After writing, directing, and producing her first feature film, Honeycomb, Avalon Fast is stepping up the production game with her second feature, CAMP. With a producing team behind her, Fast is able to craft something unique, creepy, and utterly gorgeous. It’s a hazy tale of grief and femininity, of messy women who embrace the chaos, and of finding yourself in strange places.
While at Fantastic Fest, we sat down with Fast, as well as actors Zola Grimmer, Lea Rose Sebastianis, and Sophie Bawks-Smith, cinematographer Eily Sprungman, and costume designer Jillian Frank to talk about the devastation and joy that flow throughout the film, finding each character’s aesthetic, and tapping into the true experience of grief.
Dread Central: Avalon, this is such a cheesy first question, but what drew you to writing this really amazing, sad, melancholy summer camp witch movie?
Avalon Fast: I had gone through the loss of a friend the summer before I started writing. It was even less so about my experience, but about watching the experience that her sister had had grieving a loss and getting close with her, and just seeing the ways in which she decided to move in the world. And it was ongoing, too. It was something maybe I’d had an idea of in the beginning.
This movie, to me, has always been about these two paths you might take when trying to overcome a trauma. One being that the hard work, the healthy out, and then the other being this, I’m just going to do what makes me feel good right now. I have no judgment; I still don’t know which one of those is the right path. And that was kind of, I think, what got my brain thinking about a way to explain that feeling or that phenomenon. And yeah, that’s kind of how it started.
Dread Central: Zola, what was it like becoming Emily? You’re so incredible as Emily and just the confidence you carry in your performance is really incredible and the movie is so much about you. Plus, this is your first feature!
Zola Grimmer: I felt like I had kind of an understanding of her from the beginning. I mean, there was a brief that I auditioned with, which I kind of ran with. But then, yeah, she has a deep melancholy, which is something that I’ve definitely experienced in my life. Obviously not to that extent, but she also is quite optimistic in certain ways, which is something I find quite relatable. And Avalon and I spoke a great length about it. And even after we did the table read, Avalon gave me some pointers and stuff like that, which was very helpful because I just didn’t want her to feel like she was too bogged down in her emotions.
DC: That’s true. It’s a movie that can get really, really depressing so quickly, and it’s really cool how you balance that of the love and joy with the melancholy.
ZR: It was great because I mean, I loved everybody that I got to work with. So you can play off with that too, which is I found very helpful. At first, when I was trying to understand her, I was imagining her as this always consistently quite sad person, but that’s not a productive way to process things. And there were so many other fun characters in the movie who were great to work with. And so that added the lightness to her character, I thought.
DC: What drew you guys to being part of CAMP? This is a film about Emily, but I still love all of these women around her, so you both get to have these really cool roles within that. So what was that like for both of you?
Lea Rose Sebastianis: Oh yeah. I have so much fun playing Nev. I mean, I completely relate to this sinister, deeply fun woman who also has been through so much. I definitely have a friend, at least a couple friends like her; we all have a friend like her. I believe she’s a girl that we all need in our lives, who is an amazing party friend. But also, if you were stuck in the middle of nowhere with $2 to your name, she would come pick you up and have no judgment.
DC: She definitely would. She’s the fun friend, but also the very surprising friend.
LRS: She’s seen a lot. And so I really, really respect her as a person, and it was really fun to kind of work with all these other, I think deeply troubled women. I also have a deep reverence for all the women in this film because they’re so multifaceted in their pain, in their glory as well. That’s so beautiful.
DC: What about you?
Sophie Bawks-Smith: Yeah, it’s cool because when Avalon first started writing the script, we lived together. Then, throughout the years, we’ve gotten very close, and so I think I’ve gotten to be around every part in the creation of Jo. And so I got to have a lot of input, and we had a lot of conversations, and she just was always becoming right up until we shot.
Even after we filmed, there were so many layers to what this character is, and so there was so much room to play. Jo’s not even on screen for that much time. But I think there are so many ways you can see that character and different theories and different layers of it. That was so fun to explore together and by myself.
AF: Yeah, I mean, one of the most interesting parts about Jo’s character to me is that she didn’t exist until a couple of drafts later.
DC: Oh, really?
AF: I think more than a year down the line from when I started writing the script. And it was because, if I’m being completely honest, I needed Sophie to be in the movie. Sophie was in my first film, and I needed her to have a place in CAMP. And then came Jo. Jo ended up becoming such an, I mean, to me, one of the most important points in the story. And she turns CAMP from being one thing to another, and I just, yeah, it’s crazy for me to imagine this movie without that character.
DC: There’s that beautiful, almost like the Ophelia painting, moment with Jo in the water.
Eily Sprungman: That’s cool that you got that reference!
DC: I was going to ask about it!
ES: Avalon and I spent a really long time thinking about symbolism in the film, leading up to it for a year. We decided that we wanted to reference Renaissance art in blocking and color. So there are a couple of shots in CAMP that are directly referencing certain blocking or color palettes or the physical thing. Then we’re trying to work really hard to bring that into all these different aspects of the film. Yeah. It was very meditative, along with the visual side of it.
DC: Well, and the costuming with all of the characters! I love the corset over gym shorts with Nev, while Jo has all these baggy clothes, and then Emily has her sweater, but then also the witchy outfits. I just wanted to hear about figuring out everyone’s aesthetic because everyone has such an incredible aesthetic.
Jillian Frank: Yeah. Well, Avalon does this really kind of cool thing with her movies where she likes to have an outfit for a character.
DC: Very 90s cartoon.
JF: Exactly. So pretty early on, we spoke about ideas before we had even decided that I was going to be doing that position. We also lived together. And then we did start just sitting down and looking at Pinterest and stuff like that.
DC: Oh my gosh, yes. The best place for movie planning is on Pinterest!
JF: I feel like we had a very similar vision of what it would look like. And then a lot of things also came together at the very end, because I was also partnered with Gislaine Leroy over in Alberta. So I wasn’t based in Alberta; I was in Vancouver doing all of this planning, but I couldn’t actually really source anything yet.
I’ve also never done the job before, so it was really great to have her on. She knew what she was doing, and I just came to her with all these ideas and vomited onto her. It was like, let’s make this happen. So yeah, it was pretty cool, like Leah’s costume with the corset and the wife-beater and the bra poking out.
LRS: And that hat and the shorts that I wear every day.
DC: Which is perfect. I would’ve dressed like that when I was in high school. I know that sounds embarrassing, but I would have worn that outfit.
LRS: She’s probably the hottest girl in her neighborhood and in every school. It’s true. Needs to bring an item that is like, I’m sexy, I’m hot, and powerful. And also, I’m at camp, so I do have to wear these.
DC: Avalon, what was it like going from your first feature to this one? I feel like this one obviously had a little bit more support behind it and not just, yeah, just a little bit. So what was that like for you as a filmmaker? Just going from such a big difference in terms of production?
AF: I mean, yeah, after Honeycomb, it’s funny to say, it wasn’t necessarily the lack of funds that we had that made Honeycomb so hard. For me, it was the lack of support. And I don’t mean that in terms of the people I made the movie with; they were very supportive. But I didn’t have that background support, like producers, people who are doing behind-the-scenes stuff. So it felt lonely, I think.
So, moving into CAMP, that was probably the most relieving thing, having that background support. I remember multiple days on set, watching as people worked around me instead of myself being the one running around and doing everything, or the cast being the ones to run around and do everything, like we did on Honeycomb. It was just such a cool feeling to see how well that can work. And honestly, our production of CAMP was so magical. I don’t think I’m alone in that. I’ve heard from a lot of the cast and crew that it was a really good experience. That was so cool because Honeycomb was really, really hard.
And I mean, of course, there were very hard things with CAMP, and in the same way that it’s nice to have support, it’s hard to share for me, sometimes. So yeah, there’s been ups and downs, but overall the support has been the best thing.
DC: What do you love about being both behind and in front of the camera? You were really great in The Serpent’s Skin, which I saw at Fantasia. So what do you like about doing both roles, and do you want to keep occupying both spaces?
AF: Yeah. I mean, I was saying this last night to Louise Weard, who directed Castration Movie, I was talking about acting strangely. I was saying acting is very fun, but I actually hate being out of control. And it’s something I’m practicing as a way to become a better filmmaker, which is always, I think, that’s my thing. I think being behind the scenes, telling the stories, that’s the most important to me. And I think acting is such, it’s like a beautiful craft, and I want to become a better director who can be better to my actors. And so by being an actor, I think I can learn both, and they’re both important to me.
DC: Where did you film? It seems like the most magical place.
AF: Yeah, we shot primarily in Alberta, in Kananaskis, specifically. So the Kananaskis Mountain range is very rural, very remote. It was like an hour drive out of Calgary. We would go there almost every day.
DC: It feels very magical. I felt like it had a good energy, a weird, cool energy.
Everyone simultaneously: YES!
ZG: It was a horse camp. There were horses everywhere.
AF: It was magical. It was magical walking from set to where we were holding, and then there were just horse eyes in the dark, staring at you.
Categorized: Interviews
