Sydney Tooley is making her first feature length film for Sony’s Affirm Films. She is the writer and director for Sun Moon coming out in 2022, and she’s currently in the middle of production.
Follow her journey into how she got this film funded and the challenges she’s faced along the way. In this episode, she shares how she pitched the film, assembled a crew overseas, and how she spent her budget.
Listen to Sydney share her experience as a first time director.
Show Links:
Sun Moon Film Instagram
Sydney TooleyInstagram
https://www.syd2ly.com
Key Points:
11:00 – How her latest project started
3:50 – Securing funding for project
10:23 – Crew in Taiwan
15:29 – Plans for festival run
18:58 – Working with a co-writer
20:47 – Spending money on the right things
26:04 – Best spent money
27:47 – Spending money on talent
32:55 – First female director in faith based space
Full Transcript:
Coming soon
Sydney Tooley: (00:00)
… and Sun Moon Lake, which is a prominent feature of our film dried up in the worst drought they’ve seen in 57 years.
Tanya Musgrave: (00:06)
Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (00:07)
And Taiwan is on fire.
Tanya Musgrave: (00:09)
Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (00:10)
They’re bringing in helicopters from New Zealand just trying to put out fires in the middle of where we are trying to film. I’m like, “Could this be any more intense?”
Tanya Musgrave: (00:20)
Welcome to The Practical Filmmaker, an educational podcast brought to you by the Filmmaker Institute and Sunscreen Film Festival, where industry professionals talk nuts and bolts in the steps they took to find their success today. On today’s show, Sydney Tooley is smacked in the middle of production for her first big feature telling us how she got the gig and how it’s going. Find the full transcripts and more at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. I’m your host, Tanya Musgrave, and today is part one of a series following first time feature director Sydney Tooley, who is presently in the throes of production for her faith-based narrative feature for Sony’s Affirm Films, Sun Moon. Okay. So set the stage for us. Where and when did this project start? How did you get into this?
Sydney Tooley: (01:04)
I lived in Taiwan between 2016 and 2017. I’d finished film school and was like, what am I doing with my life?
Tanya Musgrave: (01:12)
As we all has.
Sydney Tooley: (01:13)
Yes. I got offered a job to teach English where my parents were moving and they were like, “You want to come?” And I was like, “Yeah,” because what else do you do? I was like, “I’m going to change careers. I’m going to go be a missionary. That’s what I want to do.” So I went out and I found myself teaching film for English.
Tanya Musgrave: (01:30)
It’s awesome.
Sydney Tooley: (01:31)
Because they didn’t give me a curriculum. I was teaching, I’d read the literature and then watch the movies, and then how are movies made? I realized throughout the year that I’m teaching film classes and I’m like, “Well, I guess I’m not over it.” Then at the end of the year, I just felt really strongly called to go back to Nashville, not even to Nashville, just to America and make movies. I was like, “Okay, I’m going to go.” So I came back here, no money, no job, no car, no prospects, nothing. I worked on a little feature in Chattanooga. Then I got called by a recruiter from Lipscomb University and they were like, “We’ve seen your stuff. We want you to come.” I’m like, “How do they even know who I am?”
Tanya Musgrave: (02:09)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (02:10)
Apparently, my mom had made a call, but I didn’t know that because I was not going to go to that school.
Tanya Musgrave: (02:14)
Good, old mom.
Sydney Tooley: (02:15)
Mom, yeah. So I ended up a week before school started, they were like, “We want you. We are going to accept you. Here’s money off your bill, blah, blah, blah,” and I moved with a borrowed car to Nashville. I know I live here. So that’s three years ago. But in 2019, I was talking to my professor who’s now currently my producer. We were talking about Taiwan and just relaying stories and he was like, “Why don’t you go write some of this down?” I was like, “Okay.” So I went and just wrote a bunch of stories down at like a 46-page draft with no structure and was like, “Here’s all of these stories.” He was like, “Well, why don’t you go and actually find a structure to this?” So I started writing Sun Moon, which is based heavily on my own experiences as a teacher. Then it has grown. In the last two years, just grown into this whole story, and now we’re here. We’re about to leave for Taiwan in a couple of days.
Tanya Musgrave: (03:16)
Oh, my gosh. All right. So you’re in the middle of production. You’ve already shot six days, yes?
Sydney Tooley: (03:21)
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tanya Musgrave: (03:21)
Six days here in Nashville. You’ve had a few local locations and then now you’re about ready to go international for the bulk of…
Sydney Tooley: (03:30)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (03:31)
Okay. All right. Are you a current grad student then here at Lipscomb or is this likely a Lipscomb project or is this yours?
Sydney Tooley: (03:41)
I graduated with the script finished and then we had started pitching it. When it came down to Sony, that was a crazy turn of events because the guy at Sony never gives money. The person funding does not do it. So I was like, “Well, they have-
Tanya Musgrave: (04:03)
Wait. How did you find this person first?
Sydney Tooley: (04:05)
We have ties with Sony, I guess a little bit. Rich Peluso comes and talks to our school lot. He had said something to Steve Taylor about they have this, they are taking over Pure Flix and they’re going to rename it and it’s going to be this new streaming platform. They want to put movies on it and so they were-
Tanya Musgrave: (04:25)
Steve Taylor is your professor-
Sydney Tooley: (04:27)
Yes, and now my producer.
Tanya Musgrave: (04:29)
He has done Blue Like Jazz.
Sydney Tooley: (04:31)
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tanya Musgrave: (04:32)
Okay. All right. So catching everybody up.
Sydney Tooley: (04:34)
Yeah, sorry.
Tanya Musgrave: (04:35)
Continue. No, no, no. Continue.
Sydney Tooley: (04:36)
Yes. Steve was like, “Yeah, they’re looking for movies and I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal, but we’ll pitch it.” I was like, “Okay, cool. It’s good practice.” So he went and he pitched it and the meeting went surprisingly well. I wasn’t in any of these meetings because he was like, “I’m just going to go pitch it and we’ll see what happens because I’m going to produce.” I was like, “Cool.” So he went off and he came back and he was like, “Well, that meeting went good.” I was like, “Okay, cool.” Then it started getting serious. It picked up really fast. This whole thing probably took off within two months.
Tanya Musgrave: (05:09)
Oh, my word.
Sydney Tooley: (05:10)
Yeah. We got the green light at the very beginning of June. Maybe tail end of May, we got a… This is a thing.
Tanya Musgrave: (05:20)
You knew the amounts and everything from there or?
Sydney Tooley: (05:24)
We had pitched it at a $900,000 budget.
Tanya Musgrave: (05:27)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (05:29)
Originally, I was trying to make this thing for 150,000, which thank the Lord, we did not do that because that would have been bad. But we pitched it to them and they liked it. Steve was like, “I have this script. It has female protagonist. It has a female director who’s new, and there’s this whole story,” and they really liked it. So ultimately, it ended up being I became attached as director through default because he was like, “This is her movie and she’s going to be attached to it.” But I didn’t even meet the producers until we were at the final table read-
Tanya Musgrave: (06:04)
Oh, okay.
Sydney Tooley: (06:06)
… for this project. Then he was there for the final project, final table read. I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” I don’t even… I know who he is, but I’d never met him, and now we’re sitting there in this table read and I’m like, “Ah.” I’m like, “Yes, I’m the attached director. Hello,” and everybody… It’s funny because a lot of people were like, “Oh, you’re the director.” I’m like, “Yes, I know. I look like I’m 20. I know. It’s fine.” It’s scary because you get through it and you’re like, “Do they still like it?” I don’t know.
Tanya Musgrave: (06:43)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (06:44)
Then we get into final questions at the end and he’s like, “So this is one for the director,” and turns to me and I’m like, [inaudible 00:06:51]. I hadn’t described a lot of these scenes out. The way I write is pretty like, here is what’s in the scene and you get the feel of a scene. You read a scene, you’re like, “Ah, here it is. Okay.” He was like, “So if you’re going to do this, this and this,” and I’m like, “I’m just going to answer this and just go for it,” because I have to direct this movie. So I just told him, “Here’s what I’m going to do, blah, blah, blah,” and he’s like, “Okay, good.” I was like, “Okay, good.”
Tanya Musgrave: (07:15)
Okay, good.
Sydney Tooley: (07:17)
Cool. That was good. All right. We’ve had Rich on set one of the days and he’s just a beautiful human. I love him. He’s just so nurturing when he gets on there. It’s scary because he’s the money guy standing there.
Tanya Musgrave: (07:35)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (07:37)
But he also took the time to pull me aside and be like, “How are you doing? You’re doing a good job. Are you having fun with this?” just really… And I was like, [inaudible 00:07:46].
Tanya Musgrave: (07:47)
That is amazing. That’s a great relationship to have with a producer too, somebody who knows that you’re a first time feature director and is willing to still take that chance. I think that’s awesome. Is there any particular aspect that you didn’t know you needed that ended up being a bit of a linchpin to get that deal? Do you know? Was it an accountant, a lawyer, or something along the lines? I know that you said you weren’t part of those meetings, but peripherally, did you hear anything that was just like, “Oh, it was a really good thing that we had this or this or this or what have you?
Sydney Tooley: (08:27)
What really helped in the pitches was Steve Taylor’s just, first of all, fantastic and the eternal optimist. When he pitches, you’re like, “Yeah,-
Tanya Musgrave: (08:36)
We can totally do it.
Sydney Tooley: (08:37)
… we’re doing it.” It can be an impossible project. In the back of your mind, you’re like, “I don’t think so,” because when you really look at the scope of this project, it’s like, okay, it’s COVID right now. The amount of just stakes with this one particularly, because we got greenlit and then now there’s a COVID spike in Taiwan, and now they have the Delta strain and it’s in the north and the south, and Sun Moon Lake, which is a prominent feature of our film dried up in the worst drought they’ve seen in 57 years.
Tanya Musgrave: (09:10)
Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (09:11)
And Taiwan is on fire.
Tanya Musgrave: (09:13)
Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (09:13)
They are bringing in helicopters from New Zealand just trying to put out fires in the middle of where we are trying to film. I’m like, “Could this be any more intense?”
Tanya Musgrave: (09:24)
Boy, I can’t wait for the follow-up.
Sydney Tooley: (09:29)
I know.
Tanya Musgrave: (09:29)
This is going to be awesome.
Sydney Tooley: (09:30)
I’m looking at it and I’m like… What helped a lot with the pitch was I had done a lot of pre-work in Taiwan myself, so I had already talked to locations. I already talked to the places we’re staying. I knew where we’re going. Here’s the pictures. Here’s the places and people and everything that we need to make this a reality.
Tanya Musgrave: (09:51)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (09:51)
I think that really helped that my information was accurate because when Steve went into pitch, it backed up everything that I was saying.
Tanya Musgrave: (10:01)
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (10:02)
Then even when we have our production company in Taiwan, even what they’re saying is what I’m saying. So now we have all of these like, “Oh yeah, this is possible.”
Tanya Musgrave: (10:10)
Okay. Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (10:11)
I think it was really helpful to have done all of that pre-work and research so that when Steve went into pitch, it wasn’t like, “This is crazy.”
Tanya Musgrave: (10:20)
Yeah, you have something to back it up.
Sydney Tooley: (10:22)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (10:23)
So you are going to have a Taiwanese crew.
Sydney Tooley: (10:26)
Yes.
Tanya Musgrave: (10:26)
How many of your crew presently are going over there?
Sydney Tooley: (10:29)
Our crew that is going over is made up of recent graduate or undergraduates actually. They’re recent undergrad students and I think we have two that are still in school currently because I’m a new director and I love bringing in students that I’m like, “There’s talent there, but you might not get a shot and I’ve been given a shot, and so now I’m going to bring you with me. We’re going to figure it all out together, which is cool.” So it is a young crew, which is really cool, but also terrifying because we’re like, “Oh, boy.”
Tanya Musgrave: (11:02)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (11:03)
But we have 14 of us going over including actors, I believe.
Tanya Musgrave: (11:10)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (11:11)
We’ve been working with Stone Soup Productions over in Taiwan. They’re up in Taipei. They’ve been great. They really helped backup all of that and felt like, “Oh, look, it is this easy to shoot here. Once you’re here, it is… Here’s what’s happening with COVID. Here’s what’s happening with how you would get production teams.” It is cheaper to film in Taiwan, which is great. We’re bringing in money to the country, which is nice. We can able to hire out from there, which is really awesome.
Tanya Musgrave: (11:40)
How big is your Taiwan crew going to be? Let’s start there. How big is your Taiwan crew?
Sydney Tooley: (11:47)
Our Taiwan crew will probably be, I’m guessing 15, so we should have a total of 30-
Tanya Musgrave: (11:53)
Okay, all right.
Sydney Tooley: (11:54)
… just because again, with COVID right now, it’s just the large scale groups and everything.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:00)
Yeah. Tell me how that’s going to work,-
Sydney Tooley: (12:01)
Oh, Lord.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:01)
… what the COVID protocol is, because you have to quarantine, right?
Sydney Tooley: (12:07)
Yes. That was also maybe why we chose students too, because students are like, “Yes, I will go and sit in the room for two weeks. I’m like, [crosstalk 00:12:20].
Tanya Musgrave: (12:19)
This is fun.
Sydney Tooley: (12:21)
Yeah. Oh, look, Netflix for two weeks. That’s great. I don’t have to leave this room. Food is delivered to me, wow. The COVID quarantine in Taiwan is great. We have two weeks of quarantine and then we also have a week of self-monitoring where we cannot actually go in and interact with the populace. So it’s almost three weeks of down before we have three weeks of production. So we’re over there for six weeks. The whole shoot is a four-week production.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:53)
Okay. Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (12:54)
It’s probably-
Tanya Musgrave: (12:55)
Because of this week here, you’re saying.
Sydney Tooley: (12:57)
Right, because of this week. On a normal scale, you’re probably looking at 20 days of shooting, but because of the COVID protocols, we’re there for three weeks before we can even pop off a shot, which-
Tanya Musgrave: (13:11)
Okay, wait. So there’s two weeks, you’re in your room.
Sydney Tooley: (13:14)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (13:15)
Then there’s one week that you can’t interact with the populace, but are you able to go to the location?
Sydney Tooley: (13:21)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (13:21)
Because the location is a school, right?
Sydney Tooley: (13:23)
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:13:23].
Tanya Musgrave: (13:23)
It’s already locked down institution, so you’re going to be there.
Sydney Tooley: (13:28)
Right. So that was where we can’t bring in kid actors, but if we have our two mains, if they’re coming with us from America, there’s a couple of scenes which is just them. I’m like, “Well, yeah, we could go in and we can shoot some of their dialogue, talking scenes that are great, where we’re just walking around on the campus or some of the scooter scenes we were driving around or like just little… We can pick stuff up.”
Tanya Musgrave: (13:51)
Yeah, there’s something.
Sydney Tooley: (13:52)
Because there’s montages, man. You think like, “Yeah, we’ll make it a montage.” I’m like, “I hate montages.” We’re like, “What costume change is this and is it another one?” Then there’s a 20-minute change over here ad you’re like, “Ah.”
Tanya Musgrave: (14:06)
Yeah, that’s a lot.
Sydney Tooley: (14:07)
You don’t even think about it because you skip the whole like, “Oh yeah, there’s a new hair and makeup too. This is a different look.” So we’ve really tried with this to be very mindful of what is she wearing and can she add a jacket to this shirt? Is she going to add a scarf to this shirt? Can we see this outfit multiple times? And when? What hair is she doing? Can we do a ponytail or down? That’s it.
Tanya Musgrave: (14:29)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (14:30)
The look doesn’t change because it’s just like,[inaudible 00:14:33] going to Taiwan in this hat?
Tanya Musgrave: (14:35)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (14:36)
Nobody looks good when they’re out there. It’s a rough life. You get out there and you’re like, “I’m dying.” It’s been written and prepped for that environment because we’re going in the heat of summer too, which is extremely hot, very humid.
Tanya Musgrave: (14:52)
So you’re going to be on that college campus. Fun fact. Did you know that my parents taught at that school?
Sydney Tooley: (14:57)
Did you tell me this?
Tanya Musgrave: (14:58)
Yeah, I had. I was only there obviously like the first year of my life, so I don’t remember a ton of it. But yeah, my parents, they were over there for six years, taught there.
Sydney Tooley: (15:10)
That’s crazy.
Tanya Musgrave: (15:10)
Yeah. Brought me back as a souvenir. Fun fact for everybody. In any case, I’m not sure what you can and can’t talk about, but-
Sydney Tooley: (15:19)
Sure.
Tanya Musgrave: (15:19)
… we do know that the budget for this is 1.2 million. This includes distribution and marketing, right?
Sydney Tooley: (15:26)
Yes.
Tanya Musgrave: (15:27)
Okay. All right. So it’s fully funded. Do you plan on doing a festival run?
Sydney Tooley: (15:31)
Well, I think that at the beginning, I didn’t want to lose the movie into a streaming platform. It’s a new streaming platform and that’s awesome to have [inaudible 00:15:40], but without having any festival run, it’s scary because everything right now, because of COVID, is going into streaming. In my mind, I’m like, “How is anybody going to see it unless it’s really promoted?” I want the festival run because that’s where you get recognized as like, “Oh, look, here’s somebody up and coming,” and you don’t know if you could… I’m like, “I can get my movie into Sundance. It’s going to Sundance.” I think. I think it’s going to Sundance.
Sydney Tooley: (16:11)
But even an official selection from something that high is like, “Oh, they did something that was good enough to be recognized even on an official selection level,” which I think is really important. Then also, you start thinking about, “Okay, so what about me now?” which is I hate that, because I just want to make stuff, but I can’t make more things unless I’m known, so now, this is a promotional. I love the movie. Everybody wants to love the movie, but now I want to make the second one and the third one and how do I get seen and known and funding for all of those.
Tanya Musgrave: (16:43)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (16:43)
So that’s what I’m hoping that it will do for us.
Tanya Musgrave: (16:46)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (16:46)
Then I do really want a limited release in Taiwan because this is a love letter to Taiwan. The film is written so that Americans do not have subtitles for the Chinese unless we are learning the words with her. The whole thing, when you walk into that classroom the first time and everybody’s talking Chinese, and kids say stuff, and she’s like, “What?” We’re also going to be like, “What” because we don’t know what they’re saying.
Tanya Musgrave: (17:14)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (17:14)
There’s nothing to indicate that, and I think that’s really cool. As she grows and becomes more familiar with the language that we start learning a little bit more, but really, it is meant for that audience to be able to watch it and understand on that level.
Tanya Musgrave: (17:29)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (17:29)
So I think that’s a really fun concept. I haven’t really seen it done too much other than, I think the most recent ones, [inaudible 00:17:36] did it with him learning how to speak sign language and it’s similar to that.
Tanya Musgrave: (17:43)
Got you. Got you. I feel like this type of film would be eaten up by the Taiwanese culture, honestly.
Sydney Tooley: (17:49)
We’re trying. I was like, “Look, it’ll be so cute. She’s going to fall in love with him and it’s like, ‘Ah’ and a little love story in there. It’s so cute.”
Tanya Musgrave: (17:58)
That’s awesome. All right. What was the biggest budgetary surprise for you?
Sydney Tooley: (18:05)
How much I got paid. No. Budget-wise-
Tanya Musgrave: (18:10)
That could be a surprise too.
Sydney Tooley: (18:11)
That one was surprising, yeah. I actually got paid to direct and I got paid for the screenplay. I was like, “Wow, that’s crazy.” Yeah, that was a little crazy.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:19)
It’s awesome.
Sydney Tooley: (18:19)
Because I literally went in with like, “I don’t care if I make any money. I’ll starve to death.”
Tanya Musgrave: (18:23)
Yeah. Well, that’s what a lot of people are willing to do, especially for their first feature.
Sydney Tooley: (18:27)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:28)
The fact that you get paid is a big deal.
Sydney Tooley: (18:31)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:31)
And for your screenplay, which is another big deal.
Sydney Tooley: (18:33)
Yeah, I know. It’s crazy because you now have a writer and a directing cred, and it’s an original screenplay too.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:41)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (18:41)
I do have a co-writer who had come in later to help with structure.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:46)
Yeah. I think I had overheard that. There’s just like, “Oh, we’ll pair her up with somebody who’s a little bit more experienced who can help button it up,” and that kind of thing. How was that process? Do you feel you were still able to keep a lot of your original vision and that kind of thing or?
Sydney Tooley: (19:06)
Yeah. It was really interesting working with a co-writer because at first, you’re like, “I’m such a baby at this,” but as we started writing together, a lot of the changes she made structurally were like, “Yeah, we totally need this and now it’s way more cinematic.” Then there’s points where I’m like, “No, we’re not going to do that because that’s going off. The character wouldn’t talk like this or whatever,” and we’ll go back.
Tanya Musgrave: (19:30)
What was the change that made it more cinematic to you?
Sydney Tooley: (19:32)
I think really just structurally, it’s been tightened up a lot and then we have heightened a couple of things in there. We’ve added some exciting elements, like there’s an earthquake. There was a point where, especially with that romance where people are like, “Oh, we really want to see it go all the way to here,” and that was my one big point where I was like, “No, rain it in. This isn’t about them and also culturally, that’s not correct. We cannot do that.”
Tanya Musgrave: (20:03)
That’s good. That’s good feedback for them to know too, because if you have American writers for something that is culturally Taiwan…
Sydney Tooley: (20:10)
Yeah. I was very specific about where can we push the boundaries culturally. She was so great. I was working with [Susan Isaacs 00:20:19] and she was so great to work with because we’d get in the writer’s room. It’d be like really collaborative where I’d be like, “Oh yeah, I really like this idea. I really like this scene, but this one’s not working so well.” Then she’d be like, “Well, what if we do this?” So it was very… You come out of it being like, “Wow, we did this thing together and it was really super cool process.” Every time we do it was like a masterclass on like, “Oh, wow. If I roll like this, okay.”
Tanya Musgrave: (20:45)
Yeah. What did you spend money on that you wished that you had spent somewhere else. You’re halfway through production now so you can gauge like, “Oh, man. If we just had this, if we had more of this, or if we’d just put a little bit more towards that, things would be smoother” and or like, “Oh, this would have served the story so much better.” Have you been able to see anything? You’re in the middle of the fray, I understand, but from your perspective right now, has there been money that you would wish that you had spent elsewhere?
Sydney Tooley: (21:18)
At this point? No, surprisingly.
Tanya Musgrave: (21:21)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (21:22)
I’ve been extremely happy with how it’s gone. At one point I was like, “How are we going to make this set?” Because we built a Taiwanese apartment set. It is replicated here at the school. When we started building it, I was like, “I don’t know how this is going to look.” The fact that it came to life at all, I think realistically, it’s the tiniest thing, but I wish we’d had more tiles for the bathroom and that’s it and we weren’t even in that set that much.
Tanya Musgrave: (21:53)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (21:53)
It’s funny because it’s literally… Catering craft has been great. Everything that we’ve wanted to accomplish, we’ve accomplished. If I said, “Let’s build a set over here,” and we built it and we’re able to stay within the budget.
Tanya Musgrave: (22:06)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (22:06)
So far, when we get back from Taiwan, I might feel like, “Well, actually, this.” But-
Tanya Musgrave: (22:12)
No, I’m keeping this. I’m keeping these questions. So I can…
Sydney Tooley: (22:17)
Come back and be like, “Are you still living?” Yeah. But so far, we’ve gotten all the locations we wanted. There was one point in the opening scene is her in this bathtub. There was a point where we were like, “I don’t even know if we should spend money on this location.” It was like the one place I was like, “This is the opening scene. We cannot afford to try and find something cheaper. It’s our first visual,” and Steve made it happen.
Tanya Musgrave: (22:44)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (22:44)
I don’t spend money needlessly, so when I say, “This is important,” he’s like, “Okay, let’s find a way to do it.”
Tanya Musgrave: (22:50)
So I had just wrapped up producing a feature as well, on a much smaller scale, but that was one thing that was really helpful for me from the director who was saying, “Okay, ask me to rate whatever the importance is. Is this a seven out of 10 or is this a five out of 10?” I would go after the seven out of 10s. The five out of 10s, I would still try, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I’m sure that helped him too. If you suddenly had triple your budget and you could pivot quickly, where would you put your money first?
Sydney Tooley: (23:22)
Elongating shoot days. We shot six days this last week and you’re cramming. The first day literally was 10 pages we shot.
Tanya Musgrave: (23:31)
Oh, my stars. What?
Sydney Tooley: (23:33)
Yeah. We shot 10 pages the first day. We did go into overtime, but that is the only day we’ve gone on overtime at all. We’ve had a lot of… When I look at him, there’s a lot of challenges this week. We have this networking company that’s working with us to get the word out on it.
Tanya Musgrave: (23:49)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (23:50)
We’ve got gallery shoots with actresses, which takes them out for half a day, so we’ll have to wrap super early. There are days where I had no idea that we had to wrap early and-
Tanya Musgrave: (24:01)
You have like half of your day.
Sydney Tooley: (24:02)
Right. Then you’re like, “Well, shoot. I’ve got to get all five pages done in half a day and we have to wrap this person out because we’re going to go on overtime because she’s been in gallery shoots.” That was a huge… Then you’re getting pulled out. I got pulled out to do an interview on one of the bigger days where we’re going to shoot that grocery store. Right before the grocery store scene, they’re like, “We have to do an interview.” I’m like, “Oh, my gosh. Okay.” You’re hyper focused in at this time, so when they’re like, “Come and do this,” and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, now I’m out of zone.” But we also appreciate it so much because you need the press.
Tanya Musgrave: (24:38)
You need it. You need it, yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (24:39)
But people will get pulled out and then actors that got pulled out and you’re like, “Where is this person?” They’re like, “In an interview,” and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh. But I only have six days. Okay. The press.” Again, we love them. Publicity is great,-
Tanya Musgrave: (24:53)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (24:54)
… but good Lord, we’re in the middle of shooting anywhere between like 10 pages the first day and then five to seven, we’re averaging, and company moves and like, “Ah.” That first day-
Tanya Musgrave: (25:06)
How many company moves?
Sydney Tooley: (25:07)
Oh, my gosh. Literally the AD was like, “Why are we doing this?” I’m like, “I’m sorry. I know.” Yeah, no. The first day, we had a company move. We shot at BNA airport the first day, just the morning portion and we company moved. Yeah, we built this hospice facility out of a dorm room. We moved into this hospice facility for the final scene. We shot the most emotionally charged scenes of the entire movie the first day at 10 pages, and it was just like [crosstalk 00:25:41].
Tanya Musgrave: (25:40)
Of course. Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (25:42)
That was a really rough way to start.
Tanya Musgrave: (25:44)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (25:45)
The two days we were in the set were really nice because you’re just here, but it’s still a lot of fast pace. If I could elongate the time, give me a week and a half in Nashville instead of just six days or somewhere in there, that would be where I’d put all my money.
Tanya Musgrave: (26:03)
Nice. Nice. What do you feel was your best spent money?
Sydney Tooley: (26:08)
Well, right now, I’d say the best spent that we’ve done is the set, our locations for sure. Building the set here saved us so much time over there and we had wild walls on it so we could move in and out pretty fluidly, which is so nice. Because those apartments over there are minutia. They’re so claustrophobic and small and like it. I was like, “I don’t know how we’re going to get this done.” The other one, again, like that bathroom set. I know it’s expensive, but that opening shot is so stunning that I’m like, “Yeah, money well spent. Take it out of my budget. I’ll give it to you. I’ll pay for the location.”
Tanya Musgrave: (26:45)
Yeah. Okay. Can you talk about amounts that were spent? For instance, you said BNA, how did you get that?
Sydney Tooley: (26:55)
I don’t know.
Tanya Musgrave: (26:56)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (26:57)
I don’t know how much… I know how much we spent on certain sets. I don’t know how much I can say numerically that we’ve spent. BNA was one of those where I was like, “I had written it like we could fake it,” because who shoots in the airport at $1 million?
Tanya Musgrave: (27:14)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (27:14)
You’re crazy. I don’t know how much we spent on the airport, but I know that we got it and we had a gate and I got to go down a gangway and it was crazy.
Tanya Musgrave: (27:25)
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (27:27)
I know how much we spent on the building of this set. I think we spent maybe 5,000 building the set, which is nothing.
Tanya Musgrave: (27:37)
Pennies in your budget.
Sydney Tooley: (27:38)
Pennies in your [crosstalk 00:27:38]. Numerically, where money is going, I don’t have a budget in front of me.
Tanya Musgrave: (27:44)
Like a percentage of just talent and crew.
Sydney Tooley: (27:47)
Yeah. We did spend a lot on talent because casting is 90% of the movie.
Tanya Musgrave: (27:54)
Oh, yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (27:55)
It’s so, so vital we have the right cast, especially for this one because literally, our main character is in every shot. She is in every single scene of this movie. There are no scenes without her and it was like, “We have to find somebody that we love because you have to watch her and love her and follow her for an hour and a half.” That was such a challenge because you don’t even think about it until you start doing it. I love casting, but then you start casting your first one and you’re like, “If I choose wrong, oh, gosh.” We have a fantastic cast. MacKenzie Mauzy is our main and she’s just phenomenal.
Tanya Musgrave: (28:40)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (28:41)
She just brings it every time. We had one night where we were going to have to pull call and that wasn’t an option. I was like, “All right, we’re going to do this in one take,” and she just brings it every time and it just… I love watching it. I’m like, “Wow, she’s so good.”
Tanya Musgrave: (29:02)
Is she out of Nashville?
Sydney Tooley: (29:03)
She is out of Atlanta.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:05)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (29:05)
Madison McLaughlin is our sister character, who’s a… She just at the beginning of the movie, steals your heart and then she breaks it by the end and you’re like, [inaudible 00:29:14]. She’s so good too. The two of them were just so fire. You just want to watch them all day.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:22)
Yeah. What is the biggest budget that you’ve worked with before?
Sydney Tooley: (29:27)
Gosh, 6,000.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:33)
The first time, I was like, “600.” No.
Sydney Tooley: (29:35)
No, 6,000.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:35)
6,000.
Sydney Tooley: (29:35)
It was my final Capstone project from undergrad.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:40)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (29:41)
It was supposed to be a $12,000 budget. It was 6,000-
Tanya Musgrave: (29:43)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (29:44)
… but it’s great. The last movie I made was a year ago and it was a sci-fi. It was five minutes and it was a $500 budget. I’m working these mini budgets. Challenge is fun. How much can you do with no money? This budget to me is massive.
Tanya Musgrave: (30:05)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (30:05)
I’m like, “I want this to happen,” and they’re like, “Done.” I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t have to fight for that one at all. Okay.”
Tanya Musgrave: (30:11)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (30:11)
It’s really nice to have the money, but it does take a little bit of the control away because now, there’s stake in it because you have the producer, who’s like, “Okay, we have to get a movie right.” So there’s a little bit more pressure because even though it’s a lower budget in the grand scheme of things, you still have a budget that to somebody, is substantial money. Now you’re like, “Okay, well, I’m going to do it,” but there is a level of pressure to be like, “Ooh, there’s actual producers standing over you on set.” There was one day we had three of them just standing there and I’m like, “Ah.” We were behind that day. That was fun.
Tanya Musgrave: (30:51)
Oh, my gosh.
Sydney Tooley: (30:52)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (30:54)
I will say this. Sometimes, the best thing that you can do for your directors, to just leave. Leave the set.
Sydney Tooley: (31:00)
Yes. There was a one day where I was like, “This is a lot of people.” I can’t see them though, so sometimes, if they’re in the video village, because sometimes they’ll populate video village, right?
Tanya Musgrave: (31:12)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (31:12)
I’ll sneak away and I’ll pick the camera that I’m most… Because we’re shooting three cameras a lot, which is… That’s a whole other challenge in itself because normally, you’d shoot with one. I love shooting two and three cameras because I’m like, “Oh I got all the coverage in two shots. We’re done.”
Tanya Musgrave: (31:27)
Yeah.
Sydney Tooley: (31:28)
But lighting for that and challenges of that are its own thing.
Tanya Musgrave: (31:32)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (31:32)
But sometimes, I’ll sneak away from video village and be on set behind whichever camera I feel is the most important at that moment to capture. That’s nice because then you’re in it with them. We’ve done a lot of car scenes, so I always get in the car with the camera and I’m like, “Okay. We’re going to shoot it. Let’s go.”
Tanya Musgrave: (31:52)
Yeah. You’re definitely in there with the action and stuff.
Sydney Tooley: (31:55)
Yeah. It still doesn’t feel real even though we’ve finished six days. I’m just like, “Man, I’m just-
Tanya Musgrave: (31:59)
Which feels like a lifetime, honestly, on set sometimes.
Sydney Tooley: (32:02)
I got to the end of the week and I was like, “And it’s over,” and I’m like, “No, it’s not over.”
Tanya Musgrave: (32:05)
It’s not.
Sydney Tooley: (32:06)
It’s not done yet. Okay.
Tanya Musgrave: (32:07)
Dude, you’re just getting started. What are you talking about?
Sydney Tooley: (32:09)
Yeah, I’m ready though. We’re going to go over and… I get a real long break in there where I get to do all my prep work and I’m ready.
Tanya Musgrave: (32:15)
Mm-hmm (affirmative). There was going to be a lot of Zoom calls even though you guys are in the-
Sydney Tooley: (32:18)
Literally, [crosstalk 00:32:20].
Tanya Musgrave: (32:19)
… is it one room?
Sydney Tooley: (32:21)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (32:21)
Removed, but it’ll be good. We are going to revisit you then after production and then probably again post into distribution.
Sydney Tooley: (32:31)
Yeah, distribution.
Tanya Musgrave: (32:32)
I’m really curious about the whole distribution process.
Sydney Tooley: (32:35)
Me too. What is that?
Tanya Musgrave: (32:37)
I’m really excited to follow you throughout that journey. I think that’s going to be awesome. So international travel is on crazy schedule with quarantine is on.
Sydney Tooley: (32:48)
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tanya Musgrave: (32:49)
Somebody had asked you what it was like being the first female director in the faith-based space.
Sydney Tooley: (32:58)
Yeah. That was crazy because I hadn’t thought about it. Is it me? Oh, no.
Tanya Musgrave: (33:08)
Well, you’re definitely one of the first, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe some people have to do some sleuthing, but if nothing comes up, I mean…
Sydney Tooley: (33:14)
Somebody sleuth that out and make sure I’m not the first because that’s a lot of pressure.
Tanya Musgrave: (33:18)
No. no, no, no, no. It is not a lot of pressure. You’re just going to do your thing and it will [crosstalk 00:33:23]. It’s going to be awesome. How do people find you or follow your work on this?
Sydney Tooley: (33:28)
Most people find me on Instagram and just follow me through there because I do a lot of just updates through Instagram, just because-
Tanya Musgrave: (33:35)
Through your stories and-
Sydney Tooley: (33:36)
Yeah, through my stories and stuff.
Tanya Musgrave: (33:37)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (33:37)
Then you can also… I do a website and I do try to keep projects and then current projects that I’m working on.
Tanya Musgrave: (33:44)
Is there one for this film?
Sydney Tooley: (33:46)
There is one. There’s an Instagram for this film, so give it some love. It’s @sunmoonfilm2021, also hashtags, sunmoonfilm2021.
Tanya Musgrave: (33:55)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (33:57)
There’s that. I think its website’s being built currently.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:00)
Okay.
Sydney Tooley: (34:01)
We are also on IMDb so that’s exciting.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:04)
That is exciting.
Sydney Tooley: (34:06)
Then myself, I’m on Instagram, Sydney Tooley or S-Y-D-2-L-Y is my handle. You can find me. I’m always posting like, “Oh, look, we’re making this movie today, everyone.” Then also my website is syd2ly.com, so it’s S-Y-D-2-L-Y.com.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:23)
Nice.
Sydney Tooley: (34:25)
Yes.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:25)
I can’t wait to catch up with you after all of this. See what-
Sydney Tooley: (34:28)
Absolutely.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:28)
… your thoughts are and all that stuff, but thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us now.
Sydney Tooley: (34:32)
Happy to.
Tanya Musgrave: (34:33)
If you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and on Instagram and check out more episodes at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. Be well and God bless. We’ll see you next time on the The Practical Filmmaker.