Behind the Scenes of Phoebe in Wonderland

"Phoebe in Wonderland" debuted on the big screen in the feature film competition section of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. At the same time, it was also directed by filmmaker Daniel Balz ( The debut novel written and directed by Daniel Barnz focuses on the results of very rich research on the complexity of "growth". The entire story describes in detail the experience of a little girl named Phoebe. Her mother was so focused on her academic success that she neglected her responsibilities and obligations as a mother. There is also a drama teacher who is directing the school stage play "Alice in Wonderland" (Alice in Wonderland), and Phoebe is trying her best to get a role in it... Jeff is in charge of selecting films for the Sundance Film Festival. Geoffrey Gilmore (Geoffrey Gilmore) gave this film a very high evaluation. He said: "'Phoebe in Wonderland' is a very sincere and profound film, which can be regarded as a break from normalcy." A thorough examination of crazy emotions, a storytelling style that coexists with realism and reason, while exuding a fantasy of luxury and waste, combining it with metaphorical fables to study the so-called childhood Time. We try to understand everything about our children, even as parents and teachers, and sometimes the methods we use are simply inappropriate.”

Daniel Balz, a student at Yale University, is from Philadelphia. majored in English. After graduation, he went to the University of Southern California to continue his studies. This time he chose the film major and received a master's degree in fine arts. Balz said: "The most gratifying thing for me is that since I graduated After that, I have been making money by writing some film-related stuff, which is enough to support myself. Although I did live frugally for a while before taking my first creative job, I didn’t feel anything at that time. , it’s quite scary now that I think about it.”

In fact, the earliest talent Daniel Balz showed related to art was acting. He even described himself as the kind of person who gets excited as soon as he steps on the stage. A talented person who can get into acting mode, Balz said: "Every summer, I would go to those theater camps that were extremely noisy and extremely enjoyable... It wasn't until college that I started to seriously think about whether I might be interested in directing. I want to be more interested in this field. Although I majored in English at Yale University, it is an out-and-out paradise for drama. I spent almost all my summers in Williamstown. Theater Festival. After college, I moved to Los Angeles and got a job with Tim Robbins's theater company, The Actors Alliance, and then I got into the University of Southern California and graduated from the University of Southern California. From that time on, it was officially incorporated into the field of film.”

Although he had the orthodox status of being a graduate of the University of Southern California, Daniel Balz clearly realized after graduation that it was possible. Few people would take the risk of hiring him to direct a film, so he could only explore and search bit by bit starting from creation. Balz said: "The first script I wrote was "Phoebe in Wonderland", and then at 10 Now, years later, it became my directorial debut... The character of Phoebe was something of a prototype for me, and it was so relatable that it helped me get more and more creative work over the years. , I teamed up with Ned Zeman and wrote some template stories for movies, many based on his Vanity Fair articles. For me, this period of experience has allowed me to accumulate a lot of experience and benefit a lot. Together we created a whole bunch of films specifically for incredible people like Jodie Foster, Mel Gibson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Movie scripts tailor-made by stars, but for various reasons, none of them were eventually filmed. However, every creative process is an opportunity to better understand the way of telling stories. I am particularly lucky now that I did not direct "Phoebe in Wonderland" as soon as I finished writing it. Over the years, I think I have grown into a better storyteller than I was back then. "The reason why Daniel Balz came up with the idea of ??creating "Phoebe in Wonderland" also came from his own real experience as a child. Balz said: "When I was growing up, there were more than I once heard someone call me a 'weird kid'... If you had similar pain and torture in your childhood, it will definitely affect your life and character to a certain extent, but in my opinion, I am not interested in such a person. I am actually grateful for the experience, because it turned me into what I am now. I had a particularly rich imagination when I was a child, and it has reached the point of becoming an addiction. Although there were various struggles and setbacks in the process, after overcoming a certain obstacle, I became even more inspired. My creative talent - it was for this reason that I decided to write a movie script based on this, about a little girl who is so different, who will grow out of her differences, Finally got the energy to continue.

Later, I also had a child of my own, and my mentality changed fundamentally. The focus of the script also changed, and it began to move closer to the perspective of a parent with an unusual child. Every parent hopes that their child will be very special or not so mediocre, but if your child really turns out to be what you expect, you will feel sorry for the discomfort caused by the child's specialness - if you don't have children, yes It is impossible to have such a profound understanding of this. Ever since I fell in love with theater and decided to make a film of my own, I've been determined to convey all of these emotions and perceptions to people who were once 'weird' like me. "

During the filming of "Phoebe in Wonderland", Daniel Balz also received great inspiration from many films devoted to children. He said: "For example, Peter Jackson Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made about girlhood, and it perfectly captures the kind of child that is so infectious. It is uniquely naive and frivolous, and it also finds a good balance between the beauty and horror created by the child's imagination. In addition, I also really appreciate the sincere performance of "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and the visual style that allows the audience to enter the mind of a child to find out. It is the screenwriter and director of the film Steven ·A bold attempt by Steven Zaillian to use the very rare long-range shooting form. Of course, "Fanny and Alexander" is also a film that must be mentioned here. It is so beautiful and so heartbreaking, and the reason why I didn't mention it first is that Don't want to sound too arrogant. The last thing I want to mention is the world-famous weird master of fashion photography David LaChapelle. His use and thinking of color have also given me great inspiration. You will definitely learn from " Similar shadows can be found in some series of scenes in "Phoebe in Wonderland". In creating the visual style for this film, I would like to thank a few people in particular: cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, production designer Thérèse DePrez, and producer Lynette Howell, without whom it would not have been possible to create such an unexpected work. Basically, we went to an apartment in New York and discussed the themes of the film, studied hundreds of photos and drawings, and watched clips from various films - we It took almost a weekend to completely finalize the filming work and schedule for the film. "

Several filmmakers first reached a consensus on the concept of the film, so that all parts of the film can maintain a consistent style. Daniel Balz said: "We tried our best to To deal with all the visual imagination derived from the theme of the story, such as school, we made lines with illustrations, hoping that everyone can better understand the perspective of the story... Then what we need to support is a more free environment because we are constantly encouraged to break certain conventions. When shooting, we tried our best to leave a wide space for the operation of the camera, and the color of the picture should become more and more exciting and provocative. Of course, we had a lot of arguments, but it also allowed us to broaden our minds and refine everything. We realized from the beginning that the most critical thing here was to connect reality with Phoebe's imagined world. We had to let the characters in "Alice in Wonderland" enter Phoebe's surroundings one by one. , and then becomes even more fantastical, because the last thing we want to do is get distracted by CGI and confuse reality with fiction. When I was a kid, my imagination was always based on my surroundings - so we wanted to keep that real part of it, and then transfer everything into Furby's mind. ”

Daniel Balz also admitted that he never dreamed that he would be able to assemble such an excellent cast in his first film. Balz said: “Even in my wildest moments, Nothing like this ever happened in my wild daydreams...Felicity Huffman and Patricia Clarkson were both my first choices, both We decided to sign the film very early, and their names undoubtedly played a positive role in helping us prepare the funds for the filming.

They were followed closely by Bill Pullman and Campbell Scott, and finally, I saw Elle Fanning--Better than Dakota Fanning (Dakota Fanning)'s younger sister who is 4 years younger. As soon as I saw her, I realized that I was standing in front of me, the brave and wise little girl Phoebe who represents the core content of the entire film. ”

Behind the film: Obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia

In fact, Phoebe is a very typical obsessive-compulsive disorder patient. She keeps repeating meaningless rituals in order to play the leading role. She also wanted to jump from a high place, but she actually knew the dangers of doing so. This was a manifestation of obsessive thoughts. The constant mention of "wake up" during the dance drama and the blurt out "river rat" when seeing a fat woman on Halloween both embody the uncontrollable symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder also gave Phoebe schizophrenia hallucinations. The wonderland she thought existed was actually her schizophrenia hallucination. At the end of the film, she still did not get rid of schizophrenia - she saw her drama teacher and Alice ran together and disappeared at the end of the corridor...