A talented name in the industry working in numerous capacities, Ramsey Fendall is working incredibly hard to ensure his success behind the camera with his work. Now, in honor of the screening of the film "Lucid" at the 2025 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, I talk with him about his early interest in the industry, working on the film, and upcoming plans.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, when did you get into horror in general? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
Ramsey Fendall: As a child of the 70s and 80s, I grew up in a golden age of movies. Although it’s fair to say that Star Wars dominated all of our young minds, horror was what we watched. There’d be a sleepover at some kid’s house, we’d cruise over on bikes to the local video store to get a VCR and pluck a handful of VHS tapes. We’d then hunker down in the wood-panelled basement ‘rumpus room’ with junk food and soda and binge on The Exorcist, Carrie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, American Werewolf in London, The Thing, anything that was deemed scary. All mind-bendingly terrifying and disturbing films, particularly for impressionable young minds. As a kid, cinema was scary, but that’s what made it so thrilling. I was aware that there were other serious films in the world because we also all watched Siskel and Ebert religiously, but as kids, we definitely weren’t watching On Golden Pond. I worked hard to catch up and make myself a cinephile as I grew older, but those childhood movie influences remain indelible.
Me: When did you first discover a passion for filmmaking? Were you always interested in the creative arts growing up?
RF: I grew up with my mom and grandmother in the house my grandfather built in Victoria, BC, which was not only my childhood home but the house where Deanna and I live now and where we shot a lot of Lucid. My grandfather was a biologist and had a lab in the basement with drawers of insects on pins and scary sea creatures pickled in formaldehyde. Just past the biology section, he’d built a photo lab into the foundation of the house. He’d show me timelapses shot with a Bolex and a microscope. I was tiny, maybe 3, and it was magic. And when I wasn’t at home, I’d be nearby at John Luna’s house, the guy who plays the teacher Arthur Colt in Lucid. We’ve known each other since we were 4. They were a family of artists — their whole house was like an artist studio. And while my mother wasn’t an artist, she viewed the world like an artist. Art was an inseparable part of the fabric of growing up.
Me: Having worked on various aspects of film production, do you have any particular preference for working on any?
RF: I started working in film over 20 years ago in New York, and I started in post as an editor. I had been a student at The Edit Center, which unfortunately was a casualty of the COVID years. It was this incredible hub where indie producers would take their films fresh out of production, and it would be workshopped by a dozen or so students supervised by two or three seasoned editors. The projects were incredible, and they created a kind of network of editors and other filmmakers. I felt very at home as an editor, to have the whole film in front of me in raw form and to be presented with a nearly endless series of creative and technical challenges. As much as I came to enjoy the craziness of production, I still probably feel most at home once we land in the edit room.
Me: With plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transfer to feature-film projects?
RF: Right after The Edit Center, I was an editor on Godfrey Cheshire’s feature documentary Moving Midway. Then for the next few years, I worked as an editor on many feature-length projects, mostly docs. At the same time, I found myself going out on shoots and picking up B-roll or working on interviews as a second camera. And then eventually working as a cinematographer, both for documentary and narrative projects, kind of took over my career. But working in documentary is what really informed my sensibilities as a filmmaker. Small crews, gathering footage without really knowing where it would fit into a larger story. I transferred all of these discoveries to narrative projects, and ultimately, they form the basis of the work Deanna and I are doing.
Me: That brings us to your latest film, "Lucid." What can you tell us about the project? Where did the inspiration for the film come from? Were there any unique stories about its conception?
RF: We’ve been in development on Lucid in one way or another for as long as we’ve known each other, nearly 7 years now! We started shooting the flashback sequences for the Lucid short back in 2019. We were shooting with Georgia Acken as young Mia, and she must have been 12 at the time. It was the first time Deanna and I shot on 35mm film together, and we just loved it, as it made us slow down and be much more deliberate with our coverage. We shot the remainder of the short in early 2020 and then did the edit during lockdown. In 2021, the short went to a lot of festivals, but most importantly, it went to Fantasia. We couldn’t go that year because of COVID, but we were invited the next year to participate in the Shorts to Features lab that was launched as part of Fantasia’s Frontières Market. We pitched there and at Sitges FanPitch in Spain. It was exhilarating, and people were clearly excited about the project, but we still weren’t landing any financing, and we kept on developing the script. Inspired by a small grant we received to get started on a soundtrack, we shot the 1970s flashbacks in April 2023. Our composer Marta Jaciubek-McKeever and Jamie Wollam, drummer for Tears for Fears, composed the song ‘If You Love Me’, which we recorded live with our actors at a church hall and shot on 35mm. In the same few days, we shot the scenes of Little Mia, Solange, and Bobby in the trailer and on the beach. We had to ship the film to Montreal for processing, then once it was back, we drove to our friend Doug McCaffry at The Scan Lab on Cortes Island, two islands and two ferry rides away. All of this happened before Caitlin Acken Taylor arrived from the UK to live with us that summer for 5 months, all through preproduction and production. Caitlin helped build and dress the Mia apartment set in our carport. Caitlin’s commitment was extraordinary — she worked as a carpenter, she drew, painted, and constructed all the art pieces in the film. She worked closely with Leta Cushing-Woodcock and Misty Buxton to come up with all the costumes as well. Caitlin is not only a brilliant performer, dancer, and stuntwoman, but a spectacular, multi-disciplinary artist.
Me: Working in collaboration on the film with Deanna Milligan, who took on what responsibilities during the making of the film? What was the collaborative process like once you started working together?
RF: A friend of ours once told us that Deanna and I share the same brain, and that’s actually quite true. We’re not quite finishing each other’s sentences, but we’re definitely operating at the same frequency. When we were developing the Lucid script, we’d riff on films, images, and locations that inspired us. But when we got into rehearsals and ultimately on set, we tended to divide our roles more distinctly. Deanna focuses on performance, and I focus on the image. Of course, we closely participate in what we’re each doing, but the result is we’re able to complement each other and play to our strengths. People find it hard to believe, but we rarely argue. Most of filmmaking is problem-solving, and it’s what we most enjoy about the process.
Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how’d you settle on the cast getting involved in the film? What characteristics did you look for with each performer that they brought to the table that helped bring the production to light?
RF: Victoria, BC, is on Vancouver Island, and even though we are only a ferry ride away, Victoria can feel very far away from major-production-hub Vancouver. The film industry here is quite small, and for the most part, we’re a service town for Christmas movies. Apart from Caitlin, we tried to cast locals and not bring over actors from Vancouver. There’s an abundance of local talent in Victoria, and we found our people among musicians, artists, and drag performers. We really worked on putting together an ensemble of young people who felt like they were plausible characters from a 90s art school, not just caricatures. John Luna, who plays Arthur Colt, was for many years an art teacher by profession.
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made? Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
RF: It was an incredibly scrappy production. After we shot the flashback scenes in April, we thought that we were just shooting proof of concept scenes that we’d use for financing. But everyone involved insisted that we had to keep going — it was personal and emotional for everyone. We were a tiny crew with people doubling roles. We had no trucks, no trailers, just a couple of hatchbacks to carry gear. Our producer Emanuel Foucault wore so many different hats, from scheduling and lugging gear to doing runs to Costco for craft service. We were inspired by what Gus Van Sant did on My Own Private Idaho, bringing cast and crew together in a working environment under one roof. We have a big old house, so we built Mia’s apartment set in our carport, our production office, and an edit suite we set up in our living room. Art and wardrobe, we ran out of our basement. Despite the meagre budget, our crew was utterly devoted to the project. In retrospect, I’m not sure if everyone entirely understood what we were trying to do in some scenes, but no one ever questioned the process. We all worked hard to create a Lucid world, but most importantly, the movie developed a will of its own, and we could all feel that through production. And in spite of how surreal and handmade we tried to make the movie, it was still grounded emotionally. We didn’t pre-record any of the music performances, and our composer Marta Jaciubek-McKeever insisted that we record them live, or it would feel wrong. And if there were mistakes, we embraced them. This is a film about seeing the edges and the imperfections, and once the cast and crew understood that, they really got on board.
Me: What are you most looking forward to with its upcoming release?
RF: We are so excited for our world premiere at Fantasia! We made the film with Fantasia in mind all along, and we’re so excited to finally be sharing it with a rambunctious audience!
Me: What do you do to keep your creative energy flowing?
RF: Deanna and I always come back to this kind of documentary hunting and gathering method. We love being in the Pacific Northwest, and we go on road trips. We look for locations, we bring some cameras and shoot film. We look for ‘time portals’ or places that have escaped development.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you’d like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
RF: We are working on another feature. A 1980s Satanic panic era cult film called LUCKY. Think Midsommer meets Mandy but make it wet, Canadian, and full of wasps.
This review is part of our coverage of the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival. Click the banner below to check out our reviews and interviews from the festival:
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