| Advertisement |
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Clayne Crawford and Summer Shelton said their independent film, You & I, on digital video on demand Tuesday, benefited from a small crew and 14-day production. The actors play former lovers who reunite at a wedding in the film Shelton wrote and directed.
Advertisement
"You can shoot a film in two to four weeks fairly easily now," Crawford told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "You're wasting money if you go five, six weeks."
Crawford said the transition from film to digital cameras eliminates much of the hassle of setting up shots. Additionally, he said, technicians can control lighting with digitally adjustable bulbs rather than lengthy lighting setups.
Shelton, making her directorial debut, said she still may have gone two days too many. She previously produced films and worked as production manager and post-production supervisor, and said that experience taught her to avoid exterior night shoots and finish all scenes set in each location before moving on.
"I don't feel the need to be indulging for indulgence sake," Shelton said. "There are so many things that I knew not to do."
Shelton plays Sara, a woman who returns to Tennessee for the wedding. Joseph (Crawford) has remained in town and regrets their breakup, the details of which the viewer finds out as they reunite.
Many of the scenes are only between Shelton and Crawford. He said he appreciated Shelton filming those scenes in unedited takes so he could explore Joseph's physicality as they hashed out their relationship.
"With these long takes, it's like letting a motor in an old hot rod warm up," Crawford said. "In traditional shooting, it's more like being in 5 o'clock traffic and having that big hot rod. It never really gets hot and you never really get to see what it can do."
Hollywood movies, and TV shows like Crawford's Rectify and appearances on Justified and 24, would film long, medium and closeup shots and edit together the best moments from each.
"Therefore, actors begin to save the performance until they're in the really tight closeups," he said. "As a result, you lose a lot of the physicality."
Shelton said You & I is autobiographical to the extent that she combined many of her past relationships into this one. Joseph is not based on a specific person from her life.
"It's more of an amalgamation of emotions I've had in relationships and also pulling some common threads from men that I've had the pleasure of knowing," she said. "Sadly, the relationship just didn't work out."
When Joseph apologizes to Sara, admitting his responsibility in their breakup, Shelton wrote her idealized reconciliation.
"Maybe these are words that I hope that I would have heard at some point," she said. "Maybe some of these are the words I didn't get to hear. Some of these are the words, I'm still waiting on, but I'm not counting on."
The apology was not a stretch for Crawford, he said. He said he is humble enough to apologize to his wife, Sunshine Kiki Brown.
"I know what it looks like to walk into a room and say, 'I screwed up,'" he said. "I just leaned on the history of that and tried to, with Summer, just make sure that it was honest and heartfelt."
Sara and Joseph's reconciliation does include love scenes. The 10-person crew did not include an intimacy coordinator, the position on Hollywood productions that choreographs love scenes.
Crawford said intimacy coordinators are important on larger productions, though the You & I team did not require one. He said he has witnessed directors pressure female actors to take their top off, and intimacy coordinators help mediate those situations.
"If there's not a level of respect and people are brought in, I think that's where people are taken advantage of," he said. "In a situation like this, it's more about what looks the most beautiful on camera. It's almost painful, the technical aspect that goes into it."
Crawford and Shelton said they felt comfortable working with director of photography Bruce Thierry Cheung to choreograph their love scenes. Crawford pointed out the camera angle sometimes made them look more intimate than they actually were.
"Working with the DP, it's like, 'OK, where are you in relation to where my hand is on Summer? Where are you in relation to where our bodies are next to one another?''" he said. "It's almost like color by numbers."
Shelton also credited Cheung and his assistants with contributing to a comfortable environment.
"Everyone was just very respectful," she said.
After her directorial debut, Shelton is currently writing another film to direct and would consider acting in someone else's film.
"I know what character I want to write," she said. "I definitely know that I do want to keep writing and telling stories about memories, regret and the complications of life and love. They're not always so black and white."
Crawford co-stas with Glen Powell and Steve Zahn in the Hulu comedy, Chad Powers, due in August. He plays a coach to Powell, an aspiring football player.
Powell steps into a role that Eli Manning played in an ESPN+ sketch. Crawford reprises his role.
"I don't know if you remember, we dressed up in prosthetics and went and tried out for the Penn State Lions," Crawford said.
