Marie-Pier Diamond – The Status Quo

We had the opportunity to interview Marie-Pier Diamond, the filmmaker behind The Status Quo. The Status Quo is an official selection in the 12th annual Utah Film Festival. 

In the near future, humanity doesn’t challenge the status quo anymore, until a man opposes it and seeks the truth behind an apathetic society, but the truth will endanger his life.

What was the inspiration to make The Status Quo?

We were at the beginning  of the pandemic back in 2020 and I was in a park with my production partner Frank Romeo. We were talking about what was going on in the political world. As we were making hypothetical scenarios of what could happen in the near future, we suddenly had this idea to make a movie about it. We had a lot of ideas coming through our head that we threw in a piece of paper and at the end of the day we had a pretty solid concept that created a 19 minutes short film.

From idea to completion, how did this production change?  

As we were shooting the scenes the scenario had changed. We had to add two scenes that were not in the original script. I would say that the biggest change was the «work scene». At first, the scene was not supposed to include 20 people and to include holographic screens. I came up with these ideas afterwards because I figured it would explain better the extent of the conspiracy and the dystopian universe of The Status Quo.

What was the biggest challenge in getting The Status Quo made? 

The biggest challenge for me was definitely to figure out the right cinematography which means to be able to create a futuristic look and vibe. I could say that I am overall very satisfied and proud of the work I pull out with the cinematography of The Status Quo.

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

The Status Quo has a very important message in it. As a matter of fact, we live in a world that is in constant evolution and I think we have to be careful in the way we are conditioned and influenced by society.

If you could have a do over with The Status Quo is there anything that you would have done differently? If so, what would you change?

If I could have a do over with my film, I would definitely redo my organization because we had few scenes that were very hard to shoot and were involving a lot of actors and as we were a small crew for the production, we had to finish our days in very late hours. As this said, I want to thank all my crew who were kind enough to put in the extra time we needed for the shooting.

What do you have in the works?

I have another short film I am working on at the moment. It is a very special project and I want it to be perfect so I am taking my time with the script. I am very excited to pull out this next project after The Status Quo.