Filmmaker Jocelyn Stamat on her film ‘Laboratory Conditions’

By David Duprey On May 4, 2018

Director Jocelyn Stamat is a graduate of Harvard University and is currently adapting the League of Legends for Riot Games and previously directed Turbo Dates. We had a chance to talk with her about her latest short film, Laboratory Conditions. Here’s what she had to say.

Hello Jocelyn, my name is David. Thanks for taking the time to discuss your new film. Before we start, could you let our readers know a little more about who you are?

Jocelyn Stamat: I’m a WGA member and filmmaker, living and working in Hollywood. Prior to that, I received my MD from Duke and then trained as a head and neck surgeon at Northwestern in Chicago. I spent my undergraduate years at Harvard where I was a member of the Harvard Lampoon.

Your new movie is called Laboratory Conditions, a short that packs a lot of punch in its brief 15-minute runtime. Tell me how you came upon the project.

JS: Thank you for the compliment! That was one of our goals, to open at a run and never let up until the end. Laboratory Conditions was a screenplay written by Terry Rossio, actually, the first screenplay he ever wrote, back when he was in college at the University of California, Fullerton, and back when he didn’t realize there was no actual market for short films.

Tell me about your relationship with Rossio in bringing this story to screen.

JS: Terry and I worked on a web series I created, called Turbo Dates. We decided we needed a project that was more ambitious, in preparation for making a micro-budget feature. With its blend of big ideas, genre setting, and challenging visual effects, Laboratory Conditions was a perfect fit, perfect training for taking the next step for our team to make our own feature films.

I really love the way the story unfolds, feeling a little dark from the start before unraveling all its secrets. With the short runtime, were there issues with keeping balance between the pace and the story?

JS: My fundamental approach to filmmaking is that audiences are able to process much more information, more story, than most features (or shorts) traditionally provide. Audiences are rarely overwhelmed, but they do get bored. So my goal was to present as many intriguing ideas, and twists and turns, as we possibly could stuff into 16 minutes.

You’ve got a great cast for the film, including Minnie Driver and Marisa Tomei portraying doctors dealing with some tricky ethical dilemmas. How did they come to be involved?

JS: We really caught lighting in a bottle with our cast. We had a fantastic casting director in Michelle Lewitt. In addition, our agent at CAA Brian Siberell endorsed the project to talent, and put the weight of the agency behind us. You make lists, of course, send out the screenplay — and then we were shocked to land our first choice for each role. I’m sure it came down to the material, essentially, each actor saw a role on the page that they wanted to play.

The two doctors are on opposite ends of the spectrum in belief even as they are both highly intellectual scientists, giving them different experiences in the lab. This leaves the very impactful ending loaded with questions. Was that ambiguity always intended?

JS: Yes, of course, when you think about it, the subject matter would not warrant anything other than an ambiguous ending. But part of what makes good art is that it does not attempt to define parameters for the audience’s response.

With this great story and jarring sort of cliffhanger end, are there discussions about expanding this to something full-length, or maybe serial on television?

JS: Yes, we’ve had offers for both. In today’s marketplace, there are certainly more buyers for serial format projects, but our passion is more towards features, so that’s going to be our next step.

With that question in mind, what drew you to the short-film format?

JS: The short format offered an opportunity for me to experiment with visual effects, special effects, working with actors and editing before jumping into the larger commitment of a feature. That’s a long way of saying, ‘a short is less expensive!’

Will you be making more short films?

JS: We’ve got three micro-budget features lined up, so the chances are small that we’ll return to the short format any time soon. Or you could say our next short film is planned to run around 85 minutes. The process is essentially the same, you just move from a 5 day schedule to 25 days.

Laboratory Conditions is still touring festivals. I’m sure you’re looking for distribution. Anything I can tell the readers about where and possibly when they might be able to see this?

boratory Conditions will be screening at the Independent Filmmakers’ Showcase from May 9 through May 20, and then at the Austin Film Festival from October 25 through November 1. After that, we have a very clever plan to bundle the film into a feature anthology, for theatrical release. If that happens not to work out, we’ll go the route of what is fast becoming a traditional one, and release through iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, or YouTube. In addition, the film has collected enough awards that it seems worthy of its own website, where it will be available for download or purchase.