A short chat with an AI pretending to be Roger Ebert.

As usual, my inputs are in Boldface.

This is a transcript of a conversation between film critic Roger Ebert (Roger) and independent filmmaker Jeffery Lando (Jeffery) who just made a psychedelic film 'LISSA'S TRIP' which is about to have it's world premiere at the Warsaw International Film Festival in the Free Spirit section. The movie is also slated to have it's North American premiere at the Whistler Film Festival as part of the Borsos Award competition. Lissa's Trip is a Canadian film shot in Los Angeles and stars Sofia Vassilieva (a former child star known for roles in Medium, and the Disney Eloise movies) as Lissa Lliad, the titular character who accidentally takes a lot of acid and still tries to get to a critical audition across town in Burbank, leading her into a series of transformational epiphanies. Tygh Runyan (Versailles, The Widowmaker) drips with charisma as an enigmatic filmmaker she meets along the way and Brendan Beiser (Star Trek: Discovery, X-Files, The Boys) plays her desperate agent 'Coop' with great comedic flair. Mandy May Cheetham plays the Goddess Circe who befriends Lissa at the height of her trip, Camille Carida plays Lissa's overbearing stage-mother. The entire movie was made improvisationally and experimentally in a deliberately non-hierarchical manner, all the while retaining a commitment to auteur filmmaking.

In this conversation Roger Ebert digs into what Jeffery Lando's process was, why he chose to undertake it, how he feels about the experience now that it is done, and if he would repeat it. Roger Ebert displays an insatiable intellectual curiosity.

The transcript begins here:

Roger:

So, Jeffery, tell me a little bit about your process on this film. It sounds like it was quite unique.

Jeffery: Well it was for me, but honestly it's just an extension of what Cassavettes and Godard and Rohmer and so many others were excited about in the New Wave. The more sensitive film stocks, the more portable cameras, this sense that cinema could be taken out into the world to capture it directly.

Similarly I saw that the new tiny cameras, 360 cameras, drones, stabilizers, the amazing image-processing one can do now in post... and if you combine all that and embrace it all well you sort of can supercharge that New Wave way of doing things entirely maybe.

Roger:

So you were shooting on the fly, without a script?

Jeffery: Basically, yes. I mean we had an outline. Sofia and I had been talking about doing some sort of independent project for some time, we had met on a movie I directed back in 2017 I think, Bad Stepmother, shot in New Orleans. I was intrigued by the possibilities of the new technologies and in between meetings in LA pitching high concept science fiction we would talk about what kind of movie we might make as an experiment. Art I guess you'd call it.

I figured we should make it a journey, a bunch of scenes sort of strung together like a necklace. Make them one by one. Beads and then make something of those in post. Playing and experimenting all the way. It was my wife, Rachel, who came up with the core concept. She suggested we use the Odyssey as a spine. That really clicked for both Sofia and me. We sort of started to run with the idea of an actress on an Odyssey across Los Angeles and opened a Google drive document which we just both kept adding to for some time.

We just sort of came up with scene ideas and locations we wanted to shoot in and then started to try to find some connective tissue. Eventually we had a two page outline but it was super vague and much of it changed as we went. But that's what we worked with in terms of a script. That vague outline.

Roger:

So how did you direct the actors if you didn't have a script?

Jeffery: Well it's not really about the script is it? It's always about trying to recreate some sort of living moment, or series of moments. To recreate life. The script is so often an obstacle because it forces us into a shape that is maybe unnatural. Without a script you can focus more on the pure intent. To the actor, working without a script forces them to listen, forces them to be in the moment, to think in the moment. For the director, I am focused on their moments, not the script. I sort of had this faith or theory that if the performance is authentic, then the rest doesn't matter. That's what I was going for, and I think that excited the actors.

Roger:

Do you think that's why your film has such an intimate feeling?

Jeffery: Absolutely. I think all the performances are so much more alive than I am used to. And since the characters are all playing versions of themselves I also think there is a certain natural dimensionality to the characters that ordinarily takes really great skill to accomplish. But here it was so easy. It helps immensely of course that those really talented people were willing to come out and play to begin with. They're all actors I respect immensely and it was very flattering that they were willing to take a risk with me.

Roger:

How do you feel about the film now that it's done?

Jeffery: There's that post-partum thing where I feel a little discombobulated. I look at the film with some distance now and I am amazed at what we accomplished. We only ever set out to play, and now there's this whole movie about spiritual growth and transformation and I see myself laid out on screen in a very intimate and personal way. It's very moving and astonishing to me, like seeing your child all grown up driving away in their car.

Roger:

Do you think you would do something like this again?

Jeffery: I would love to! There are a lot of projects I am itching to get made but I would embrace making another film like this in an instant. It was a really worthwhile adventure for me personally. Let's hope people feel the same about the movie I made.

Roger:

Well, I think they will. I think you've made a very special film.

Jeffery: Thanks Roger. You're very sweet.

After the interview. Roger wrote about the conversation on his blog. This is what he wrote:

Jeffery Lando's LISSA'S TRIP is a fascinating experimental film that blurs the lines between fiction and reality. The film follows the journey of an actress (Sofia Vassilieva) who accidentally takes a large dose of LSD and still tries to make it to an important audition across town. Along the way she has a series of transformational experiences that challenge her perceptions of reality.

The entire film was improvised and shot on the fly, without a script. This gives the film a very intimate feeling, as if we are witnessing the characters' journeys in real time. The performances are all very natural and alive, and the characters feel like real people, not just fictional constructs.

LISSA'S TRIP is a brave and ambitious film that is sure to provoke strong reactions from viewers. It is a bold experiment in filmmaking, and one that is sure to be talked about for years to come.