INDIE SPOTLIGHT: An Interview with ‘Palm Trees and Power Lines’ Director and Co-Writer Jamie Dack
Jamie Dack recently spoke with Script about developing the feature script, working with co-writer Audrey Findlay, how her 35mm photographs inspired the tone of the film, and so much more.
Seventeen-year-old Lea (Lily McInerny) spends her summer break aimlessly tanning in her backyard with her best friend, tiptoeing around her needy mother, and getting stoned with a group of boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom (Jonathan Tucker), an older man who promises an alternative to Lea’s unsatisfying adolescent life. But as things progress between them, red flags about Tom’s life begin to surface, and Lea chooses to ignore them. Under Tom’s influence, Lea begins to see her mom as unfit and her friends as a waste of her time. Isolated from those around her, Lea discovers Tom’s true intentions and finds herself in a situation that she never could have imagined.
Palm Trees and Power Lines is one of those pieces of cinema that'll leave you with a mixed bag of emotions, for better or for worse. Its silence is deafening and the twist at the end makes you throw your arms up in the air passionately outraged, this is all because filmmaker Jamie Dack has pointedly created an emotional slow burn and connection to her characters, and that's hard to do.
Jamie Dack recently spoke with Script about developing the feature script, working with co-writer Audrey Findlay, how her 35mm photographs inspired the tone of the film, and so much more.
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
Sadie Dean: You made a short film previously, same title, was that intentionally the proof of concept for the feature film?
Jamie Dack: I know a lot of people will often make a short as a proof of concept, but for me, it just started out as a short and I don't know if you've seen it, but it's quite different than the feature and it was just a short that I wanted to make at the time, but people's responses to it after I made it really kind of sealed the deal for me in knowing that I wanted to keep exploring some of the themes. So, then I began developing it into a feature, but it wasn't by design.
Sadie: This is such a quiet film, which I really enjoyed, and just how you're able to carry through so much information through character and emotions. In terms of the story, I noticed that you have an additional writer on this one. Was that for world-building purposes or maybe a different perspective?
Jamie: Yeah, so what happened was I typically write alone, but I had written multiple drafts of Palm Trees the feature and felt like it wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be. And yeah, I wanted someone else's perspective. I had expanded upon the short and it didn't deal with…I'm just trying to think of how to say this without spoiling what the film is about it…it didn't deal with grooming - and so I decided to bring a writer on and I brought on Audrey [Findlay] and we kind of took the script I had written and expanded upon it.
And we actually wrote the script to follow the five stages of grooming, which are targeting the victim, gaining their trust, filling a need, isolating them, and then the abuse begins. So, if you actually look at the film, it follows that pretty closely. That was kind of how we changed what I had written when Audrey came on.
Sadie: Without giving away too much but that that twist at the end, which had me repeatedly shaking my fist - but yes, exactly of the five stages of grooming, it’s all there. When writing it and knowing you were to direct it as well, did you have imagery in mind or maybe a look book for you two to reference?
Jamie: So, I did have a deck with lots of images long before we began writing together - the short and the feature both kind of stemmed from a series of photographs. I was taking 35-millimeter film photographs that I had been taking for a few years in different parts of Southern California. And that actually was what just inspired the whole thing. I had made multiple shorts at this point, but directing and making films is multitasking, and one of the things I felt I hadn't done to a degree that I was happy with was made something that looks the way I wanted it to look visually. So, I was like, this needs to be set here, I'm obsessed with the way this place looks and so those photographs were kind of me location scouting for years without realizing it. And that definitely informed the script and I shared those with Audrey and eventually shared those with my DP and I felt it really affected the way we shot the film.
Sadie: You definitely capture the Valley in this haunting way. Collaborating with your DP, and setting up the overall look and tone of the film from the wide frames, locked-off shots, capturing these beautiful colors that are like vapor wave-Valley-type nostalgia - were there any other film references that you were inspired by?
Jamie: Yes. I felt like I had seen a lot of films with like a lot of super bobbing you know, messy handheld and I like that, and I think it works for the right film, but I had reached a point where I really, as I said, was inspired by these photographs. And I was also inspired by in particular, films like Ida, or Cold War, where I always say you can press pause on any frame of either of those two movies, and I would print it out and frame it as a photograph on my wall. And that was really what I said to everyone involved in making this film that was what I wanted to do. And so yeah, there's a lot of locked-off composed frames in the film.
And then in terms of the color stuff that you're referencing, we shot digitally, but as I said, the photographs I had taken were shot on film, and so our colorist Katie Jordan, at Light Iron also saw those photographs and really understood what I was going for and we emulated a look for the film, even though it was shot digitally.
Sadie: I would have totally thought that this is shot on film, just with the texture alone.
Jamie: Yeah, thank you!
Sadie: Now in terms of your cast and the two leads, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker – once they both came on board, did you ever go back to the script to refine their character's voices or did they both just embrace the characters as is?
Jamie: Yeah, I mean, the two of them were amazing. So, Lily, this was her film debut. And that meant that we were going to be working in a very specific way like Lily memorized the script like the back of her hand. And at a certain point, I half-jokingly confiscated the script from her and was like, ‘You can't look at this anymore,’ before we were shooting. It was really wonderful because she did know everything and stuck to every single line. And I think that was an important part of her process for herself. Whereas Jonathan, who's a veteran actor and has been doing this since he was a child, we would often do takes where he did it exactly as was said in the script and then did takes where he kind of did his own thing depending on the scene.
Lily and I spoke a lot - we just shared stories with each other from when I was a teenager and when she was a teenager and some of my stories that have inspired why I even wanted to write this film in the first place. And we were just very open with one another about that. And so, I think that was a part of the character development. I remember we talked about our relationships with our mother and our father, so it was just kind of drawing from her own personal experiences and my own personal experiences. And I think she and I both relate to this character a lot. Whereas Jonathan, of course, [laughs] had to do a lot more digging to play this role.
Sadie: I can't imagine getting into that character headspace on both their parts. And then there’s that twist again, it keeps you on the edge of your seat as you’re laying out these breadcrumbs, and it’s not immediately apparent what’s going to happen.
Jamie: I'm glad you say that, because I definitely was worried the whole movie needs to have tension throughout. And if people know what's going to happen, no one is sitting on the edge of their seat. They're bored. They've predicted it already. And so, I kind of got to a point where I was like, it's going to be filled with tension, people are going to know something bad is going to happen and they're going to know something's wrong. From the second Jonathan pulls up in the car and offers her a ride home they can know something's up, but they just can't know what it is.
Sadie: Right, and his demeanor isn’t threatening in any way.
Jamie: Totally, he's nice to her through the whole process. The other reason why I think that it's effective and why it works is because it's written from her perspective. It was very important to me that we were in her perspective the whole time. And for her, she loves him, and I wrote it like a love story. And I remember sometimes when I was writing, I'd be listening to certain types of music that were evoking loving feelings for me.
Sadie: I’m so curious, what were you listening to?
Jamie: Oh, my God. I feel like I was listening to - this is so weird that I'm even sharing this - I feel like I was listening to some Scandinavian pop artists. [laughs]
Sadie: Whatever works and gets you in that headspace to write, no judgement! Taking a step back, tell us about your filmmaking journey, what inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Jamie: I honestly feel like I was born this way. [laughs] I remember taking photographs, even as a child. And I remember writing as a kid and I would write poems and short stories. I even wrote a children's book when I was in like, fourth grade. Once I was a teenager, I started really watching films and loving them and I went to college and studied and decided to study film history. I was exposed to all sorts of films I'd never seen before and deciding to make films was kind of the perfect mix of getting to use all of my passions and skills in one thing, and I honestly don't know that I could be doing anything else.
Sadie: With a background in film history, how much of that knowledge feeds into just your own directing and writing process?
Jamie: Let me also add I did go to grad school after and did study film, but yes, my origins were film history. And I would say it was super influential because you grow up, and you're maybe only seeing a certain type of American cinema and rather commercial and you think only certain types of films can be made. And then you go study film history, and you're seeing European cinema, World Cinema, independent films, and it really opens your eyes to there's all sorts of alternative ways of storytelling and directing.
Sadie: Yeah, I'm definitely a huge advocate of telling younger filmmakers, watch all the foreign films you can, because the storytelling is so raw, and I feel like they take more of a risk with those films.
Jamie: 100% and speaking of European cinema, it is so inspiring to me that there is a particular pacing used in countries other than the US, and I feel like my film has a very slow pace that is for sure, inspired by some of my favorite European films.
Sadie: Any advice for filmmakers that are about to make their first film, either short or feature?
Jamie: I just feel like you have to really never give up. So many people will tell you no and so many people told me no on this film, but I just was obsessed with getting it made. A filmmaker I know once said this thing to me that I've never forgotten where he was like, ‘you have to be kind of naive as a filmmaker,’ and I just love that - naive, believing that your film is going to get made and that you can do this and you just totally believe you're gonna do this, because it's really hard. [laughs]
Sadie: No, I love that. I think a lot of people have that imposter syndrome and they think they can't do it, when in fact they're really gifted storytellers.
Jamie: Totally, I know so many talented people who just like give up because it's so hard. And so, I think it's a combination of your talent and not giving up.
Momentum will release Palm Trees And Power Lines in Theaters and VOD on March 3, 2023.
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Sadie Dean is the Editor of Script Magazine and writes the screenwriting column, Take Two, for Writer’s Digest print magazine. She is also the co-host of the Reckless Creatives podcast. Sadie is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, and received her Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. She has been serving the screenwriting community for nearly a decade by providing resources, contests, consulting, events, and education for writers across the globe. Sadie is an accomplished writer herself, in which she has been optioned, written on spec, and has had her work produced. Additionally, she was a 2nd rounder in the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and has been nominated for The Humanitas Prize for a TV spec with her writing partner. Sadie has also served as a Script Supervisor on projects for WB, TBS and AwesomenessTV, as well as many independent productions. She has also produced music videos, short films and a feature documentary. Sadie is also a proud member of Women in Film.
Follow Sadie and her musings on Twitter @SadieKDean
