Original subtitles

play forward Mitchell slan genre

specific horror writer director watch

balloon very creepy

um Mitchell would you like to introduce

anything about yourself for the movie

before we begin

sure my name is Mitchell sland I'm a

writer director I've been I mean we've

been making horror films since 2016 I

believe uh here in Los Angeles and uh

balloon was the first short that I ever

really put a lot of my you know love and

effort into and I was really wanted to

be a be a banger or really pop if you

want to call it that and so I just can't

believe that uh years later it's still

kind of making its rounds and we're

still talking about it so I'm very very

excited about that yeah you pulled it

off really well the timing of a lot of

the the stuff that the genre the uh I

guess the theme on the topic

um is is really relevant I think to a

lot of people

um

and

I guess what I mean by that is you know

the trauma of childhood that's it

there's there's some traumatic event in

childhood and that's you know the coming

of age kind of process for all of us

um and there are multiple multiple

traumas this trauma happens to be around

a clown and balloons and the main

character trying to get over her fear of

balloons through a very

um I guess uh avant-garde or risky

non-typical therapy session and it ends

up ends up backfiring on her and and you

know with play it forward you know I

really dig into the meat of the content

of the story and that's um where I

believe the heart of the Artistry of

filmmaking and storytelling lies so this

story

um

you know the thing

the theme is I see it and then themes

you see is where where I'd like to

discuss but but before we talk about

theme I almost skipped over the very

first question and play it forward it's

where did this story come from within

your life experience sure well you know

you know it's funny because like

at a time we had been homeless in Los

Angeles we had been like trying to just

kind of you know all survive as artists

we were just brand new and I just had

this I was sitting there and I remember

I was trying to do my laundry and this

really like freaky like laundromat and I

remember seeing their like some rerun of

Oprah and she was talking about how she

was diagnosed with globophobia which is

like the fear of balloons and like at

the time I was trying to like I said I

need to make a short that could show I

can make a scary movie I really seem to

get myself out there and that something

about that just triggered just triggered

to me you know it just hit me hard and

when I was a kid I used to like play in

my backyard with my sister and there

were times our parents would just like

they would leave us or they had to go

off and do something and I remember just

being in the backyard and like our gate

would like open and close by itself and

I always just like would get really

freaked out I'd freaked my own self out

you know just wondering and maybe if I

were to go past that gate without them

knowing like what happened to me or you

know would there be somebody waiting for

me and I I and I don't know why that

triggered my brain but those are so

those things started coming to my head

after I saw that Rerun and then at the

time too and it was 2016. we had that

kind of I don't know called the clown

epidemic where people were dressing up

as clowns that was all over the news and

people were like scaring just innocent

people in parks and neighborhoods and I

just the ideas started coming to me from

all those three things and that's kind

of how like the script was banged out in

even just a few days wow so I mean you

kind of said a lot there to uh follow up

on it um homelessness you said we

yeah well so I mean there was a there

was a band of artists that I had met

after my buddy and I moved to Los

Angeles and we just all got very close

and you know we had to we sadly had to

leave an apartment for like various

reasons and the place that we got wasn't

gonna be ready for another month so we

just kind of like

we just kind of lived around Los Angeles

for a month until was ready and it was

kind of some of the most fun parts of my

life honestly like it was just kind of

like we didn't know what was going to

happen next we were writing the script

and we're trying to like all kind of

figure out how we're gonna do it and so

even the way that it looks to me is

still to this day like magical because

you would not believe the nightmares we

went through to get it made you know

yeah I do believe it

um really

um it's it's tough you know making a

short film that's you know visually you

know on point and you know the story The

Narrative the acting is on point as well

um

the other thing you know the follow-up

there is like okay so you know you were

left alone

um as a child and you know there's I

think that is you know you can see that

with the main character in the movie The

Early Childhood she's at the birthday

party she's alone then exactly and you

know so there's there's definitely that

connection

um interesting then moving on to themes

you know how do you see what do you see

as the message of the movie or the theme

of the movie now from your perspective

sorry I mean and yeah all these years

later it's like I can tell myself that

you know it's up to us to face our own

fears and it's it's kind of it's kind of

sad because I know I know she actually

did the right Penny did the right thing

by trying to find help for herself and

sadly someone did take advantage of that

and I didn't want to like you know I

didn't want to I didn't want to scare

people into like finding help but at the

same time I think also

um you know my thoughts she was such a

later in her life too it's like

wondering is like you know learning how

to face her fears and learning how to

overcome them in like the most even if

it takes such a crazy way it's learning

how to kind of like face our own like

nightmares whether it comes from inside

or getting help from somebody else but I

guess it's funny like at the time too I

was trying to scare people so it's so

it's so strange like like oh my god did

I send a bad message or did I not you

know

um so that's it just went looking years

back I was like wow that probably wasn't

the the best message but I hope it

scared a lot of people yeah yeah well I

think that's cool that you know you're

looking at the message and what you're

playing out I think that's really

important you know for anybody

um and what we're doing in life as you

know filmmaking or not you know it's so

watching a movie yeah

and doing my homework on it and coming

up with my interpretation of it is

you know

her attempt at facing her fear and

overcoming the violence that was

perpetuated or perpetrated on her failed

and the reason it it failed ultimately I

mean failed and censored she became uh

violent herself and an aggressor and it

failed

um because she identified and continued

that level of violence

now

it's interesting because

if that is the storyline or the theme or

what have it it leaves this underlying

question

well how do you overcome trauma

exactly and and I and then and then

looking at it that way it's my it's it's

not exactly uh hopeful but you know and

then thinking about it now too I think

at the time I had been I had gone

through something really tragic and I

think at the time I remember like I I

was recommended like you know hey you

probably talk to someone about this and

I and I don't know what it was again

this is just my my brain the way it

thinks I remember sitting there I'm in a

session for something that I should be

like trying to cure my own self of and

all I could think in my head was this

person is really like tell me anything

that could twist my like view of you

know and not not even a negative way

this person was wonderful and they were

very helpful but again it was just a

scary story I'm always constantly

thinking of ways to like

twist things around if that makes any

sense you know well I think what you're

saying is that you found yourself in a

really vulnerable position where this

person could influence the way you think

about your own self I think what happens

you know in all this like okay so

there's that genre of you know of

Thriller Horrors that like are exciting

and fun but then there's the message and

what what's going on and so what I kind

of you know to refine what I said is

that

I think in how how it relates to the

World At Large in humanity is that hey a

lot of people make that wrong decision

of you know trying to identify with

their aggressor and they continue the

violence on their own children are on

their own Partners as they grow up so

how do you stop that level of violence

because in real life that is you

know there's nothing thrilling about it

you know if that indeed is that's there

in the movie as a story then at least

it's a warning to say hey this isn't the

way

and then maybe part two the you know the

feature that you're working on is like

hey well what is the way you know what

is the way people get out of that awful

awful trauma

um so what do you think

well you know it's weird because uh you

know again like it was the first you

know it was the first thing you ever

made and I I it's so funny like little

little life experiences even though they

weren't completely connected like I just

realized more and more as I kind of look

back like wow all those things were in

there and I was a very different person

at the time too right you know and since

then I become I have I think I've become

a lot better in handling a lot of my

grief and drama and it's just it's just

so scary because in a in a treatment we

had written for a feature for at one

point you know it's like it's Penny kind

of running around dressed as the

clowning she kind of essentially becomes

Poppy the clown you know she becomes the

thing that she's afraid of the most yeah

and it has to even kind of come down

from that you know and so you know I'm

just it's like looking at myself now I'm

glad that I didn't become what she would

become you know in the future if that

makes any sense it does it makes

complete sense and I think that's in an

interesting way where I get really

excited about talking to filmmakers and

their films is like where the life

mirrors what their work is and it's like

hey man's done that movie was your in my

view that was how you faced your fears

Barbara said you know how you worked to

overcome them so leading us to the

question last question Play it Forward

is you said it yourself you're a

different person then how have you been

changed since making the movie

well you know as as a person like uh

I've learned I found healthier ways to

you know deal with things that were you

know that are hurting us inside like

whether it's being more open with your

friends and or your family and like not

being afraid to like when you're down to

like really talk to somebody

um also other other people you know and

not being afraid to kind of like tackle

those hurdles of whenever we're going

through kind of deep changes in our life

or you know dark moments and it's weird

because it's like

a lot of the things I've been writing

since then are a lot more hopeful

endings you know uh everything I've been

kind of even though it's always a

nightmare that our protagonist is going

to go through I've always notice that

there's always hope at the end and I

think that's something that as an artist

that I've grown is that if I'm gonna

make horror movies I don't want people

to feel like that there's no Hope from

the nightmares that we're gonna face in

this world so that's that's something

that I noticed that's been changing

consistently in the writing especially

with this upcoming feature that we're

working on is that

I was like wow like this needs to have a

message of like you can you can get

through the wars

possible outcomes you know

um and so I guess I think that's how

I've grown as a person as a filmmaker as

well

Mitchell slan writer director balloon uh

it's a pleasure to have you

um on the show and I loved speaking to

you thank you so much for being here man

dude thank you so much for having my

friend and again and a shout out to

Regina for bringing me on Gina Ainsworth

thank you yeah he's nominated you thank

you so much all right until next time

everybody play it forward

bye