[Reellife] An Interview with the Director of The Valley Below

[dave olsen]

Tonight I had the pleasure of speaking with Kyle Thomas, director of The Valley 
Below <http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below>, his first 
full-length feature and a member of the North Country Cinema Collective.

Reellife: What inspired you to make The Valley Below 
<http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below>?

Kyle Thomas: I'm from Alberta and currently living in Calgary; I'm drawn to the 
landscape and people of Drumheller.  I also feel a responsibility since there is 
not a lot happening in film in Alberta right now.

This film really started back in 2011 with the short /Not far from the Abatoir/ 
which was shown at SouthBySouthWest.

We had such a great time shooting the short that for our first feature, I was 
pulled back to that film.  I thought why not tell many stories?

My previous shorts moody were moody, kind of David Lynch-y.  I grew up acting, 
so I wanted to shine the spotlight on the acting.  For The Valley Below 
<http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below>, 90% of it was shot 
with a handheld camera, so the actors could get into the scenework.

Reellife: How did this feature compare to making shorts?

Kyle: The way that we made shorts worked so we went with that; basically 4 
shorts that stand alone; characters connect but it's not used as a gimmick.

Reellife: What stands out about The Valley Below 
<http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below> for you?

Kyle: We brought on a lot of great Canadian musicians.  The movie has 4 chapters 
and from the beginning, I knew I wanted 1 to score each chapter. Rae Spoon, Kris 
Demeanor, Eamon Mcgrath, Gavin Gardiner (of The Wooden Sky), and Dan Mangan.  
Music acts almost as a character and the soundtrack is getting a lot of attention.

Reellife: Why did you choose Drumheller as the setting for the film?

Kyle: I'm fascinated with small towns; why do people choose to live there?  I'm 
comfortable in small towns but I've found there's two basic stereotypes: those 
that hate cities, and those that can hardly wait to get out of there.

It's also easier not to get distracted in small towns, especially when shooting 
a film.

Drumheller is an hour and ten minutes away from Calgary...it used to have 60,000 
people but now there's only 9,000 and many abandoned coal mines.  I find myself 
continually going back to it.

Reellife: What's next for you?

Kyle: I have a whole bunch of ideas for the next one; however, next Friday our 
Collective will be shooting again and we help each other out.  I'm excited about 
that.

Reellife: What's next for The Valley Below 
<http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below>?

Kyle: It's World Premiere was at TIFF (Toronto); that was an eye-opener, and we 
got Canadian distribution!  It'll allow us to bring the film to small towns in 2015.

The Valley Below <http://www.viff.org/festival/films/f13160-the-valley-below> 
last screening at VIFF is tomorrow (Tuesday), September 30 at 3pm in SFU 
Woodwards <http://www.viff.org/festival/venues/sfu-woodwards>.  There will be a 
Q&A right afterwards with Kyle Thomas and actress Mandy Stobo, who is also 
coming from Alberta.
-- 

Warmly,
dave/
//
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