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The Western “Place of Bones” centers on Pandora (Heather Graham), a strong willed woman raising her daughter Hester (Brielle Robillard) in a remote ranch. Complications arise when Calhoun (Corin Nemec), a wounded outlaw, needs their help. Tom Hopper co-stars as the ringleader of the gang hunting for Calhoun. Director Audrey Cummings talked about her first foray into the Western genre, working with Heather Graham, and why doing a ton of prep work is a filmmaking must!
Written by Richard Taylor, “Place of Bones” hits theaters and Digital on August 23, 2024.
I’m here with Audrey Cummings, the filmmaker behind a new western called “Place of Bones.” I really enjoyed this Western. Were you a lifelong Western fan or did the script simply appeal to you? Or maybe both?
Cummings: I guess both. I always really wanted to take on a Western and experience what it’s like in the Wild West, the 1800s frontier. This script came to me from a production company in Montreal, Canada, and as soon as I read it, I was like, “Holy crap, I’ve never seen a female led Western before.”
This film was perfect for me. And I called the producers right away and said, “I’m in.”
Heather Graham’s career has had a very diverse career. What was it like working with her and what did she bring to the project?
Cummings: She’s amazing. First of all, let me start by saying she’s a wonderful person. So collaborative and kind and genuine. She is just such a gem. And what I really liked about her is she really dug in. She worked hard before coming to set on her character and figuring out what women were like in the 1800s.
She had a dialect coach to learn how to speak in that Western slang, which she nailed. Then on set, she was very collaborative and very open to just working together and figuring it out. She did such a good job. The reason she did a really good job is so completely opposite to her character.
Pandora is cold and calculated and dark, and Heather is just bright and joyful. So she did a really good job acting.
What was it like just prepping and setting up your shot list because it’s all over the place in a good way. And talk about visualizing and the challenge of actually helming so many different locations and making these intersecting stories converge.
Cummings: Yeah, it was crazy. So Calhoun’s character (Corin Nemec) had to be basically in a bed the whole film. I don’t want to spoil anything, but that’s a challenge by itself him as an actor.
And for me as a director, it’s a challenge trying to keep these very long scenes interesting because you’re just in that one room with him. And then you’ve got the bad guys who are out on the range riding horses and doing stuff. Then you’ve got the surrounding farmhouse and barn. It was really fun.
I had the opportunity to work with Andrzej Sekula (who) was our cinematographer. He did “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs.” He’s amazing. So I was really lucky. I had him for three weeks. He came and lived on this ranch house at the ranch with me.
And for three weeks, we just walked the grounds every single day and figured out our shots and how we wanted everything to look and where it was going to be. I was really lucky because I’d never had that experience with the cinematographer before, where I get his undivided attention to figure out everything.
So when we started shooting, we knew what we wanted to do. So it was really great.
So just on your filmmaking career, just in your journey, can you name just one piece of advice that was the most important for you in your growth as far as filmmaking advice? What made it so special for you?
Cummings: The one thing my mentor always told me was the more you prep, the better your film is going to be. And that’s all I do is I prep and prep and prep. I work so hard breaking down each individual scene like, what’s the heart of the scene? How does that feel to the bigger story?
What’s the ins and the outs of every scene? It’s really important. I shot list. I do an overhead schematic where camera and actors are going to be – the dance between the actors and the camera. I work that out. I do storyboards if I need to for certain scenes where there’s action and things I want to convey to the cinematographer.
I come in really well prepped and it often falls apart because there’s so many bad things that go wrong every day in the film set. I’ve never had one day in my life of shooting where nothing has gone wrong, so everything always goes wrong. But because you’re so well prepped, you can absorb all the the shock that comes your way.
All the bad stuff that happens, you can absorb it because you’re so well prepped. I can get away without this shot and this shot, and I can converge this and do that. You just have all the puzzle pieces, so when things happen, you can still put a puzzle together, which is good.
You probably watch your film in the edit so many times, but is it kind of cool for you as a cinephile to know that you were to set up some of those great Western hero shots. For example, when the outlaws are overlooking that mountain ridge or the POV shot with Heather Graham coming out of the door, and you’re just following her for a second out into that expanse. How cool was that?
Cummings: Just so cool. It’s so rewarding. You dream it up, then on the day when it’s lit and it’s shot and you’re just watching on your monitor. And everybody around the monitor is (saying), “Oh my God, it’s so nice.”
It just feels so rewarding.
This is a very lean and mean Western. Is there sort of a science to that, and is that an underrated thing where you can say something is a very tight Western? It seems a lot harder than one would think, right?
Cummings: Yeah. It’s hard. It’s hard to make it look easy. And I also have the luxury of working with my one of my favorite editors ever, Michael P. Mason. He’s edited all my films, and we have a similar vision in terms of lean and mean.
But the thing is, with this film, it had to be lean and mean because it’s a slow burn. You know who the characters are and what they’re experiencing. And then we hit hard later.
The first three quarters (of “Place of Bones”), when it’s more dramatic, you got to be really lean and mean because otherwise you have a three hour movie.
***We review “Mountains,” “My Penguin Friend,” and “Skincare” on CinemAddicts:
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!I’m so excited to see your next project after “Place of Bones.” What can we expect down the road from you?
Cummings: In terms of features, I have another feature that I’m shooting this fall and it’s another Western. A very different style of Western is all I can hint to. It’s super cool is all I want to say about it and (it’s) very different.
Have you been prepping a lot for your upcoming Western?
Cummings: Maybe you would think (that). However, if you look around, I am sitting in an office. If you look around, I am sitting in an office. I’m working on a Netflix show right now. They haven’t released anything to the press yet, so I can’t say anything, but I’m in week one right now on this new series.
You are very, very busy. Because you’re doing another Western in the fall, are you watching more Westerns now?
Cummings: I don’t have any time right now!
Okay, okay. You’re busy (laughs)! I’m gonna let you go. I really enjoyed “Place of Bones.”
Cummings: Very nice to meet you. Thank you so much!
Catch “Place of Bones” in theaters and on Digital August 23, 2024!
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