2015 Sundance Trading Card Series: #3. Michael J. Larnell (Cronies)

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…
Michael Larnell: Paris, France, Sundance Film Festival, Ferguson Protesters (The Activists)

Lavallee: What was the genesis for the film? How did you go about writing the characters and then, writing their relationships?
Larnell: I wanted to tell a story of young male friends and their awkwardness of expressing their love for one another. I developed each main character and the backstory to their lives. I wanted the main character (Louis) to begin to stray away from his childhood friend (Jack) all while Louis begins to develop a new friendship with Andrew. All of these factors helped to create the tension in the film.

Lavallee: They say shoot what you know, sometimes this applies to “where” as well. Your hometown of St-Louis serves as the backdrop for the film, how did it contribute to the synergy of your narrative?
Larnell: Filming in St. Louis definitely helped with the look, sound and characters accent. The sound of the film is heavily influenced with the Cicada insect, which is an insect heard all over St. Louis. The harsh chirping of the Cicada helped to add to the effect that it was an extremely hot day and that adds more tension to the film. Also, the actors speaking accent helped craft a world many have never experienced.

Lavallee: What were some of your influences in terms of look for your film?
Larnell: The film is in Black & White. The two films that influenced that decision were La Haine and She’s Gotta Have It. Otherwise, we really didn’t study a particular film for its look. I definitely wanted certain shots to be abstract, so we came up with some ideas.

Lavallee: Could you tell us about receiving the infamous phone call from Sundance. What facet about Cronies swooned them?
Larnell: I think there are two areas of the film helped to swoon the Sundance team.  One is the love and emotions that are felt throughout the film.  We rarely see this type of emotions shown in “Hood” genre films. I think they enjoyed that. Also, the landscape of St. Louis helped. There are not many feature films shot in St. Louis as well as dealing with the characters I chose to write about. I think the world was different and exciting for them.