![\"Ceyda](\"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Filming-767x1024.jpg\")
Instead of writing a story around the interview like I had originally planned, I read over the transcript a couple times and decided that Scarlet\u2019s story is better told in her own words: here they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Draven<\/strong>: Tell me about your filmmaking classes, which ones are you taking and which one is your favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scarlett<\/strong>: I gotta think about this, cuz I never think before I speak, but I feel like for this, I should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Okay, [laughs].<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: So right now at Pellissippi I\u2019m enrolled in six classes this semester, on top of my internships and I think 5 of those are VVT classes, so I have guerilla filmmaking, where right now we\u2019re working on a short film about a taxi driver who is coming back to collect these souls to try and get his wife back, which has been fun to produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Wow, yeah that\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: I\u2019m directing it, so it\u2019s really fun. We\u2019ve been filming that every Tuesday, so we should be done, or \u201cwrapped\u201d, on Monday, so that\u2019s really cool. Then, I have Motion Lighting, which you\u2019re technically supposed to take in your first semester at Pellissippi, but in my first semester I didn\u2019t really have time for it and then my second it got cancelled, so I didn\u2019t get to take it, but I\u2019m taking it this semester so it\u2019s revamping some of the stuff I already knew about lighting sets and getting hands-on experience with the equipment. Then I have Media Management, which\u2026 it\u2019s kinda brutal, like a lot of people fail. Actually I think a lot of my class is retaking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: What\u2019s hard about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S:<\/strong> It\u2019s just knowing a lot about computers, media and files and the proper way to organize things\u2026 which I think is the easy part but just remembering things like different specs, online proxies, offline proxies, and how to share it with other people in the web that you\u2019re working with for a project. For our final project we have to film and organize it all, and we have a contract that we have to follow strictly with the exact aspect ratio and bit rate and all that sort of stuff. It\u2019s a lot, the classes are really intense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Yeah, I can imagine with all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: And then my fourth class\u2026 it\u2019s bad I have to think about it\u2026 Oh, Production Management and Career Development! We just mainly talk a lot about planning our capstone, that\u2019s what that class is really for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: What\u2019s a capstone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: A capstone project is, if you\u2019re working in the arts or anything like that, your final project. So, you take all of the knowledge you\u2019ve learned from all your classes and feed them into your capstone, which is what my film is, I\u2019m just making it more fun. A lot of people do documentaries, like they\u2019ll document a church, or some sort of group and make a whole thing on it, but I was like no\u2026 I\u2019m making a slasher film just for funzies. It\u2019s cold and I think the vibe is just very fitting right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Yeah, for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: And then I have Remote Field Production, which is what I just went to Korea with. It was super fun, essentially we got to plan a project, and my group was making a short film all in Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: What was the short film about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Originally it was about these two hitmen, one of them living in Korea and one was coming from America, and they both had the same target, so they have interferences with each other. When we got there, we had issues with one of the actors, he wasn\u2019t really a team player\u2026 true colors were shown. So then the script altered to a scene where one of them is in an interrogation room and he\u2019s telling a story about how he used to be a hitman, how something went wrong and his wife died\u2026 we came up with that at the North Seoul Tower. There\u2019s this mile-long wall of lockets and it\u2019s overlooking all of Seoul, the biggest city in South Korea\u2026 that\u2019s where we altered the script \u2018cause we realized that other guy was not gonna be in it and we had all this footage of just the one. It\u2019s turned out really well. I filmed the fight scene last week, which I think is my favorite thing I\u2019ve filmed yet. It was so good, I was like \u201cwait I did that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: That\u2019s really cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: It was literally at 9pm in a parking garage downtown and it\u2019s just me and my little light, and my friend Josie was holding audio zoom to catch stuff\u2026 it was super fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: That actually answers my next question, I was going to ask if you had any filmmaking experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Oh, yes\u2026 you can\u2019t really tell anyone cause I\u2019m a film major, but I\u2019ve never made my own full-length short film before this semester, which\u2026 is that bad? Probably. When I got into film I was like thirteen\/fourteen, and I was really sick. Usually I would skate with my friends, but I was in bed-rest and I didn\u2019t have the energy to skate. I found this really sh** cam-corder in my mom\u2019s stuff and I was like \u201cI should make skate videos like the ones I watch,\u201d so I started doing that. I was like \u201cthis is fun, but this camera sucks<\/em>. It\u2019s real small, I can\u2019t see anything, I just zoom in and everything is gone.\u201d So I saved up, while working at Karm, for a tape-camera, and I got a TRV900. I got these little tapes I\u2019d put in there, and I\u2019d go around and start filming every time we\u2019d go skating. It was just so fun because I still got to experience it and have fun with it even though I wasn\u2019t in the physical strength to [skate] with them. But I could still coast on my board and go with them, so that progressed to editing, and I was like \u201cthis is fun<\/em>, and I can tell a cute little story about what we did.\u201d I feel like there\u2019s so much archive footage that\u2019s never seen the light of day from that. [The films] kind of sucked but it\u2019s fun to look back on. And then I started doing music videos with my friends, cuz I\u2019ve been going to shows since I was like 13. My mom\u2019s a musician, so I grew up going to the Opry and stuff when I was like four. So I\u2019ve been going to music stuff since forever, but when I was 13, I was like \u201cAw, metal\u2019s cool\u201d, so I would go to shows and get in the pit, and I was like \u201cWait, I can film this stuff?\u201d So I started doing that\u2026 a lot of that footage has also never seen the light of day, [it\u2019s] kinda brutal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Well, you gotta start somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Yeah. I started getting really good at it and now I have a TV show where I film local bands. It\u2019s kind of like if MTV and Narduwar had a baby, which is what I\u2019m doing this weekend with my friend\u2019s final show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Does the show post anywhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Yes, it\u2019s aired on Knoxville Community Media (it\u2019s like a public access television station,) and I also archive it on YouTube. So I did a lot of skating and music cuz people were like \u201coh you could do my music video\u201d and I was like \u201csure\u201d… cuz I feel like with music videos there\u2019s just more room to do whatever you want, and everyone\u2019s like \u201coh, makes sense\u201d. And I\u2019ve always written scripts and stories, and I\u2019ve filmed portions of stuff but I\u2019ve never sat down, made a script, made a story, got actors for it, got people for it, went out and actually filmed something until Guerilla [Filmmaking class]. We had a two-minute personal project where we could only have two actors, two locations, and we could only use what we had. That was my first time ever making anything. I told one of my classmates that and he was like \u201creally?\u201d \u2018Cause I want to be a cinematographer, that\u2019s my whole bit, but I just started making stuff\u2026 but I\u2019m only 19, it\u2019s not that hard. But in my head I\u2019m like \u201cOh, that\u2019s crazy, I wasn\u2019t making movies out of the womb? Oh my god.\u201d Now I feel like I\u2019m ready \u2018cause my next film I want to be feature-length\u2026 it\u2019ll probably end up being like 45 minutes or something, but still, I feel like that\u2019s a lot. I\u2019m not spending more than $100 on this, it\u2019s low-budgeted, it\u2019s all volunteer work, it\u2019s all people who want to be a part of something important and creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: That\u2019s really cool, I mean Host<\/em> was only 50 minutes, so you\u2019re good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: I know, I think I\u2019ve got it\u2026 I\u2019ve just started on my filmmaking journey, but give me a few years, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Oh you\u2019ll be good! Did you write your horror movie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Yes, I wrote the entire script. I started the idea a year ago\u2026 there was this whole story where I was dating this guy and while I was gone he cheated on me, within like two days. I was like \u201cthis motherf*****,\u201d and I just started [typing], so that\u2019s what started the idea for this movie. It\u2019s about this girl who hunts and kills men after she was cheated on, and it triggers this really angry, violent thing in her. And to hide the evidence she feeds them through a meat grinder. And then the whole town\u2019s like \u201chmmm\u201d, which is funny. But that\u2019s what really started the idea, but that\u2019s not me, I\u2019m not violent I swear. I just got the idea and it was kind of like this feminist slasher but make it really 80s and moody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: When are you filming?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: We\u2019re filming during winter break, December 9th-15th. My plan is to just set up camp in my house and everyone who\u2019s involved can come and go as they please. We are locked in for that time. For those days I\u2019ve taken off from everything so I can just put my brain into this project and make something that everyone\u2019s really proud of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Where are you shooting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: I\u2019ve kind of planned the schedule so everyday we\u2019re in a different location for the script, just because I\u2019m trying to get it pretty long. [For example,] for the film I\u2019m making for Guerilla, we\u2019ve been spending eight hours every week of the semester working on it and the film\u2019s like ten minutes long. I didn\u2019t even think that much went into it, but when you really get down to the nitty gritty, one shot of one scene will sometimes take an hour. It shouldn\u2019t, but [that\u2019s] just how it goes. You have to plan with the weather and the timing, and every little thing\u2026 It’s really hard. So I\u2019m trying to have everyday be perfectly manufactured to flow, where we only need these characters on this day and if that doesn\u2019t work we still have one open day to move around. Right now, I\u2019m trying to get the rights to film at the Ingles in Halls, because it hasn\u2019t been renovated, ever. They have the cool, big LED signs all around the store that say \u201cMeat\u201d [and] \u201cGroceries\u201d [and] the lightbulbs haven\u2019t been replaced in a while so it\u2019s very dim\u2026 but I\u2019ll pitch that to them nicely. So there\u2019s that, and then my friend\u2019s gonna have this big bonfire party, so I was like \u201cWhy don\u2019t you throw an actual party and instead of buying a bunch of background actors, we can just have our friends come and I\u2019ll have all my actors and crew members\u2026\u201d We\u2019ll film some scenes there and we\u2019ll film scenes in the woods, then go down and find a lake nearby and finish the story out. Then my best friend Emma has this \u201cteenage girl\u201d room and I was like \u201cwait, can we film there\u2026 and while we\u2019re there can we film in your kitchen\u2026 and in your driveway?\u201d It\u2019s finding stuff like that and using resources… it\u2019s just naturally manufacturing and finding places that make it make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Are any Pellissippi students acting in the film?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Yes, for talent we\u2019ve got Hamilton Baker, Elijah McCoy, and you. Then, on the crew we\u2019ll have Alyssa Goldman, Tristan Franklin, Stephanie Taboada, Gavin Carroll, Zach Webb, and Emma Dorsey\u2026 all Pellissippi students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: I saw on your flier you had a shot from Sleepaway Camp<\/em>\u2026 was that an inspiration for the movie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: I like the vibes\u2026 but also I just took it off the internet. Is that bad? I\u2019m not very photoshop savvy and I wanted to make a cute, campy flier, so I just went on Google to find \u201cdark forest and girl screaming\u201d and put them over each other\u2026 but that is a good movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Are there any particular slashers\/horror characters that inspired your story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Honestly\u2026 this is bad, I\u2019m not a big horror [fan.] I feel like I\u2019m getting out of my film comfort zone and trying something new, because honestly I watch a lot of coming of age movies\u2026 my favorite movie is I Believe In Unicorns<\/em>\u2026 like girlhood and real life stuff. I like horror movies but none of them have stuck with me. I\u2019ve been trying to watch a lot, just so I can do it justice, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: What filmmakers do you look up to generally\/for this project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Harmony Korine, he\u2019s one of my favorites. He made Gummo, Kids, <\/em>and Trash Humpers<\/em>. Sofia Coppola, I look up to her a lot, I love all of her films. Nadia Lee Cohen, she\u2019s not a filmmaker, but she makes a lot of cool funky art\u2026 I really like her vibe, I look up to a lot of stuff she does. I really love weird, random artists, I feel like I draw more from them than filmmakers. I watch a lot of movies, it\u2019s what I major in, so most of my homework is just watching movies, but I feel like I get more from observing art and observing people. I pull from that a lot. Whereas with movies, I\u2019m like \u201cthat\u2019s a cool shot, that\u2019s cool composition\u201d but for [artistic] elements I just like weird sh**, you know? I\u2019ve always had a mindset of taking things from reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: How do you balance 80\u2019s homage with originality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Since I don\u2019t watch a lot of horror movies, I feel like I\u2019m coming from an original standpoint because I haven\u2019t spent years absorbing the stuff from them to make it like the other ones. I\u2019ve tried watching them with my boyfriend but I can\u2019t look for too long\u2026 I just get bored and turn it off. I\u2019m trying to make something that\u2019s based in the 80s and has that vintage, dim feel, but I\u2019m not trying to make something that\u2019s overdone, like I feel like some things are. I honestly want it to be cinematic and moody, but also have you enticed and have you be like \u201cOh my god, what\u2019s she doing?\u201d I feel like [it] ends with a really big cliffhanger that could lead to another movie\u2026 I hate when movies do that, but I\u2019m doing it anyway. I want everything to be cinematic, pretty, but also enticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Are there any effects that you\u2019re excited to create?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: Yes! I know nothing about special effects, I\u2019ve never done a movie like this so most of it, we\u2019ll figure it out. But there\u2019s this special effects guy Hack, I pitched him my idea and he liked it, so he says he\u2019ll help out with whatever\u2019s needed. He\u2019s my main support for special effects, cuz this\u2019ll be my third or fourth film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: If you were to make a cheesy trailer tagline for your film what would it be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n S<\/strong>: \u201cIn the cold of winter, their blood is her only warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n D<\/strong>: Badass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Interview By Draven Copeland, Editor-in-Chief Before winter break last year, I had the honor of interviewing Scarlet Prater on her life at Pellissippi State Community College as a film…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-lifestyle-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ceyda](\"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Lilith_Kill-768x1024.jpg\")
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