SHOOK WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Director Jennifer Harrington has an impressive resumé doing features, documentaries, music videos, shorts and television. Recently, she was a producer and director for the docu-series Dear. She was also the writer and director for the film Housekeeping for Lionsgate Entertainment and After Dark Films in 2015. As an editor, she cut the film Gaga: Five Foot Two for Netflix which premiered at TIFF 2017. As well as for the Emmy nominated documentary Banksy Does New York for HBO.

Her success stems from her education. She was able to receive a BFA in film production at UCLA and an MFA in cinema television from USC. She received the Frank Glicksman Award, the Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Award, and the James Bridges Directing Scholarship while in attendance,

Her latest installment Shook is a witty slasher-like horror flick that needs to be seen. The film comments on the dark side of our daily use of mobile technology and social media apps. Sequences of images of blue light LED screens and how they are viewed with the naked eye are quite disturbing yet realistic.

With a Scream and Jigsaw-like narrative to the film, there is no telling where this technology will go. Actress Emily Goss spoke about her positive experience in this film Shook. So FERNTV had to speak with director Jennifer Harrington about the making of this groundbreaking film.

FERNTV: Thanks for doing this interview, Jennifer.  Tell us what inspired the film?

Jennifer: The producer Tara Craig and Alesia Glidewell had an idea for a small horror film that centred on a makeup influencer and came to me and asked me to write the script. 

FERNTV: Daisye Tutor is a one-woman show for this film.  What was the casting process like and how did you know that she was able to play the role of Mia?

Jennifer: It was very difficult to find the actress to play Mia.  We saw great actresses but none of them was what we were looking for. The week before principal photography was set to start we were freaking out because of this. I was talking with my DP, Rich Wong, whose friend’s girlfriend was an actress. That girl was Daisye. She did a self-tape of two scenes and the second I watched them I knew she was our girl. She nailed it.

FERNTV: This film looks like it would be challenging to make seeing that you installed all technologies (ie. cell phones, laptops) into the film?  Describe one challenge you had by doing this?

Jennifer: There were a lot of challenges with this for sure. To help us move faster while shooting, we actually shot all of the phone scenes with Daisye with just a blank white screen. So whenever you see her texting or looking at her phone, she’s just looking at essentially a big white square. This way we could control the timing of how things went and we didn’t have to try and coordinate everything. Then on a separate day, we shot all of the phone closeups for the whole movie and went through all the text conversations, etc, and cut them into the scenes in post.

FERNTV: The film really comments on the dark side of social media and technology.  But what about the invasion of privacy through technology and social media?  Can you comment on that?

Jennifer: Well, I think the Alexa device and Nest cameras are both pretty creepy. When something connects to an outside network – especially if it has a camera and/or microphone – it’s possible for someone to access that. I hear of strange coincidences happening all the time of people talking about something and then minutes later that same thing showing up as an ad on their phone. I think with technology today any concept of total privacy is impossible.

FERNTV: What are some of your influences when it comes to horror directors and their techniques in filmmaking?

Jennifer: I’d say some of my favourite horror directors are Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and Sam Raimi. You can see a lot of stuff in the movie a direct influence by all three of them. An example is when Mia asks Diana to lock the doors. I do the three quick cuts of the doors locking – total Sam Raimi. I love those kinds of sequences.

FERNTV: What did you learn about yourself as a director after putting this film Shook together?

 
Jennifer: In the world of indie filmmaking, there is a lot of compromising. In order to just get the movie in the can, you have to still find a way to keep some aspect of your original idea alive.

FERNTV: What is it like to for your film to be on Shudder and their support of women directors in horror?

Jennifer: It’s amazing for Shook to be on Shudder. They are not only a great platform for horror, I also think they are helping to elevate the genre by curating their collection to show that there is incredible filmmaking happening in this corner of the cinema world. 

FERNTV: What is coming up next for Jennifer Harrington?

Jennifer: I sold a script last year to Sony and Jake Kasdan‘s company so I’ve been working on that. I also just started another script as well. Lots of writing right now during Covid.

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