April 15, 2017 by Carmela Baranowska
Chatsworth, CA. Summer of 1969. Two sixteen year-old girls looking for a lost horse named Prettyface stumble across a family living on an abandoned movie ranch. This isn't just any family. It's the Manson family.
Interview with Writer/Director Jessica Janos
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Prettyface was made a a proof-of-concept short for a feature film in development looking for financing. But overall, my mom and her sisters grew up just a few miles from Spahn Ranch. I grew up listening to my grandma’s stories of seeing the Manson Girls dig through the dumpsters behind Alpha Beta. It was this time before the murders that intrigued me the most.
I rode horses as a kid through the back hills of Southern California, and we would always find the most disturbing things - torn women’s underwear, disemboweled cats, p*rn mags. I always wanted to make a scary movie about that world - the suburban wilderness and the bad things that went on there.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Prettyface is a great depiction of 1960’s Southern California. Like any good story it starts out one way and takes you somewhere you don’t expect. It is a dark, strange, scary movie that takes place in this beautiful glen-like world. The performances are fantastic, the cinematography is beautiful, and the soundtrack is psychedelic. Karsen Liotta and Annalise Basso are amazing.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Prettyface is about Family. Marlena is leaving her family and finding another, Jenna is learning who her family really is. Speaking of the larger project, Prettyface, like all my films, is what I like to call a “defense of the bad girl” story. Jenna is a teenage runaway, her mother has abandoned her, she has a difficult past involving sexual abuse - she seems like the type of girl we would imagine as a “Manson Girl” but she instantly knows these people are bad.
Marlena, on the other hand, has grown up in a sheltered, religious middle-class home - she has the Jan Brady Syndrome, “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” - she always feels ignored. When she meets the Manson family she is sucked right in, and you see how this girl, who on the outside seems so pure and innocent, could stick a knife in a pregnant woman.
Now while Jenna’s past gives her wisdom and strength, the trauma’s a burden she wears heavily, she feels less valuable than a girl like Marlena. Jenna feels dirty, disposable.
Believing she is somehow able to take what is coming, she sacrifices herself to save her virginal friend, who like in any hero’s story does not respect this sacrifice - Marlena is sucked in and she goes right back to the family.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
The most interesting piece of story and character development that came through the process of making this film was discovering the culpability of Marlena in the coercion of her friend. In the original script, Marlena was a naive victim, who held a strong resentment towards her friend Jenna for wanting to run away and leave her behind. Marlena wanted to stay with “the family” because unlike Jenna, she felt accepted by them and wasn’t instinctively aware of any danger. In crafting the final reveal of this short, Marlena truly became a Manson girl, as we come to understand she actively lured her friend into this situation.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I get rabidly positive reviews from people who are very familiar with the story of the Manson Family, they appreciate the depiction of the family, the power structure we created, there have been many Manson related projects out and about and they like this one the best. Also, several people find it very scary, which it is, these weren’t nice people. I had a screening where there where several older ladies in the audience and when Paul takes Marlena to the steambed and we reveal all these strange naked girls, it was pretty cool, the entire group of them gasped. That’s the place where it really starts to get weird. Also, the ending of the film just sucks the air out of the room.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Early in development one of the most unexpected pieces of feedback I would get came from men. (This is related to the feature script as this short film has only publicly screened once.) The climax of the movie often made men cry. It really upset them and it has been the most difficult part for most men to read.
I suspected that Jenna was a very relatable character for men, and when she goes where she does it takes them to a place they are very uncomfortable exploring. It takes them to a dark side of what its like to be a girl. Fred Roos always said it was the most difficult role he had ever seen written for a girl of this age.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I would love to get this unique project more exposure and find like-minded people interested in making films about the female experience that are dark, beautiful, scary and emotionally cathartic. We have such a dedicated cast looking to take this film all the way.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Prettyface needs financiers, distributors, and further exposure to film festival directors and journalists.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I make movies about my experiences. I didn’t base the Manson people on things I read in books, I based them on people I knew and experiences I had as a teenager. I know these experiences are not unique. One in three women have experienced sexual-assault. I mean I know so many women close to me as well as myself, that have been raped - it’s insane. Yet so many films made about the subject come from men. They are shot voyeuristically and invite the audience to passively witness the act as a bystander - not experience it as one experiences such a thing.
This is not an easy thing to bring up because it’s pretty weighty, and I think people write off the subject as overly dramatic or distasteful, but the truth is it is as much a part of the female experience as other subjects we deal with in films all the time. A woman’s life isn’t just about proms, boyfriends, girlfriends, planning weddings, getting divorced and balancing work and children. Sure sometimes it's those things, but for a large percentage of us, those experiences are combined with the weight of overcoming the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, rape, and domestic violence.
I want to honor those who have lived through these experiences, and bring them into the light in a new, different and cathartic way. When I see things on the screen that I relate to I don’t feel alone, I know that has to be true of others.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What would a woman do to save her friend that no man would do to save his own?
Would you like to add anything else?
Our amazing and soon-to-be-released original soundtrack was created by a first-time collaboration of musicians Kirpatrick Thomas of Spindrift and Jesika von Rabbit of Gram Rabbit. It was recorded and mixed at the Rabbit Ranch in Joshua Tree by Todd Rutherford Johnson, also of Gram Rabbit. Also, the amazing cinematography of Zoran Popovic, the insanely detailed costuming of Christine Casaus, and the artistry of our Production Designer David Thomas Cooper should not be missed. We had so little to give and these people put their hearts into this movie.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I (Jessica Janos) am currently out with two other film projects: Electra Complex, a feature film I wrote with Clarissa Jacobson. Set in early 90s Hollywood, it’s about two punk rock, conceptual-artist strippers. Our logline is: puss*. Brains. Punk. f*ck YOU!!! I’m yet to see how effective that logline is, but this is a funny, deep, dirty, sexy, sad, victorious story and so fun to read.
Stella by Starlight, a film written by Clarissa Jacobson that I am attached to direct. It’s currently in development with Market Street Productions. I directed a feature for them last year. Stella aspires to be a romance novelist, she has everything down but the love scenes, until she escapes with her 75 year-old friend Georgia and meet Quincy on a road trip to Vegas.
I am also shooting a music video this month for PALE BLUE starring Mercedes Kilmer and Tanner Stine. It's an interesting narrative about domestic violence.
Interview: September 2016
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Prettyface Chatsworth, CA. Summer of 1969. Two sixteen year-old girls looking for a lost horse named Prettyface stumble across a family living on an abandoned movie ranch. This isn't just any family. It's the Manson family. Length:15 mins Director:Jessica Janos Producer:Fred Roos, Shayna Weber, Jessica Janos, Caspar von Winterfeldt, Cassandra Sicre Writer:Jessica Janos About the writer, director and producer:
Jessica Janos is a director, writer and mom. Her most recent projects include Seduced, starring Elisabeth Rohm, and Dog At A Human Party for Jesika von Rabbit.
Fred Roos is an Academy Award winning producer of The Godfather II. He is currently in pre-production on Sofia Coppola’s next film, The Beguiled.
Shayna Weber has produced an eclectic mix of shows including So You Think You Can Dance, Phenomenon, Minute To Win It, RuPauls’s Drag Race and Brew Dogs.
Caspar von Winterfeldt runs Fortune Films, LLC producing motion pictures, television and branded web content. He's also co-founded Baron VR, a virtual reality company designing 'Experiences' for the burgeoning VR/AR space.
Cassandra Sicre runs SMILECASS PRODUCTIONS, where she does photography, video, documentaries, music videos and youtube programs, including stop motion, creature designs and special fx makeup. Key cast:
Karsen Liotta (This is the first film for Karsen. Daughter of actor Ray Liotta)
Annalise Basso (Captain Fantastic, Ouija 2, Oculus)
Patrick Schwarzenegger (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Midnight Sun)
Ryan Dorsey (Shameless, Justified)
Whit Hertford (Wildlife, Jurassic Park)
Courtney Gaines (Children of the Corn, Back to the Future)
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Prettyface needs financiers, distributors, and further exposure to film festival directors and journalists. Funders:
This film was 101% funded on INDIEGOGO for $30,385 by 185 backers. Our largest donations came from our Executive Producer, Caspar von Winterfeldt and our Associate Producers; Samone Norsworthy, Jenny Warrington Hennegar and Harvey Nurick. A full list of our backers can be found here:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/prettyface#/backers Made in association with:FR Productions Release date:September 5, 2016 Where can I watch it in the next month?
It has just now been entered in several film festivals.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - all @prettyfacemovie to see where we end up next.
I know it will be playing next month in Pennsylvania at the Belin Film Fest and in Mexico City at the Stuff Fest.
