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A Knock At The Door, dir. Katrina Rennells & Wendie Weldon
15 Plays2 years ago
The Stream Queen is joined by directors Katrina Rennells and Wendie Weldon to discuss their psychological horror short, A KNOCK AT THE DOOR, debuting on Shudder April 25th as part of the Etheria Collection.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Stream Queen Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
to all the ladies I am big it's the pictures that got small
00:00:14
Speaker
All this way for my advice, I feel like Oprah. Person your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night. What the hell? I'm not going to worry about if people accept me or not. I'm going to make Hollywood wherever I am at.
Meet the Directors: Katrina Rennells & Wendy Weldon
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to the Stream Queen, where we select films by female directors to watch and discuss on the show. I'm your host, Toppy L.A. Teodibo, and every week I invite a friend to join me in watching movies directed by women and as a whole, indulging in our love of cinema. Today we have a special treat for you. We're talking to directors Katrina Rennells and Wendy Weldon about their short film, A Knock at the Door.
00:00:58
Speaker
It's going to be available soon on Shutter. I hope after listening to this podcast, it will give you something to watch and rewatch this weekend. I guess it's coming out the 25th, right guys? Yeah. Okay. So before I dive in and you guys say hi to our audience, I just want to read y'all's fantastic bios because they're super great.
Career Journeys: From Theater to Film
00:01:20
Speaker
So Katrina Renells is a Los Angeles native, actor, writer, director. She does everything.
00:01:26
Speaker
After years of acting on stage, primarily musical theater, she transitioned to film with credits, including the slam dance short film charades and features such as The Submarine Kid and MFA. Katrina loves films, which is why she's here, and also carried her work into working behind the camera. Aside from writing and directing the film we'll be talking about today, A Knock at the Door, she also wrote and starred in several other short films, including The Printer, Slutty Girls, and The Patch.
00:01:54
Speaker
She's currently working on a new horror feature script in addition to being a filmmaker. She's also taken on the role of mom raising two beautiful children with her husband. I'm not going to pronounce that name, but his name is Zach. Oh yeah, that was pretty exact. So welcome Katrina.
00:02:11
Speaker
And let me introduce Wendy is an actress and writer who was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She moved to LA 10 years ago and can be found on several television shows and feature films. Most recently, she got booked in a row in Snow Falls on FX. Great.
00:02:28
Speaker
You can also find her in Stand Up and Away with Brian Regan on Netflix, MacGyver on CBS, Game Shakers on Nickelodeon, and in several award women indie films like The Curse of Midnight and My Name is Lamar.
00:02:42
Speaker
Wendy has produced and starred in over 10 short films and most notably created an original series, Worst Friends Forever. As a writer, Wendy is developing a pilot and two feature films. She plans to direct at least one in the upcoming year. And you might also see Wendy doing standup in a club
00:03:00
Speaker
around LA. Wendy, when do you sleep? You don't sleep, you know? These seem to be the hardest, some of the hardest working women in Hollywood right now, it seems. So again, welcome Katrina, welcome Wendy. I'm so glad to have you guys on the show.
The Allure of Horror: Why 'A Knock at the Door'?
00:03:18
Speaker
Thanks for having us. Such a special treat for our listeners. I think I stumbled upon a promo for knock on the door on Instagram and I was like, like, like, like.
00:03:28
Speaker
You know, I love horror. We try to do a horror special every October. Our last one was Candy Man, and that was super fun and creepy. And so it's great to have women who are doing horrors, so welcome. And is there anything you want to add to these bios, these amazing bios?
00:03:48
Speaker
I don't know. I feel like that covers it.
Behind the Camera: Taking Creative Control
00:03:53
Speaker
We've done filmmaking and we've been doing it for several years now and we were just talking about maybe starting another film after this. Do it. What would you say, and either of you can respond, what would you say was the pivotal moment for you in your careers where you were like, you know what? I want to be behind the camera. I want to create. I want to write. I want to direct.
00:04:15
Speaker
I think for me, it just gave me so much more freedom based on the way that I look. I get pigeonholed into some certain roles. So I think it was fun for me to be able to have some creative liberties over what I was writing and who I would play if I was going to do both on both sides of the camera. But then, especially with this film, it was really fun to direct and to write it and to be part of
00:04:45
Speaker
Just being able to have that much control over it and bring our vision and our head into reality was really cool for us. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. What about you, Katrina? I think, you know.
00:04:59
Speaker
I think I always wanted to, definitely as a kid watching movies, I wanted to make them in every way, do everything. I think for me it was more of a confidence thing. I didn't know that I necessarily could step over to the other side of it. When I was doing theater, I had a theater company for a little while.
00:05:21
Speaker
being on the other side of it, you just do have more control. And so it's exactly what you said, Wendy. It's hard just being an actor, your fate is up to so many other people. You have so little control. And my husband is a writer as well. So I think he really pushed me to start doing that. I really could transition to writing and directing.
00:05:46
Speaker
It was really fun for both of us to take a step back from the acting part and just be behind the camera for everything else was really freeing in a lot of ways. And we had a lot of fun just writing it in general. We were lucky in the sense that we
00:06:02
Speaker
artistically got along really well as writing partners. Yeah, we vibe very well. How did you guys meet? How did you get together? Were you on a show together? I don't know. LA doesn't seem that small. It doesn't and then it does in a weird way.
00:06:21
Speaker
Uh, we actually went to an acting studio together. So we were in class together and that's actually kind of how the short film came to be. We were all in this class together and it just sort of was birthed out of this group of people that we all wanted to work together. Yeah. They had, they, this studio puts on a film festival every year. And so they encourage all the actors to make their own films. And we,
00:06:45
Speaker
just found the people that we liked in our class and kind of ran with it. And so that was kind of the birth of this film, along with like, this weird brainchild of Katrina and I as like, experiences that we had that came this phone. So
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of festivals, congratulations on winning the jury choice award at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival.
Achievements & Representation in Horror
00:07:10
Speaker
That's huge. That feels huge. I mean, how did you guys feel like getting the news about that?
00:07:15
Speaker
It was great. I was actually there to receive that one. So it was really fun to be on the panel up there. And I think especially for women in film and female filmmakers, I was the only female on the panel. And so it's cool to just represent women in film and say like, especially in the horror genre too, there's just absolutely. You get into genre filmmaking and it's
00:07:39
Speaker
less and less women, for sure. Very much segmented. But yeah, I loved it. It was cool because I had quite a few women come up to me and be like, thank you so much. We love seeing a woman up there in a different perspective. And especially since our film is a psychological horror more than it is a probably not horror, which is what a lot of the male filmmakers were making. We're just like these very gory films.
00:08:08
Speaker
It was cool to see one that's kind of a mind bender. I mean, for me, psychological thriller hits me way different than blood and gore. I feel like I see blood and gore all the time. I feel so desensitized. But you show me a creepy hallway and I'm out. Well, I think there's a lot to be said about anticipation and what your imagination does to you. A lot of times, just what you're implying is a lot scarier than what you actually see.
00:08:35
Speaker
Uh-huh. Yeah. And I feel like I felt that in the short as I watched it. There were just, there was like moments where like, you know, the knock on the door and I was just like, uh-uh, no. I was like, I'm finding myself a closet. I'm dialing 911. And I'm like, what are you doing? Why are you going towards the door? You know,
00:08:59
Speaker
You end up feeling like you're even part of it because of all the buildup, right? Even, I mean, the film is very short. It's like seven minutes, right? And even then, you know, I think I was also like cooking and watching it and I was like, what's he doing?
00:09:14
Speaker
So it was just really intense. So I love that you guys brought all of that in such a short period of time. Well, thank you. But I'm going to leave it to you guys to talk about what was the logline for the movie? How would you describe it as somebody who's like, do I press play? Do I watch this this weekend or whatever? What are your thoughts? I guess the easiest way to describe it without really giving anything away is
00:09:43
Speaker
that our main character has a party and weirder and weirder things start to happen. You kind of can't say too much or else you give it all away. It's short because it's seven minutes. Like there's not much you can say. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah.
Crafting Tension: The Art of Psychological Horror
00:10:00
Speaker
But I think as far as like the title goes of the film, I remember us like trying debating over what we were going to name it. I think Trina you were like, this is
00:10:08
Speaker
What time period? I don't know. The older films used to title it in a really long. Yeah, sure. Oh, yeah. They were kind of late 70s, early 80s had that type of. Oh, yeah. They tell you pretty much everything in their title. No, this is going to happen. But yeah, what other names are floating around for you guys? Do you remember any? I have no idea. I just know that that's what we ended on because you
00:10:34
Speaker
Well, Katrina and her husband are huge film buffs, especially in horror. And so she just knows so much more about the history of horror films. And so she brought that up, and we were like, oh, that's perfect. Let's do it. Yeah, I don't remember all the other options. We threw out a lot of different title options back.
00:10:52
Speaker
when we were doing it. Yeah. So, so then let me ask you this, like, you know, coming together, you know, in an acting class and being with other people in this idea of social like Gemini, like what inspired this story?
00:11:07
Speaker
It was memories on both our parts, so I'll let Katrina take the first break. Some of it was inspired by a friend of mine who had had a really bad drug trip. Ooh, wow. OK. So he had some very weird experiences, but they were honestly terrifying to listen to. Yeah. So a lot of those kind of feelings had stuck with me for a long time. So that was kind of that was a lot of what I brought to it. And then Wendy also had some things that
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, just weird stories of things happening to people. And then also, this is a strange thing, but our monster, quote unquote, I make all the sounds for because I can make this really crazy, creepy sound. Oh my goodness. Now I have to hear it. So loud. So I don't know if you want to.
00:12:02
Speaker
That's what editing is for. We can just bring the volume down. You really want me to do it? Yeah, absolutely. You've opened the door now. Let's go.
Indie Filmmaking: Challenges & Creativity
00:12:16
Speaker
I had to turn my volume down. I was prepared though. I know what you can do. I was not. I was not prepared. So basically we were talking and I showed them that I could do that. And they were like, oh, heck yes, that's going to be the sound. That's got to be in there somewhere. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I think I still have hair standing up in my hair.
00:12:41
Speaker
That's such a cool thing like quirk to have like a thing you can just, you know, it's true. I mean, the fun thing about being writing partners is that you get to bring these shared these like all these different experiences that you've had into one project. Yeah. So we just got to kind of brainstorm and
00:13:03
Speaker
you just kind of throw things at the wall until something sticks. And yeah, it's really fun to bounce off of another person. Yeah, it is fun to have a writing partner because you can like piece different memories or different stories from other people together that like just builds on top of each other to make it creepier and creepier.
00:13:20
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Now, I, you know, similarly, me and my husband, we are our own writing partners, too. So I totally get it. Sometimes he'll throw stuff out as like, ah, it's been done before. And you know, vice versa. And it really does that sounding board. You can't always write in isolation. So, yeah, that's that's super exciting. Let's talk about filming. Like you are on set. You got funding, which is hard for people to do, but you got funding. We'll just skip that part.
00:13:50
Speaker
And you are ready to film. What kind of stuff was happening behind the scenes that you remember that sticks in your mind is a good memory of just doing a project of your own when you were doing a knock on the door? You can go. Oh, OK. It's funny, because especially in short films, you don't have a lot of money. You don't have a lot of funding.
00:14:20
Speaker
You're doing things as cheaply as you can. You're pulling a lot of favors from people. You have to pack a lot into... We shot this over two days. It was tight. We went as long as we could. We did as much as we could with the time that we had, with the locations that we had.
00:14:42
Speaker
And we had drama right before we lost our first location, right before we had to scramble for something else. But things work out the way they're supposed to. And I think with any filming of short or feature or anything, you have to roll with stuff. So I feel like it was just a couple of days of rolling with everything that we could. We definitely did some
00:15:10
Speaker
questionable like gorilla shot and stuff, but like needed the shot. So like had to jump outside really fast. And on the first location that we lost, the neighbors were like, we need to see the permits and all this stuff. And we're like, we don't have the time or any money for that.
00:15:31
Speaker
We made it work more than we needed to. Yes. I mean, short films, it's just guerrilla movies. You know, you got to do what you got to do and you hope you get lucky and you don't get caught doing what you're doing. So props to you guys for not letting that stop you and just for like getting the shots that you needed because it came through like it was very cohesive. So I could, you know, you can't tell that you had any issues. It went really smoothly. Maybe something about all the... Oh, I'm sorry.
00:16:02
Speaker
The fun thing about doing it kind of guerrilla style is that it's also just there's so much passion in it. And you're doing it because you just like need to do it. So you do really get a good result out of that because it's coming from such a pure place.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, and it also felt like everybody was really committed and I like all the characters really just kind of they hit their mark and they were doing what they were supposed to. And it was just you could tell like it was such a fun project. And that's why I wanted to know about like behind the scenes stuff. Like, was there anything creepy that happened? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we just had some funny. I mean, as far as just like filmmaking goes, we like
00:16:47
Speaker
We have to break something in one of the scenes, but we only bought one piece of glass. We just hadn't thought through all of the pieces and we were like, we have one shot at this. And so there's a lot of incidents like that. And I think that like, do we have to like borrow the broom from the neighbor? Like we just like didn't, that we just like didn't think through.
00:17:12
Speaker
So yeah, I don't, I'm trying to like think of other things. I think when you're first starting off as a filmmaker, you're really scared to like break the rules and like to do girl shooting or to like have things set in place. And I guess for people who are wanting to experiment with filmmaking, just go do it. Like what could you say? It was so much about passion and being excited about the project and let that be the propeller.
00:17:39
Speaker
Absolutely. I think there's something kind of beneficial to when you're starting out and you sort of don't know the rules because you don't really question as much. I think sometimes when you get more experience, you almost
00:17:54
Speaker
limit yourself in a weird way. Yeah. So it's, it's almost like in the beginning, you're like, I don't know. We don't really know what we're not allowed to do. So let's just do it. Yeah. It's like you're a newborn baby and you're exploring and you're not questioning it. Yeah, absolutely.
The Love for Horror: A Genre of Freedom
00:18:09
Speaker
Um, going back to, I mean, you guys are delving or have delved obviously into horror. Is that like a genre that you think that you'll continue to do? Or is that something that you're just testing it out and you might try other things?
00:18:23
Speaker
For me, definitely, I love the horror space. I love horror and I love comedy because to me, they are so subjective to the person. What you find scary or what you find funny is such a personal thing and I think that's fascinating. So I love horror. I definitely, I wanna explore other genres as well but I know I'll stay in horror for a long time just because there's so much to explore within it.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, I am definitely a comedy person, but I was always the one who would get murdered in a horror film. So I definitely have been cast. That's awesome. I know myself. I would be cast in a horror film. I probably would be the person to die who gets murdered because she opens the door. I mean, as we found out with Jordan Peele, you could start a comedy and totally just rock out in a horizontal image. Yeah, exactly.
00:19:21
Speaker
Well, I think in a weird way, they go hand in hand a lot in ways that you almost don't even understand fully, but they're... I don't know. There's something interesting about horror and comedy, and they kind of like are friends. I totally get what you mean, because I remember watching Get Out, and there were times where I would laugh and then cringe right after each other.
00:19:44
Speaker
I also was surprised by how much I enjoyed writing horror. I am not, I can't watch scary movies, but I was surprised at how messed up my brain could get. Well, what would you guys say is you're, I mean, I know some of you, one of you watches like horror and loves horror and the other one's like, oh, maybe not. But what would you say is like your favorite horror film?
00:20:13
Speaker
Um, for me, I think it's the shining cause it's just, I mean, it's just so good, but I definitely like as a kid, um, whatever happened to baby Jane is like why I started to love horror because I watched that movie with my grandma and probably way too young an age, but it was fascinating to me. And it's, I, that was definitely my first, like dipping my toe into horror. And I will always love that movie. So that one's up there for me for sure.
00:20:43
Speaker
Absolutely. That's a great one. Uh, gosh, I don't know. There's a, um, there's a movie called don't say a word. It's not really a horror, but it's like kind of psychological. And I like, is that one from the seventies? Yeah. It has, um, Donald Sutherland, Brittany, uh, oh no, Brittany Murphy.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I liked I really liked that film. So I'm definitely if I'm going to watch for it's definitely psychological.
00:21:18
Speaker
I think that's the last film I remember watching from her. And I thought she was so good. She was good in that movie. Yeah, she was incredible. Yeah, no, those are really good ones. Hopefully we can get you guys back for like, I don't know, a horror genre discussion, you know, this October, next October, we'll see. Totally.
Platform Success: From Festivals to Shudder
00:21:43
Speaker
Your movie's gonna be on Shutter. When does that drop? Which I think I butchered up, like at the beginning. It's probably, it's like Monday or Tuesday, right? Yeah. April 25th. April 25th. It's gonna be on Shutter and it's part of the Ethereum collection. Okay. Which is actually a genre festival for...
00:22:05
Speaker
women filmmakers, which is really cool. So specifically for women in horror. Um, so it's, it's part of the etheria collection. That's awesome. So we're in season five, episode three. Ooh. Okay. So yeah. So there's going to be a series of other. Yes. There's other, there's a few seasons have already come out of that. So we're in the fifth season.
00:22:26
Speaker
Okay. And so when you initially filmed this, it wasn't picked up, correct? Like this is, it's kind of a little bit of a delay since when you filmed it versus when they're picking it up now. So when you were done... This film is a film that never dies. Oh, that's also very creepy. Just keep running through circuits. Like we were so surprised when it got picked up again and like just...
00:22:53
Speaker
We just couldn't believe that it's just still living. Yeah, it's been years and years of from shooting to post-production to the festival circuit to now Shutter. It's been years of this and we can't believe it's still going, but it's so exciting. Yeah. And what was your initial reaction when they reached out and was like, hey, we want your stuff on our platform. What was that like?
00:23:20
Speaker
I mean, we're grateful that it still has a life in it and that people really do want to still watch it. I don't know that a lot of short films get to have this much longevity, so it's exciting. I also think it probably does have to do with being a female filmmaker in horror too. I guess I would encourage more women to get involved in it. It's a cool genre to work with.
Empowering Women in Horror
00:23:48
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. And we just bring a different perspective, I feel, you know, like the type of things to tell. Absolutely. That haven't been told yet. And I think that's anytime you start to get different groups of people into the space that's been dominated by one specific group, you're going to get new, fresh, cool stories that we've never seen before.
00:24:13
Speaker
Absolutely. Yes. Um, so what's, what's next for you guys? Like what, what are you going to do more writing or you do have something that you're working on that's, um, going to be shooting soon? What can we expect to see from you guys?
Upcoming Projects & Indie Filmmaking Advice
00:24:30
Speaker
Um, I'm, I'm working on a horror feature myself right now, just to just in the writing phase right now. So, um, don't know what's going to happen with it yet, but I'm really excited about it. And again, I think it focuses on a female perspective that I personally have not seen before. So without giving too much away, I just, I think there's a lot of, um, holes that can be filled. Absolutely. So I'm yeah, I'm excited about where that's going so far.
00:25:00
Speaker
And I'm working on a comedy pilot. I have another writing partner that I'm working on that with. Yeah, we hope to film actually like a sizzle for it within the next year. So long term goal and then hopefully we can start pitching.
00:25:17
Speaker
That's awesome. I am so excited to see more work from you guys. Any last advice for, I don't know, anybody watch, not watching, but listening who maybe wants to get into the horror genre, whether it's acting or directing or writing, like from your experience so far in LA.
00:25:37
Speaker
I would say look at actors' access, look at LA casting, because there are horror films that are indie films, lower budget, but you can get yourself cast in. Curse of Midnight, that was a self-submission that I got that. Oh, cool. So it's great. I think there are opportunities out there if you look for them. And it was a great casting crew, and we had a lot of fun on that film.
00:26:05
Speaker
I would say there are opportunities as far as filmmaking goes, like just take a shot at it. There's like the worst case scenario is that it just doesn't turn out the way that you wanted to and you throw a little money into it. Like that's about it, but you can do it pretty cheap. And even Katrina and I talked about this. A lot of the money comes, especially when you're doing a lot of gorilla shots and stuff, it comes on the backend with editing. So get a good editor and get a good sound mixer and
00:26:34
Speaker
whatever else and make sure it looks and sounds good. Yeah the money going into the post-production really can do a lot for you if you just have it to start with. I think my advice would be like
00:26:49
Speaker
Find your tribe because I don't think this would have come out if it hadn't been this specific group of people being where we were at that time. And we had no idea what this was going to be when we started it. So you find people that you love working with that you feel really creatively fulfills you and you're going to come up with some really cool stuff.
00:27:14
Speaker
That's brilliant. Thank you guys so much. Those are like all the questions I have. I feel like I could talk to you guys for forever, but I know you're busy people. I've seen your bios. I just want to say thank you to everybody who is listening. It's always great to get different people on here to talk about film, and this was a special treat for you.
00:27:36
Speaker
to hear just a little bit about this movie. I'm not going to do it, which is dropping April 25th on Shutter. Please go watch it. I'm going to be on Instagram. Just tell me what you think about it and share it with either Wendy Wendell and Katrina Renells. And I will try to tell you guys, too, so that people can comment and share with you what they think about the movie.
00:28:00
Speaker
Thank you so much. Thank you. That's it. It was nice talking to you guys. Yeah, it was really fun.