In an industry dominated by doom and gloom about the state of independent film, “Undertone” is either a ray of hope or an exception that proves the rule. But regardless of your outlook, there’s no denying that it’s one of the great success stories in recent memory. Ian Tuason’s directorial debut was shot for a budget of just $500,000 before premiering at Fantasia and being acquired by A24. More wins followed, including a Sundance screening and a March theatrical rollout that saw it gross over $20 million at the global box office.
Two of the business minds behind the film, Daril Fannin of KINO and Chad Archibald of Black Fawn Films, stopped by The American Pavilion at Cannes for a Future of Filmmaking panel presented by United for Business. In a conversation moderated by IndieWire Editor-in-Chief Dana Harris-Bridson, they identified the factors that set “Undertone” up for success and identified lessons that other producers could learn from it.
Archibald explained that Tuason approached him with a 250-page word document outlining his detailed vision for an audio-driven horror movie that extracted many of its scares from sound design. That attention to detail convinced him that it was not only possible to make a movie that places so much of its horror offscreen, but that the novelty would actually draw audiences in.
“He really approached it with this idea that, if we lean into audio and make this an audio found footage movie, and learn into this idea that everyone is so afraid of, which is not showing much and not making it glamorous,” Archibald said. “And by doing that, people freak themselves out. It gets in your head and creates a different kind of fear than people usually find in these films.”
Much of the financing came from Fannin, who explained that the lack of onscreen action was viewed as a risk by many of his peers. But he believed in both the strength of the material and Black Fawn’s ability to nurture a first-time filmmaker, leading to an investment that paid off in droves.
“As I was sharing it with other people in the industry, I heard multiple times that I should not invest in this film. It’s a single location horror with one person on screen for pretty much the entire movie. And it’s a first time director. It’s risk, risk, risk,” he said. “But I think the creative was the ultimate de-riskment, and [Chad] did an incredible job of building a safe space for Ian to take these incredible swings.”
You can watch the complete panel in the video above.
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