❉ The Writer, Director and Film Festival Director on her new film short, Mabig Film Festival, and more.
Back in February of this year, We Are Cult spoke with Writer, Director and Film Festival Director Andreea Boyer about her eventful life and her adventures in film-making as the writer, director and star of Julia 17.
Andreea Boyer returns to tell us a little bit about her new film short, My Selfie Life, and her experiences acting in Marcus (The Heavy) Warren’s thriller Snap Shot, distributed by Parkland Pictures, and the late German film director and Rainer Werner Fassbinder collaborator Ulli Lommel’s last project, Boogeyman: Reincarnation, which in the wake of Lommel’s death is reported to be due to be reformatted as a serial.
My Selfie Life
Boyer’s 25 minute film short tells the story of a depressed, young Spanish woman on holiday as she tries to overcome a break-up from her ex-boyfriend. As with her festival favourite Julia 17, Boyer has written and directed My Selfie Life as well as playing the lead character, Penelope.
“I have chosen this topic as myself as a young woman I went through breakups and that’s known to be more common for young women and so my main message with this film is to all female viewers to be strong, to love yourself and then the real love finds you as I believe in the law of attraction which proves that our words and actions and thoughts attract similar happenings in life.
“It is my honor to have Mrs Anca Verma and her husband Mr Abhishek Verma from India in the main roles as their wisdom and life experience is reflected in their confident being and that gives the viewers a lot of strength. Also the Prime Minister of Canada Candidate Raphael Louis plays the piano music which can be heard in between the scenes when I, Penelope, am standing and having a Selfie time by a painted wall.
“All other actors, the Bavarian politician Peter Grab , and everyone else from around the globe Denise, Anita Giovannini , Mickael Monroe , Nikol Ette , Lien Mya Nguyen Oost , Chris Charles, Toufic Saadeh , Giovanna Cacciatori are in my film those who I am having Selfie chats as well with and so who I am communicating with while I play the upset young Penelope who then turns to be happier.”
“Everywhere we are we are observing young people being a lot actively having Selfie chats and videos while they’re doing their daily activities, as walking on the street or even being on holiday. And I believe that Selfies is a great tool when we need to communicate instantly with our family and friends and even for business it’s modern to have a video chat if someone is far away and can’t join a meeting.
“I see people at all ages having their selfie times, even in trains, that used to be a few years back the time when people used to carry heavy books and instead that today it’s easier to just carry a thin tabled that you can save as many books online on it as you want and also it allows Video chats as well which is great and simplifies life as a lot of data can be saved on and shared and I do take photos and videos and send them while I am travelling. But all shall be kept in balance and so Selfies should be done once really needed so that we can enjoy and have awareness of our environment where we are at.”
Snap Shot
Having learnt his craft in California, directing music videos and working with the likes of Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Anthony Hopkins as director/cameraman for international press coverage of various studio productions, Detroit-born writer and director Marcus released his first feature film, The Heavy, in early 2010, with an eclectic cast of Sir Christopher Lee, Vinnie Jones, Sadie Frost, Stephen Rea, former boxer Gary Stretch and Rules of Attraction starlet Shannyn Sossamon. Warren recently completed work in his latest production, Snap Shot, in which Andreea Boyer features in the role of Veronica.
How did your and Marcus Warren’s paths cross?
I went to London’s Royal School of Speech and Drama for three months to study Shakespeare which was an intense course and I stayed like almost an hour away from the University so I had to travel back and forth a lot through the crazy traffic of London, as you can already imagine in that big city you can only come forward with a Subway from some stations.
During my study time I had met several important people as casting directors, actors, filmmakers, directors (also from BAFTA) while attending a few castings for films. And so that’s how I met Mr. Marcus Warren
How did you come to be cast as Veronica?
I went to a casting for Snap Shot for the role of Veronica – I had prepared for my role so when I met the team, I already knew a bit about the role of Veronica.
A few days later, almost two weeks before finishing my study, I got a call and an email with the final confirmation that I was scheduled to play Veronica in Snap Shot and I’m grateful for that.
And so, a couple of days after that, I was happily standing in the make-up room and getting ready to step in front of the cameras. I had a few photos taken in Canada that I had sent to several European casting agencies, with me as a tortured woman; and so I had many photos and scenes ready to show Mr Marcus Warren and his team, to prove to them that I was able to play the role of Veronica and that I already had experience with playing an intense character like that.
I came in during the last week of shooting of the film Snap Shot, so everyone knew each other already and they had shot most of the film, before filming the scenes with me and the main actress Sasha Jackson, who is a wonderful person.
What attracted you to the script?
The screenplay itself was fantastic, so the story has impressed me as it’s so well detailed and very informative, very structured, and I knew exactly how the role of Veronica would be like. I have always had the wish to play a role like this where the facial expression, the emotions, must be very intense and well-played in that moment, so once I stepped in front of the camera I had to look tortured, I had to cry and to scream and to look in panic. I loved to play the role and to show those intense emotions in front of the camera, while acting with the other actors and receiving the director’s instructions.
What was it like working with Marcus and his team?
It’s been a wonderful experience. I had the chance to play in his amazing film while studying Shakespeare. That made me very happy and I’m grateful that Mr. Warren has given me this chance. It’s been always my wish to play the role of a tortured woman and the make-up etc which I received for the role Veronica is truly amazing, and the entire team of actors looked very impressive and loved playing their roles. Mr Warren and his team are very professional, and I’ve been very impressed by that.
As a fellow film-maker did you learn anything new or gain any fresh insights from watching Marcus at work?
Marcus is a very professional and hardworking film-maker who is non-stop focused on his work and the work from the actors. So, it’s been a wonderful time on set for me as I had the opportunity to watch and learn from him, while I’ve been waiting for my scenes to play in. Mr. Warren is a very calm person and the organising, coordinating and directing all actors and crew members received from Mr Warren was well balanced, so I had the chance to watch a professional film-maker and to learn from him.
Last time we spoke you talked about what it was like working with the legendary German film-maker Ulli Lommel in your film ‘Julia 17’. You appeared in Lommel’s last project, ‘Boogeyman: Reincarnation‘ (a reboot of his original 1980 cult movie) as a blood-spattered Bride of Frankenstein. Tell us a little about that?
I play the co-star role of “Bride of Frankenstein” in Boogeyman: Reincarnation. I’ve been sitting daily for two weeks, every day like a few hours in the make-up room and the make-up artists did a fantastic job, really. I’ve been happy to meet all the kind Canadians like the Actors and the crew members. It’s been a very cold winter time in Edmonton, where the filming took place. As you can see in the photos, it’s been a hard time for me playing that role.
Mabig Film Festival
Just to wrap things up, can you tell our readers a little about your own Mabig Film Festival?
I started my Mabig Film Festival in Bavaria, Germany, to invite international filmmakers to submit their films on Filmfreeway for their films to be viewed and it’s a live screenings event, where I am showing the winning and also the nominated films from all categories & genres of feature films: Short films, documentary films, student films, etc. Mabig Film Festival welcomes international entries and will take place annually in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, which is known for upcoming artistic projects and its existing great structure for the arts. I, the festival director, first established my own firm, Mabig Movies, in Augsburg, with the goal to bring in artists, filmmakers, producers, actors, and writers to share all the experiences and knowledge about the film world with all local people. Our focus is to enlarge everyone’s perspective of films by giving male and female international filmmakers an equal chance to have their films neutrally analysed and valued by the festival judges.
❉ CLICK HERE For more information about Mabig Film Festival, or visit https://filmfreeway.com/MabigFilmFestival
❉ If you would like to learn more about Andreea, you can visit her website. Follow Andreea on Twitter: @andreeaboyer