Dark Energy

We had a chance to chat with the filmmakers of Dark Energy. Dark Energy is an official selection in the Utah Film Festival playing at the Towne Hub in American Fork Utah.  

Dark Energy follows book club friends contemplate life, religion, and existence in this dark comedy about just how far women will go to protect one another.

What was the inspiration to make Dark Energy?

We wanted to find a project to showcase the three lead actresses. A local playwright – Javen Tanner – offered to write the script for the three of them. We thought the script was a beautiful examination of suburban womanhood, friendship, religion, and how far women will go to protect one another. Our director, Christy, loved the script and process and the idea of working with a team of strong female actors to tell this story.

From idea to completion, how did Dark Energy change?  

Not much was changed – some location ideas had to be simplified to make everything work within the timeframe and budget, but conceptually everything stayed really close to the original idea.

What was the biggest challenge in getting Dark Energy made? 

Working with such a small team was a blessing and a curse. Everyone worked well together but most people were wearing multiple hats, and that led to a few things being overlooked.

What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?

Because our film was created around the actors, I think the final product has a bit of a different feel. Our actors really are the center of the story and everything else was there to serve them telling the story. From the audience perspective, we hope the takeaway is the strength of friendship, open conversation, and celebrating our differences as much as our similarities.

If you could have a do over with Dark Energy is there anything that you would do differently? If so, what would that be?

We would have had a bigger crew – especially a script supervisor, so we weren’t left backed into corners in the editing room.

What do you have next in the works?

This production team is working on another short and then a pretty big feature next year!

How can we learn more about you and your projects?

We will try to be more public about the projects as soon as everything is in place – we will let you know!