'Project Almanac' Interview: Dean Israelite, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form
9Opening this weekend is director Dean Israelite’s time travel movie Project Almanac. The film stars Jonny Weston as David, a kid who comes across his late father’s plans to build a time machine. Determined to complete his dad’s work, David recruits his friends (Allen Evangelista and Sam Lerner) to help him put it together. As they begin to use the machine, unexpected complications lead to severe consequences when each jump they take in time alters the present. Project Almanac also stars Virginia Gardner, Sofia Black-D’Elia, and Amy Landecker.
At the recent Los Angeles press day I landed an exclusive video interview with director Dean Israelite and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. They discussed how the project came together and the biggest changes that the story and script went through during the development process. Israelite also talked about how he wanted to make sure that the time travel aspect felt difficult and challenging for the characters. We also covered other topics like test screenings, how different the first cut was, the state of the found footage genre, and more.
Dean Israelite, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form Time Index:
:20 - On how they connected and started working on Project Almanac together.
1:55 - "Without Dean [Israelite] there was no movie". Talk about how his proof of concept launched the movie into production.
3:12 - The scene he shot to land the gig is in the movie and is almost shot for shot identical to what he originally turned in.
4:00 - What were the biggest changes that the story and script went through? An original draft of the script had the teenagers travel back to 1883 and they had to generate their own electricity to make it home.
4:48 - Israelite wanted to make sure that the time travel felt difficult and full of mistakes.
5:45 - How long was the first cut compared to what is playing in theaters? First cut was very strong.
6:55 - There were changes from the first cut, but the structure, storytelling, and characters were all there from the start.
7:40 - What did they learn from test screenings? They learned how to balance the love story, fun, and consequences of time travel.
8:38 - They also got a sense of where the time travel logic became too intense for the audience.
9:40 - No spoilers discussion of the ending of the film. They didn't make the movie with the aim of creating a sequel.
11:20 - On their collaboration and the learning process of making a found footage movie.
13:25 - What has it been like waiting for the film to finally hit theaters?
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