About

Synopsis
Eveline is the story of Dante, a private detective, who receives a mysterious fax about Sarah de la Cruz, a girl who has long been missing and is now believed to be in the town of Eveline. In his travels, Dante encounters a strange town with curious people who might be able to lead him to the girl— or perhaps something more sinister.

Production
The script for Eveline was completed in December 2008. Principal photography began with a cast and crew of 25, in February 2009. The crew wrapped production in August 2009. Post production began shortly afterward, with an early version of the film completed in November 2009. After significant revision, the film appears here on this website, circa July 2010. The film has been submitted to some festivals, but due to the nature of festival programming, it does not easily fit in terms of the “right” format. Although classified as an experimental short, the production is really a series of serial vignettes.

A Segmented New Media Narrative
The story of Eveline progresses with each “webisode”, but the segmented nature of the film allows us to skip ahead of real time. The individual webisodes are serial and they tend to lead to the next piece, but not always. The purpose for this is to allow each viewer to make some assumptions and conclusions that may or may not be in the story. Eveline is a puzzle, and using your brain, you attempt to complete missing pieces and determine what’s important in the story, which offers several red herrings. To a certain extent, the mind makes up for missing pieces and completes the puzzle. The waypath of the story is logical enough to understand the progression of time, of moving forward.

Eveline was created with the intention of viewing over an extended period of time. You might, for example, watch a couple of webisodes this week, then a few next week, and so on. It gives one time to reflect on the story and consider the narrative points. You can watch every webisode on this site, but the response seems to be better when viewed over time. Using the internet as a form of new media, the viewer can react and to some extent, interact with the film.

Influences
As the director of the film, I was influenced by many films and filmmakers. There are parts of the film where a trope is taken from, and used as an homage to, another film.

Much of the look of the film can be attributed to David Lynch’s use of primary colors in deep, dark and saturated backgrounds and costumes, contrasting with pale skin. Natalie Cottrell, who plays Vicki in Eveline, had the exact set of features that fit this design. Deep red lipstick is constant throughout the film. By contrast Dante, the lead role played by Jacob Repp, wears neutral colors that are found in nature. Part of this reflects his role as “the natural man.” Jake’s olive skin tone was perfect for this effect.

The dialog is particular and tricky. There are some repeated phrases that indicate connections between characters. Some of the didacticism of the dialog can be attributed to both Ethan Coen and David Mamet, both of who have continued to influence my writing. Coen has a way of turning a phrase into a meme. Mamet, on the other hand, is particular about how the dialog is enunciated. Some lines in the film were taken from other films. For example, both the phrase and delivery of Lucy’s dialog “Now you’ve done it!” was actually lifted from Paul Verhoefen’s Total Recall. Although Eveline is nothing like Total Recall, I remembered the performance and used it in the film. Actress Ellen Locy (Lucy) studied the DVD and practiced her delivery based upon Sharon Stone’s performance. Actor Jake Repp’s (Dante) performance was influenced by a number of performances, particularly those by Bruce Willis. The cool reserve and quiet manner of conversation was used as a part of Dante’s character.

The existential nature of the film, particularly the end of the film, is heavily influenced by the French New Wave. An additional webisode— a conclusion of sorts— was filmed then later scrapped in post production because it was a departure from the natural flow of the webisodes, and literally made little sense. Agnés Varda and François Truffaut’s films heavily influenced the way that the film ends. It’s not of particular interest to me to offer a Hollywood ending.

Format
The format and delivery of the film is new to me, and so I welcome interaction with the audience. The ability to respond immediately with feedback is one of the features of new media which interests me most. Direct communication with the filmmaker, prior to the advent of the internet, was nearly impossible. Although each message is asynchronous in terms of delivery and receipt, it is clear to the audience that they will be able to interact and offer feedback about the film.

Although the original script for the film was written in a traditional manner, one of the webisodes, “Eggs” was written entirely by Ellen Locy. After some lengthy discussions about the character of Lucy, Ellen wrote a sketch for the dialog, then improvised in front of the camera. The emergent nature of the piece was so haunting and brilliant that none of it was cut.

Perhaps the biggest technical consideration of the film was the format for web. Originally it was planned to be released using Flash video format, but in order to make the film a true “transmedia” film, it was decided that it should be encoded in Quicktime format, so that Apple iPhone users would easily access and watch the files. Using WordPress, a customized theme and an iPhone plugin, the site and the film can be shown on almost any internet platform.

Critical Analysis
Eveline was based upon themes from James Joyce’s book “Dubliners”. In the short story, also named “Eveline”, Joyce talks about loneliness, fear of the unknown, and a woman’s role in society during his time, particularly in Ireland. The movie is a modern look at many of these same themes, in the setting of a desolate North Texas town. But is the town real? Some might argue that it is a metaphor for the themes that Joyce describes, places in the mind where we go seeking answers to the issues that are raised in the original story. And so it is that, to the viewer, we travel through both dream space and reality. One is never sure of where one ends and the other begins.

Existential and experimental, Eveline attempts to leave the audience with a sense of being in play with the narrative. By segmenting only parts of the entire story, it requires some thinking to determine the essence of the narrative. In the viewers mind, a construct must be created to negotiate what has happened on the screen, where it happens, and to some extent, why that viewpoint was given to the audience.

The story presented on this site is divided into segments. Those segments are the backbone of the narrative. Some parts fit within a logical order, others do not. Some parts introduce characters, but not all of the characters maintain their place in the central narrative. These “red herrings” leave one with a sense of foreboding, a Kafkaesque sense that something is wrong when in fact nothing on the surface is logically worthy of fear.