An exclusive interview with writer/director KERRY BELLESSA discussing his new film AMBER ALERT, a taut, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat thriller with a new spin on rideshare stories with the integration of a child abduction.
SYNOPSIS: An ordinary rideshare becomes a high-stakes game of cat and mouse when Jaq (Hayden Panettiere) and Shane (Tyler James Williams) receive an alert of a child abduction on their phones. Quickly realizing they are behind a car that matches the description of the kidnapper, Jaq and Shane desperately race against time to save the child’s life.
Directed by KERRY BELLESSA with script by Kerry Bellessa and Joshua Oram, AMBER ALERT stars Hayden Panettiere, Tyler James Williams, Kevin Dunn, and Saidah Arrika Ekulona.
One of the most riveting and frightening films of the year, AMBER ALERT is a film from which you cannot look away. It starts out a bit slow with a “meet and greet” of rideshare driver (Tyler James Williams) and his passenger (Hayden Panettiere), but very quickly picks up with the abduction of a young girl and “Amber Alerts” pinging on the phones of Shane and Jaq, respectively. The intensity continues to increase as these two average citizens become engrossed in a vehicle on the road ahead of them with Jaq calling “911”, speaking with the officer manning the phones while a somewhat disinterested sargeant brushes the call off given Jaq doesn’t have the license plate of the vehicle to provide. Displeased with the police response to her call, and concerned about the child who may be in the car up ahead, Jaq and Shane pursue the Toyota Camry, turning this into a real cat-and-mouse game with the stakes as high as you can get – a little girl’s life.
AMBER ALERT is a project that KERRY BELLESSA has been working on for more than a decade since he started the journey of this story with a proof-of-concept “found footage” style film of the same name in 2012. It’s a story he was passionate about telling, but the passage of time, while frustrating, proved beneficial, allowing for refinement and integration of timely themes, not to mention the overall technologically improved nationwide “Amber Alert” system which is an essential element of the film.
In this exclusive interview, we break down the elements of AMBER ALERT, honing in on various aspects of the film such as Panettiere’s exceptional performance and chemistry with co-star Williams which only intensifies in a pivotal scene where Jaq and Shane truly connect, leading to a tense and urgent narrative. Josh Oram’s editing and Luka Bazeli’s cinematography are crisply done, resulting in the most emotional impact. In addition, we dive into, among others:
- developing tension and urgency through the characters and the importance of specific scenes that intensify the emotional dynamic; character arcs of Jaq and Shane
- performances elevating the material
- risks taken by the veteran known actors in this case in working with a relatively unknown director
- the collaborative ensemble, notably Kevin Dunn and Saidah Ekulona in their supporting roles; the deep engagement with the material by all of the actors and the new ideas each brought to the table
- the partnership and collaborative process between Kerry Bellessa and Josh Oram
- Josh Oram’s editing; crisp, sharp, rapier; builds the tension and sets the emotional tone; placement of “inserts” aka quick one second “snapshots” of the kidnap victim with a shoe, socks, floor, etc.
- creative freedom in the editing room
- Luka Bazeli’s lighting and lensing; lighting design; practical lighting in the kidnapper’s house; handheld camera work; widescreen exteriors versus the interior of the car which is a large part of the film; creating emotional metaphor inside the car through diverse camera angles and specificity
- use of color; tonal color shift from green to gray as abduction happens; bookending the film with the vibrant colors of life – blue sky, green grass, yellow sun; color with the kidnapper’s house
- importance of negative space in elevating tension
- the work of production designer Sally Jean Wegert, particularly within the kidnapper’s house
- and more!
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 09/17/2024
AMBER ALERT is now in select theatres and On Demand
