A project to be on the lookout for next year is Michael Carnick’s feature film, Obsidian Dolls. The drama stars Sammi Rotibi, which audiences have seen in everything from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to Django Unchained and John Berchtold from Discovery Channel’s Manhunt and Crypt TV’s The Look-See. Carnick explains that he wanted to make Obsidian Dolls as an alternative to big budget tent pole films. He goes on to say, “I wanted to square things down to the raw essentials. The idea of creating a cinematic stage play intrigued me. Something akin to Twelve Angry Men, or the TV adaptation of Angels in America. That’s what brought me back to the story.” Before Obsidian Dolls comes out, you can watch one of Carnick’s other projects, Who’s Driving Doug on YouTube Home. To learn more about Obsidian Dolls, we conducted the below Q&A.
Obsidian Dolls is based on a one act play that you wrote 10 years ago. At what point did you decide to make the project a full-length feature? Did you think about making it into a feature back then? If so, how different do you think it would have been 10 years ago?
Michael Carnick: I always had the intention of expanding the original story, but the timing never felt right. Lately I’ve been finding myself bored out of my mind at the cinema while watching some big budget tent pole films. Exquisitely created twenty-minute battle sequences crafted by hundreds of hard working animators and choreographers. I shut my eyes during these scenes because it’s too visually taxing, and more importantly, there are no characters to root for. There’s no stakes. I look around me and see young people staring at their phones. If I go to the theatre and want to take a nap during a giant set piece, there’s something wrong.
Conversely, some of the most tense edge of your seat moments come from just a few characters sitting in a room, talking to one another. There’s so much tension because you care about the characters. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese do this masterfully, to name a few. I wanted to square things down to the raw essentials. The idea of creating a cinematic stage play intrigued me. Something akin to Twelve Angry Men, or the TV adaptation of Angels in America. That’s what brought me back to the story.
Of course, I was a very different person ten years ago, both figuratively and literally. Who knows what this would have looked like back then. Maybe that’s why I stalled so long. I wasn’t ready. I tend to look back on my old work with a lot of disgust. I hope I’m growing as a creator, because a middle-aged person sees the world much differently than a younger person. If I could, I’d go back in time and punch my old self in the face.
What is your process for writing a feature like Obsidian Dolls? Where do you start on something like this?
MC: I think people have a misconception that writing only occurs during the physical act of typing a manuscript. It sounds like a cliché, but I think people are always writing narratives. Only self-proclaimed writers have the audacity to write theirs down and hope someone cares enough to listen. It can take a lot of time and self-reflection to create a story. The physical writing, for me, is the quickest part. It can take me upwards of a decade to come to grips with what the characters in my head are trying to tell me. Then I’ll write the first draft in a week. Then I realize it sucks and I have to re-write it a few dozen times. That part I don’t like so much.
Some of the stills that were recently released look like some of the scenes of the film take place in the desert. Where was this shot? Where did principal photography take place?
MC: The majority of the movie was filmed on location at Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. We had a few pickup days in Bombay Beach, and Big Bear.
In a recent interview you talk about being physically disabled and how that impacts the characters you create for your films. Besides the characters in your projects, have you seen a character on film/tv that has really impacted you?
MC: Of course. I wouldn’t be a filmmaker if characters hadn’t impacted me. I don’t think I’d be human. The character David Fisher played masterfully by Michael C Hall in Six Feet Under is an example of a gut punch of a character arc. He stoically dealt with death all day but was scared to death of coming out as gay to his family. That show touched me so deeply that it probably played a role in shaping me as a human being. That’s the truly wonderful power of being a writer. I hope one day I can move someone like that. Or at least distract them for a while.
Besides writing and directing, do you have another favorite part of the filmmaking process?
MC: Getting into the sound design and music is pretty fun. It’s an often overlooked part in filmmaking. When we imagine movies we instantly think of cameras, but films are at least 50% audio. Fortunately, I had some terrific sound people on my team. Scott Tipton pulled off some heroic production recording (and he snaps some great stills, too), and Tony Crowe mixed it to near perfection. I also had the pleasure of working with Chad Rehmann, a really gifted composer. Ayana Haviv provided the angelic vocals for one of original tracks. It was a blessing to work alongside such great people.
When did you first know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
MC: After I wrote my first screenplay as an undergrad at UCSD and won the grand prize of the 50th anniversary of the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards. It’s been downhill ever since, I’m just trying to fall upward.
During this time of quarantine, what have you been binge-watching?
MC: I have comfort viewing that I keep returning to, time after time. The aforementioned Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. I’m also going back through Game of Thrones for a third time. The Wonder Years has aged pretty well too. And I’ll always love Jeopardy!