A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Below
Genre: Thriller
Date: Feb. 2020
Director: Chance Muehleck
Producer: Melanie S. Armer
Writer: Chance Muehleck
Cinematographer: Corey Parsons
Production Company: Nerve Tank Films
Budget: $5,000
Financing: Self-financed
Shooting Format: HD
Screening Format: 16:9
World Premiere: N/A
Awards: Finalist: Katra Film Series. Nominee: Best Micro-Short, FilmQuest
Website: www.chancemuehleck.com
indieactivity: Tell us about “who you are”?
Chance Muehleck (CM): I’m a bicoastal writer, filmmaker, and theatre artist. I’m also a part-time philosophy nerd and a full-time cat servant. I drink red wine even when it’s 100 degrees out and I think the first Alien movie is the best Alien movie (please don’t @ me).
Introduce your film?
Chance Muehleck (CM): Below is a one-shot, first-person thriller with a twist. It’s very short – three and a half minutes – and 95% of it is from the camera’s POV. I can’t say much about the ending, but there’s a comic element baked into the story.
The short film BELOW written and directed by Chance Muehleck
Tell us why you chose to write, produce, direct, shoot, cut/edit the movie? Was it financial, chance, or no-budget reason?
Chance Muehleck (CM): I have a theatre background so I’m used to hustling and wearing a lot of hats. I believe in making stuff, rather than waiting around for a green light from an outside party. Some projects require more support than others, of course. In this case, I wanted to begin with a clear sense of what was available to me. It’s really about marrying ambition with context, so you can execute something that’s at the limit of what you think you can achieve. There’s a bit of reverse engineering in that process.
Introduce your crew?
Chance Muehleck (CM): Well, I have to first mention my producer, Melanie S. Armer, to who I also happen to be married to. This isn’t our first rodeo; we’ve worked together for many years and we co-run The Nerve Tank. Melanie is also a director, a production designer, and she makes giant sculptures out of steel. So between the two of us, she’s clearly the cool one.
My DP was Corey Parsons. All I can say is I’m glad I got to work with him before his career takes off because that’s about to happen. Corey knew exactly what kind of film I wanted to make and he really went the extra mile on set. I mean, the camera is a character or a stand-in for the audience, so there had to be a certain “life” in the footage. He spent all day under a bed with elbow pads and a dolly rig to get us exactly that.
I’ll also give a shout-out to Chi K. In, my gaffer and, later, editor. He was totally invaluable during production and in post – he knows what you need before you do. Kind of uncanny. Alex Pahl Skinner did the incredible makeup (which you’ll only see if you watch the movie). I’m quite proud that we didn’t use any CGI – it’s all Alex’s skill and ability to do a lot with very little. And Kevin Dippold, my sound mixer, also scored the film. Kevin has a fantastic ear and is one of the best vinyl collections of anyone I know.
What is the source of the idea? How did the story develop from the idea? And how did the story evolve into a screenplay? Why do this story? Do you have a writing process?
Chance Muehleck (CM): I like to turn the tables on conventional ideas and see things from new angles. I usually wait to begin a project till I have two seemingly disparate ideas, and if I can collide them, something surprising might happen. With Below, I wanted to keep it very simple, conceptually. The viewer should be immersed from the first frame. Then we go on a bit of a ride, and soon enough, you discover your assumptions might’ve been mistaken. That, in a nutshell, is how I’d describe all my writing. The goal isn’t to fool people for the sake of fooling them. It’s to suggest that there’s more going on in any given situation than meets the eye. So I look for metaphors that’ll help me get there, which is an unfortunate obsession to have but I’m powerless to resist it.
You shot the film in days. How long were your days?
Chance Muehleck (CM): Below was shot in one 12-hour day, from load-in to load-out. We dressed the set in the morning and did some rehearsals. I think we even got a take or two in before lunch. We wrapped in the evening, having done ten takes of the main action. And the tenth is the one we used – the one where everything came together in just the right ways. It was the sigh of relief heard ‘round Los Angeles.
During the film production, what scene (that made the cut) was the hardest to shoot? And why?
CM: Long takes are always tricky, and Below is essentially one long take. The sheer amount of choreography was daunting. It’s a dance between the camera and the actor (the heroic Rachel Rath), with several things happening at once, and it all has to appear seamless and unforced. But this is the very reason we do these insane things, isn’t it? Just ask Sam Mendes.
What was the experience like of working with a small shooting crew?
CM: I love working with small crews. Everyone brings their A-game and there’s a-shared, focused energy. On larger productions, sometimes, that energy gets dispersed. Entropy creeps in. It’s the director’s job to keep people on the same page and in the same aesthetic world. That’s much easier to do when you know everyone’s name.
The film looks stunning. How did you get such a good look when shooting so fast?
CM: We were very lucky in terms of equipment. When he realized what the premise of the film was, my DP reached out to Sony about using their Venice + Rialto package. It was the perfect setup for what we were planning, given the challenges of a tight space. Sony agreed, and suddenly we had our hands on an incredibly versatile camera that could capture these rich, deep images in low light. Moral of this story: It’s always worth asking.
When did you form your production company – and what was the original motivation for its formation?
CM: Melanie and I founded The Nerve Tank in 2006 as a theatre-producing entity. Even then, though, we thought we might branch out into other media at some point. We’ve staged many innovative shows over the years. The Nerve Tank, which encompasses Nerve Tank Films, was formed as a container for all our creative endeavors, and as such we’ve been able to collaborate with some amazingly talented folks. Our core company has been with us for over a decade (yikes!).
How important is marketing? Talk about the festival tour? Do you think a project can make a dent without it nowadays?
CM: Below has screened at over a dozen festivals worldwide, and it’s available online for free and on Amazon Prime with a subscription. Our strategy was to open the floodgates with this film. We don’t want any barriers to entry. It’s been a great calling card for us, but if we’d been precious about its release I don’t think it would have gotten the buzz it has. Horror shorts in particular benefit from sharable links and word of mouth. We’ve tried to use that to our advantage.
What do you hope audiences will get from the presentation of your film?
CM: Tension and release.
What else have you got in the works?
CM: I’ve been commissioned to write a new play that’ll probably be produced in New York in the fall. It’s an outdoor venue and I’m devising it with that in mind. And I’m working with someone to develop my audio drama, Dreamland, for television. Hopefully, I’ll have news about that soon. Oh, and I learned how to make lasagna – it’s now my go-to pandemic meal, for better or worse.
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