Matthew Grant Webb – The Glade of Ardet Lili

We had the opportunity to interview Matthew Grant Webb, the filmmaker of The Glade of Ardet Lili. The Glade of Ardet Lili is an official selection of the 12th annual Utah Film Festival. 

What was the inspiration to make The Glade of Ardet Lili?

I love myths, folktales, fantasy in general. My thinking creatively always tends to gravitate towards that realm. I was 30 at the time and had written several drafts of shorts and features (who hasn’t and some are awful and frankly don’t exist if you were to ask me), was assistant directing, acting occasionally, and felt the pull that it was time to culminate all my experiences, victories, and failures into a product reflecting all of those lessons. This project was that at the time.

From idea to completion, how did this production change?

I had a specific vision for this film, shotlists, transitions etc. Mainly inspired by budget and finding, hopefully, elegance within simplicity. So very little changed from script to shooting. Perhaps a few slightly different shots that were found on the day. Post is where it changed the most. I originally thought of this film as a quiet, heavily sound designed piece. It’s obviously something symphonic and completely musical now. Christopher Doucet had the foresight to see that potential. We ran with it and I think it worked pretty well. There are a few added VFX elements Joel Petrie adeptly added in to set of the magical tone.

What was the biggest challenge in getting The Glade of Ardet Lili made? 

Without a doubt COVID and budget. It was a project set to be completed and premiered in 1.5 years. It’s naturally hard to manage people in post production in general and when you can’t afford to concentrate people and time you have these pockets of the technicians time you have to get just right, and sometimes they don’t align with your pockets of time, for instance I’m ADing a feature and they’re free. Then I’m off and they’re on a feature. Natural struggles for a filmmaker, the pandemic seemed to exacerbate it. We’re all feeling it.

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

Artistically? That humans try to control things beyond their ability and it’s situates them in cyclical trap most never escape from.

From a production standpoint? I hope it inspires someone to get out and make something. Because they can. To write something. Draw, paint, anything. I hope it makes someone smile and think.

If you could have a do over with The Glade of Ardet Lili is there anything that you would have done differently? If so, what would you change?

My prep to post process has entirely been upgraded 2 or 3 times since.  It’d be interesting to see what it would look like with all of that implemented. Yet I think we get lost in perfectionism. It’s more than okay to have your art represent where you’re at in life on every level at that time. If you’re expressing yourself truly then it happens naturally. I really try not to be hard on myself. People say they’re their own biggest critic as if it’s a badge of honor. I try to be my own biggest fan in the sense of approaching self reflection with love and not judgement. It frees the mind to create. With post I’d say having the foresight to explore your ideas and be fully ready to clearly implement them in post. It’s painful discovering something after it’s too late (usually too expensive) to implement. Or developing an idea only halfway through and then realizing it’s exactly what the film needs.

What do you have in the works?

I have a follow up horror feature I’ve been positioning for about 6 years to direct, and a micro budget feature in case that delays further. Either way a debut feature is the next goal.

I have a few Holiday movies in development and we will see.

I’m working on a novel series, fantasy of course 🙂

I’m also interviewing for the next feature to 1st AD.

I started auditioning again as well. I’m reintroducing that into my career.