With Liz Whitmere
How did this film come together?
I had recently made a very morose body horror and wanted a change of pace, so I harassed brilliant comedy writer Terry McGurrin (I may be biased) to write me a short script. After a medium amount of pestering, he sent me a draft of Adoptation and I was thrilled. A week later we were frantically cleaning our house to accommodate the shoot. I feel so lucky that Nicole Power, Natalie Brown, Bryn McAuley, Fuad Ahmed, and Daniel deSanto were ready to come out and play. We shot Adoptation in an afternoon, with Ryan Couldrey DPing, Andrew Lai recording sound, and that’s it.
Did anything unexpected happen as you were making this film?
I did not expect to have 6 fully viable endings complete with punchline buttons - this cast are very funny and very agile improvisers. Bryn kept doing Caillou impressions to trigger that big laugh off the top.
What's the best filmmaking advice you've ever received?
Don’t wait for permission.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Movie making is a kind of magic and I hope I get to keep making them for a long time.
Elling Lien
