An award-winning writer, director and producer, Adam Kirkey is a burgeoning name to be reckoned with in the Canadian independent scene with numerous distinctions already after only a few productions to his name. Now, to coincide with his latest short film Getting Away, I talk with him about his early start in the genre, the filming of the short and upcoming projects.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get
the urge to go into directing?
Adam Kirkey: I always loved watching behind the scenes when I was younger, and listening to the director commentaries, and once I learned that you can Write/Direct a film and really tell a story that grabbed my attention a lot.
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
AK: I’ve definitely watched a fair bit of genre films, not really realizing at the time they were ‘genre’ but a lot of John Carpenters stuff was an influence, especially since he did some on very small budgets. Action was also a genre I was drawn too, I love a cheesy 80’s action flick, and comedy was also a big love. Horror is an interesting genre to play in though because there isn’t a lot of rules, anything and everything goes.
Me: When you entered the university for your studies, was there any kind of push towards a specific style or format?
AK: My early stuff was comedy driven. I loved making situation humour, and having characters do and say funny things. After film school though I tried my hand at making an action film (A Case of Deceit) It was a big learning experience, and despite it’s low budget it got distributed by eOne back in the day.
Me: With plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to feature-film projects?
AK: Short films definitely help me manage in my head at least how to accomplish a feature. It was like ‘Ok we made a 10 min movie that's alright, lets just do that six to seven more times and hope it turns out’
Me: Having worked on various aspects of film production, do you have any particular preference for working on any?
AK: I do love a variety of aspects, I recently DOP’d a short film and I quite enjoyed focusing solely on that aspect. But if I could be doing one thing it’d be writing and directing films.
Me: Having worked on a variety of genres in your career, how do you prepare yourself to work in these different genres and vastly different tones?
AK: I actually find it kind of easy to Jump back and forth, when making something I immerse myself in that world and only focus on those types of films. Through COVID I managed to finish up a Dram-edy script I’m quite happy with. And now I’ve shifted focus to expanding the Getting Away short into a feature horror. But there’s things that happen in different genres that can lend to others, a joke set up and punchline is much like setting up a jump scare in a horror.
Me: That brings us to your latest project, the short "Getting Away." What can you tell us about the project?
AK: This was a fun one to do, I was still in post production on a feature film, but had this idea for a horror. It came together pretty quickly, and cheaply. I set out with the challenge of writing something that had no dialogue, forcing myself to tell a story through images and music.
Me: Where did the inspiration for the short come from? Where there any unique stories about its conception?
AK: It’s sort of silly, but I had this thought originally about someone sending threatening messages through a wireless printer, ultimately I changed it to the phone and voyeur photos, but aside from the no dialogue angle I wanted to do a film all in one location as a test as well.
Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how'd you settle on the cast getting involved in the film?
AK: I’d worked with Monica on my feature film ‘Sir John A. & The Curse of the Anti-Quenched’ and she was really great in that. So I wanted to put her in this knowing she was a fan on horror as well. Matthew Bell who plays her boyfriend in the film is a long time friend and collaborator, he’s such a natural talent, so I knew he’d be able to come in and deliver a great performance. Mat Lamarche who plays the killer, is the co-writer/producer on this, he also was the AD, him and I basically piloted the ship that night.
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
AK: So funny enough we had a really small crew, I was the DOP, camera op, and craft service, the meal in the shot of the film was our dinner. Matthew Bell, did the on set photos used in the shots, as well he triggered the lightning in the shots, and Mat Lamarche (The Killer) Was making sure we stayed on track time and shot wise. Monica was great as well, it was a real collaboration on everyone's part on set. After we wrapped Mat Lamarche remarked how we didn’t hit many snags, the acting/camera/lighting was all on point and we did a lot of one take shots.
Me: Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
AK: Filming it was bit of a blur, but I will say our sound guy canceled last minute, so I ended up creating all of the sound from scratch and had to ADR the voice. Being on time crunch since the film got into a festival kind of quickly, and since Monica lives pretty far from me, I ended up getting an actress friend to do the voice, but I set up the recording booth in my vehicle in her driveway. So all the breath/screams in the film were done in my car in a driveway.
Me: Being the writer, director, cinematographer and editor of the short, did it challenge you to be involved in various capacities at once on a project like this? How do you balance those priorities during a shoot?
AK: It honestly comes out of necessity, but yes it presents it’s own challenges and you do feel pulled in multiple directions all the time. I have to treat the writing/directing/post like I’m a different person and ignore what that other person did in the script/on set to make sure I’m making the best film possible with what I have.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
AK: So I do have a feature film out right now ‘Sir John A. & The Curse of the Anti-Quenched’ However I may do another round of press for it since it’ll be coming out on Amazon Prime soon. It is still available on iTunes/Amazon and all that. I’ll leave a link: www.curseoftheantiquenched.com
I also recently completed a Sci-Fi/Family short (HOME) about a boy who finds a robot alien in the woods, and helps it rebuild it’s space ship to return home.
To stay up-to-date about his work and projects, check out his website Slinger Pictures: http://slingerpictures.net/
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