![]() ![]() “So, I'm used to being very close to the actors and filming in this very intimate way that was perfectly suited to filming during the rules and regulations of the lockdown. “I normally do the lighting and the camera work myself,” he says. “It was really eerie, but the way we shot was every actor’s dream.” Coming from a guerrilla-style filmmaking background, Mason was relatively unfazed by the small crew and break-neck pace. “We were kind of trepidatious, but still very much amped and excited to get to work,” says Apa, who -thanks to stay-at-home orders- found himself shooting hoops on a deserted road bridge in the middle of L.A. Strict safety measures -including the crew being separated into three zones- frequent testing, and a small crew of less than 40 people daily, allowed the movie to be made in just 17 days. With the roles cast (the impressive lineup also includes Demi Moore, Bradley Whitford, Paul Walter Hauser, Craig Robinson, Peter Stormare and Alexandra Daddario), production began on Songbird on July 8, making the thriller the first feature film to be made during COVID in Los Angeles since March. She represents this young generation of fearless men and women who are holding onto hope and who are the real true leaders, who will lead us into the future.” ![]() “Even though she’s lost everything, she is a warrior of hope. Despite being trapped inside her apartment and in danger of being seized by the city’s sanitation department, there “isn’t a second Sara feels like the damsel in distress,” says Carson. ![]() For the actress, the immediate appeal lay in her character’s strength. Carson got the call on a Wednesday and was on set by the Friday of the same week. “It’s Romeo and Juliet, but they’re separated by her front door and by the virus.” With the script done, one of his leads in place and production about to start, Mason Zoomed with a young actress whose Netflix show he’d just watched on a whim over the weekend. “It's a dystopian, scary world, but it's a romantic movie about two people who want to be together, but they can't,” says Mason. Mason then sent an email to producer Adam Goodman with the pages attached and the subject line: “Crazy Idea!” Another day and another phone call later, Goodman was on board and so was, little-known producer, Michael Bay ( Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Transformers).Īmid this exaggerated version of the current hellscape, where there’s curfews and martial law, Apa’s character Nico, finds hope and love with Sara (played by Sofia Carson) - even though they’ve never actually met due to the strict lockdown protocols. We should just get together with our friends and do something on our phones.’” Mason and Boyes spent the rest of that first Saturday in lockdown frantically typing up a 12-page “call to arms” that outlined the plot for Songbird and also included details on what they were going to do and how they were going to pull it off during a pandemic. “I was like, ‘Why are you excited? It's the end of the world.’ He said, ‘We should just go and make a movie. “It was surprisingly early, and he was surprisingly excited,” says Mason. The day after parts of the country went into official lockdown on March 13, the filmmaker received a call from his writing partner Simon Boyes. It was phone call that planted the seeds of that story in Mason’s mind too - and it spread virus-fast from there. Songbird is set in 2024, where COVID-23 has mutated (the mortality rate is over 50 percent and the virus kills at an accelerated rate) to the point that the world is in its fourth year (!!) of lockdown, and infected Americans are forced from their homes and into quarantine camps. ![]()
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