The director on his film in collaboration with Patrik Sandberg, featuring STARRED, Genesis P-Orridge and Sky Ferreira

Grant Singer: IRL
By Alex James Taylor | Film+TV | 20 November 2013
Above:

IRL, 2013

Having directed music videos for the likes of STARRED, Sky Ferreira and DIIV, Grant Singer had an impressive ready-made cast on speed dial for his latest project, the short film IRL (net lingo for ‘In Real Life’).

The plot revolves around Angel, played by Ferreira, a distant yet determined character with a carpe noctem attitude. The film picks up the story as Angel wakes up the morning after the night before. Dazed and shaken, she tries to piece together the events of the previous evening, whilst becoming increasingly disillusioned and frustrated by the social vanity which surrounds her. A collaboration between Singer and writer Patrik Sandberg (check out Patrik’s chat with sonic titans STARRED in HERO’s new issue), IRL is a shared vision and desire to capture New York City as they see it. They beckon us down alleyways and dimly lit subway stations into a stark and ominous New York, personifying the city in a manner reminiscent of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. Stylised and minimalist cinematography lends itself to a sharp script, creating an intense 17 minutes.  We caught up with Grant to discuss the movie.

Alex James Taylor: How did IRL come about?

Grant Singer: Patrik Sandberg and I wanted to make a film together, and we wanted to make something about what it was really like to live in NY at the time. [The film]’s about a girl who wakes up and can’t recall the events of the night before. Patrik and I have been close friends for years, I have a tremendous respect for his writing.

AJT: The film both captures the zeitgeist and questions its values. Why do you think the idea of youth is continuously so influential to film makers?

GS: I hate ‘youth’. I’m not into it as an idea. I made something about people I know, starring people I know, and I just happen to be in my twenties and so are my friends. It’s critiquing what it’s like to be young, while also referencing it as inescapable.

AJT: The cast are recognised names, but aren’t not normally associated with film –  Sky Ferreira, Colby Hewitt and STARRED’s Liza and Matthew. What led you to that?

GS: They’re friends of mine. We cast the film before we wrote it, and it was a conscious decision to cast people Patrik and I knew, and write parts for them specifically, so they’d play alternate versions of themselves.

AJT: Damien Echol of the West Memphis Three makes a cameo appearance working in a gun shop. He tells Angel that she needs to protect herself against the ‘monsters’ in New York.  It’s a very deliberate and provocative choice of role for Damien…

GS: I think it’s subversive and powerful that Damien says that line, considering he spent 18 years in prison and was villanised for a crime he never committed.

AJT: The soundtrack progresses from dreamy pop into sparse industrial synths. Music is obviously a very important part of your work, did you have the soundtrack in mind during the writing process or did it come together afterwards?

GS: The song that plays in the rave scene, once Angel starts tripping, was something John sent me the day I flew to NY to make the film. I listened to it on the airplane on repeat for five hours, working on the script, and instantly knew it was the centrepiece of the film, both tonally and musically. Most of the music had been set before we began production.

AJT: I read that you’ve lived in numerous cities including LA, Vermont and Paris. In the film New York’s a very insular and isolating city…

GS: I lived in NY in my early to mid-twenties. I love it there. But, yeah, I think there’s a real darkness that I feel when I’m there. I wasn’t in a good place when I was living there, so that could be part of it. It’s a really complex place so it would be ridiculous to classify it as one thing, but, yeah I see it in some ways as I depicted it.

Download IRL from the US iTunes store

 


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