LUCA D’ANDREA, AGE 9 (2019)

Nara: Hi! We are representatives from the Insomniac Film Festival. Who are you and what is your film?

Luca: I am Luca D’Andrea and my film is Age 9. Age 9 is sort of a personal trip down memory lane for me. As stated in the opening intro credits thing it’s dedicated to my grandfather and all the films and media that he showed me directly from the 80s. Nightmare on Elm Street or John Carpenter classics like The Thing for example. The film is sort of inspired by all those movies and also all the fairy tales and all the horror stories that my grandfather made. So I basically took one of those that I remember vividly that scared me as a kid, and I sort of did a real thing.

Adam: So this was directly inspired by a specific story that your grandfather told you?

Luca: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Adam: Like a direct translation?

Luca: Well… not quite. The original story took place in Italy and it took place during the renaissance. It was about a little kid who gets socked by a man wearing a plague mask. I sort of got that idea and then also, as a kid, like every other weekend I went to Laser Quest. Like whether it was by myself or with friends, so I just mixed the two and it came out like this. The original story was much more grim and fairytale-like. Like one of those old Brothers Grimms stories. 

Nara: That’s sick. Thanks G-Pa!

Adam: I’m very happy that you set it in Laser Quest. Not only does it make me think of those birthday parties at Age 9, but I also was always kind of scared in Laser Quest. It was like anything could go down while you’re in there. 

Luca: Yeah, it seems like almost never ending. Sort of like the maze in The Shining. Like you just go in and you never come back out. There’s just fog everywhere and you can barely see, so if you trip and scream people just think “oh, you’re just playing the game”.

Nara: Do they do a sweep of it after everyone’s out?

Luca: I don’t think they do…

[Everyone laughs]

Adam: I feel like someone could easily get abducted by some weird beast in there… was that part of the inspiration? That whole “what could happen inside of a Laser Quest?” question?

Luca: It’s not directly said in the movie, but the kid in Age 9 is supposed to have gotten invited by this other kid’s mom who he didn’t know. Like “oh invite all the other kids in your class”, so he just showed up and no one there is talking to him. That sadly happened a lot to me as a kid, and then in those situations where I’m alone and there’s just chaos unfolding around me… in that sort of environment it’s kind of scary.

Nara: So the movie is secretly about how vicious and mean little kids are?

Luca: Yes! Oh my goodness… at my school it was like every man for themselves. Everyone was against each other. It was very brutal in the least brutal way possible, if that makes sense.

Adam: With that in mind, the monster [in the film] even acts as a representation of those vicious kids who are ready to destroy you and tear you apart.

Luca: Exactly. On the topic of the monster - it is a bit of that, and it’s also a bit of… the costume is made out of my bed sheets from when I was a kid. So the monster is that. It is the vicious things I had to deal with from bullies in middle school, and it’s also my past haunting me.

Nara: The idea of isolation comes across really well. You sort of, as a viewer of the film, are witnessing what’s happening around you but you can’t do anything. Like a classic horror movie, you’re like “just leave! You can leave at any time!”.

Luca: The main reason why I primarily do horror is because horror gets to these core strong emotions and lets it all out in this operatic or intense way, which is something you can’t do in most other genres. That’s important to me, because as a kid I didn’t have anyone to talk to and I was always bad with words. I wasn’t really good at expressing myself, but I was able to express myself and recognize the emotions I felt by watching movies.

So I’d be like, “oh, this emotion I’m feeling - that’s exactly like what this movie is as a whole!” With horror movies it’s this fun, creative way of getting strong, most of the time sad or angry emotions and just letting it all out in this very intense way.

Adam: And horror movies typically wear their emotions on their sleeves in a great way. They’re not trying to sugarcoat it. They’re saying “this is the emotion”. Comedy does that as well.

Nara: On that topic, do you think you’re gonna blend horror with other genres in the future? Or will you stick with being the best horror director ever?

Luca: One of my next projects, which I’ve already started, is technically a horror/comedy in which the comedy isn’t from the dialogue itself. It’s a character piece, and though it’s disturbing, you can’t help but laugh at some parts because of how intense it is. So yeah, primarily horror, but I will be blending it with other genres. Whatever fits the story the best. Whatever works best with the emotion I’m trying to give. 

Adam: Were those your real home videos that you used in Age 9?

Luca: Yeah.

Adam: It’s really cool that you began the film with those, because then when we get into the Laser Quest stuff I start to think “oh, so this is more home video”, and then it starts to get so wacked out, and it makes the twist to when it becomes this monster thing so much more affecting.

Also, we’ve seen so many short films that use home video, cause it’s a great tool. Age 9 felt like it was commenting on those films. Almost like “okay - now this is my home video”.

Luca: Yeah, I sort of turned it on its head, at least from what I’ve seen. Usually home videos are used as “oh, look at this cute video of me when I was a baby. Look at how young I am.” I took that and just made it the exact opposite of cute, and hopefully it felt menacing. Like as the climax ramps up, the “Happy Birthday” gets louder and louder and louder. 

Because the film was about my grandfather and I actually shot it on his VHS camera, I only discovered that footage when I was going through the camera to see if I had enough space. I burst out into tears, like “oh my god this is me at such a young age with my grandfather”, and immediately that was a burst of inspiration. Like this needs to be a part of the film. And then it was a process of “okay, how do I put this in the film and how do I make it work?” Make it work with the overall idea and theme?

Adam: We capture so much on home video and it’s usually these joyous experiences, but in your film I start to think “well, what are the actual experiences of growing up that aren’t captured on home video?”

Luca: Especially if you look at older home videos. There’s a whole Youtube account where it’s like all this stuff that was sent to TV shows in the 90s and 80s that got rejected because they were too odd or too weird. It’s all the weird side of families where they’re forcing the kids to look cute for the camera or do a funny trick and they’re just not having it. Some kids are breaking down.

Nara: And they sent that in to TV stations!?!

[Everyone laughs]

Nara: Your kid’s like “I hate you”!

Adam: And you’re just like “oh yeah, this will be great TV!”

Luca: But in a sense it is this window into how the family wants the outer world to see them.

Nara: There’s a great video of me from when I was younger rocking on a rocking horse, but I guess I was going too metal on the horse and I flipped over and hit my head on the wall. It was great, and my dad was standing ten feet back with the videocamera like “are you okay?” while I was just screaming.

Luca: My mom is a photographer, and she’s someone who makes you never forget that she is. So literally any second in public or at home she’s constantly looking for opportunities to either film what I’m doing or take photos of what I’m doing. Because of that, a lot of my childhood - whether for better or for worse - is documented on video or photos, which leaves a lot of room for me to look back on who I was and what I was going through. I haven’t figured out yet if that’s a good or a bad thing. 

Nara: If somebody ever wants to make a documentary about you, they will have a field day.

Adam: Do you ever look back on the images that your mom has captured over the years?

Luca: Oh yes, I do. A lot of it deals with family, and so I look back on photos she took on family trips when we went out of country to visit relatives. And this is a theme in Age 9 that I’ve thought about a lot this past year: I never truly appreciated, or gave attention to, my family or my close relatives or people that impacted me a lot in a good way. Because I was a kid and a little twerp I was like “ha ha fuck you I want to play video games I don’t want to go out and get coffee.”

And so because of those documented images I can sort of look back and look back on who I was and at the relatives that were around that I didn’t get the chance to appreciate. It makes me learn and it makes me nowadays be more appreciative of the people I have around me.

Nara: What are you looking forward to at Insomniac this year?

Luca: Seeing all the other amazing films, because the trailer - [it’s] really well edited.

Adam: It wasn’t either of us, but thank you.

Luca: Well whoever it was [editor’s note: it was team member Sam Hughes!], congratulations. Also, support local film. As a kid who was like “hey, I love film, I want to be a part of this film community”, I had no way of getting into it. Well, I probably did, but I just had not really figured it out. Or I didn’t even bother because of how lazy I was. So now that I’m this age and all this stuff is happening, as much as I can do I will do. Because I just love it. I just love film and I just love supporting local film and checking out cool films.

Adam: It’s hard sometimes to push yourself to go out and do things in general, and especially when you’re doing stuff that’s beyond your circle. So we hope that we can provide a space for people to come and experience film. You, by the way, have the esteemed honour of being the youngest filmmaker in the show this year. Tied for the youngest ever actually.

Nara: Last year Doc Simms was in it [with his film Fiducia] as a Grade 10.

Adam: And Carol Nguyen was also in the festival when she was in Grade 10 [with her film This Home is Not Empty].

Nara: Do you feel special?

Luca: This is the one time that having a November birthday has paid off for me. Most of the time it’s like “hey - you’re younger that me. Ha ha!” Now I can finally laugh in their faces.

Adam: Anyone you want to shout out?

Luca: Shout out to my actor Callum for having to be really, really sweaty in the laser tag and walking around with gear twice his size. And having to sit there while I put shoelaces painted red in his nose. Also - Chad, the manager of the laser tag place. He’s like a guy you’d see in LA jogging along the beach who drinks Kombucha every day and is constantly jacked. When I met him he looked so out of it. He was like “oh...oh...oh ya. Ya, great. Next week? Yeah that would be… great. Just sign this”. He was so out of it, but shout out to him.

Adam: Nice guy though, letting you shoot there.

Luca: Exactly. His name definitely wasn’t Chad, but at this point… I’d like to think his name is Chad. Hopefully it is. It was something with a C, so I just thought it was Chad.

Adam: Could have been Chazz. Or Chris.

Luca: Easily could have been any of those.

Nara: Connor. Christian.

Adam: Callum. Caleb. Cody.

Nara: Cody!

Luca: Cody!