Q&A with Filmmakers Cory Stonebrook & Jordan Sommerlad

Sep 29

Jordan and Cory have been working on projects together since 2020 when they established their production company Yeah Yeah Yeah Films with producing partners Lizzy Miller and Tiffany Trainer. They have made three short films together: When This All Ends, Florence in Customer Care and You Have Her Eyes.

Florence in Customer Care played over 15 festivals worldwide including Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Best Actress in a Short Film), Panic Fest (Best Actress in a Short Film), El Dorado Film Festival and Phoenixville Film Festival (Best Drama Short and Best Short Film) Tallgrass Film Festival, Soho International and Lighthouse International Film Festival. Their past work can be watched on Omeleto, Shorted and Short Films Matter.

They will be making their first feature Ghost in Indiana next fall. The script for Ghost in Indiana was chosen as a Quarterfinalist (Top 25) at the Slamdance Film Festival Script Competition.

This Q&A is part of the Bushwick Film Fest Filmmaker Q&A series

What inspired you to create this film, and how did the initial idea come to you?

CS: My collaborators and I had just finished our festival run for our last film and we were brainstorming what we wanted to do next. The theme that kept popping up was the societal and familial pressures to have children. We wanted to explore this within a horror framework. Jordan (my co-director) came up with the general idea and then we started passing around versions of the script and growing the project from there.

JS: We ended up going with our creepiest/weirdest idea.

How do you want people to feel after they see your film?

CS: I hope that people are appropriately disturbed after they finish watching our film. It has a chilling twist at the end that I don't think people will see coming. I also hope it reminds them that the decision to have a child is a personal one that each individual should decide for themselves.

What was the biggest inspiration behind this film?

CS: Horror is such a fun genre because there is a rich history of films to be inspired by and horror fans will pick up on every reference. From Rosemary's Baby to Psycho to Hereditary to The Shining, we pulled inspiration from these films to craft an eerie suburban nightmare. 90's thrillers and Hitchcock were a touchtone as well.

What was your favorite part of making your film? Memories from the process?

JS: This was the first time I’ve shot a film in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Having that social support network made a huge difference and let us achieve a level of craft that would’ve been much hard to accomplish elsewhere.

CS: No spoilers but I think my favorite moment on set was when we filmed the final moments of the film. It was a big swing and none of knew if that moment was going work or visually make sense and when I watched the first take on the monitor, I almost yelped because it was so terrifying and perfect.

What was a big challenge you faced while making this film?

JS: A rogue cricket was loose in the house where we filmed for two days and never stopped chirping. We never did find it.

What inspired you to pursue a career in filmmaking?

CS: I grew up obsessed with film. I was the ten year old kid at the sleepover forcing the other ten year old boys to watch Magnolia which they had no interest in watching. I've been a professional actor for years doing small TV bit parts (Orange is the New Black, Succession, That Damn Micheal Che, The Equalizer), commercials etc. I've played a lot of assistants, grocery store clerks and campaign managers. I used to call myself a clipboard actor because I never booked a role where I wasn't running behind someone with a clipboard. I started writing and producing my own work because I wanted to expand the roles I got to play. But I feel like I've circled back to my first love. Getting to craft the story and be involved in every decision is where I truly love to be.

Why is filmmaking important to you? Why is it important to the world?

CS: I love how collaborative the process is. Working on You Have Her Eyes with Jordan (co-director), Lizzy (producer, plays Elle), Tiffany (producer, plays April) and the whole crew was such a blast. I love seeing every crew member add their own unique skills to our story and bring it to life even more. Seeing Alexis (production designer) design the locations or Ryan creating the incredible sound mix, every addition makes the film more realized and that is such a fun process.

How do you approach storytelling in your films? What’s your process in developing a film or a concept?

JS: Every film is different! This one sprung from an idea for a single image, and the script was built out from there. In this film more so than others we really wrote to build to that final image and make sure it landed as effectively as possible.

What’s the last film you watched?

CS: I recently watched Bob Fosse's All That Jazz for the first time and what an incredible film. I can see the influence in many modern films like Uncut Gems etc. The visual storytelling and the editing are stunning.

Early birds or night owls?

JS: Night Owl.

CS: …