3.101-Filmmaker Interview with Alex Thompson

In today's episode, I interview Alex Thompson, director of the short film "Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting," the story of a mother and daughter faced with difficult choices as they take part in a coming-of-age hunt set in a fictional 1930s America.

Listen to hear about how Alex's world building for the film began with the characters, the process of casting the main characters of the film to ensure they had the right level of humanity for the story, and the challenge of creating a set of digital creatures to inhabit the world that would look like high quality blockbuster effects on a small short film budget.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

• Aesop's Fables
• Grimm's Fairy Tales
• The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype by Erich Neumann
• Baudolino by Umberto Eco
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Films and TV shows mentioned in this episode include:

• "Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting" directed by Alex Thompson
• Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg
• Hereditary directed by Ari Aster
• The Walking Dead (series)
• The Grapes of Wrath directed by John Ford
• "La jetée" directed by Chris Marker
• 12 Monkeys directed by Terry Gilliam
• "Un Chien Andalou" directed by Luis Buñuel
• "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" directed by Robert Enrico
• Avatar directed by James Cameron
• Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott
• 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Everything Everywhere All at Once directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
• Night of the Hunter directed by Charles Laughton
• Come and See directed by Elem Klimov
• The Passion of Joan of Arc directed by Carl Th. Dreyer
• The Seventh Seal directed by Ingmar Bergman
• Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Wiene
• 12 Angry Men directed by Sidney Lumet
• Poor Things directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
• The Thin Red Line directed by Terrence Malick

Follow the film on Instagram @emandselmagogriffinhunting and Alex @alexanderthompsonfilms.