Questions and Answers:
Where did you get the idea for the film?
First off, I want to say that the idea was practically forced out of me. At the time, I was still enrolled in my high school film class, so I only had the span of a weekend to come up with this idea. But, with that aside, my ideas are usually inspired through a sudden piece of imagery that comes to mind or some resonant symbol or situation that I adhere to. Once you acknowledge stuff like that, more and more will just start coming to you naturally. As for Gradient, I was very interested in the idea of having black-and-white play a physical role in the film that the characters could observe and reckon with. After that, the plot wrote itself.
Did you have any imagery or symbols that inspired "Gradient"?
To start, I knew I wanted to play around with color and black-and-white, but I wasn't really sure how to do that until one evening I was playing pool, and I observed how the cue ball struck the apex of this triangular formation of billiard balls. This inspired a scene in my mind of a beam of light falling into a crystal and being split into its respective colors. Like I said earlier, once you acknowledge an idea, more and more will start coming to you. So the manner in which I acknowledged this piece of imagery was I brought it to life. Before even the script was written, I composited all of the effects and I think seeing the imagery brought to life really inspired this chain of events that I feel was responsible for the film's completion.
What made you come to the decision to use black-and-white in the film?
When I was initially planning out the idea for the film, I really wanted to emphasize this contrast between color and black-and-white. I felt the only appropriate way to tell a story with such a contrast is to create these two equally contrasting characters. But not only that, I also wanted black-and-white to serve as a plot device rather than as a stylistic or artistic element of the film, which is something that I find is overly clichéd in modern cinema. So, in an attempt to avoid being cliché, I decided to give black-and-white its own meaning. I wanted its origin to assert the idea that anyone, when provoked with something extreme enough, would go to great lengths to attain this sense of satisfaction that they once felt. With having black-and-white serve as a plot device, it naturally becomes its own character that the other characters can observe. And essentially, at the mid-point of the film, the main character is provoked with this manipulative character of black-and-white. This lack of chromaticity forces the main character to come to terms with her wrongdoings and in the end of the film, there's a role reversal going on between not only the two physical characters in the film, but also between the characters of color and black-and-white.
What does the ending mean?
It's funny that you ask that, because when I completed the film, I initially screened it to a select few and was surprised to hear that they each had their own interpretation of it. I think the reason that I was surprised was because I expected them to acknowledge the one solitary ending that I intended. Then I learned that one of the aspects that makes an ending so crucial to a story is its ability to inspire this diverse speculation over what it's supposed to mean, even if it's not what the writer had intended. When I was writing Gradient, I intended for Lynn to eventually experience color again and to do that, frankly, I needed her alive. But I think one of the most forgiving interpretations of the ending was one of a spiritual context - they thought that Lynn died and went to heaven. However my work is interpreted, I don't mind.
Why did you choose "Gradient" as the title of your film?
Well, mathematically speaking, a gradient is a transition from one thing to the next. If you have the color red on point A and the color green on point B, everything in between is going to be the gradient; if you have 10 degrees celcius and 80 degrees celcius, everything in between is going to be the gradient. So, if you were to plot the points of a gradient on a graph, the line of best-fit would resemble a perfect slope. To me, this reflects Lynn's transition from one personality to the next near the end of the film. This is why I have Lynn's transition take place as she rolls down a hill from point A to point B, both physically and figuratively.
I noticed that you worked on some special effects but aside from that, what was the most difficult process of making the film?
First off, I'm going to extract the words "difficult" and "film" from what you just said. Really, those two words pair together like a nice wine and cheese. But first off, I want to say that difficulty is evenly dispursed through all façets of the filmmaking process - at least, that's my amateur opinion. So, we have pre-production, production, post-preduction, and everything before and after. As for Gradient, I think the most difficult process was the actual production. For one, at the time, it was December of 2013 so we had to deal with very cold weather. Not only that, but at the time, I had a back problem, so I couldn't progress very far without a lot of difficulty. But not only was it difficult for me, it was difficult for Thomas (Jacquard) because I had to drag him from his nice warm home. It was also difficult for Siera (Knight) because I dragged her up a hill that I ultimately had to push her down. But I like that you mention the special effects because, though special effects for Hollywood blockbusters are probably very difficult to produce, making the effects for this film was actually relatively easy. Yes, special effects are time consuming, but if you know what you're doing, you can spit them out relatively easy. I think one thing that contributed to the simplicity of the creation of the special effects was, since I had a back problem, my ability to sit back and relax and have my imagination projected on the computer screen in front of me.
What does the film's poster mean?
In order to go into that, I'm going to have to explain a bit of physics. Firstly, every element in the universe has its own fingerprint that can be identified through the electromagnetic radiation that it emits, and this fingerprint is called the emission spectrum for that given element. For the poster, I used the emission spectrum for gold. Now, to explain how this relates to the film, I'm going to have to discuss what the actual image means. To start, this frame is used to foreshadow the ending of the film. As the writer on the project, I felt that the moment portrayed by the poster is Lynn's most positive experience, as opposed to every other experience she's been through in her life. That's why I would consider it her golden moment.
Who is your greatest inspiration?
My greatest inspiration is Christopher Nolan. His storytelling, I find, is both unique and intricate to a degree that has propelled him to the top of my list. He has the ability to carefully consider these complex characters who experience these equally complex events. With so many layers of complexity in one film, it's quite difficult to absorb the entirety of his material in just one sitting... which is something that I believe contributes to his box office success; a lot of people are watching his films more than once. And, as a writer and director, I feel that he's truly mastered his artistic voice as he's able to make these deep philosophical ideas enjoyable to experience and really, these are the sort of commodites that you really don't see in modern cinema anymore.
Film versus digital?
I'm going to blindly accept the belief that film is better than digital media. I haven't personally worked with film myself, just as I haven't worked with a celebrity. But either way, no matter how hard they are to work with, they sell. I also want to feel the satisfaction in knowing that I worked for a plot rather than have a shot digitally rendered and spat out in the form of some processed gigabytes. No matter where you sit on the spectrum, the fact remains that film is a collection of real images, just as a great actor can resemble a real person. Until I'm privy to something that changes my mind, film has to remain the future.
The Making Of
