You've heard of rising stars?
Eighteen-year-old actress-director-writer Shayne Leighton is more like a rising constellation!
Today's
she's back at Cynsations to discuss her latest book trailers and to
tell us about her latest personal project, an upcoming film, "The Incubus."
I
had the pleasure of taking a sneak peek at her screenplay, and Shayne's
story is a fierce, fascinating mythology twist certain to seduce dark
romance fans, both the hopeful and the horrified...
[See a previous Cynsations interview with Shayne]Welcome back! Thank you for designing new book trailers for my novels Rain Is Not My Indian Name (HarperCollins, 2001) and Eternal (Candlewick, 2009)!
Let's talk about Rain first. What were the challenges in creating that trailer? The
Rain is Not My Indian Name trailer actually was one of the easiest
trailers that I have cut. Because the plot was bright (though
bitter-sweet), there were not so many twists and turns to portray in
this book preview, so in turn, the trailer was just nice and light and
a lot of fun to make.
The music helps a lot too, and when the
rhythm of what I am editing to is fairly simplistic, the cutting tends
to go a lot smoother.
round 5How did we approach the Eternal trailer--in terms of text, images, etc.? Well,
this trailer is a bit different than the other trailers I have cut for
you, in that this book has yet to be released, and so it really has to
do the job of capturing the audience even before they see it in the
bookstore.
It is vital that the general story be told without
giving away too many secrets. So you mailed me a copy of the ARC so I
could familiarize myself with the mood and feel to better portray it on
screen.
You also gave me a rough list of the textual aspects
that you wanted to see in the trailer as well as the royalty-free piece
of music, and I went from there.
We both found royalty-free
stock images online that fit in with the characters and plot and even
used some art elements from the book itself.
How did you try to relate the mood of the book to the trailer? Eternal
is very dark and even sexier, in my opinion, than Tantalize was. It
seemed to have a more "grown up" feel overall and had many motifs to
make you shiver as you read it.
So for these reasons, the
trailer had to be just as titillating, if not more. In this trailer,
you'll see a lot of quick cuts, flashing colors and dark, symbolic
images because that is kind of what spins through your head as you read
this book. I actually even had to add an effect to the bass line in the
music because the song was not dramatic enough to begin with!
[Note:
Please do feel free to share the trailer with fellow readers. Facebook
users can see a higher-resolution version of the trailer
here.]
What technological skills/gains were applied to this trailer that weren't available for the last two?There
are a lot of new things happening in this book trailer. I have an
updated version of the program that I used and a better sense of a lot
of technical things like picture resolution.
All in all, what an audience will see more vibrant colors, cooler transitions, and a better picture quality.
What do you hope prospective readers take away from it? I
hope they get excited by it. Dark, romantic thrillers are my favorite,
so I just basically want prospective readers to feel enticed to go out
and read this book.
When you last spoke to Cynsations readers in April 2008, you were excited about "Guardian of Eden." What new do you have to tell us about that project? We
took the film to an international film festival and even walked away
with an award! I was sixteen at the time, so that was really a cool
thing, considering my experience at that time. I took a whole lot away
from that project. I met and grew to love a lot of people that I will
never forget, and I learned a lot.
What's next up for you in terms of your film career? I actually have a few exciting things going on. I was accepted into the
New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, School of Film and Television. There is also an online series being released on YouTube by
Aberdeen Soldier Productions that is featuring me.
But
the thing that I am most excited about is my plan for a new feature
film and television pilot, "The Incubus." I am collaborating with
Marcie Gorman (previous owner of a successful Weight Watchers franchise
in Florida) who has signed on to be my executive producer as well as
many other exciting industry professionals.
I had the honor of reading your script "The Incubus,"
and you do such a great job with the characters! Could you tell us a
little more about it? Where will the project go from here? I
had a lot of fun writing it. The screenplay only took me about a month
to write, because once I get an idea, I just sit down at my computer
and the words are almost projectile from my brain to the screen. I have
lovingly named this phenomenon, "word vomit."
Basically it's a
cool story about a girl whose town gets haunted by these ghost-people,
or "incubus," and she had to try an exorcise these things before
everyone in the town, including herself, has all of their energy sucked
from them. It falls under the dark romance category.
We are
starting production soon, but my plans for the project are to make it a
television show on Showtime or HBO. So if we get a lot of people
talking about it and wanting to see it, the chances of airing it would
drastically increase! So please support us, and tell your friends.
As for now, I am trying to just stay optimistic and shoot for the stars.
What is the timeline for the film? We
start filming in late February and go all the way to the first week of
April. I should have something close to final by the time summer rolls
around, but the film-making industry is a bit hairy sometimes, so you
never know.
What will be your role(s) in bringing it to life? Much
like my last film, I wear many hats. I wrote, am directing, and
starring in this film again. And until we get a publicist signed on...I
am doing most of the publicizing as well.
How did you approach the story? I
wanted to stick with what I'm good at, thrillers. But I also wanted to
do something no one has touched upon. Movie theaters and bookstores
today are filled to bursting with vampires, werewolves, and boogeymen.
And I didn't want to go there again, even though I love that kind of
thing.
My English teacher, who is also very into mythology, had
brought up the topic of succubi in class one day. They're beautiful
female spirits that come in the night and derive sexual energy from
young men. It had intrigued me, because it sounded like such an
interesting parallel to the common ghost or vampire, with a very dark
twist.
Upon doing further research, I stumbled across the
incubus, which is the male counterpart of the succubus. I was hooked,
and my brain starting going a million miles a minute with ways of how
to contort this creature into a really cool PG-13 rated story.
I
made the title "Incubus" unisex to both genders and basically created
my own creature, which is a human spirit that did not, for whatever
reason, pass on from its physical body, and continues to walk the
Earth, feeding on living human emotion and life energy since it lacks
emotion of its own. It needs happiness, sadness, excitement, lust,
anger, vengeance, and any other emotion just to survive. What an
interesting parallel to the human condition.
What were the challenges? We
have yet to even step foot on set, but we have already overcome a few
obstacles. One was finding a DP or director of photography to shoot the
film. We found an amazing one, Rochelle Kadkhodear. On one of our
audition days, we were even incidentally locked outside of our studio.
We had to audition two actors in the studio parking lot before the
locksmith even got to the building!
I was struck by your use of the past. Flashbacks can be tricky. What advice do you have for writers in integrating them? Flashbacks
can indeed by tricky, and I don't enjoy when they are overused.
Actually, I think that flashbacks are kind of a cheap way of giving
information to an audience.
However, when crucial details of
your character's back-story needs to be laid out in order for your
readers or audience to understand what is happening or will happen, use
them with grace and caution. I like to make them fleeting and almost
dream-like, as if the character was being haunted by their past...and
not just as if I am shoving a chunk of back-story in your face with a
corny montage.
What else is new in your life? How goes the planning for college? What are your goals on that front? I
have so many things in my life figured out...except for this topic. I
have many career goals, but few higher-learning goals, which needs to
change.
I am going to Chicago the last weekend of January to
audition for performance schools like Julliard and Boston Conservatory.
I'll keep you posted on what happens next.
I'm
still praying for someone to call me from LA and offer me a roll in
their next major motion picture. Quincie in Tantalize the movie,
perhaps?
As a YA reader, what were your favorite new books of 2008? I really thoroughly enjoyed
Cassandra Clare's
City of Ashes (Margaret K. McElderry, 2008) and greatly look forward to
City of Glass (Margaret K. McElderry, 2009).