Increasingly Dangerous And Dark: Sophia Banks On Her Short "Proxy"
Sophia Banks is an award-winning director, whose sci-fi short Unregistered, starring Dylan Penn and Trevor Jackson, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to screen at over twenty film festivals worldwide. She established herself as a director with her 2017 short, Making It On Time, for Christian Siriano, which received over fifteen awards. Banks has directed numerous award-winning commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Chobani, Target, BMW, Ford, as well as fashion films for Ralph and Russo, Kylie and Kendall Jenner and many more. Her upcoming short Proxy, which she co-wrote and directed, focuses on a woman who gets more than she bargained for in her life of work.
In a world where people hire ‘Proxys' — trained humans who stand-in for a lost loved one — Victoria tries to navigate the life of being one of the highest in demand proxies in the city while struggling with her own demons.
This live-action short film has already screened at high-profile film festivals including the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, Lone Star Film Festival, Louisville International Festival of Film, and Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival. We had the pleasure of chatting with Sophia about the film, its origins, the challenges of futuristic world, and much much more!
The concept for Proxy is really interesting and cool. How did you get connected with Dominick Joseph Luna and become attached to the project?
I approached Emma Booth and her husband Dom and said, “let’s create something to shoot with Emma in it.” We brainstormed some ideas and came up with Proxy.
My co-creator and writer of the short Dominick Joseph Luna and I had been workshopping some ideas to collaborate together because we knew we wanted to work on something, and I thought a short film was a great way to do that. We read an interesting article about “Boutique Services” in Japan where one can “rent-a-person,” almost like an actor who would come act as whatever person you wanted. We both thought that was really intriguing and felt we could expose the potential dark side of that, in a future world where “Proxys” have become the new norm.
What were you most excited about directing this project?
I loved the idea of having a woman going through an increasingly dangerous and dark experience, where she is having to be thrown into these different “scenes.” It’s the idea that she has to do these emotionally demanding and demeaning actions for the sake of her “job” and the impact that has on an individual.
I also loved the idea of embracing a Hitchcock and Fincher style.
What were some of the challenges you faced creating a future that’s familiar, yet futuristic?
I love world-building and feel most comfortable in that space. I had a lot of prior experience with my previous sci-fi narrative, Unregistered, which had over 300 special and visual effects that I helped to build with my VFX team. What is interesting about Proxy is that we used more of a practical environment, with limited VFX which made it possibly more challenging to communicate that we were in fact set in a future world. It was the subtleties in Proxy like the minimalism in the production design or the electronic notebooks that gave it those hints and visual touches.
How did you and cinematographer Joshua Reis land on the film’s final look?
It was wonderful to collaborate with Joshua from start to finish on this one. We were really on the same page from the beginning. We knew we wanted smooth transitions and sharp visual aides, including extreme close ups as we looked into the window of our lead character and wide shots that added to the tone and texture of her dark world. The result gave the film an overall eerie and suspenseful tone as we made our way through the story.
Emma Booth delivers a strong and unsettling performance. How did she become involved in the project, and what was it like working with her?
This project was actually built around Emma, as I mentioned earlier, and I think she is a genius.
She’s a fellow Aussie, and her and I had wanted to collaborate on a project alongside her husband, Dominick, for some time. This was the perfect story that resonated with all of us and we felt equally impassioned about telling this story.
How did you get connected with the rest of your excellent cast?
Producers David [O'Donnell] and Jess [Bradham] helped to gather the film’s cast.
Luckily, I had the great fortune of having worked with all of our team across many different projects. I knew when we created this script that we would need people that I could really trust who shared my vision for this and who would do the film justice, especially because this was a project that we decided to do on our own. I know now in having completed Proxy that it was such a smooth process in large part because we put together a team of artistic and talented individuals who also believed in the project and the message.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into directing?
I started as a filmmaker but was actually discouraged at the time, told that I should “go into the female departments” because I surely could not lift a heavy camera as a woman… that is what drove me to change my major, and I became a costume designer. I went on to become a celebrity stylist as well as a fashion designer, and although I found success, I always knew I wanted to fulfill my dreams of becoming a filmmaker. I decided many years later to go back to school, and that is what led me full circle to directing. I also studied Visual and Special effects which is a passion of mine, having spent years working with top VFX artists to understand and learn the craft.
Were you inspired by other sci-fi films for this project or did the inspiration come from outside the genre?
We actually were inspired more by Hitchcock — Strangers on Train, Notorious, and Rear window. Also, David Fincher’s Gone Girl.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
I hope that the audience will have a deeper understanding of their own sense of real human connection and perhaps reflect on what others might be going through right now with having to be isolated in our current state of affairs with COVID still raging worldwide. The lack of real interactions has had a sweeping effect in our daily lives; it’s interesting that the message of the film prior to the pandemic seems even more relevant now.
Do you have any future projects in the works that you can share with us?
Yes, currently I am in Australia to shoot my upcoming feature film Blacksite.
Blacksite centers on a group of officers based in a labyrinthian top-secret CIA black site, who must fight for their lives in a cat-and-mouse game against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When Hatchet escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far-reaching and dire consequences.
The powerhouse producer behind global franchises John Wick and Sicario, Basil Iwanyk, recently announced that he was launching Asbury Park Pictures with RedBox and Rocket Science to focus on moderately budgeted high-concept action and thriller films for global audiences. Asbury Park Pictures is helmed by former Arclight Films Head of Production and Chief Creative Officer, Mike Gabrawy.
Blacksite will not only be my feature film directorial debut, but it will be the first action film under the new banner!
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!