Super 8's young actors try filmmaking

SINGAPORE  Hollywood director-writer J.J. Abrams revisited his childhood in his newest film Super 8. He made the main thread of the story weaving the major characters together somehow close to what it was like when he first discovered the thrills of filmmaking.

Set in 1979, Super 8 revolves around six youngsters in the midst of making their first monster film using a Super 8 camera  a Kodak film format that became a hit among amateur filmmakers way back in the ‘60s  when they are interrupted by a huge train wreck, which lends excitement not just to their movie, but also to their peaceful Ohio steel town lives.

There’s a movie within this movie; a special treat that awaits audiences at the end credits of Super 8. Finishing this short film, which makes a charming conclusion to the action and adventure-laden film now showing in theaters nationwide, had J.J. tapping into the inner auteur of his young cast. 

“The whole idea was to treat it the way I treated my movies when I was at that age, which was badly. Part of it was I’d say to the young actors, ‘This is the idea for a scene. Go out and write it.’ And they’d come back like in 30 seconds with a scene. I would maybe do a little thing here and there because there were some things that I knew I wanted to do but most times, it was just fun letting them invest in the process of making this movie,” J.J. Abrams (the guy who brought us Lost, Alias and Fringe) laughingly told select media from the region during a presscon at the Four Seasons Hotel last May 30.

The 44-year-old director’s very first camera was a Super 8 as well. It was a gift to him when he was about eight years old from his maternal grandfather named Henry Kelvin. (Trivia: As an act of homage, J.J. has dropped the name ‘Kelvin’ into all of the projects he has worked on).

J.J. was joined in the Asian press junket by four of film’s teen cast (the future of Hollywood, if we may boldly add)  Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee and Elle Fanning  plus Kyle Chandler (of Friday Night Lights). The latter is one of the few adults in the film, playing a widowed police officer struggling in his relationship with his son (played by Joel) but who becomes the leader of the good guys trying to uncover the mystery behind the unusual disappearances following the crash.

Kyle said that the kids were fortunate in the sense to have found a willing mentor in J.J. this early into their careers, a privilege that’s often elusive to many an aspiring actor.

Center, from left: Joel Courtney (as Joe Lamb) and Riley Griffiths (as Charles) with director-writer J.J. Abrams on the set of Super 8, which was produced by Steven Spielberg (not in photo)

Riley, who portrays Charles Kasnick  the budding film crew’s director who is big on production values, agreed, saying that with J.J. allowing them to be hands-on in the making of the short film, they got exposed to other facets of the film world besides acting.

“We pretty much got to write the whole thing. It showed us the other side of making a movie, like the producing and directing side. It was cool to come from the Super 8 set with all its realness and J.J. being the director and all that, then to go to this. It was fun, you could be as cheesy as you wanted to be and write those cheesy one-liners,” he said.

Riley is a newcomer to the scene, as well as Joel Courtney who scored the starring role. This is practically their first film credit. Joel, for one, was just acting for a little over a year when he shot Super 8. As the film’s Joe Lamb, he is the crew’s in-charge for monster makeup and building models, and provides much of the emotional core of the film.

J.J. shared, “The way we found Joel was that he was attending an acting class in Seattle and we had a casting director there. What is great is that he was doing it with a dedication for the craft and learning how to do it.”

For his part, Joel said, “I really do love acting. I’ve only been doing for a year-and-a-half but I already know this is what I want to do.”

Nevertheless, J.J. said it wasn’t much of a challenge directing the film as compared to writing it, since he wanted the audiences to, most importantly, fall in love with the characters. And he pretty much succeeds in that regard, thanks to his choice of actors.

Joel and Riley who, in spite of being first-timers, gave justice to their lovable characters. Actually they all did, including the “more experienced” casts like the gregarious Ryan Lee, who plays the super hyper Cary who’s obsessed with fireworks and blowing up things, and Elle Fanning (Dakota’s younger sister) who’s Alice, the older girl the boys are crushing on. The statuesque and giggly Elle (as she was during the presscon) was only 12 when the film was shot, while the rest of youthful cast where 14 years old.

From left: Zach Mills as Preston, Elle Fanning as Alice, Riley, Ryan Lee as Cary, Joel and Gabriel Basso as Martin

But it was a crazy process scouring for these actors, J.J. was quick to admit, as the film relied heavily on the quality of its casting. On-set chemistry was another very crucial consideration. This is because at the heart of the Super 8 story is the bond among a group of friends out to make their first film and consequently, embark on the greatest adventure of their lives.

Fortunately, the actors plus Zach Mills and Gabriel Basso (who weren’t at the Singapore junket) clicked right off the bat. “It was exciting watching them very quickly develop a dynamic. I just had to film them,” said the director.

Riley explained, “Going into this movie, obviously there’s acting but there’s a lot of just kids hanging out.”

Elle added, “I feel like we just all clicked instantly. I met with J.J. beforehand and didn’t know what the movie was about. He then auditioned all the guys and that’s when I met Joel and I just knew we’d be friends for a lifetime.”

But the kids said that even if the set overflowed with fun and laughter, they also knew when J.J. required them to get down to business.

One example was when they were filming the scene of the massive pile-up  the explosive highlight in the early portion of the film  that lets loose a mysterious creature that the train was surreptitiously transporting.

Ryan said, “That time we had to be serious because there were times we could’ve easily got hurt (like) walking up to the train car with sharp metal sticking from the ground, we could’ve fallen and got hurt.”

Riley elaborated, “Everything that you see on the ground was really there. There was really the busted up train car everywhere and debris. We were actually able to do most of our stunts. I think, it’s every teenager’s dream to run through explosions. While that was really cool, it was hard at the same time because I had to gain 20 or 30 pounds for this movie, and whenever we were running, the hardest thing was to probably look cool and not totally be exhausted because that was the 10th take or whatever.”

Kyle Chandler (center), one of the few ‘grownups’ in Super 8, is flanked by (from left) Elle, Riley, Ryan and Joel at the film’s presscon in the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore.

Through the film, one lesson learned is that despite the technology gap between the 1970s and today, the problems that people face didn’t change much.

 “Today, you see kids stuck with their iPhones, who won’t get off their Xbox and PS3. I think it’s really cool going back to 1979, only to realize we’re not all that different. Back then the Super 8 was their iPhone. Nowadays, people shoot with their iPhones,” said Joel.

More than the acting experience, it was working with J.J. that left the most enduring impression on them. Kyle Chandler, one of the few “grownups” in the film, explained, “Part of the reason the movie is so darn good is these young actors were treated like young actors and not like kids. There’s always a lot of love between the actors and the director, and that was one of the most interesting things for me here, watching that process.”

Agreed Joel, “He’s really a good guy and most generous. He’s a genius!”

Elle also enthused, “I was watching him on set, and you could always see his mind working, just thinking about everything. The details he did in this film make the movie what it is.”

And what is J.J.’s constant advice as they navigate the jungle that is Hollywood?

“J.J. told us to never change, be humble and just be regular kids. Something I will always remember is that J.J. was inspired by Steven Spielberg (the film’s producer, whose influence is hard to miss in the film) and now we’re inspired by J.J. I am hoping millions of kids around the world are inspired by Super 8 to pick a camera and make movies,” Riley said.

Interestingly, it was J.J.’s first time to handle this young a cast. The father of three confessed that it could get tough making children concentrate on a single thing for a long period of time. But there was a lot of freedom on the set  specifically for the youngsters to be themselves as they explore and connect with their characters.

J.J. said, “I wanted them to have a life of their own. I didn’t want them to be like robots, sitting there like professionals. And they always come together, in focus. It was worth it.”

Released by United International Pictures, Super 8 is now showing nationwide.