Lauren Noll ‘s HONOR, Alix Angelis SEANCE-ING , SLO Film Fest 2021 Interviews

Lauren Noll’s HONOR is a short film that places us in a high tension student review at a Mormon college where a young woman is being prodded to “confess her sins” of being with another female student in order to save her degree.

Alix Angelis’s SÉANCE-ING is a comedy about three high school best friends in the 90s, who must convene to help each other process and handle a tragedy that has befallen one of the members of their favorite band.

The films couldn’t be farther apart on the storytelling spectrum from one another, but they both share the accomplishment of either gutting you with the emotional crisis of potentially denying your identity and betraying someone to “save” yourself (HONOR), or landing you smack dab into the emotional psychology of your teen youth and overcoming the immense crises in our heads that all of us likely faced during that time in our lives (SEANCE-ING). And they effectively achieve that within short run times.

In the interview, Alix and Aden discuss how to use visuals (wardrobe, make up) to immediately give the audience a way to assess a character. Lauren also talks about utilizing economy in storytelling methods to get to the crux of the subject, as well as how the great challenge of the film for her was not presenting a stock “villain” character, but rather working to find the compassion in the intent from the characters. Alix and Vincent also discuss their efforts and tricks to achieve a period look (90s style) on a budget (Spoiler: it helps when you’ve still got some stuff stored away and you’ve got a friends that have some things as well).  

Lauren Noll ‘s HONOR, Alix Angelis SEANCE-ING , SLO Film Fest 2021 Interviews