Obsession (2026) | Audio Commentary With Director Curry Barker

[music]

[music]

Hello, I'm Curry Barker. I'm the

director and writer of Obsession,

[music] and I'm going to be doing a

commentary today.

Capstone. That's the company that

financed the movie originally. And then

we went to TIFF and we got picked up by

Focus and it was life-changing.

This scene is actually additional

photography. We didn't actually have

this scene in the movie at all. The

opening of the movie was actually on the

TV and then it goes down and it goes to

the dead cat and then it goes upside

down and then we're looking at Bear

looking at the couch. And if you

remember that's the last shot of the

movie as well. And so I really held on

to that because I wanted the first shot

of the movie and the last shot of the

movie to be the same shot cuz the last

shot of the movie is on Nikki and then

we tilt down and we see Bear dead on the

floor and then we keep tilting upside

down on the TV. So, it was supposed to

be kind of a book end, but had a couple

test audiences and realized that there

should have been a stronger opening

where we kind of get more about Bear and

his crush on Nikki and get a better

sense of how desperately this guy is in

love with this girl. So, I thought that

this was a stronger opening and I ended

up loving this way more. Anyway, I also

think that this opening offers a lot

more comedy and just opens up the movie

in a more light-hearted way before

things get crazy. Jill,

you loser.

>> Michael just really embodied the

character of Bear. Really happy with the

performance of that. And honestly, I

couldn't have asked for a better Bear.

He's got that innocence to him, but

there's something kind of sinister in

him as well that he pulls off. And his

voice is very captivating in a way.

something nice.

>> That girl is Chloe. She's actually in a

lot of our That's a Bad Idea videos and

she's a friend from college.

>> So, for those of you who are fans of

That's a Bad Idea, you will recognize

her. And obviously, you'll recognize

Cooper there playing Ian.

It's interesting. We had this exact

scene with this exact dialogue, but it

was actually Bear in the car and he was

driving to trivia night and he had his

friend Ian on the phone and we never had

any coverage of Ian. It was just a phone

call scene. But when we decided to do

the additional photography, we decided

to do this scene in person instead of on

the phone. So it really lended itself

well. Just imagine this entire scene was

a phone call and that was the original

cut. Just

I don't know if it gets easier as you've

directed more and more movies, but it

was a nightmare for those people walking

around to make sure that you weren't

getting doubles of Chloe or not making

sense. It's the least thing I care about

in the world, but it it still matters. I

care so much about the story and then

someone would point out to me, we got to

do another take because this person was

walking in the background or I'm like,

jeez.

Sandy,

>> if you're listening to what's on the TV,

it's actually a really creepy thing that

me and Haley Johnson, who's a producer,

her voice is actually in that, but it's

a commercial for a weight loss pill. If

you listen very closely, I'd be

surprised if anyone could actually hear

it, but they're saying, "I don't eat

anymore. I starve myself." And it's kind

of eerie and creepy, but yeah, it's a

fake weight loss pill commercial that we

made up.

And that cat is pretty convincing from

that angle, but it's definitely a plush

cat. It was pretty convincing, but it's

not the most realistic dead cat ever.

This was something I was so excited

about. I just thought it was the coolest

thing ever. I wanted so bad for the

Obsession logo to be practical like

that. And it was a conversation that I

had with Vivian who was our production

designer and I was just like, "Is this

possible?" And she delivered. I thought

it would just be like a flat thing on

the covers, but she made it have life to

it and she made it thick and almost

looks like a carpet that says obsession

on it. Really awesome what they did.

>> So lucky was

This scene is also a re-shoot for

whatever reason. And the funny thing is

the original version of this shot is

almost exactly the same. And the only

reason that we reshot it is because some

of the dialogue needed to change for the

re-shoots to make sense. So when she

says she's quitting her job and she's

putting in her two weeks, that wasn't in

the original. So we had to get her

saying those lines.

Man, what a hassle it was to get this

shot again just because recreating this

room. Recreating the entire house in

general was a nightmare because the

owner of the house had already shot a

couple other things there, taken down

all of our wallpaper and everything. And

we had to make it look exactly the same

as it did the first time. So, what a

nightmare it was. But we did it. We got

everybody back together. It was like

getting the band back together after

summer break. And everyone remembered

each other and the lingo got right back

on.

This is also one of my friends, Haley

Fitzgerald. I try to cast my circle as

much as I can. Of course, I don't do

them favors, you know, they have to be

good and they have to match the role,

but yeah, I try to keep my circle. She

was great and she matched the part

really well.

I love to give characters things that

they're doing. I love that she's on the

phone here. One of my pet peeves is when

a character in a movie leaves frame and

then they just disappear like they don't

exist in the space. And so she's on the

phone with a friend, she should be

there. So even though we're having this

moment with the one wish Willow, you can

still hear her on the phone talking in

the background. She doesn't go away.

She's still there. Whereas I think a lot

of movies would let that drown out. And

you know, that's a stylistic thing and

that's cool. But I love just kind of

having things happen in the background.

Even if the character is having a moment

like this,

that box took a lot of effort and

there's a lot of different iterations of

that box. My mom designed that box. It

was a very painstaking process of me

saying no, yes, no, this doesn't work.

Yes. And I'm very particular about

designs and stuff. So there was a lot of

back and [snorts] forth with that box,

but I think it turned out in a really

cool spot and I knew that there was the

potential for the one which will to be

something iconic. I'm always shooting

for the stars. I didn't realize that

this movie was going to be picked up by

focus features and become a huge

theatrical release, but I knew that the

one wish Willow could hopefully be

something in culture. That was the dream

at least.

Barker's Pub. Feels really

self-indulging to name the bar Barker's

Pub, but I actually didn't come up with

that idea. That was a surprise. They

didn't tell me. My mom had the idea of

making it Barker's Pub, and then Viven

worked on that sign. Vivian again being

the production designer. She worked on

that sign and I saw it and I was like,

"Oh my gosh." Okay, I guess we're going

with Barker's Pub. So, it was a nice

little surprise. But no matter which way

you cut it, it's going to look

self-indulgent. school.

This is also a re-shoot. Actually, we

just had to match the new opening and

everything. And so, this whole

interaction that they're about to have

at the bar here was a re-shoot. We

wanted to have a little more at the bar.

We wanted to see Bear talking to Nikki a

little more and see what their dynamic

was before the wish. So, this was, I

think, a great addition.

>> That's my friend Malcolm, the bartender.

If you're a fan of That's a Bad Idea,

you will recognize that guy. Malcolm

Keler, great friend of ours. did a lot

of really important things

>> that

>> cleaned

>> Indy who plays Nikki. She did a

phenomenal job. What a standout role. I

think she's going to have a big career

ahead of her because of this film and

she really surprised everyone and put

her all into it even though it sometimes

was a lot for her and I think she

deserves praise for that. Yes.

This song Metador in the background that

is one of my friends songs. Very very

talented.

The uh trivia guy. Thanks for coming

out. That's my dad.

That's my dad. He weasled his way in. He

did a great job. You'll see my dad again

soon. I'll point him out. My dad

actually helped me a lot on this movie

in different ways.

This outside is so not where the actual

bar is. We shot this miles and miles

away from the bar that you were just

seeing in there, but it cuts together.

You would never know. [laughter]

[gasps]

>> Wait, Ian, let's do a duet. [ __ ] that.

>> Musical.

>> Sarah will sing. Give me a G.

[laughter]

>> What the [ __ ] was that? No. Sarah sucks.

>> Can you just take me home? I just want

to go to bed.

>> We just added reverb to this scene

because I wanted the characters to sound

like they were more outside with some

echo and reverb. I love adding echo and

reverb. Even if you get it really clean

on the lavs, you want to add some of

that artificial reverb and stuff. Make

it sound like they're in the space. I

have a 20.

>> You're an idiot.

>> I'll pay you back.

>> You can't have it. Great. Just bought a

guy's heroin for the

>> Who would know this price?

>> This song is by I wouldn't call him a

friend cuz we've never met in person,

but his name is Feli and he's a very

talented artist. And I DM'd him and I

just was like, "Please, please let us

use your song in my movie." And he DM'

me back and he was like, "Yeah, sure."

And I'd had that us use it. But I'm very

happy that we got to keep that one.

>> Get your girl home safe. Ew, don't say

it like that. See you later, Bear. All

right, Bear. Let's get the [ __ ] out of

here.

>> All right, let's go.

>> [ __ ] these losers. Let's go get [ __ ]

up.

>> Yeah, bear. [ __ ] you.

>> This scene is much longer than what you

see in the movie. She has this whole

monologue that I wrote about the

difference between love and romance.

Yeah, this scene was majorly cut down. I

would put it back, [laughter]

but of course I would. I liked her

monologue. I thought she did a good job

with it and I actually think it adds

something to the story because you get

to see a little more about her novel

that she's working on and you get to

feel a little more of their dynamic

before all the crazy

This song in the background is Rocky,

our composer, who I'll be pointing out

multiple songs for. Rocky is such a

talented musician and anytime that we

wanted a song in the movie and sometimes

there's a situation where you don't want

to just pick a random royalty-free song,

I'd say, "Hey Rocky, why don't you make

us something?" And he would just cook up

some awesome stuff or he'd have some

stuff that he'd already made and I'd be

like, "Oh, dude, this is literally

perfect for this moment." So, he really

helped us out there and I'm actually

using him again for my next film.

This was overnight shoot and this was

brutal. Really brutal. Everybody was so

tired and it's a pretty common thing on

film sets to shoot overnight like that,

but it was so cold outside and everybody

wanted to go home and it was the most

setups we'd ever had in the whole movie

was this night. It was I think 25 or 27

setups, which on TV isn't that much, but

when you're shooting a feature, it's a

lot for one night. It just felt like

this scene never ended. Everyone was

ready to go home, for sure.

That person walking in the background,

that's a Vivian.

>> She made it. [snorts]

There's always something interesting

when you cut someone's head off like

that. It's something I do a lot. I know

people will probably if they've seen my

short film, The Chair. I start that film

on the chair and I like to just kind of

chop it off. It's something I like to

do. I think when you can't see someone's

face, you can't see their intentions.

And when you can't see their intentions,

that's creepy. Here

you actually get a small glimpse that

she might have actually liked him. If

you look at her face when she says good

night, there's a little bit of

disappointment like she almost wanted

him to just tell her that he actually

might like her. You never know if Bear

would have just wised up and told her

how he felt. Maybe she would have gone

for it.

I made that little One Wish Willow sound

on my phone. I have this app that I just

use to make music and stuff and I made

that little tune on my phone.

The original One Wish Willow actually

when you pull the stick out, it's

supposed to pop like one of those little

popping guns that you had when you were

a kid. But the mechanic was kind of hard

to figure out. And then I just decided

it the jingle was enough.

This was the scene right here was the

scene that we did a camera test for a

year before the movie got shot. And

Cooper, my friend Cooper, who plays Ian

in this movie, played Bear. And then we

had a friend of ours play Nikki. I don't

think it'll ever make the light of day.

I don't think anyone will ever see it.

But there is a filmed version of this

scene with Cooper playing bear.

>> Yeah, only close friends and family will

probably ever see that. Unless the

internet freaks out and everybody wants

us to release it so bad and in which

case I might. I'll have to ask focus

about that.

Not to give away too much of the mystery

here, but we actually are doing very,

very minor tweaks to Indy's face. 99% of

it is performance, and you got to give

her her flowers, but we do these tiny

little things to her eyes and her smile

to make her just that much more off. Are

you

I didn't know they were going to laugh

like this. I loved what they were doing

on set. Michael was giving this

performance. I told him to kind of laugh

as if it's the weirdest thing he's ever

seen. And you just can't help but laugh.

But I didn't imagine it to be this

laughy. But oh man, I love it. It's one

of my favorite parts is how much

>> he kind of just laughed at the scenario

cuz that what else are you going to do

in a scenario like this if this was

happening to you? Pick this up tomorrow.

>> This seam was a little longer and it was

cut, I think.

We don't need to see her crying for 2

minutes. It was a way longer scene. And

she goes into her dad and she goes into

a couple other things. And it was a

welcome cut.

I love this shot. This is one of my

favorite shots. She's silhouetted like

that and he's in the light. I love just

taking frames, just static frames of

life like this.

>> What do you mean?

That clock back there was the bane of my

existence. We had so many problems with

that clock.

It wasn't a working clock. It's just a

big LED light in a box and then they

slid the numbers kind of in front of it

and then the light blast through these

numbers and then there the number is

completely wrong. So, this clock is just

all over the place. I shouldn't be

bringing your attention to that at all,

but that's why it was a problem.

>> This song is by Current Joyce. I've been

listening to this song for so long. I

love this song. It's an indie song.

song. I don't think everybody knows the

song, but it's a pretty well, I think,

known song. I think people know the

song. I'd be surprised if nobody knew

the song, but I had to DM this person,

Current Joys, and they just DM' me back

and said, "Yeah, sure." And it was

awesome. So, really happy we got this

one, too.

really wanted to get this all in one

shot. I love this shot. It was very

challenging shot actually to get and

this is actually a re-shoot as well. We

got the shot and it was great actually

and then we got it again. Mostly just

wanted to pick up the pace.

that take of her freaking out that way.

That was the first take. And actually,

she's very reserved about showing her

performances in rehearsal. She doesn't

like to rehearse. And so, I didn't know

what she was capable of.

And so when she freaked out like that in

the first take, I looked at my producer

and I thought, "Okay, wow. Well, then

this is going to work out. This movie

might work.

This scene was actually added as well. I

wanted to see him doing research about

the one wish Willow, trying to figure

out what this thing is before he told

Ian all the crazy things that Nikki was

doing. I wanted to know that he knew it

wasn't the one with Willow. It's got to

be something else. This is obviously

there's people saying it does work.

There's people saying it doesn't work.

You can't trust anything on the

internet, right? So, there's no concrete

answer. And then this look on his face

is just a can't be. That was a stupid

idea.

That bird is a dove. I always thought

that that was an owl, but it was a dove.

And I put it in the movie because I

remember that bird from when I was a

kid. And the really sad thing is

actually that the dove is actually going

extinct. And so I remember hearing that

hoot a lot when I was a kid and now I

don't hear it anymore as much.

This scene did not turn out the way I

wanted it to. I thought this scene was

so cool and it was so interesting and

she does this really disturbing thing

where she tries to make a memorial for a

dead cat and it's really disturbing but

I don't know. I think the version of

that scene in my head was way better.

And I still think it could be better if

we be shot there.

I actually wanted to get this all in one

shot. I wanted to hold on that wide shot

for as long as possible and do something

cool there. But I think ultimately

cutting in the coverage here was a good

idea, especially cuz the scene's kind of

long.

I learned a lot of lessons as a director

actually in this movie. A lot. So many.

Cuz I love to do wonders all the time. I

don't like to cut unless I have to. I

like to be very intentional with the

cuts. And so when you shoot that way,

when you have these long takes, you

don't really have a lot of room to fix

things in post. So if it turns out that

the actors were kind of slow or the

pacing is kind of slow and boring, or if

it turns out that you got to change a

line because there's a couple things

changing in the re-shoots, well, too

late, cuz you got it all in one take. So

if you want to change the line, you got

to go back and you got to reshoot that

whole thing and it could be very

troublesome. So it's not that I learned

not to do it. that I learned to do it

better. I'll never not do it. It's just

doing it better.

>> It was terrifying.

some of those sounds. There's uh Rocky,

our composer, playing instruments in his

studio to try and build the chaos of

this.

This is actually shot close to where we

shot the outside of the bar. This is

supposed to be Mandy's music or sorry,

this is supposed to be Castle's music,

but it's actually right next to outside

the bar. They look very similar cuz

they're the same building. That's cuz we

had a very low budget. And by the way,

you caught me saying Mandy's music

there. And that's because that is what

the music shop was called in the script.

It was called Mandy's Music. And I

really liked Mandy's Music. But the guy

whose shop that we shot at, he worked at

Castle's Music. That's a real place. And

he wanted his shop's name in the movie.

So, he let us shoot there if we used

Castle's music instead of Mandy's music.

So, we changed it to Castle's Music.

Everything's good.

I had a shower.

>> I don't know how many filmmakers are

going to watch this, but fun fact, we're

breaking the line here. It's intentional

and it kind of works. The inspiration

for this was The Invisible Man, which is

one of my absolute favorite horror

movies. Lee Wanell directed that. I

actually had a chance to get coffee with

him and pick his brain. Lovely guy. But

this is breaking the line. So she's

looking camera left. And then if you

look at Bear here, he's also looking

camera left. That's not how you're

supposed to do it. But it works. And you

never think about it cuz it's a doorway

scene. And I think your brain recognizes

that one character is on one side of the

door and the other character is on the

other side of the door. And so your

brain really recognizes the orientation

of the conversation. And so it doesn't

really mess with you as much. It might

help as well that she's completely

silhouetted.

This is one of my favorite scenes, dude.

There was a whole section of this scene

where she does this really weird thing

where she goes, "I know you like me,

Bear." And then she completely turns

around, laughs with her back facing us,

laughs for like way too long, turns back

around. It's really creepy and weird. It

was supposed to be eerie and

off-putting. And we took it out just

because it was a little too early, I

think, in the movie for Bear to be that

pushed back. Obviously, a few things

have happened that are very strange, but

I wanted this moment to feel like

everything could actually go good for

Bear. And I didn't want it to feel like

she was too off in this moment because I

wanted this to almost be the moment of

redemption for her. So we took it out.

In the montage, we actually colored the

movie different and we shot at a

different frame rate than the rest of

the film and [music] we lit it different

as well. So, the key lights are a little

brighter and you have the fill lights

brighter as well. And we're pushing in

on every single shot just slightly

there.

And this is kind of the theme song.

[music] I wanted this movie to have

theme songs. It was really important to

me. So, you'll hear this piano motif

throughout the movie. It kind of

represents their relationship. There's

actually a lot of theme songs. Bear has

a theme song. Nikki has a theme song. I

implore you to watch the movie again and

really listen for each character has its

own theme song. Even the one wish Willow

has a theme song that plays. Every time

you see that one wish Willow, you'll

hear that theme song.

This was actually the last scene we shot

of the whole movie except for the

additional photography, but we shot for

20 days straight, which if you know

anything about film, 20 days is not a

lot of days to shoot a feature, but we

shot this whole movie in 20 days and

then this was it. This was the last day

and it was an overnight. Everybody was

tired and we had our little that is a

wrap speech in this restaurant and

everything.

This scene also got cut down a little

bit. Welcome cuts. I think

>> I edited this movie on Premiere.

Actually, I love Premiere Pro. I think

Premiere Pro is awesome. Is he?

I really like this shot cuz now it feels

like he's kind of hiding from her and he

looks over and we rack focus to her

>> and then we dolly right

>> and we land center on him and then we

push in and then as we push in she comes

out

>> what's really funny is he's behind the

counter right now. He's in a restaurant.

he shouldn't be there. You're not

supposed to stand there. And so I

thought it would be really funny if a

worker came up to him after this

revelation and walked up to him and

said, "Hey, you're not really supposed

to stand there." And it was really funny

and we did it. There he is. His name is

Dylan. He's a friend of mine. And he

came up and he said that and he said,

"Hey, you're not supposed to stand

there." But we ended up cutting it for

time. But it was a funny little beat.

Honestly, it cuts better without it. But

it'd be interesting to see that back in.

I told the art department I wanted the

box to look like there could be a one

wish willow in there. And the reason I

wanted to do that is cuz I really wanted

the audience to think that maybe he was

about to see another one wish Willow.

But the effect doesn't really work that

well I think because it doesn't really

look like a one wish willow could fit in

there. So I don't think it really worked

out. But that was the idea that you

think he's going to see a one wish and

then it's this rock

>> you also might notice she's wearing a

bee necklace. B for bear. She is in at

this point.

when he asks her, "Do you love me more

than anyone in the world?" That's very

obviously the exact verbiage of what he

said. You know, I wish she loved me more

than anyone in the world. So, that was

the confirmation that he needed that

this is 100% a result of the wish. And I

think he's in denial. I don't think he

wants to believe that that's the truth.

I think it's a lot easier for him to

just believe that she really does like

him. But clearly this is not making

sense for her to just all of a sudden be

obsessed with him like this. So he knows

and she knows he knows. And that's why

she says why does it matter? And when he

says doesn't matter to me, that's him

basically saying I know what's happening

and I'm okay with it.

This is clearly where Bear becomes a

little bit of a villain here. Nikki is

just as much a victim as anyone in this

movie. Probably more, actually.

She's right there. Most people don't see

it on the first shot. When I watch this

in a theater, I get a lot of on the

second time we cut to it, but she's

there the whole time.

She's wearing makeup during this as

well. Very subtle, but we really wanted

to tap into the uncanny valley. And so I

told the makeup artists to go home and

watch a bunch of uncanny valley Tik Tok

tutorials and they came back and they

did a great job. I think she's

terrifying.

The really creepy thing about that

statement, I don't like my dreams, is

that I think when Nikki goes to sleep,

she's the real Nikki. And so when she

says that she doesn't like her dreams,

she's referring to she doesn't like a

reality where she is not in love with

bear. So if you think about it like

that, it's very very disturbing.

just got a big laugh in the theater. Go

back to sleep. He leans down. Every time

it got a big laugh. It's so funny cuz I

knew that I was doing something

different and I knew that it was an

interesting choice to have him lay back

down like that, but I never expected

such a big laugh.

That is a dancer. [laughter]

That's not Nikki. But you would never

know that.

>> What?

>> That's obviously her. When we cut,

that's really her. But the walk was a

dancer.

This next shot of the sun was a real

pain in the ass. We actually just set

the camera in front of this window and

waited for the sun to come up, but it

was in the middle of our shoot day and

it was just such a pain in the ass to

get that one shot. And it doesn't even

turn out like I wanted it to. I really

wanted to capture the sun coming up, but

we couldn't get to set quick enough. It

didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the

film and it's actually additional

photography. And I guarantee that no one

will ever notice this, but that is a

completely different couch than the rest

of the movie. And the reason is because

we had to make this house from scratch.

You can see the art department trying to

cover up that couch as much as possible.

Recreating this house was a pain in the

ass. Those wooden panels are not real.

So, we had to reput up the wooden

panels. Obviously, the wallpaper was not

there. We had to reput up the wallpaper.

All the wood that's behind him right

there is not in the house. Our

department put that up. Every scene that

we reshot that was in this house was a

lot of work. And props to the art

department for doing it. But this is one

of my favorite scenes.

I just think it's so interesting in a

lot of movies how the characters never

tell the demon, "Yo, chill out. Like,

why are you doing this? Why are you

acting like this?" And so this is such

an unique scene that I just really love

where he's trying to reason with her and

kind of say, "Hey, can you just not act

like that anymore?" Like, "What was

that?" And she is, of course, giving him

all the answers that he wants. She's

like, "Yeah, I'll never do that again.

Nikki was supposed to bite Michael's lip

on that kiss and both Michael and Andy

didn't want to do it, so we didn't do

it. I thought it was cool. We're

>> good.

And so right now he's looking at nothing

because this is additional photography.

So we shot this months and months and

months later. And his hair is actually

quite different too. But this shot right

here is from the original shoot. And so

you go from months and months and months

and months later. We redo the house and

uh he's gotten a haircut since then just

hoping that it cuts and hoping that it

works. And you would never know that

those two shots happened months apart.

This was a little bit speed ramped. You

can see her face when she does that

little adjustment where she kind of

squints her eyes more. That's me

offcreen saying, "Squint your eyes more.

More." cuz I thought it was so creepy

when she squinted her eyes like that and

I wanted her to do that more. It's

different than the wideeyed smile that

you've seen a million times. She's

squinting her eyes. It's just so

interesting. But we just kept the

adjustment because it looked kind of

creepy seeing her change like

So creepy. That picture. Not me.

If you've seen the movie before, you

know what that sandwich is. And it was

really important to me to get some good

shots of him eating it so that you knew

that he's just been chomping on that

thing the whole scene.

Andy Richtor,

the famous Conan O'Brien co-host, just

decided to do our movie. My agent called

me and was like, "Hey, what about Andy

Richtor?" I was like, "Uh,

yeah. Does he know how small the part

is?" And he was like, "Yeah, he knows

how small it is. He just wants to be a

part of it." And I was like, "No way.

That would be fantastic. So really lucky

to have him.

This is like my favorite reveal.

Uhoh.

You can hear Ian in the background.

>> I wanted it to feel like he was there.

I'm always trying to keep the

environments feeling real. He would

obviously be there. He works there and

he's getting a ride home from Bear in

this scene, but he was not there when we

shot that scene.

This camera move from right to left is

supposed to imitate the first time we

have that camera move which is right to

left showing Ian's car and then this

time he says car is not there check

engine light. It was a cool idea in

theory. I don't know if anyone will ever

It's kind of just a weird camera move

now. It doesn't really work.

I love this scene. I love how they talk

over each other. I was really happy with

how this came together. Even in the

script, we had this dual dialogue going

and I really wanted it to feel raw and I

think they did a great job.

Every driving scene in this movie, by

the way, is on a LED screen. That behind

him there is a LED wall projecting

plates of real streets. I don't think we

nailed it. I think we can get always

better at the process. And also, you can

sometimes see the streets kind of

lagging a little bit, which is not ideal

at all. But I think it worked out okay.

My DP, Taylor Clemens, who's also doing

my next movie, hates the way that some

of this turned out. He'll just go on and

on about that.

And again, this is on a sound stage

right now. So, this is an LED wall.

That's not a real garage in front of it.

because it was actually cheaper to shoot

on the LED wall than to find some random

person's house and let us shoot in their

front yard.

>> Can't coke the cat. Okay,

I'm going to hang out with Ian tonight.

>> So, even right here, you can hear the

crickets when he opens the doors. You

hear the sound of the night air, but no,

that's a LED wall.

That's me. [laughter]

I play the weird stoner sounding phone

call guy. It's my contribution as an

actor to this film.

We actually had a lot of music during

this scene and I just kept thinking,

what if we just took all the music out

and just let this scene be a guy sitting

in a car on the phone and having a very,

very bizarre phone call with no music. I

think it's much more effective this way.

>> What?

>> You were just making it sound like I

could put in a request.

>> Discussing your intention.

>> What the hell? What can I do then?

This is definitely a what would you do

in that scenario situation cuz here's a

guy telling him that the best thing he

can do is just be there for her. That's

the best advice he has is that he just

needs to be there for her.

I think there's a take where there's a

fly that's actually flying around.

>> I can't remember if we used the take or

if it's in the movie or if it's not, but

we got really lucky and there was just

an actual fly flying around her.

>> I don't know if it made it in cuz I'm

not seeing it. Oh my.

This was one of my favorite scenes in

the script when I wrote it. I just loved

the idea of having a very uncomfortable

boyfriend girlfriend conversation

through the door like this.

It's very gross. But it's mostly beans

and like I don't actually know what it's

made out of.

Michael did such a good job with this.

You have to understand that nothing is

happening on set. As a matter of fact,

I'm the one giving him his lines here.

I'm in the bathroom with my monitor

watching his performance, feeding him

these lines cuz Indie wasn't even there

that day. maybe I'll just go

>> and all these sound effects, all this

stuff, it's added in post. And so I'm

over here going and he has to react to

that. So he did a great job and it's all

one shot. If you haven't noticed, it

doesn't cut. So if he messed up any part

of the line, we had to start from the

top. I got very lucky.

You see how Ian is out of focus in this

and we're actually just looking at

Indie. Cooper was not happy with that.

And I'm only talking about this cuz me

and Cooper are very close. And I think

he would laugh if he heard this in the

director commentary, but we set up the

shot. It's his coverage of the scene. We

go to the playback and he's not in focus

at all. We're just looking at her in the

background and he goes, "Dude, what the

heck? I'm not even in focus. And I'm

like, yeah, but it's not even really

about you, even though we're looking at

you. It's more about her. And it was a

choice cuz that scene was actually a

little bit longer and we cut it down a

little bit. But it was definitely a

choice to never focus on Ian. And those

types of choices are always hard to

stick to and scary sometimes, but you

just got to stick to your guns.

This was definitely the hardest night

for me as a firsttime director and even

in the edit was really hard for me cuz

I'm very intentional with my shots and

so it's usually kind of easy to edit

because I've already kind of edited the

movie in my head. But for scenes like

this, I was overwhelmed and I had a lot

of footage and I don't like having

choices of what to cut to. I like to

know that I only can cut to this cuz

that's all we shot. But this was having

choices and a little out of my comfort

zone and a lot of people in a scene and

even the extras in this scene are very

much acting. So just navigating

everybody and it was also an overnight

of course and so big night for me.

My dad actually wrote this monologue

with me. My dad's a screenwriter now. He

wrote novels my entire life and then he

decided to pursue screenwriting and he's

got some really good screenplays that

he's working on and he's a very very

talented writer. And so I asked him I

said hey I want a really interesting

monologue from Nikki and I don't want it

to sound like my writing because it's

not my writing it's Nikki's writing. And

so I asked him if he'd help write it and

he did most of it. It's really

disturbing. [snorts]

One of my favorite camera moves. We're

center on bear and then we just dolly

right and now we're in a twoot. It's

very effective moment cuz he's looking

at her.

This was something that I was really

excited about. At this point in the

movie, you've learned not to trust Nikki

and you've learned that she's very

unpredictable. And so having her just

standing behind Sarah like that, you

don't know what she's going to do. So, I

wanted her to just stand there for a

little bit too long. I wanted that

moment to feel a little longer.

Indie is a very talented performer, but

she's also very nervous, as anyone would

be, when you're doing these crazy

scenes. And so anytime she was doing

some of these performances, there was no

one on the other side. We would give her

as much privacy as possible. So even

though you're looking at this world and

it feels like there's so many people at

this party on the other side of the

camera, everybody left the room, which I

think actually is really helpful for a

lot of actors because they've got to do

crazy things and perform really weird.

And sometimes it's better to not feel

like you're performing for an audience

and just be able to perform for as least

amount of people as possible. It's

something I would probably ask if I was

in a scenario like that, too.

Lot of tube removal right here. There's

blood tubes all over and the V effects

people did a great job of taking it out.

I love this song that Rocky made in the

background for this. It gives you such

an eerie weird feeling. Rocky is

awesome.

This is not really a hospital. And that

emergency sign is CGI or whatever

composition or I don't know. It's not

CGI, but they put it in.

We actually planned coverage for this

scene. We were going to get this wide

shot like that and then we were going to

come in and get over the shoulders for

each character. I saw them do this

performance in this wide shot and I

thought their performance was so good. I

was like, "Oh [ __ ] we don't need to get

coverage. This is awesome. Let's just

get it in the wide." which a really

worked out for my style, but b really

helped out with time because we didn't

have to come in and get coverage.

What's ironic is that Bear is actually

asking her here, "Does Nikki actually

like me?" Not the spell version of

Nikki, "Does the real Nikki like me?"

And he wants that answer. But what's

really funny is that does Bear actually

love Nikki or does Bear discover that he

doesn't actually love her? And it's kind

of interesting. He wants her to be the

version of her that he likes. But then

again, probably no man would want her to

be the version that she's being.

>> Can I do that?

I'm so glad we got that tier right

there. There's the tear. I'm glad we got

that.

>> We had a lot of different options and

this scene was really, really scary to

shoot. And what I mean by that is really

trusting yourself on set and not knowing

if it's going to work. the whole

backwards walk and the whole herbegan

silhouette and the tripping him out like

she's gonna jump at him. Really hard to

get everyone on set to kind of

understand what I'm trying to do there.

And I didn't even know if it was going

to work out or be scary or be anything.

And so we're shooting this footage and

I'm just like, "Oh my god, is this even

working? Is this scary? Is it's kind of

weird." I know it's affected some people

because I've seen it, but [laughter]

but I still think it till this day it

hasn't really turned out quite the way I

wanted it to by quite a margin.

We had a lot of alt versions of this

scene as well. We had a version where

she cuts herself as she's saying it to

really be manipulative and threaten him.

But ultimately, I just thought the

presence of the knife and then what the

word she says was enough. She gets her

point across.

We had a lot of trouble with these

inserts. We were going for a very

specific look with these inserts, but we

even had the phone on a rig, so it was

actually being held up by a seaand and

then he has his hand around it. But it's

really hard for the actor to type when

you do it that way. I feel like I'm

still trying to figure out the best way

to do those inserts. Ari does them

really, really well. I almost want to

text him and be like, "How do you do

your inserts?" But I think that's his

secret. I don't know if you'd want to

tell me

I had some really good advice on this

scene from Ben, who was our sound mixer

at Juniper Post. I kept wanting the

music to be a lot louder in this scene.

And he said to me, "When you want to

build tension in a scene, typically you

want it to be pretty quiet because you

want there to be room for something

crazy to happen. And so if the music's

at a 10, then the audience is not on the

edge of their seat because they think

there's no jump scare that's going to

happen. They almost feel safe when the

music's out loud. So when you really

take that music and you make it very

tense, but you turn it down,

that is when you build tension in a

scene. And that's exactly what I try to

do here.

So, this is really interesting cuz it's

the first time that we hear the quote

unquote real Nikki talking through her

body like that. And that's kind of what

I was saying earlier about her saying

she doesn't like her dreams. But I think

when she drifts off to sleep, she has a

chance to actually be her real self. So

the alternate version of her doesn't

like that. Obviously just a really

uncomfortable, freaky scene. I think

this one

>> so bad about

A lot of this is inspired by things that

are from my childhood. I was in marching

band in high school and I went to Baker

and I was in marching band and all the

characters in this movie are in marching

band. If you listen to the dialogue,

they they all met in marching band and I

wanted it to feel nostalgic. It's

obviously personal to me, so it may not

feel nostalgic to everybody, but going

to a park and parking the car and having

these types of conversations with the

music kind of low, to me, that's high

school. And I wanted it to have that

feeling.

Every character in this movie has their

own perspective, which I think is really

interesting. Ian is telling Bear, "Dude,

chill out. It It's not a good look. You

look like you're taking advantage of

Nikki." And then here comes Sarah who's

saying, "Bar, Nikki clearly needs help

and she's leaning on you and that's not

right for her to lean on you." And so

having each character have their own

perspective was really something that I

thought would be interesting for really

starting conversations. Obviously, no

one in their friend group knows what's

actually going on.

He thinks

>> it's kind of a low-key big reveal there,

but it doesn't even matter at this point

because Bear is so focused on what's

going on in his life. I don't even know

if he cares that much that Ian and Nikki

have kind of been a thing.

It's kind of a shame cuz Sarah and Bear

definitely probably could have ended up

together as well if he would have just

opened his eyes to her to your left.

Yeah. So, that's a dummy, which we only

had one take of this, which was really,

really scary because we had three glass

windows that were brought in and I was

like, "Okay, so we got three takes. It's

scary, but all right. The first window

we were carrying and we were bringing it

to the car and it just shattered in the

art department's hands and we were like,

"Oh my god." Okay, so we have two takes.

And the second take, they put all this

styrofoam above the take and she smashes

her head into the glass. I think she

like barely got it even through the

glass in the first place and then the

big styrofoam piece just blocked her

face completely. So there was that take

and then we had one take left and that's

what you see in the movie. So we got

lucky. It always works out though.

>> And the reset was just the blood

everywhere. The reset was just

unbelievably crazy.

The tape sound that you hear there, it's

supposed to be her. She's taping up

Sarah's body in the tuba case and she's

getting it ready to be transported and

then she goes in and she says, "Why

don't you go home? I'll take it from

here." I don't know how well that came

across that that's what she's doing back

there, but that's what's supposed to be

happening.

This was Cooper's idea. My friend Cooper

Tomlinson, who I do all my sketch comedy

stuff with, he said, "Wouldn't it be

cool if there was a scene where he opens

up the letter and turns out she got

accepted into that art school that she

was trying to get into?" And I thought,

"God damn it." Yeah, that's awesome. So,

this was a great addition. Thanks, Cope.

This is one of my absolute favorite

moments in the theater because it gets

him every time. And basically he comes

in and he says, "Where are the one wish

Willows?" And this guy's like, "What are

you talking about? [laughter]

It's just funny because you've seen it a

million times where you go into the

magical shop where you got the mystical

thing and then it turns out that the guy

doesn't know about it and it never

existed in the first place. And so

you've got the audience thinking, "Oh,

it's this trope and then just kidding,

they're right there." And so every time

we're in the theater and we're watching

it, everyone just kind of laughs at that

moment. I'm like, "Yes, good. We're not

doing that trope. Not in this one." I

can sell this to people.

Beautiful score by Rocky again. That

same song that you heard in the car when

she's trying to bite his ear.

[laughter]

I'm sorry.

>> And then if you listen closely when he

looks at the One Wish Willow here at the

end, you'll hear that One Wish Willow

theme song. And that's what I mean by

theme songs. There's a lot of them in

this movie. reoccurring motifs. She's

obsessed.

There it is. That's the motif.

This was something that I really liked

the idea of that once you make your

wish, you can't even break this thing.

No matter how hard you try, you can't

break the stick. But Juniper Post once

again had this cool idea of that really

bassy sound that you hear when he tries

to do it. That super bassy almost feels

like energy building in the car. And I I

thought that is awesome. Let's do it.

So, obviously Sarah's not texting him

because Sarah's dead. So that's Nikki

getting Sarah's phone and texting Ian a

bunch of times

>> right now.

Ian's over here thinking that Nikki's

probably dead because he's covered in

blood.

And then here this guy comes waving a

stick around in this guy's face.

>> What?

So Ian's thinking this lunatic

Fun fact, this house actually burned

down. Very, very unfortunate. We shot

the party scene here. We shot this scene

here. This is Ian's house in the script.

But the family who owns this house was

very, very nice. And this house doesn't

exist anymore. It was burned down in the

LA fires.

Yeah. So, we actually had scaffoldings

on the left and right and we were

dropping dollar bills on Ian and Bear in

real life. But then we also added some

CG bills as well. But Cooper really had

a hard time with the bills cuz I told

him, "Pretend like there's a bunch of

bills hitting your face." And he just

had to look so stupid in front of

everybody on set. If I were to just show

the footage without the CG bills there

of him, there's only a couple actual

bills hitting him and then the rest is

him just miming getting hit. And so it

looks really silly without the bills

there.

That is a sex doll. It was way cheaper

for us to get a sex doll than to get a

real Hollywood made body. These things

cost so much money. And so we realized

that we would save thousands of dollars

if we got a sex Oh,

Yeah, the vomit thing I never was happy

with how the vomit turned out because

you don't get to see it come out of her

mouth. It feels kind of weird that it

just kind of like lands on him like

that. But the vomit rig just wasn't

working well on the day and we had to

move on. And so the vomit rig just it

kind of works. But I'm not happy with

it.

>> Cooper's head shot was really nonchalant

and interesting. You know, just watching

your friend just die but having to kind

of just move past it very quickly there.

So I told Michael, I was like, "You have

to have some sort of reaction to that,

but then you're dealing with this." So,

See the one wish Willow drop right

there. It's a little detail I did not

plan for. I wish I could say I planned

for that. I did not. It's awesome.

Yeah, that money scene too when the

money's falling from the sky. A lot of

push back on that scene. Really hard to

get that to stay in the script. A lot of

things changed when you write a script

and a lot of notes from a lot of

different people, but got a lot of push

back on that. Just certain people

telling me that the money falling from

the ceiling just didn't feel like it fit

in this world and that it felt kind of

silly. And I was like, "No, no, it's

cool. It's exactly what he would wish

for if he was trying to make a point.

It's not like he believes in the [ __ ]

that Bear is telling him.

This is actually based off of a short

film I did called Contemplation that I

kind of incorporated this ending. It's a

very disturbing short film that you

really can't find anywhere anymore. But

the ending of that with the gun and the

sequence with the pills and everything

is kind of inspired by that short film I

did.

But this is a full circle moment because

the cat died from these exact pills. And

that's oxycodine. And so he's his that.

[laughter]

This is the frame that just became the

picture of the movie for so long. If you

would have told me, "Hey, Curry, this

frame right here is going to be the face

of obsession for a while," I would have

been like, "Really?" They told me to

pick a still for TIFF, and I picked

this, and it just stayed around for so

long. It's not a bad thing. It just I

had no idea.

This was a great discovery on the day.

We're pushing in on him. We're pushing

in on him and we stop and that's all we

were going to do. That's it. And then I

can't remember if it was me or if it was

Taylor had the idea, what if when the

wish happens, we zoom back out and his

world kind of opens up. And I loved that

discovery on the day. I think it's

really effective and it shows that

something is happening there.

This to me is just the classic romcom

moment at the end of a romcom movie in

just a [ __ ] up twisted way obviously.

But yeah, they're both very in love

right now because they're both under the

spell of the one with Willow for the

first time. Even in the script, it's

written as the most romcom. I don't

remember how I worded it. I think I said

classic romcom smile across the room

type thing.

But too late.

So yeah, that was that shot that I was

talking about going upside down. Now

we're upside down on the TV. So this is

actually the opening shot of the

original movie as well. Starting on the

TV like this, going down, seeing the

cat, and then going upside down on Bear.

So it was supposed to be like a book

end. But I'm really happy with the way

that we ended up doing it. I think it

was better this way.

The crying in the background is so

disturbing. I just got a bunch of wild

lines of her continuing to cry. Haley

Nicole Johnson, she was really the

producer that made this movie on set

every day. We made this movie for

absolutely nothing. And she's the reason

that the movie works and the reason that

the movie exists at all. She actually

got everybody together and made the

movie. So Haley Johnson really deserves

to be talked about. Rosanna Ruse, I call

her, she gave really good notes on the

script and ended up being very helpful.

I couldn't have been happier with the

cast for this film. That's one thing

that I'm really happy about.

Viven, our production designer, was

amazing. Just knocked it out of the

park. I think it was her first ever

feature, I believe. I might be wrong on

that. Blair, our costume designer,

amazing. Really just got so lucky with

all the help in this movie. It really

took a village. When you're doing

something for so lowbudget, as we did,

it's all about everybody just knowing

that we're doing something cool and

wanting to be a part of something cool

and doing it for the craft and not doing

it for money. Cuz we just all gave this

thing our all. and Taylor Clemens, who

is my DP, really did a good job of kind

of keeping everybody's morale up and

making sure that everybody understood

that we were doing something cool. So, a

lot of thanks to him for being my

cheerleader and saying, "Hey, this

director, he's on to something. Let's

listen to this guy." Cuz it's hard to

get people to respect you when you're on

your first big film. And it's so easy

for people to just be like, "Oh, screw

this guy. Who is he?" But Taylor, who

really championed me and told everyone,

"Dude, this kid's doing something." And

so let's take this as serious as

possible. But yeah, James Harris, who

works at T-shot Productions, really is

the one that found the script. James

approached me one day and said, "Hey, I

loved your film, The Chair. Let's make a

feature of that." And I said, "Well,

hold on. I've got this idea for

Obsession, and I'd love to pitch you

that." And he loved the idea. So James

Harris really found this project and

championed it. So big kudos to him. And

then Christian Mercury who was the CEO

of Capstone coming in and financing it

was really helpful obviously. So big

kudos to him as well and Ruse over there

at Capstone.

Well, thanks for tuning in to listen to

the commentary of Obsession. This is my

first big feature film and I'm hoping to

do many, many more after this.