Interview with the Director - Alex Sovoda

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in film making.

I grew up in a small town outside of Detroit, Michigan. I liked movies a lot but it wasn’t until I was 18 or 19 when I kind of realized I could try and do this for myself. Then I made a bunch of bad YouTube videos and now I make slightly not that bad short films. 

How did Recreational Social Interaction come together as a project?

I had seen the Alway Sunny Pepe Silvia meme on twitter again randomly, and was like “hmm what does this look like on the real world” Why would somebody do this actually? And then it kinda went from there. 

Can we just say, we love the dedication in responding to damn near every YouTube comment. @fifth.temple said: the fact this is just social media explained in a universe with no social media blew my fucking mind. How close is that to your original concept?

Hahah I love YouTube man. I really respect short film culture but as someone who comes from making stuff that I do it’s usually just make and release. And the typical thing to do with shorts that I see is to make it and submit to several festivals of different sizes and then wait somewhere between 8 months to a year to put it out yourself online. And I’m in a lucky position where I have a relatively small but engaged audience with the Enzo stuff that’s grown over the years, and it’s much more rewarding to me to just get it out to people who will think about it (good or bad) rather than hope a small committee puts it in a  theatre in a few months. Even though my wonderful producer Jess yelled at me extensively for all of this. 

To answer your question: Yeah sure kind of. It started with the visual of just wall with everyone you know. And as I started to justify it or think about why a girl would do this I kind of realized this is what we’re all doing all the time with Instagram or whether, but that’s just acceptable and this weird analog version isn’t. But that’s kind of where that point ends for me I didn’t think about it too much after that. 

Whether it’s in this film or Compounding Negativity, your dialogue has such a natural feel to it. Is this something you come up with in the writing process, or is it a more improvisational thing when shooting?

You’re making me feel important with how good these questions are thanks for that. It’s funny because Negativity was a 2 day shoot of a script I wrote in like 4 hours. And I had an exact script with everything written. But then with Will and Kyle about 30-40% of that one became improv because they are ridiculously smart and funny. 

This one was different it took me a few months to start and finish it. And in my head it least it’s a bit more of a serious tone. So I was more hesitant to stray away from the script. All the hesitation and um’s and weird little beats are typically in there. Everything you see is all there on the page - but we’ll find something better while shooting sometimes. 

Because in shooting both of them - I really like shooting the script, getting it, then telling the actors and also the dp (even though I shot Negativity) to just go from X and get to Y. How they shoot Curb Your Enthusiasm. Do whatever feels right. 

However I will say most of Recreational is what is written. A lot of the unscripted stuff comes in Kyle’s actions around the house. 

The shots throughout the film are gorgeous. We’re right up close to Claire Banse and Kyle Chase’s faces, and then we’re peering through the bushes at them hugging across the street. What influenced the look of the film?

It’s funny because half way through the assembly of this footage I just thought “oh fuck I just made The Curse.” Which is a project that made a huge huge huge impact on me consciously and I guess subconsciously. Like if anyone who works on that show sees this I would feel embarrassed still maybe. Claire’s face is so full of expression and nuance. She has so much going on in and behind her eyes and was so perfect for this - so it felt right to kind of show that off. And Kyle - especially at dinner - really bombs a few jokes. It was really important to stay right there with him for that. Figuring out when to cut during that dinner scene was interesting because from moment to moment it’s this tug of war of who’s in control til the end of it. And she wins that. But it’s the same thing with the last sequence, and it goes the other way. The weird observational long creep zoom thing worked for the narrative cause you are supposed to be uneasy the second she enters the apartment. And that adds this weird pervasive I’m not supposed to be seeing this feel. Jeremy my dp shot the whole thing on a single zoom lens and is still mad at me for a total of like 71 frames of digital zooming I did on a couple of shots. My favorite shot is the long zoom out reveal on the wall that gets picked up and follows her around the apartment - that was the hardest one for a bunch of dumb little logistical reasons.

We’ve seen you touch on interviews about the ”loneliness epidemic”, which probably rings as true in Australia as it does in the US. Is it something you’re consciously trying to shine a spotlight on?

I don’t think so. But also kind of. No not consciously. I just think it’s a thing that’s so deep in me and deep in everyone I know and most people in the world right now for a whole bunch of god damn stupid bullshit reasons. And I guess I’m interested in stories about people and why they do what they do.  And I’m really drawn to when loneliness is at the center of that. But I’m never really thinking about that. It just works its way into what I’m doing because I’m at my core incredibly lonely I would bet. 

You’ve got the short films, you’ve got the music, the magazine, your own film festival. When does Alex sleep?

Not sure what you mean by music. I score the video articles on the YouTube channel and Instagram. But that’s more because I edit them too and want specific things in specific places. I wish I didn’t have to do that haha. I honestly have struggled very seriously with work life balance forever and the last two months I’ve kind of taken a step back and lived life and smiled and chilled out and it’s been incredibly frustrating. Which is not me romanticizing that - it’s extremely frustrating and I’m trying to fix it. But no things at all bring me fulfillment like making something I like does and that’s going to either fuck relationships in the future or somebody in the past will hear that I said that and be mad at me it’s all fucked and stupid and I need to figure it out. But I really like making stuff. Maybe I should say “I really like making stuff” and that’s my full answer. 

What projects are coming up next for you?

Keep making Enzo video articles and shorts and get the tv show and feature script I have ready to make funded and shot by next year. But also like who isn’t trying to do that. I can write all day but I can’t politic and act like I like people for them to give me money to make something. So maybe I’ll lean on Jess for that. I hope she doesn’t read this and kill me. 

*my instinct here is to say “have fun living life” but you are asking earnest thoughtful questions so I feel like I have to give earnest answers but also like who am I who cares what I’m doing next.

Do you have any message for our Melbourne fans?

Reserved movie theatre seating is stupid.