ITV_JAY_SHERER

THE INTERVIEW

September, 2024

JAY SHERER

DIRECTORS OF NO VACANCY

BEST FIRST TIME DIRECTOR

Jay, tell us a little more about yourself. Where did your desire to be a director come from?

Here’s what’s crazy: I really didn’t have the desire to be a director at all, but when it came to making this film, it just made sense. And I absolutely fell in love with directing. So, I wrote a low budget feature called The Harlequin with my writing partner Nathan Scheck. And after we finished that script I went, “Nathan, we have to make this.” But I needed something to showcase that the concept was viable and marketable. And that we could be trusted to do it and do it well. So we wrote another script, a proof-of-concept prequel, No Vacancy. And just like with The Harlequin, we loved it and we knew that we needed to make it and prove that we could not only do this film, but that we could make The Harlequin as well. I started calling up some of my friends, one of whom was Lukas Colombo. And he says: “You want to direct it, right?” In my head, I had this super clear vision of what the story was, and I felt so strongly about the subject matter and how I felt the story needed to play out, so I said “yes.” And it was such an amazing experience. I absolutely fell in love with directing when we made No Vacancy.

What is your background?

I’ve been a writer, both for the screen and I’ve written books as well, for over twenty years. I love the process of storytelling and what storytelling really means. To me, storytelling has a deep spiritual component to it. And I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid. The interesting thing, too, is that once I discovered screenwriting, people would read my books and say: “I could see this being a film.” or “I could see this being a streaming series.” There’s something about the writing that Nathan and I produce that works well on a visual level, which I’m sure is why directing turned out to be such a rewarding thing for me to learn with this film.

What were your references No Vacancy?

With both No Vacancy and The Harlequin, we were inspired by films that dug deeper into the human side of the superhero genre. And I was observing the film industry struggling in the aftermath of COVID and I was thinking: “I feel like we need more low budget options.” And that made me think of films like Unbreakable and Identity and TV shows like Watchmen and The Boys. Those have deeper things to say about the human condition. And with Identity or a film like Bad Times at the El Royale, I loved this aspect of a single location that causes the characters to feel out-of-place and vulnerable. And then, as I explored the aspect of the flashbacks–where we start to understand why Leigh Larson has arrived at this motel–those were inspired by Stranger Things, where when Eleven is able to do her remote viewing thing and see another location that’s in this black, ether-like environment. And that meant not having to film at 3-4 more locations. We could just use a blackout set.

You won an Honorable Mention & Best First Time Director for your film at the RED MOVIE AWARDS what does that symbolize?

I’m incredibly humbled by it, and also incredibly energized. To get an aware for my first time sitting in a director’s chair feels pretty surreal. And getting an honorable mention for screenwriting is so validating. I’m a COVID-longhauler, which essentially means I picked up a disability from COVID during the pandemic. And in 2022, when I started work on The Harlequin, I really couldn’t do much. I had systemic inflammation, I would get headaches, I had heart and lung issues, and I had pretty significant fatigue. But the one thing I could do was sit down in a recliner and use my smartphone to work on scripts. And that’s when I was able to write The Harlequin and No Vacancy. And although I got better–and I recovered enough to direct No Vacancy–it was scary. Because I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it. So, winning these two awards means so much to me, because they were both a labor of love coming from someone who couldn’t do much else. And I’m just so grateful to the RED Movie Awards, my cast and crew, my wife, and even God. To be sitting here, in this interview, in some ways feels like a miracle, if I’m being honest. Thank you so much. This means the world to me

Jay you are basically a screenwriter, you have already worked on a feature film THE HARLEQUIN and NO VACANCY is a short film, a prequel to this feature film. How do you work from a screenwriting point of view when a project is linked to another but not in the same format?

I love this question. Nathan and I knew that we really loved The Harlequin, the feature script. But very few people have heard of us. And we knew that if we wanted to get it made, we’d need to be very strategic in our approach. We would need to prove that we could make a feature. And I had an idea that answered a question regarding Lazarus Laghmani’s backstory. I won’t spoil The Harlequin, but I will say it was simply: Where did Lazarus get all his information? And because I love the creative process of writing and filmmaking, I said to Nathan: “I don’t want to do a proof of concept that’s just a scene from the feature. I want to do a prequel film.” That’s where No Vacancy came from, the desire to do more creatively and build out a world that we really love.

Why did you choose to explore the themes of guilt and shame?

In the first screenwriting class I ever took, my professor–shoutout to David Esselstrom–had us read The Art of Dramatic Writing, which is a book about writing for the stage. And in that book, Egri–the author–talks about a story’s premise. And my interpretation of the premise is that it’s the thing about the shared human experience that resonates with an audience. It’s the thing we can point to and say: “I know that. I’ve experienced that.” or at least, “I’ve seen that.” And my last three writing projects–a book Nathan and I wrote called Death of a Bounty Hunter, and then these two scripts–have all been about shame and guilt. In large part because I struggle with those things myself. Which means the onus is now on me–and Nathan–to explore that theme in a way that points to the shared human experience. And the key thing we’re highlighting in No Vacancy and The Harlequin is what it means to isolate in your shame and guilt vs. turning to community. Those two choices are of vital importance, and we wanted to explore that in a way that would resonate with the audience.

What was the biggest challenge for this first film?

One of the biggest challenges ended up being a blessing in disguise, because we shot the film during the writer’s strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike in the U.S. And I wanted to make sure we adhered to all of the rules surrounding that to be supportive to our fellow writers and performers. As an independent film we had no problem getting it approved, and then we had so many talented people who were available to work with us. I mean this was a dream cast. They were all so amazing to work with, and so generous with me as a first-time director as well. And the thing that I feel so blessed by was how everyone came together around the vision. I think it had a lot to do with the message and premise of the film itself. Everybody who joined the production treated it as if we were making something important, and that was such a fantastic experience.

Do you have an anecdote to share with us in particular?

There are so many I could share, so let me say this. The cast and crew on this film were phenomenal. I don’t get a RED Movie Award if that isn’t true. Nathan Scheck was dedicated to the script and breaking the story until it was perfect. I would take my shot list–which I had to recompile every morning because the software deleted them–but I would take them to Lukas Colombo and go: “What do you think?” And he would give me a nod, and then we’d get to work setting up the shots. He’s so amazing visually. And Josh Long, our AD, who knew exactly how to manage a set in a way that freed me up to direct. When Colleen and I talked about her role–and the film relies on Leigh Larson to work–she just got it. She understood what it meant for her character. And Kirk Bovill, Phil Shahbaz, Spencer Levin, Joni Bovill, Sam Schuder, Austin Hall, Ben Holtzmuller… the whole cast: they got the vision. They inhabited the characters in such a meaningful way. It was an absolute pleasure to work with this cast and this crew to make this film. No anecdotes so much as just extreme gratitude.

What is your next project?

Right now we’re looking to pitch The Harlequin so we can make that film–I’d love to get back in the director’s chair with that one. And while we’re doing that, Nathan and I are writing the script for a sequel to The Harlequin because this 1970s superhero world we’ve created is something we’ve fallen in love with. And really what we’re doing is taking the superhero genre and mashing it up with the thriller genre to create something that we want to feel like Hitchcock might make if he were still around today. On top of that, we’re always working on new scripts. The plan is to keep making more films because it’s something we just really love to do.