Q&A with Madeline Leshner
A conversation with director Madeline Leshner on her short film, Gas Gets In Your Eyes.
What projects are you working on next, and how can people who are interested best support or follow you.
I am currently in development on another short film which I'm hoping to shoot in the next year. I also am in the early stages of getting my first feature, JOAN, into development while also writing another feature about women and mental illness.
People can follow me by visiting my website or instagram.
An excerpt from NoBudge →
What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
In writing the script, I really wanted to challenge myself to establish a strong sense of a developed world with its own set of rules in a very short amount of time. Writing a script that relied so heavily on VFX was a risk I was intrigued in taking on because so much pre-production needs to be taken into account when the post-production end is so intricate and complex.
What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the best, and the least?
Our biggest challenge was figuring out our in-camera effects for the underwater look. In one setup (on an extremely hot day) we had a Tupperware of water raised up above Marchánt’s (the lead actor’s) head. It looked great, but the sun was heating up the water and magnifying it down onto poor Marchánt.
My favorite part of the creative process is being on set and seeing everything come together. I love collaborative creative problem-solving. I also usually storyboard everything, so seeing those come off the page and become real is an amazing feeling.
My least favorite part of the creative process is writing loglines and synopses. I have a really hard time making those concise and not completely insane sounding.
