“DYING IN THE BACKSEAT” by Kevin Doan

DramaRomance

Apr 17

Beyond the Short Official Premiere

On a sleepy afternoon in suburban Los Angeles, a phone call between exes in the backseat of their car leads them down a rabbit hole of self awakening.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

“The film I directed before this one (The Martyr of Hudson Yards) was a heavy, very complexly edited piece that had vfx, and I poured everything I had into it. I wanted to go out and make something very simple after that. No voiceover, no abstractions. Just simple. A phone call conversation between two people (with some gray areas to what they're actually trying to say). Minimal amount of shots. Shot in one day. And that's what we did with this film.

I had run into an old ex a few months before I wrote this piece and basically wrote into the script what I felt right after that breakup. It had been just about the right amount of time where I didn't have any feelings of wanting to get back together anymore but more so from a place where I wanted to talk to the version of myself that was grieving right afterwards. And to maybe tell that version of myself that everything is gonna be okay.

I was in LA for about four days and called up some old friends from college (our producer Loren and our DP Justin) and we made this happen. We got really lucky with the lighting which was incredibly honey colored as we approached sunset. Our actors Christopher and Will were amazing to work with. On the back end - Sabra our editor was incredible and found the rhythm of the edit almost immediately.

The music was important - I'd been listening to Cannons since college and waited for the right project to use this song and found that it fit the piece. Everything on this one was smooth and easy. Much like the atmosphere of the California suburb I tried to present in it which is very much a character in of itself.”

-Kevin Doan