Horror movie Talk to Me hit up San Diego Comic-Con, living up to its name. The panel, fronted by filmmaking twins Danny and Michael Philippou, was all talk, one short clip notwithstanding, as the movie’s cast bowed out of the presentation due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
But that didn’t stop the panel from being entertaining and informative, with the brothers hyperactively speaking about their origins, dispensing filmmaking advice, and spitting out non sequiturs, leaving the audience in the Bayfront’s Hilton Indigo Ballroom with grins on their faces.
The excited and excitable brothers gained a massive following, as well as experience, making action horror comedy videos on YouTube before earning Hollywood buzz with Talk to Me, which they made independently. The supernatural horror movie, about teens who find themselves on the wrong side of a possession gone very wrong, became a Sundance sensation this year before getting picked up by A24. It is being release July 28.
“We never went into YouTube wanting to be YouTubers. We wanted to be make feature films,” said Michael. “Every fight scene we designed or a new rig or a new blood efffect or something with music. We always set challenges for ourselves for the videos we were making. Just so we could see if it was possible to make something and to gain experience.”
The brothers shared plenty of details about the do-it-yourself ethos that permeated the making of Talk, from having eight weeks of shooting suddenly shrink to five, having to create their own visual effect company just to make sure shots got done on time, and even turning down a studio in order to keep creative control.
But none seemed more surprising than Danny revealing the risk they took fighting to cast relative newcomer Sophie Wilde as their lead.
“We lost a million dollars out of the budget casting sophie because she wasn’t a name,” said Danny. “But we really really believed in her…To secure Sophie, we had to put our fees back into the film. And our producer did the same thing.”
The filmmakers talked about their love of practical effects – “Even bad practical looks beter than bad CG,” said Michael – and meeting legendary video game designer Hideo Kojima – “We spoke about a little something-something” said Danny to oohs and aahs.
And they hilariously talked about how they had to shoot a montage sequence that they were told they had two hours to shoot and involved 50 set-ups.
“The first AD told us it was mathematically impossible to do,” recalled Michael. “And we were like, ‘Let us control the set for these two hours. Give us a boom box and two cameras.’”
There was yelling of orders, actors furiously in and out make up and pure chaos.
“We actually got all 50 shots. So fuck you to that first AD,” said Michael as the audience howled.
“No, no, we love you. He was really good,” Danny said, going into damage control. “I just don’t want things to be taken out of context. But fuck him.”
More laughter erupted.
In the end, the brothers alighted upon their untraditional non-movie business origins.
“There is a stigma that comes with being a YouTuber where people box you in,” said Michael. “That you can’t work in other mediums. But I feel like if you’re a storyteller, you’re a storyteller. TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, it doesn’t matter. If you want to make films, and you’re serious about it, you can do it.”
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