A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Under the Lights
Genre: Drama
Date: 2020
Director: Miles Levin
Producer: Miles Levin, Spencer Howson, Nicole Jordan – Webber, Ceylan Carhoglu
Writer: Miles Levin
Cinematographer: Spencer Howson
Production Company: Smileback Studios
Budget: numerals
Financing: Financed entirely through donation
Shooting Format: text
Screening Format: ratio
World Premiere: text
Awards: Savannah Film Festival: Shorts Spotlight: Trigger Warnings (Best Short Film Award), Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival 1st Prize Director Discovery Award, and Woods Hole Film Festival Audience Award.
Website: www.underthelightsfilm.com
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Miles Levin (ML): Under the Lights is a short film about Sam, a boy with epilepsy so desperate to feel like a regular kid, he goes to prom knowing that the lights will make him have a seizure. Under the Lights is my effort as a person with epilepsy to represent the 1 in 26 people with the condition who suffer from brutal stigma every day. Epilepsy is almost never featured on screen outside of horror films and hospital shows. This has lead to a culture of fear. People with epilepsy are ostracized from their schools, families and frequently fired from their jobs. I wanted to send an audience home with an authentic point of reference. It’s hard to hate your neighbors when you’ve experienced what it’s like to be in their shoes. It’s not a PSA and it’s not a lesson. It’s a film about a boy who’s experience is common but not spoken about, and I want to change that.
The Making of Under The Light written and directed by Miles Levin
The film came about when I was a camp counselor at a camp for kids with epilepsy. It was striking to me that youth my age, year after year would tell me they had never made friend in their lives. These were very normal kids. They’d just been treated with such cruelty. Epilepsy is a lot like the LGBTQ+ experience insofar as that people are shamed by their communities and families into being silent about their experiences. Coming out is a big deal. While my epilepsy presents life changing challenges in my life, I somehow magically sidestepped this cruelty purely by luck. I told the Epilepsy Foundations of America and local sponsors (Erics Corner Support Group) that if we were truly interested in fighting stigma, we had to stop preaching about it to our own little communities year after year and invite the general public in, in a way that excites them. Movie going is one of the only experiences in our culture where people go out of their way to see something they know nothing about.
The LGBT community would not have claimed its place in public conversation if they hadn’t first fought for their voice in independent cinema. And it worked. We had so many people, who did not have epilepsy, want to be a part of the film that we had to turn people away. There just wasn’t space. The full circle, for me, is that at our cast and crew screening, some of the campers from many years ago showed up. To my surprise, at the Q&A, they all raised their hands and stood to speak about how the film was a reflection of who they are. They wanted to speak. No one made them. I think we are on the right path. And hey, we made a really cool movie while we were at it.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Miles Levin (ML): Under the Lights has had a great festival run. We won a shorts award at the prestigious Savannah Film Festival, an award for directing at the Oscar Qualifying Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival and an Audience Award at the Woods Hole Film Festival. We’re honored to play the Oscar Qualifying Hollyshorts Festival this year. We hope to continue that success into next year.
A pretty wild experience we’ve had with the film is that it’s been receiving fan art daily from the star’s youth following. The film starts Pearce Joza and Alyssa Jirrels, phenomenally talented actors who came from a Disney background. The film was executive produced by Greg Grunberg (who also plays the 911 operator) who plays Snap Wexley in the new Starwars Trilogy and is known from Star Trek, Felicity, Heroes and other shows. He’s a huge epilepsy advocate and showed a lot of enthusiasm.
Kids are reaching out asking questions about epilepsy and drawing the characters. It’s so sweet. I recommend people check out the instagram , it’ll melt your heart. People are requesting the film in their schools, kids are giving speeches, and we’ve even had people with unsupportive family use the films a ‘coming out’ experience. The Epilepsy Foundations around the country have used the film to breathe new energy into their awareness efforts, and that’s something I’m very proud of. I have been doing weekly speaking engagements for months now. It’s very rewarding.
Pearce went on to be an epilepsy advocate in his own right, and he’s working on an epilepsy documentary. Our producers, Nicole Jordan – Webber and Ceylan Carhoglu were Student Oscar finalists and College Emmy Winners, they were a huge help in bringing the whole thing together.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Miles Levin (ML): Under the Lights is a short film about Sam, a boy with epilepsy so desperate to feel like a regular kid, he goes to prom knowing that the lights will make him have a seizure. Under the Lights is my effort as a person with epilepsy to represent the 1 in 26 people with the condition who suffer from brutal stigma every day. The film serves to be of the very rare authentic, empathetic reflections of what millions of people feel every day.
Development & Financing?
Miles Levin (ML): I wrote the film during the 2017 Northern California fires which displaced me from my home for a year. It was a dark, horrible year. I come from a comedy background, but I wanted to write something that would be hard for me to talk about, and maybe I could help people I loved that way. The film took many faces, it actually started as a 1917 western period piece a few years prior. I met Mark Duplass once and he told me that was a terrible idea, so I refocused. I was surprised, as I was writing to find that with epilepsy, you really can’t write fiction. The experiences are so diverse that no matter what you do, SOMEONE has been through it. Along the way I met many real life people who went to prom knowing the lights would make them have a seizure.
I financed the film by pitching to epilepsy groups that I could take a bite out of stigma by taking an approach the community has overlooked: cinema. It was funded entirely off of donations and the interest was so strong we hit stretch goals far beyond what we could have anticipated, and received unsolicited donations well after we were in production. We couldn’t believe it.
Production?
Miles Levin (ML): We built the set in our cinematographer, Spencer Howson’s garage a month in advance. It allowed us to move stalls and get every shot we wanted as well as leave the gear up overnight so we could maximize our time with the actors. Spencer digitally rendered every shot ahead of time down to the exact sensor size we would use so we knew our materials cost ahead of time. The actors joined us for 3 days. Because we had planned so thoroughly we were incredibly efficient. I worked very closely with Pearce, our star, on getting the epilepsy exactly right. He has a photographic memory and could remember every movement I make when I have mini seizures and depart for a couple seconds at a time. We worked on every muscle movement. When portraying a real life demographic, you have to hit it out of the park or you risk offending your supporters. He nailed it.
The prom scene took a full day. The beautiful rain sequence at the end is actually largely practical shots. We had to build a rain machine to make it rain indoors.
We were more focused on making the film we wanted than rushing off to film festivals so we edited for many months. It got to a point, which I think is rare, where I really believe I wouldn’t change a thing.
The sound mix and color took a few weeks and then we spent a few months doing VFX. Spencer is a master VFX artist. You’d never believe how much detail and trick shots he worked in. He loves David Fincher so we did a lot of merging of takes. One actors best performance would be merged with the other actor’s best to make a perfect take. Exterior glimpses outside the bathroom as well as it’s ceiling in the first shot are entirely digital. He’s a master.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Miles Levin (ML): Although I’m well versed with film festivals we hired a strategist who brought a lot of nuance to the plan. We focused on domestic festivals and hit our stride after the Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival.
The Release?
ML: I am currently writing the feature length “Under the Lights”. The goal is to release the short online along side a fundraising effort for the feature. If anyone would like to get in touch or learn more, contact me and get on that mailing list. We are seeking allies.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
ML: Write the film you are afraid to write. The one you’re afraid people will judge you for. If your gut clenches up and says “I’m nervous”, that’s the story to tell, because you can’t fake it. If your story doesn’t move you, it can’t move your audience. Don’t write the movie you know you can make. That movie doesn’t make you better. Write the movie you are PRETTY SURE you can make. It forces you to learn something new, so that even if your movie doesn’t come out the way you thought, you are guaranteed to be a better filmmaker next time.
Tell us what you think of the Case Study for Under the Lights. What do you think of it? Let’s have your comments below and/or on Facebook or Instagram! Or join me on Twitter.
Follow Miles Levin on Social Media
Website
IMDb
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Vimeo
MORE STORIES FOR YOU
