“Everything Is As It Should Be” By Kylie Murphy
A meditation guide lives alone during the pandemic.
I imagine this past year might not feel so different for others who live with illness like myself. The isolation, the hyper awareness of the body. The feeling that we should be using this time to make ourselves better. With this film, I wanted to explore growth as something cyclical — it rises and falls like the breath. It is made up of so many specific and imperfect moments that we cannot see it for ourselves.
I had this script bouncing around over the past year and there was one person I wanted to make it with, a fellow filmmaker and unfellow actress Giselle Bonilla, who I met only once in person at a festival in 2019. Just a couple minor snags: we’re on opposite ends of the country and everyone and everything is dying around us. How can we create comfortably in this world?
My solution was to go entirely remote with the smallest scale possible: one actor, one room, one shot. I somehow convinced Giselle to be on Zoom with me for a weekend, shipped a complex configuration of GoPro equipment cross-country, and created a monster of a continuity tracking system on Google Sheets. Lamp on/off? Cat tree visible? Puzzle progress? Giselle was on her own as wardrobe, set dresser, and cat wrangler. My wonderful and patient producer pals Frances and Camila helped me pull off this project with accountability and organization over Zoom or sometimes Google Meet, depending on Frances’ internet connection.
So how exactly does one shoot a film with someone on the other side of the country?
As a DP, I love solving a tedious technical problem like this. Only one low-maintenance camera fit my high-maintenance glass slipper: the trusty, rugged GoPro. My obsession with achieving a seamless jump cut over multiple days was solved with their suction cup, originally intended for withstanding high speeds on your sailboat or motorcycle or motorboat or sailcycle. It stayed up unflinching on her window for two weeks, a five star review if I’ve ever heard one.
After a couple months of research, lots of testing, and an assist from the one kind man on Reddit, I created a unique system where I could monitor the camera and hear the audio through Zoom in real time. (Will patent for the next pandem.) I did a runthrough over Zoom with my sister down the hall and made a Google Slides presentation with a step-by-step guide before shipping my Black Friday Deal GoPro off to its big debut.
Giselle and I spent most of that weekend on Zoom together. Having primarily been on an instagram DM basis before, we were suddenly hanging out for 10 hours a day on a screen. If it’s any indication on our future personal and professional relationship, we did stay on for about two hours after wrapping, talking about that photo of Bradley Cooper reading Lolita to his 21-year-old girlfriend in the park, among other things. (If you haven’t seen those photos yet, forget watching my film. Make that your priority.
After working through all the kinks in the setup, the technical elements of the film were mostly a breeze and I just had the joy of watching Giselle perform. Anyone who sees the film is guaranteed to feel the same. Who else can improvise an entire one-sided birthday zoom call on the spot? We’re lucky to be a fly on her wall, or rather the new saying I’m trying to popularize, a GoPro suction cupped to her window. This film let us be together alone and I hope when you’re watching you feel the same.
Kylie Murphy - Writer & Director
Credits
Writer, Director: Kylie Murphy
Starring: Giselle Bonilla
Produced by: Kylie Murphy, Frances Mar, Camila Grimaldi
Director of Photography: Kylie Murphy
Editor: Kylie Murphy
Sound Mix and Design: Diego Arancibia, Marcelo Galluzzo
Original Music: Mateo Nossa
Title Animation: Cristina Villegas
Hey filmmakers! Have a project of your own you’d like us to check out?