Unbeknown

Unbeknown is a thriller about a pair of girlfriends who, while traveling across the great plains to a country music festival, decide to take their truck off-roading. Their fun turns to crisis when confronted by the land-owner, a native outdoorsman and character of the country itself. The women confront the choices of danger vs safety, fun vs woeful.

The identification of victimhood syncs with the empathy we have for the women. As the film explores, on the one hand, these ladies make choices which seem like a fun time, throwing caution to the wind. On the other hand, our antagonist confronts this care-free behavior with a pointed series of choices, filled with malicious-intent, due to his assumptions about these women. Neither party was aware of the other when the day started. Now both have their lives changed by the end.

MILES' STATEMENT:
The vision from the beginning was to utilize the vast surroundings of the great plains as beautiful set-piece. The setting itself is a character, shining bright in the right moments, and showing us the wrath of its unpredictability in others (thank you ever-changing Kansas weather!)

We knew we needed to capture this essence with distinctly sharp colors and resolution, while working quickly in rough terrain. Wide angle, 28mm & 35mm Zeiss Super Speed lenses, paired with the Red Epic-W Helium 8K were more than robust. The ability to reframe and steady the shots, after the fact, was invaluable. 50mm was chosen specifically for the cold intimacy of profile shots of our characters close-ups, as they grappled with making uncomfortable yet exciting decisions, even as they seem betrayed by them.

Our journey through post production was long, but worth all of the waiting. Colton Jackson's score to this film is worthy of any feature and seems wasted on a short! The music was a perfect compliment to the emotional themes: exploring ideas of ill-executed righteousness vs ill-planned naïveté.

As they say, art is catharsis. Every person who is a victim of malicious violence can and does usually look back and wonder what they've done to deserve it. I have had my own analogue to this story from my younger years...

In college, I was out for a night of fun, and entered an apartment which I thought was hosting a party, to which I had been invited. Those inside the home didn't have the same idea, grabbing me and mercilessly beating my skull into the ground.

I remember victim-blaming myself, the next day at the hospital.

This must have been my fault for going out to the bars, being inebriated and not judging the situation properly.

After a long time, and through film-therapy, I've faced reality: no matter what decisions I made, I didn't deserve the offenses against me... I didn't do anything wrong.

I hope this film is, above all, entertaining to those who watch. But, I also hope that people feel the injustice and empathize with our characters, as they experience, what might be the largest offenses they've done, or had done to them, in their lives.

STEVEN'S STATEMENT:
The vision and inspiration was to utilize the peaceful beautiful setting in the rolling hills of Kansas, but introduce the chaos that can come with it when the peace is disrupted. The dynamic of situational awareness between the characters and the setting they have entered. Beware, you never know what could be walking into?

Some of the influence to me was the quote "Ask for forgiveness before permission." I've heard a variety of folks say that in different situations over the years. I have used that thought of "wisdom" myself and was unsuccessful. As an outdoors-man, I like to fish and certainly know the rules to fishing public waters. However, one time I decided to take the word from my cousins that we were in public waters. I didn't verify myself, but assumed not seeing any no fishing signs allowed me to believe in asking in forgiveness before permission. It worked for 2 hours until the local Game Warden stopped for a visit and let us know we were fishing in a non-fishing zone. All 3 of us plead our cases and all were given $500 fines. As bad as that was, I felt that was better than him taking everything else from me; truck, tackle, freedom...

I hope everyone finds this entertaining and can relate to a time in their younger years. That one time, where it could have probably been worse for all parties.