Q&A: Adam Schindler & Brian Netto On '50 States Of Fright'

"50 States of Fright" is a new series that explore stories based one of the most popular urban legends from each state, and promises to "take viewers deeper into the horrors that lurk just beneath the surface of our country." Executive produced by Sam Raimi, Van Toffler, Gunpowder & Sky, Tony DiSanto, Tommy Coriale and Debbie Liebling, this week's episode is entitled "Grey Cloud Island" and is set on a mysterious island that has often been described as "the most haunted spot in Minnesota."

The episode was written and directed by Adam Schindler & Brian Netto and given that Grey Cloud Island is about a five-minute drive from my house, I wanted to learn more about this episode. Adam and Brian were kind enough to answer some questions and the interview provides some fascinating backstory into how the episode was put together.

Q: You're both listed as the episode's writers and director. Can you walk me through your work process and how you divided the work between you? 

Brian Netto: It's something we get asked a lot. Adam and I have known each other since the 4th grade when I first moved to Minnesota. We started making movies in our backyards then, really bad movies for the record, but even back then the way we worked wasn't much different than the way we work now. Ideas are brought up over text or email or brainstorming sessions and the ones that we can't shake are the ones we move forward on. Some ideas come fully formed - such as act breaks, endings, characters, themes we want to explore. And others are more like kernels of an idea that need time to develop into an actual story. For our first film, DELIVERY, we worked on that script while in the same room, each taking turns at the keyboard while the other would riff and pace and talk out ideas. It's way more fun pacing and blurting out lines of dialogue than to be at the keyboard!

Adam Schindler: As far as the directing side of things, we’ve known each other and have been “working” together so long that we have this unspoken kind of thing going on. We’ll both have the same idea at the same time, or one of us will think something and look at the other and we know exactly what the thought is and be like, “yeah, let’s do that”. We don’t break the tasks of a director up, meaning one of us doesn’t just handle camera and one of handles the actors. We’re both in on every decision. Every choice. We love all aspects of making a film, so we want to be in on everything. 

Q: What are the challenges of writing a story that is shorter than an average episode of a television drama. Obviously, you have to be conscious of ending the segments with a bit of a cliffhanger, but what other things did you have to be conscious of as the script was written?

Brian Netto: The challenges are basically the same as they are for any length or format - can you hook the audience, can you engage the audience and can you keep surprising the audience. We basically just condensed Grey Cloud Island into the same three act structure that we normally tell our feature length stories in so fortunately, that gave us some really intriguing chapter breaks. We've had people that have watched our episode say "wow, I feel like I just watched a feature"! In many ways, because of the genre and the anthology format and the runtime - which is 24 minutes all together - it feels like we basically skipped dinner and went straight to dessert because so much happens and our pace is so frenetic but structurally it's all there, just in smaller doses than we've been used to in the past. Five years ago, there were very few outlets where you could tell stories of this length. Which is a shame because we have SO many short form ideas! But now, you have mini series making a comeback. You have hour long shows, half hour shows. And now with Quibi, stories told in 7-10 minute chapters. 

Q: From a directing standpoint, did the fact that viewers can watch the episode in either a vertical or horizontal orientation impact how you directed the scenes? Visually, I enjoyed the horizontal orientation more, but watching the vertical orientation made the scenes feel more confined and ultimately even scarier.

Adam Schindler: Funny thing is, we didn’t direct with the mandate to shoot for vertical. From what we understand, “50 States” was one of the first, if not THE first show picked up by Quibi. So, they were still figuring out exactly what “their thing” was going to be. We shot strictly cinematic, horizontal, wide and beautiful. Sam was very protective of the filmmakers on the show, as a Godfather should be and he told us, shoot it how you want to and he backed us up with that sentiment every step of the way. It wasn’t until a few months ago, when Jeffrey Katzenberg called us into his office and asked us if we’d all do vertical cuts. Turns out we were the only show that didn’t have a vertical version.

I will say, I know a few of the episodes shot with vertical in mind, but the majority of the episodes had not. Again, it wasn’t a mandate, but he asked if we would try. We’re always up for a challenge, so we said sure, why not. It was actually kind of fun to go back through the film with the lens of the vertical orientation. Our editor, Justin Li, was amazing, so full of ideas and great instinct, so the whole process went rather quickly and smoothly. And we agree, the horizontal is the optimum version in our minds, but the vertical is definitely a more claustrophobic watch.

Q: As it turns out, I live about five miles from Grey Cloud Island & it definitely has a reputation locally as a weirdly uncomfortable place. How much research did you do before you wrote the script?

Adam Schindler: A fair amount. As far as the Google search, internet sleuthing would take us. We remember people talking about it back when we were growing up in Woodbury, but we actually never went to Grey Cloud Island, so it was fun to dig into the actual history of the island. As far as the paranormal things on the island, we found it was kind of a grab bag of everything scary, so we decided to use this to our advantage. And we concocted a story that kind of utilized the idea that no one really knows what to be afraid of on the island. We think it works.

Q: Without giving anything away, the big secret of the episode is something that I don't believe is part of the island's real-life lore. What made you decide on this particular surprise?

Brian Netto: So, being from Minnesota and being big horror fans we REALLY wanted to tell a Minnesota set horror story. But when we were invited to pitch, it was tough because there weren't a lot of well-known or uniquely interesting Minnesota legends - mostly the occasional haunted road or Forepaughs, the restaurant that's reportedly haunted in St. Paul. The cupboard felt a bit bare. With Grey Cloud, we found such a wide array of strange sightings and stories - such as the ghostly white pick up truck ( which is referenced and seen in our piece ) and the reported cult activity... it's weird, because normally ghost stories are very specific; woman dies on her wedding day, haunts people in wedding dress, etc, etc. But with Grey Cloud it was all over the map, each story was so different from the next. So our premise was that these stories were concocted by the locals to hide an even BIGGER and SCARIER secret. In fact one of the characters says just that. At one point, Dave ( played by the very talented Drew Ray Tanner ) says, "They're just stories, dude; probably to keep people like you out". From there, we gave ourselves license to let our imaginations run wild.

"Grey Cloud Island" premieres today - Wednesday, April 22nd - on the mobile-only streaming service Quibi.