Comic-Con
2011:
Mad Filmmakers: Beyond Bellflower Part 2
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But with this being years gestating in Glodell's head, what finally pushed Bellflower into reality?
Glodell sighs and thinks. "For me, it might have been almost a panic attack, leading to suicidal thoughts…"
A look of mock horror crosses Wiseman's face. "OR…" she shouts.
Glodell reassures her. "No, no, there's something there. I was trying to make this movie in 2003 with a camcorder but I didn't have the resources. Then I got offered a job doing production. I worked doing that for a couple of years, and at some point, I realized I was insanely unhappy and that the last time I was on track was when I was working on the short films that I was making, and the next one was supposed to be Bellflower."
"So I needed to get back on track." Glodell smiles ruefully. "Life was going by, and dreams weren't happening." Wiseman nods, "Kind of nobody's going to help me, so I just have to do it."
Grashaw adds, "the only way to get it moving was just to start. We almost figured it out after the fact. Let's just get it rolling, we'll make a schedule after we start production."
 When asked if making the film felt cathartic, even Wiseman has to exhale sharply, "Yes!"
Glodell probes back, "You mean about relationships? About ambitions? YES. Very much so." Clearly this is a man grateful for his success. "Even in the last month, from the time the movie got to Sundance…we got to Sundance, I was more stressed. I got crazy, and now I'm like, my god, we're actually going to get a shot at something happening. And then at Sundance it actually sold and it got even crazier. Now it just has to go well. And then about a month ago I was like, all right, you can chill out. I've been much chiller."
"More than anything," Grashaw speaks as Producer, "for everyone involved, we'd put so much into it, to just have It out there, finished, it's being received well, it makes us incredibly happy, it's great. We'd put so much time into it, just the fact that we finished it was like a big deal. There were times, you know – we'd been shooting this movie for five years!"
"It wasn't that long!" protests Glodell.
Grashaw volleys back with a laugh, "We'd been shooting for three years! Which I think goes back to what you were saying about dreams. We can all now, especially Evan, go forward and make more films. Not in the way we made this one, where we were struggling to eat."
 Actress Rebekah Brandes enters the room, adding an interesting energy. Of all the cast, she is the one with the most mainstream work on her resume, popping up on a variety of television shows and a few horror films. And, it seems, the newest addition to this tight-knit group.
Following up on Grashaw's comment about going forward, I ask if Bellflower has already opened doors for any of them. Brandes agrees, "I've already booked a movie straight off my performance. They just called me up." Keeping it close to the vest, Glodell will only offer, "There's definitely been tons of opportunities in many different areas."
As Glodell had pulled his cast from seeing them in theater, the question has to be asked. Which do they find more satisfying?
Dawson jumps in. "For me, the biggest thing is having a live audience. It's an essential part of acting in a way. The performance side of it. There's something awesome about being in theater because it's immediate. It forces you to have that spontaneous creativity that makes acting enjoyable to me."
"Transitioning to film, it's important – even if it's the crew or extras or whoever's around – it's always important to have that sense of immediacy. Be alive on camera as opposed to being on set with a lot of distractions. It could be easy to get lost in that. It's really important to feel on the spot, not pressure, but that's what allows you to have those weird spontaneous things that happen to make a performance interesting."
Wiseman laughs, "I'm the opposite. I respond to film as opposed to theater because it allows you to be real, I guess, really subtle. There's things the camera can pick up, one look, and if your face is totally still and you're thinking something, the camera can pick that up. I'm more drawn to that."
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