Anne Lower is on a mission.  The L.A. based indie filmmaker is working furiously to finance her passion project, They Live Among Us.  The first three episodes of this ambitious web series can be viewed on YouTube, and Lower’s quest has been chronicled at http://theyliveamongus.com/.

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My interview with her reveals an intelligent, funny, and tenacious woman, who knows what she wants, and will settle for nothing less.

 

SHM:  How goes your never-ending hunt for financing?

AL:  I just wrapped our IndieGoGo campaign for Episodes 4-6; we ran a bit short.  There is still about 6k to go, so I’ll continue efforts.  Once we launch 4-6 I am working with more traditional forms of financing through investment groups.  Life is a never-ending adventure.

SHM:  Are you any closer to filming the next three episodes?

AL:  We begin photography on February 10th.  I cannot wait to get back onto the set; now that we have established the world and those who live in it, the storyline begins to unfold.  I’m referring to these three as “ Bloody. Sexy. Fun.”  I hope the viewers agree.  The cast and crew are anxious to get back into our playground as, obviously, am I.

SHM:  Talk a little bit about what it was like filming the first three episodes on such a small budget (without permits, insurance, etc).

AL:  It was interesting.  That’s a word that we use in my family to put a positive spin on challenging circumstances, haha.   There were times when it was liberating, in that scenes would simply happen.  They would develop a life of their own, and we – myself, the cast, the crew – were there along for the ride.  That is the drug of art and of creation.  Being in the moment, the zone.  It’s exhilarating.  There were times when it was a little frightening.  I had leased a warehouse, but the shoot was cut several hours short when the landlord returned early, drunk, high and with a heavy metal band – he had decided to throw an impromptu rave – and ejected us onto the streets after midnight in the garment district.  We still had several hours worth of scenes to shoot.  People were sleeping in the streets; the air stank of urine.  It was a very emotionally dismal night for me.  And there were times when it was frustrating.  The Peg/Ted sequence suffered because radio towers blew out the lavalier (wireless mic) channels, so we had to move to boom.  Kendra and David are both astounding actors; I did not want to disturb their process through amplification… but dialogue was terribly muted.  “Fix it in post” is simply not an option.  And yet, that poverty was also liberating, for it forces creative solutions.  With a lot of money can come a lot of fat.  I need much more money to do honor to this series, but I’m grateful to have been forced to think creatively.

SHM:  Where did that budget come from for the first episodes — out of your pocket?

AL:  I launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised just under 6k once fees were taken out, and threw an additional 6k of my own in.  It wiped me out… but I was determined to see this project come to fruition.

SHM:  How did you come up with the idea for a Tweetathon to gain funding, and did it work?

AL:  A.D. Lane, a British indie filmmaker – @indywoodFILMS – had run a similar campaign that I watched.  He went 92 hours or so – I ended up pulling 90 total, and ten days later, at the end of the campaign, another 42– and I thought that it was a great idea.  At the same time, Jay Donovan of Office Hooky Chat – @ohchat – reached out wondering how he could help.  I told him that I was going full Jerry Lewis for the campaign and pitched the Tweetathon to him.  In the words of Quentin Tarantino, we had ourselves a Bingo.  I raised a little over $12k, which left me with about $10k after the fees were applied.

SHM:  Speaking of which, your video blogging during that tweet marathon was pretty entertaining.  How important is it to keep a sense of humor amongst the chaos?

AL:  Oh, it’s tantamount to survival.  Not only in the Tweetathon, but in life.  People – especially those with a robust viral presence – often take themselves way too seriously.  They confuse viral celebrity with IRL (in real life).  I can assure you that the two are not the same.  Life is short and uncertain.  It’s a much more adventuresome ride if you can laugh at yourself along the way, you know?  I had fun making the vids – I would just pull them out of the air.  They help keep me awake.  I mean, seriously, Country Cousin It?  What the hell was that?  Jambi?  Don CorleAnnie?  And, of course, the infamous Headdesk.  At least once a day I am reminded that the internet is forever.

SHM:  The unconventional narrative of TLAU is refreshing.  I love the fact that the first episode follows one guy, who would seemingly be the hero, only to veer off in an unexpected direction.  Where would you like to see the series go, in terms of character/story arc.

AL:  I used the first three episodes to establish the world and the characters within it.  The next installment is where the story really takes off. The central thread is the gothic love tale between Caim and Serafina, and the two love triangles – one supernatural, one mortal – that they are ensnared in.  But there are several other storylines that early on may not seem connected, but slowly they are woven into the central storyline.  I’ve referred to TLAU as a rich tapestry, and indeed it is.

SHM:  You’ve said this project is gothic romance meets urban horror meets film noir.  What film/television/literature inspires you?

AL:  I am a huge fan of classical literature; Shakespeare is a huge influence.  I think if he were around today, he’d be writing features… and moving into new media.  I love how Hamlet is a masterpiece…and yet, it’s really soap opera.  A family drama, like Dynasty, just with a much better plot and elevated language.
I love Homer, as well as the Greek playwrights.  I prefer Euripides, because I believe that he wrote women well.   Aphra Ben.  The modern scribes for the stage:  Sam Shepard, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Suzan Lori Parks, to name just a smattering.
Stephen King is an extraordinary writer; his stories are classic examples of ordinary men and women under extraordinary circumstances.  Jane Austen’s prose is like the iron fist in the velvet glove.  Anais Nin for her lyricism.  Tom Wolfe, Harper Lee and Mark Twain for musical voices.  All so beautiful.
In film, I’m all over the map.  Love old Hollywood; I’m mad about great silent films like WIND, METROPOLIS and LE PASSION DE JEANNE D’ARC.  I love the French New Wave cinema and the mumblecore movement, including today’s.  I also love big studio blockbusters.
Some films that really stick out to me for visual storytelling are JU DOU, RAN, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, VERTIGO, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, FARGO… ah, the list is endless.   Anything Hitchcock touched.
…and today’s crop of indie filmmakers.  I love the work of women like Kimberly Pearce, Debra Granik and Lisa Cholodenko.  They are paving the way for femme film.
SHM:  How do you go about selecting the music for the series?  It seems to play an important role.
AL:  I wanted to spotlight independent musicians and hope to do this in a more robust way with future episodes.  I had several contact me and send a song in, and it was always so serendipitous how perfectly it would fit.  We’ve used The Hushdown, Slant, Mike Peralta and Cari Kindl for credit roll.
In the bar scenes, the music tends to serve as a Greek chorus.  I love that aspect of it.  My DP, Mike Stanislawski, has great musical taste.  I turn to him – it turns to gold.
SHM:  There seems to be a theme involving the exploitation of women.  Could you talk a bit about that?
AL:  I’ve been an advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault for over a decade; it’s part of my journey as a survivor of sexual assault as a child.  There’s been way too much non-disclosure in this arena, so I am determined to keep the conversation alive, even if it means putting myself out there.  People need to be allowed to talk about it.  They need to know that the trauma inflicted upon them was not their fault, not for one second.
Serafina’s backstory is an all too common tragedy.  Raped as a child, left without the support and resources to help her cope with her trauma, she became a runaway, living on the streets of Los Angeles, before turning to prostitution as a means of support.  People are really shocked by the brutality of her relationship with Rocco… but I find it painfully real.  Violence and abuse are all she knows.
The thread of the flesh-eaters is borne directly from my experiences as an actress in Hollywood.  The marginalization and treatment of women is appalling – even today.  We are seen as commodities; our worth, our value is not measured by our minds, our hearts and souls, but by our bodies and how we rate on the “hawt-o-meter.”  It’s a naked and frightening feeling, to be consumed in such a manner.  That’s where the audition scene in Episode 3 came from.
SHM:  As an indie filmmaker, and a woman to boot, what kind of resistance do you come up against in Hollywood?
AL:  I think the primary way is through limitations.  The attitude is often “don’t worry your pretty little head, go write/direct/produce wish-fulfillment movies and you’ll be fine.”  Well, I don’t write wish-fulfillment.  I’m a dynamic individual; I hunger to constantly grow, and to expand my knowledge.  I look at life as a never-ending learning process and really detest being pigeon-holed in any way, shape, or form.
I want to write action and I want to direct it.  Finally, women such as Katherine Bigelow have opened up those doors, but I have to fight tooth and nail just to get a meeting.  This is why I launched this series.  I decided to make my own life happen instead of placing it in the hands of others.  If life is an aircraft, I prefer to be a pilot instead of a passenger.
SHM:  What can people do to help make more episodes happen?
AL:  Give me your beer money.  I’m still fundraising for the next three installments directly on my site: http://theyliveamongus.com/support/ $10 can go a long way to helping close the gap. I had over 12,000 people visit my IndieGoGo campaign. If 1/3 of them had given $10, we’d be funded for many episodes!
If you are a filmmaker and live in LA, consider donating by volunteering on production or in post.
And, of course, spread the word!  View the Episodes, follow @TLAUMovie on Twitter and share, share, share.  We have some very neat things that are going on in the background, but to make them happen, we need to see our viewing metrics and followers go up.  We are committed to providing engaging, thought-provoking and entertaining content for free – but in order to do that, we need the public’s support.  At the end of the day, it is the audience that will determine how far we continue.  My vision is two years of programming with a feature.  I’d love to see that happen.  That’s a goal worth achieving.