So that the producers have the maximum information about you, who are you?

My name is Evan Doll and I am an aspiring animator, writer, and actor.

 

What is your favorite scene in your movie, With You?

The covert mission scene where the main team goes on to capture Dylan Whitlock is probably my favorite. That scene alone took me about two and a half months to do including the environment design, animation, and sequencing.

 

Who is your favorite character in your movie, With You?

I really like Isaac Walker. When I wrote his character, I had such a strong desire to voice him myself but the actor who got the role did such a great job in the audition. The character has such an awkward evil mindset and he sees himself as superior intellectually, but at the cost of his own sanity.

 

What was your first experience making movies? Did you study at a film school or did you learn on your own?

The first experience I ever had with film was getting cast as an extra for a Netflix Western called “The Harder They Fall.” I love Idris Elba and I heard he got cast so I wanted to be a part of the film. I got to film there for over a week, and I fell in love with the environment. Afterwards I told myself that I needed to find a way to do that more often. 

-I never went to film school. I taught myself and learned from other industry aficionados who were willing to teach me anything they could.

 

What budget did you have?

My budget for With You was just under $5000. I thankfully had some production equipment required for it already and I was determined to make the best film I could with what I had.

 

Is it a self-financed project?

Yes, this all out of my own pocket.

 

Any anecdote that you can tell us about the filming?

One funny thing people may not notice was that I personally had to act out every character, scene, and body language one person at a time for each scene. While it was fun getting to embody the mannerisms of each character, it involved extremely tiring nights, and becoming a new character within minutes of being somebody else. There is one point in the film where two of the characters are crouched down and then the way they stand up looks very similar because it’s me doing it both times. 

 

If you had unlimited budget. Which actor and actress would you like to work with?

Actor: Christoph Waltz. He’s a phenomenal actor and I’ve enjoyed all his characters and his ability to make the viewer feel like they are being talked to directly. I would love to make a movie with him some day.

-Actress: Natalie Portman. Her emotional range in acting is incredible. She has such a great ability to deliver emotion in her characters to help you connect with them.

 

Your favorite movie?

Pulp Fiction.

 

Tell us 3 filmmakers that you like.

Quenten Tarantino, Zack Snyder, Seth MacFarlane.

 

What is the scene that has impacted you the most?

Armageddon: Bruce Willis’ sacrifice gets me almost every time.

 

Did you have light designs or did you shoot with the same light as the location? Can you explain the process of working with a cinematographer?

I was my own cinematographer and gaffer for “With You” so it made the creative decisions pretty easy. I did have several lighting designs for scenes. I’ve always loved the classic Rembrandt lighting, but it’s hard to do in animation.

 

Did you have any problems when shooting?

Yes, all the time. Getting your animation hardware to work within Unreal Engine and then communicate with about 5 other softwares, rigging the character skeletal meshes to the skeletons, maintaining the same naming convention of bone mapping across all this software, matching render data from unreal to Davinci to Pro Tools, and that’s just to name a few. I learned a lot along the way and became quite the troubleshooter.

 

And in terms of sound? Neighbors, flushing, cars?

Sound was great. On the voiceover sessions, we did have an issue with a nearby mobile car cleaning company who was pressure washing and vacuuming for hours! However, I had a great sound mixer and a great post sound supervisor who assisted me heavily in cleanup.

 

How was the producer-director relationship?

I was both so thankfully I didn’t argue with myself too much.

 

And working with actors? Tell us about this process, how do you work with the actors?

The actors were great. Despite it being a voiceover, I got to direct them during the voiceover sessions on the scene. I wanted everybody who was in a scene recording their lines in the room at the same time, so that the actors could get a feel for the other characters and feel the scene better.  Everybody got to look the other actors in the eyes as they delivered their lines to each other.

 

Do you have any other project in progress?

Absolutely, the follow up project for With You is called, “Without You” and is targeted to be released in Winter 2024.