The Binding Bell

Jeremiah Holt is a filmmaker from Utah who’s latest film The Binding Bell will be screening at the Utah Film Festival on Friday January 6th at the Towne Hub in American Fork. The Binding bell stars Utah Film Festival winner Lee Liston and Jeri Lynn Rogers.

What was the inspiration to make The Binding Bell?

I was reading some books of folklore and thought it would be cool to invent my own for a film. And then films like Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Vanishing got me thinking about missing people, unexplained disappearances, the tragedy of not knowing. I wanted to make a film where a folk tale became a possible answer.

From idea to completion, how did The Binding Bell change? 

A lot. The first version that we filmed had an action scene in it haha. No joke. The whole thing was a learning process, I was constantly making changes. Even the decision to make it 4:3 black and white didn’t come until editing. It was shot in 16:9 color.

What was the biggest challenge in getting The Binding Bell made? 

Well I wanted to try shooting something with just 2 actors in 1 room and very little budget. So the biggest challenge was figuring out how to make something work within that constraint. I ended up prioritizing time with the actors above trying to hire crew. My two actors and I shot for 7 days plus 2 rehearsals. If I had hired crew, I would have only been able to shoot for 2 or 3 days. The extra shooting days allowed me to do a lot of experimenting and trial and error, which I think was essential for figuring out how to get the film to work the way I wanted it to.

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

From the film, hopefully a sense of magic or intrigue. Beyond that, I’d be happy if the low-budget, no-crew aspect of it helped inspire other aspiring filmmakers to get started making their films. You don’t need to wait until you have a massive budget and crew.

If you could have a do over with your film is there anything that you. Would have done differently? If so, what would you change?

This actually was the do-over haha. We shot a completely different version of it prior, but I bit off more than I could chew with that one (hence the action scene). With this final version there’s some technical stuff I wish I had done better, but overall I’m happy with it and wouldn’t change much.

What do you have in the works?

I’m in pre-production on a horror short at the moment.