Alison Star Locke is a writer and director who recently released her excellent feature debut, The Apology, with Anna Gunn, Jeanine Garofalo, and Linus Roache.

20 years after her daughter's disappearance, a woman's Christmas gathering spirals into a suspenseful showdown when an unexpected guest arrives with haunting secrets. As a storm traps them together, past grudges and hidden truths turn merry festivities into a psychological battleground.

This film combines emotional drama with horror and overall creates a very atmospheric exploration of guilt, loss, and revenge. I'll tell you the suspense building in this movie was masterful, and I was very nerve-wracked up until the end. 

The Apology will be streaming on Hulu beginning tomorrow, June 16th, also available on VOD.

In this episode, we'll get into Alison's filmmaking origin story, the importance of putting personal truths into horror, and how she's able to get compelling performances from her actors when they have to go to the depths of the human psyche. Please enjoy this conversation with Alison Star Locke.

Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with Alison. 

 

Nurture current relationships and collaborations.

The opportunity for Alison to direct her first feature arose from an existing contact she had who she originally asked for feedback on The Apology. This underscores a key insight: while networking and forging new connections are important, sometimes there's immense value in recognizing and nurturing the relationships you already have. The quest for new connections can sometimes overshadow the potential of the relationships right under your nose, those that may harbor incredible opportunities.

 

Use Star Cards.

Alison effectively employed a unique tool on her set that she called Star Cards. These cards acted as written reminders that kept her aligned with her film's true intentions. On a bustling film set with countless decisions to make and problems to solve, it's surprisingly easy to lose sight of the original vision. That's why having something tangible that aligns you to your 'true north' can be an invaluable resource to constantly remind you of the core vision and intention of your movie. Star Cards can act as that anchor amidst the chaos, keeping the director grounded and focused. 

Jump into emotional trenches with your actors

Horror filmmaking, when executed with authenticity, often demands that actors plunge into deep, dark places of fear, suffering, and violence. This can be daunting, emotionally taxing, even traumatic for actors. It's crucial then, as Alison points out, for a director to be right there with their actors in their emotional trenches. Alison operates under the principle of never asking her actors to emotionally go to places that she herself wouldn’t go, and in the case of The Apology, she often shared her own experiences and emotions that were related to the work itself. This practice not only fosters a sense of safety and trust but also demonstrates the director's solidarity with their actors - ultimately reinforcing the idea that they are all on this journey together and in the same foxhole.

Anyway, guys, thank you as always for listening, don’t forget to check out The Apology, which will begin streaming on Hulu beginning tomorrow, June 16th, also on VOD. 

Show Notes:

Directing Actors & The Film Director's Intuition by Judith Weston

John Sayles (writer)

Scriptation - script annotation software 

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Produced by Simpler Media