The Road to Sundance: v/h/s, directed by multiple directors

Answers from Radio Silence, a group that directed one of the segments.  Here is their bio.

Radio Silence is Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez & Chad Villella.  Formerly known as Chad, Matt & Rob, their previous works include the popular series of "Interactive Adventure" movies: The Treasure Hunt, The Birthday Party & The Teleporter.  Their segment "10/31/98" for the horror anthology movie, V/H/S marks their feature film debut.  After a slew of viral videos that have been seen by over 55 million viewers worldwide, the group is currently working on a full-length feature venture as well as developing several concepts for television.


Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

• The movie is called V/H/S and it’s part of the Park City at Midnight screening series. There are 6 segments in the movie (the other directors are Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Adam Wingard, Joe Swanberg and David Bruckner), ours is called “10/31/98.” We wanted to make something fun and hopefully provide a fresh take on the found footage style. The idea for our segment was something we’d be toying with for awhile and when we got involved with “V/H/S,” it seemed like the perfect place to finally make it.
  

How long did it take you to make your film?

• Our segment of V/H/S (“10/31/98”) took 4 days to shoot and just over a month for us to edit, mix sound, and complete visual FX.
  

How did you finance your film?

• The good folks of The Collective and Bloody Disgusting Selects approached us to be involved with the project. They put a lot of time and energy into getting such a cool and interesting group of filmmakers involved in something with such a unique and experimental style of storytelling.
  

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

• The most challenging part of making our segment of the movie was choosing a story and writing it in a way that allowed us to be incredibly loyal to the rules of the found footage style without making something that felt extraneously long or too reliant on the gimmick of the ever-present camera. The limitations of this style really challenged us to write something action packed but specific enough to play out in what appears to be several long continuous takes. We were essentially editing the film during the shooting process -- blocking and staging the action in a way that really allowed us the creative freedom to build out the scariness of the world without ever making it feel like it wasn’t completely real. The location we chose to shoot in was essential to this -- we were all legitimately afraid to be in the house we used for our 3 principal nights of shooting -- and this location not only dictated our story from beat to beat, but really influenced all of the performances in a very real way.
  

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?

• The only advice we’d give is to represent your own voice and story as strongly as you can. It’s really clear to us when we’re watching a film if the filmmakers enjoyed the process of creating it and that’s only possible if you tell a story that you believe in
  

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

• This is a hard one to answer since every movie is such a unique combination of the variables and the problems we needed to solve to make this project in the short amount of time we had influenced us in a very specific way. But given a similar set of limitations, we’d probably make a very similar movie. Basically, you do the most you can with what you’ve got and you hope for the best.