Q26 Sits Down With Meta Film Writer Savannah S. Ward
Savannah S. Ward is a TV Writer for the Free Form show, "Cruel Summer." They are a graduate of Outfest's 2019 Outset program, where they first wrote the script for the film Meta, a short about a trans boy who gets his period on prom night and the violent transformation that transpires after. Jasmine D. Lowe, the Managing Editor at Q26, got the chance to interview them over the phone.
Jasmine D. Lowe: So, I just saw your film, Meta, last night.
Savannah S. Ward: Oh my God. Yeah. It was such a labor of love. Like I cannot tell you, it was probably the craziest experience of my life. So, I'm just so happy that people are watching.
Jasmine: Yeah, and it's crazy because all of Outfest and the film festival screenings are being done online. Have you heard any feedback from people consuming content in this way, and has it affected how you're doing things?
Savannah: We did a meet and greet with all the filmmakers. It was great to see everyone and still have this camaraderie. There were 75 filmmakers on this Zoom together, which was high key stressful, but also everyone was in it to just make it work. I feel like Outfest has been providing lots of opportunities for their filmmakers to have as much of a regular experience as possible. They're holding those drive-in movies out in Malibu. We have a lot of industry brunches, which are all very standard for Outfest. So, I feel that the festival is really adapting well currently. But I don't think that you can replace that sort of in-person social networking aspect. I just don't believe that's replicable on Zoom.
Jasmine: I normally always go to Outfest with friends. We eat popcorn, and it's this whole thing. This year, I was just at home next to my cat, in shorts, and it just felt different. I still got to consume the content, which was great. I loved it. But I was missing that key factor. So glad that you brought that up.
Savannah: Yeah, I don't know if you got to watch the Q&A with everyone. It's just so much more structured where everyone has a five-minute time to talk about their piece where I feel like the best part of Outfest is the discussion that sort of naturally happens when we're there are a hundred people in a movie theater together. I definitely, in some ways, was glad that we didn't have an audience Q&A because I know audience members, especially at Outfest, can be really bold in their question asking, but I also sort of miss the spontaneity of that and the natural magic that will come from audience questions. It leads us to great discussion, which is why I think even queer film and media matters.
Jasmine: Yeah, I talked a little bit to Damien [Navarro] about how this program will be managed during this time. Did you meet in person with your crew for this? Or was this filmed a little while ago?
Savannah: We filmed this last summer, and then it was edited in the winter because our editor was working on "All American." So, she had to wrap that up first before she jumped on ours. Everything was ready to go a week before the pandemic hit, and then Sydney, our producers, Zoey, George, and I sort of all got together, and we were like, do we hold this finished piece for 2021? Because we'll get to maybe be in person. But ultimately, we were like there's not going to be another year like this, which means we could possibly get into festivals we might not have gotten into. And it's just going to be a unique experience that we felt like it was the right time to put it out there.
Jasmine: That is interesting. People are wanting more content right now online, so just putting it out there is the one upside of all of this. How long did it take you to film this, and who was the person who wrote it again?
Savannah: I wrote it, and then Sydney directed it, and Zoey produced it. I can tell you about the set. We laugh at it now, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong on set. It was a fiasco. The makeup wasn't working or not ready, and it delayed us four hours on day one. Our set collapsed three times. In our bathrooms, the toilet had an explosion, and we had running water in the bathroom. It was like whatever higher power wanting to catch the three of us made its presence known. It was also one of the first sets where I was broken from a set when we were done and finished, which I never experienced before. Even if it were a really hard shoot, I would come off feeling like, yeah, I'm a badass. I kicked that production. But with this project, all the responsibility was on the three of our shoulders.
We raised so much money from Seed and Spark, and that was a lot of pressure too. It was the most money any of us handed over with our own hands, so it was just a pressure I had never experienced before. And Sydney and I made another short that premiered at the LA shorts film festival last year. We have a tendency when we've worked together to set our expectations a little bit too high, which I think pays off for us anyway, but this was just a different behemoth. On Sunday, when we shot with all our extras, it was Sydney, Zoey, and I managing 97 people on set, which was bigger than a movie set. It was a huge production that I don't think we were necessarily fully aware at the time how hard that was going to be. But I believe with all of the problems that we still pulled off a really great short.
Jasmine: It definitely gave that feeling that it was a part of a really big film with the number of people on screen. I definitely remember thinking that as I was watching it. You guys did a really good job, but I did want to delve a little more into the story's meaning because I really loved that it's come up. I've heard that the situation is an experience that people have actually had with some trans and non-binary individuals, which sucks. They want to be themselves, and they're feeling great, and then that happens. Did you hear of an experience that prompted you to write the story?
Savannah: Meta came from a lot of things. We can talk about the period component first. I'm transmasculine. I'm non-binary. For me personally, the dysphoria and the mental anguish I battle is always to be very Frank with you—I feel like a freak a lot of the time. That's just because our social constructions of gender are so persuasive and so ingrained in us. I can say that I feel like a freak, but rationally, I know that's not true. That stuff shouldn't pressure from a system that wants to put pressure on who I can be. I think for transmasculine people, the menstrual cycle in our society is constrained to a feminine body, a woman's body, and to me, that's just wrong.
I really wanted to normalize for the character that you can be a man and have a period. That doesn't make you any less of a man. That's sort of the piece's overall theme, but I think the werewolf piece came into number one, just because I'm a horror fanatic. But I started to realize when talking to other transmasculine folk that we all sort of had this obsession with werewolves. I was like, Oh, this must be a trans thing because werewolves are sort of ingrained in the metaphor of transformation and metamorphosis. Even a werewolf replicates a transmasculine medical transition process. Your muscles get bigger. You grow hair in places that you haven't grown hair before. You sometimes just get bigger and stronger. It was like a halo light just came on. I was like, Oh, this is how I can tell the story. But I like melding these two genres together and making it super unique flipping of the script.
Jasmine: That's really interesting. So, I was actually just talking about that before with my sister. We were talking about lesbians and vampires and how everyone had their own mythical creature. I believe a lot of trans feminine people had an affinity towards mermaids, and I was like, Oh my gosh, a lot of sense. You can identify with these things that have been used throughout time to tell a story of people. It definitely makes sense that you made that connection and then brought it to the modern-day. I love that. I also love the nod to Carrie in the film.
Savannah: There's honestly so many nods in the script, and in the film that it makes me sick sometimes.
Both: [Laugh]
Savannah: Arie's name is actually from Artemis signaling the moon, and his last name, Talba, is the last name of the original Wolfman. Trans people and queer people in general, but especially trans people, were never allowed to be in genre spaces. It's always coming out narratives, or I'm being bullied because I'm different narratives, and I really wanted to stay away from that. I think it's important that we start to tell queer stories in different genres, whether it be horror, sci-fi, or whatever because it's the only way we're going to see more of ourselves in different spaces.
Jasmine: Yeah, I definitely agree. We do want to get to a point where you turn on a film, and somebody is gay, and it doesn't have anything to do with the story.
Savannah: Exactly.
Jasmine: That person just may happen to be queer. And this is definitely one of those films that is a step in the right direction towards that. So, thank you.
Savannah: I just like to add to that. I'm just so sick of someone's coming out or transition being the end of the story. I think that's the beginning of someone's story. I think that's where the future of queer storytelling should start. It's like, let's get over that hump, and let's start telling queer stories as if we're real people.
Also, this was the most queer film ever. I want to say 80%, and that's including our 55 extras, of our cast and crew were queer. I feel like you can feel that. If you re-watch it again and pay close attention to the extras, we have mentioned in the script, all these football blockheads, but if you look at the background of this school, everyone's queer as shit. That's what I think is so funny about the piece. It's really a self-versus-self piece because even though we don't really make a point to mention all the queer extras in the background, we wanted it to appear that Artie is his own worst enemy. The world around him is supporting him, but sometimes that's not enough for people. I think that's a really hard lesson that teens go through. You can have everyone behind your back, but if you don't have your back, you crumble. And this was our big world premiere, but very soon, we get to announce many more exciting festivals we've gotten into. I think all three of us are just super excited to see where Meta takes all of us.
Jasmine: So, where do you see yourself moving to after Meta? Do you see yourself doing more with this film?
Savannah: So, during this year during this pandemic, I actually did staff on my first television show, which was awesome. The timing of it was unbelievable because I started three weeks before the pandemic hit, so it was very much the stars aligned. I worked on that show, which was called "Cruel Summer," which is going to be on Free Form next year if we shoot. But Meta, the script, has changed my whole life in ways that I never thought possible. I told you last time we talked that Meta was originally written in the Outset 2019 fellowship and was not chosen to be filmed, and that was really my first big industry rejection.
It sent me down. It was a hard process to go through. But looking back at it, I'm just like, thank God that didn't happen because I got to make it by myself. Now the Meta script, which I own, is this thing that is getting me staffed, getting me meetings. There have been some interested eyes showing interest in it. So, I think everything happens for a reason. I'm so grateful that I was in Outset because it gave me the courage to write a story that's about my identity. I don't think I would've had the courage to do that without that program. Maybe I'll make a feature of it. I don't know. But I'm excited to see where it takes me.
Jasmine: That's awesome. I like that. I know I've asked this question before, but I want to get your answer now that you've had all these other opportunities open up for you. What advice do you have for people who want to make their own short film and get it into Outfest and all these other festivals like you're doing now?
Savannah: I would say, number one, make it. Even if you have no money, figure it out. iPhones are great. I just sold my DSLR because I got an iPhone 11. There's no reason for DSLRs anymore. You can do this, but also, I think if you're going to film something if you're the writer or the director, make sure that thing is beyond personal to you. That doesn't mean that you need to write your story, but the theme, the message, that script, and film should and can only be told by you. I think that is the thing that is actually opened doors for me. Meta is so unique to my perspective that no one else can tell it. I think that's the magic you get to do when you are not being paid or not working for anyone. You get to tell your own story.
Jasmine: And that's very important.
Savannah: Yeah, it is. I also think when you're a lower level writer too, you have more freedom to be bold. And so be bold as much as you can.
Moviegoers can catch the film Meta in the Second Chance Shorts Program from October 23rd through the 25th. Audience members can also catch an exclusive Q&A with the director and the 2020 Tallgrass Film Festival's moderator. You can also follow Savannah S. Ward on Instagram @savannahsward and keep up with news about the film on Instagram @metashortfilm.
