August 2016
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. 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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The Eyes
When six strangers with unspeakable pasts wake up imprisoned in an abandoned warehouse, they discover they are being forced to participate in an evil experiment; Five must die. One can live. And they have two hours to decide amongst themselves who survives. The clock is ticking and if they don’t decide… they all die.
Length: 95 minutes
Director: Robbie Bryan
Producer: Spero Stamboulis, Daniel Wulkan, Robbie Bryan
Writer: Robert T. Roe
About the writer, director and producer:
Robbie Bryan (Director, Producer) Robbie has written, produced and or directed iMurders with William Forsythe, Frank Grillo, Gabrielle Anwar, Margret Colin and Man From Earth, with William Katt, Alexis Thorpe and Tony Todd. He also shot the short Choose, to raise money for cancer awareness.
Robert Roe (Writer) This is Bob's first produced screenplay
Christie Botelho (VP of Good To Be Seen Films, Producer) Has produced The Stand-In, with Kelly Ripa, Lou Myers and Judith Ivey, as well as iMurders and The Eyes
Key cast:
Nick Turturro (BLUE BLOODS, NYPD BLUE)
Vincent Pastore (THE SOPRANOS)
Danny Flaherty (THE AMERICANS)
Megan West (HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER)
Ana Isabelle (SEASONS OF LOVE)
Greg Davis Jr "Klarity" (TONI BRAXTON: UNBREAK MY HEART)
Steven Hauck (THE BLACKLIST)
Carly Steel (ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT)
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Funders: Yes, for our film BLACK HAT, which will help raise awareness for teen bullying Made in association with: Good To Be Seen Films and Ironheart Films
Release date: 2017
Where can I watch it in the next month?
We are awaiting the result of 15 film festival submissions to follow up on Rhode Island. Stay tuned!