First-time feature filmmaker Dave Green talks about his family sci-fi adventure, Earth to Echo.
Den of Geek: This is your first feature after making a lot of short films.
How did it come your way?
And then after school I kept making shorts and never really stopped doing that.
I like your comedy chops and I like your cutting style.
We have this project that I think you might dig.
And he kind of gave me the pitch for whatEchowas which was at the time just one sentence.
It was, Kids go out in the middle of nowhere and they find something.
Thats all it was.
They were all sci-fi stuff.
I think it was a monster at one point.
I think it was an alien at one point that did not have any robotic qualities.
It was just kind of more organic and more of a squid-like thing.
And then I think there was one other discussion about it being just a magical thing at some point.
But, you know, a lot of those were all just like design discussions.
Were all those sort of seminal films to you growing up?
What do you find inspiring and/or challenging about the DIY format?
And youve got the ability to crosscut the things that your characters dont know about.
Its always bothered me.
And they added sound and they added music and they added voiceover.
And they didnt have helicopter shots so they added Google air flyovers.
So that was fun but for sure it was challenging.
Were the kids adaptable to the way you were making the movie?
Yeah, for sure.
They were all stars and, you know, they werent really friends before we shot.
They had to create a fast friendship on set.
It was a little bit of both.
That was really cool.
And then theres some shots in the movie youll see that are a complete CGI creation.
Plus having a little guy on set was great for the kids.
Is it true that Echos initial designer was 19 years old and living at home?
Yeah, it was crazy.
Hes a really talented mechanical designer he can draw incredible guns and technology and machines and cars and stuff.
All of them felt too squishy or too weird or too slimy or like a handful of worms.
I think he was 19 years old at the time.
He was living in his moms house in San Jose.
He was on summer vacation from some art center in Pasadena.
I gave him a call and at first he didnt believe me.
I said, Hi Ross, my names Dave Green, Im making a movie.
My friend Noel said you could design something amazing.
I wasnt sure if he believed me.
And that very first pencil sketch was really close to what ended up being the final thing.
Any ideas of where you want to go with your next feature film?
I love comedy and I love just darker stuff from time to time.
Its that feeling of fun that I really want to continue with.
Earth to Echoopens in theaters Wednesday (July 2).
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