Q&A with Chelsea Slayter
A conversation with filmmaker Chelsea Slayter on her short film, After The Egg.
How did you first get into filmmaking?
I double-majored in broadcast journalism and cinema studies as an undergrad at NYU. I took some doc production classes and helped my friends with their student short films but didn't consider myself a filmmaker. I'd always thought I'd be a journalist and that the cinema was just for fun.
After I graduated, I was working in a creative position at a surf retailer in Brooklyn called Pilgrim Surf + Supply and writing magazine articles on the side when I got the opportunity to produce an arty surf film called Self Discovery For Social Survival. I hired my husband (then boyfriend) to be the DP and managed to organize gear, surfers, and budget in locations like the Maldives, Mexico, and Iceland. It was my first 'real' project, and after that, I started experimenting and making my own short docs. I then made a short doc series called Passing Storms that follows people on the island of St. Thomas as they celebrate their first carnival after hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed much of the community.
As I've evolved, I've become more interested in working with performers and writing fictional scripts. After The Egg is my first narrative fiction work, and the whole process really cemented that this is something I want to continue to pursue. In documentary film, you have to stay wide open, and I really enjoy the molding process, as well as the looseness and spontaneity. I now try to incorporate some of that process into my fictional work.
What was your creative process for this film?
The seed of it all was an experience I had with my father. He suffered a massive stroke in 2019 and got out of the hospital right around when the very first Covid-19 lockdowns began. As a result, I became one of his caregivers, and we were very much isolated and confronting this huge change in dynamic. It made us both more vulnerable with each other and it deepened my understanding of him. I then got hired on a commercial job that took me to New Zealand for six months. I wrote the script in my two-week quarantine and shot it in the last couple of weeks before I flew home to New Jersey. I felt like if I waited until I got home I wouldn't have been able to shoot it (because of the pandemic). The chicken was added as a way to lighten the tone of the film. I didn't want it to be a total downer and because the truth is that there are moments of unexpected joy when you're in situations like that. I love working with an animal that makes the performers react really genuinely.
During the casting process, a friend of mine introduced me to Bill Gruar (who plays Bobby). Bill is a paraplegic and he's written a really great dark humor memoir called Spinal Dogs about his experience of adjusting to life in a wheelchair. It was his first time really acting, so we matched scenes from his book to scenes in the script to help him get there emotionally. Emily Laurić (who plays Angel) was a natural and made my job easy. Working in New Zealand was a dream, everyone was so open and respectful. I hope to make another film there one day.
What projects are you working on next, and how can people who are interested best support or follow you.
I'm currently writing my first feature about two sisters reconnecting after a death in the family. It involves an onion farm and the Jersey Shore. My website is chelseaslayter.com and my instagram is @chelseaslayter.
