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World Enough and Time Chris Brown talks about his Cinequest feature 'Scared New World' By Richard von Busack THE LIMBOLIKE house on Red Oak Avenue has an Oakland zip code, as we can see from Chris Brown's Scared New World (playing at Cinequest Mar 10, 5pm, Camera 12). Still, the house could be anywhere in California. Brown implies as much in two sequences where the Bear Flag being honored: first with a silent flag salute, then later by being made into a bikini. Scared New World drifts through long sunny afternoons at a group household, scenes that lead to the thunderstorm of an orgiastic birthday party. Mostly, the film observes the disruption caused by a new roommate. The wide-mouthed, freckle-spangled French girl Penny (Fanny Ara-Herms) upsets the uneasy balance with her flirtations. Her housemates include the struggling novelist Vargas (writer/producer Yahn Soon), who is still banging away at an antique Macintosh. (He must consider it a badge of his integrity.) We also see his housemate/ex-girlfriend Alma (Lena Zee) and her watchful, silent son. An approach closer to Chekhov than Tarantino makes Brown and Yahn Soon's small-camera film is exactly what Metro's Jeffrey Anderson called it: "a gem" (though it's not even semiprecious.) Soon wrote plays while attending UC-Santa Cruz. Scared New World is his second movie. METRO: Can you describe the filming of Scared New World? YAHN SOON: We had a 100-page script that needed to be shot in a span of 10 days. So we threw out the tripod and went handheld with a Sony DSR-500 DV cam. For the most part, we used available light. We found our actors through various casting websites and Craigslist. For the short amount of time, we had, we only shot for about eight hours a day to avoid burnout. METRO: How did the title come to you? YAHN SOON: It's a play on Brave New World, though the movie doesn't make reference to the novel, nor do the themes play on the novel as well. But I thought it captured the idea that these people are traversing paths in their lives that aren't comfortable for mainstream culture. We had entertained another title: "The There There." This is a reference to a Gertrude Stein quote about Oakland, how "there is no there there" in Oakland. But I thought it was too obscure. My director's wife suggested it, and I didn't know the quote. So if I didn't know it, I didn't expect others to know it either. METRO: Did you use your own house as a set? YAHN SOON: That was my apartment. Knowing that there was no budget, I wrote it purposely for my apartment. About 80 percent of the film is in the apartment. It's in the Temescal area, which is near Piedmont Avenue. My roommate at the time was Josh Millican; he plays Jones in the movie, so he didn't mind the mess. METRO: How did you become a filmmaker? YAHN SOON: I really got into it without any film experience. I believe in jumping into things blindly and not waiting. Trial by fire. METRO: Did it seem that part of making this film involved creating characters that one would sum up in a snap judgment? When Terence shows up, you think, "Ah, the nerd, the future salaryman." And then he breaks out of that box. YAHN SOON: Yeah, I didn't want to make a typical 20-somethings angst movie, which is how the Merc saw Scared New World. I liked the disgruntled writer who was a substitute teacher and really liked kids—and Alma, the pot dealer who doesn't smoke pot and has a little boy. The impression is that Vargas and Alma have a past, but they don't hook up at the end; they're more like brother and sister. Hopefully, a good story usually subverts your snap judgments. METRO: What is the collaboration process with Chris Brown like? YAHN SOON: Chris is awesome. He's a pro, and knows how to work efficiently. There were no rehearsals, so we rehearsed right before the shot, and he was great with the actors. He also understood the script and the tone of it. I trusted him completely, which is hard for me. METRO: Could you discuss the significance of the hat-passing that goes on in this film? YAHN SOON: It just became a gimmick for us. Whoever got the "hat," invariably ended up kissing Penny. METRO: Where were the Sonoma locations filmed? YAHN SOON: An ex-girlfriend's sister-in-law shares that property with her family. I used to go up there when I was dating her, and always thought how wonderful the site was. I was good friends with the sister-in-law, but when we broke up, I never talked to her again. So when it came time to film, I called the sister-in-law up out of the blue, and she gave me permission. It pays to be nice to people, you never know when you'll want a big favor from them. METRO: Have you ever personally observed a game of "Pass the penny"? YAHN SOON: I did. In college. I would have to say I personally participated. And it was a lot raunchier in real life. I wanted that scene to be more risqué, but ultimately we had a lot of nonactors with us, working for free, and it was like 3am when we shot it. I think there was a feeling of not exploiting people too much. And we weren't sure how far they would go. Send a letter to the editor about this story to letters@metronews.com. [ Silicon Valley | Metroactive Home | Archives ]