In this episode, I am joined by filmmaker Vivian Kerr to discuss her journey from acting to directing and how she successfully brought her first two feature films to life without traditional industry connections. Vivian's debut feature,
Scrap - a family dramedy starring herself alongside Anthony Rapp (
Rent, Star Trek Discovery) - completed a two-year festival run spanning 43 festivals before its recent VOD release. She followed this quickly with her second feature,
Seance, a psychological thriller that recently premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Throughout our conversation, we explored:
- Vivian's background and transition from theater to filmmaking
- The genesis of Scrap and its exploration of hidden homelessness
- How she leveraged a short film version of Scrap to secure feature financing
- Using the equity crowdfunding platform WeFunder to raise the bulk of her financing
- Managing post-production on one film while doing a festival run with another
- The genesis of Seance and writing a contained feature during the pandemic
- Why believable performances are the foundation of good directing
Links from the show:
Scrap - MovieSign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday.
