Time Lapse is a tightly-wound psychological thriller/sci fi film that played at the Seattle International Film Festival. It involves three friends, Jasper, Callie, and Finn who find a camera that can take photos exactly twenty four hours into the future. The latter two are a couple with the former a roommate and complication to their relationship. Things are further complicated when Jasper tries to use the newly discovered camera to bet on dog races. It’s all fun and games until his bookie gets suspicious.

The film combines the voyeurism of Rear Window with the futurism-as-an-idea of an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” It’s a tense drama and character study built around three excellent actors: Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, and George Finn. As my friend Rich from Three Imaginary Girls wrote, “Bottom line: Time Lapse is one of my favorite SIFF experiences so far. The sort of thing I turned on too late in the evening and couldn’t stop watching until it was over. Which frankly is my amongst the highest praise I’ll give a film most days.”

When they were in town for two sold out screenings at SIFF, I had a few minutes to ask some questions of writer/director Bradley King, writer/producer B.P. Cooper, and stars Danielle Panabaker and George Finn. I expected to learn a lot from the Time Lapse cast and crew members I spoke to; what I didn’t expect was for the producers and actors to learn from each other during the interview.

This is an unusual film – which I mean in a good way – so can I ask you guys to talk about the genesis of it?

B.P. Cooper: Bradley and I were working on a couple of projects and they were taking too long to get going. Being that this was our first feature film, from scratch, it’s hard to raise millions, millions, and millions of dollars. Bradley kept pressing the point that we needed to do something smaller, more contained, something more manageable that we could execute on our own, without permission from Hollywood.

The genesis of the camera came up and Bradley came up with all of these guidelines of how it could work, keeping it in an apartment complex, and going from one apartment into another.

One thing that I really enjoyed about the film was that it was shot in one location and that apartment complex where you filmed it didn’t seem like it was a limitation, but a strength that you kept it confined to such a small area.

Bradley King: There are a couple of things there. First, I would point to Jonathan Wenstrup, the DP, who did an excellent of lighting, obviously that can change the space, but also change the space over time. Had the lighting not change, or the environment not felt like it was morphing to fit the mood of the scenes, it would have felt more claustrophobic and stale. But he did such a good job of making it flow.

Also, we had the full run of the place. Before we shot, we were able to go in and modify that window, cut that picture window out, and knock down that kitchen wall and put in a movable wall so we could get the camera crew in more positions. We knocked down a hallway so it could connect two apartments together. It was more claustrophobic when we first got there, but because the building was going to be torn down, were able to modify it to suit our needs.

I’d like to ask the two actors, Danielle and George, what drew them in with their characters, Callie and Jasper?

George Finn: For me, when I read the script, I fell in love with the character because I hadn’t played anyone so outgoing before. When I met with Bradley, Coop, and Rick (Montgomery, producer), I was impressed by how well they had everything figured out. They had an entire room full of photos, breaking everything down and explaining how this happens and how that affects the timeline and everything like that. I felt like I just wanted to give a lot of life to this character.

Danielle Panabaker: For me, [Callie] is so fascinating. It’s fun for me, as an actor, to play with all the different levels. She has her ulterior motives, but she’s got to put a face on everyday and try a different tactic to get there. She’s a fascinating character and in each scene, there are so many choices to how I wanted to play each moment.

I’m going to try to tread delicately to not give anything away, but I felt like watching it that the twist with her character was unexpected, but when you reflect on it, all of the clues were there.

DP: Hopefully, as Bradley has said, that there is a second viewing, when you have the information about the character, it makes the second viewing that much more interesting.

In that sense, it reminded me of the book Gone Girl…

DP: I loved that book!

…in the sense that the ending builds to something unexpected, but it’s completely consistent with the story that preceded it.

But I wanted to ask about the idea for the camera…

BK: It came from Cooper. I feel like I can take credit for a lot of things in the movie, but the seed idea for the camera definitely came from Coop, and I should let him explain what his thought process was like.

BPC: There is a Paul Walker movie called Timeline, from maybe 8 years ago. In it, his father is a scientist and creates a time machine and gets in it and goes back in time. They try to rescue him but have no idea where he went and they’re too afraid to get into it. I guess it would send you automatically and you couldn’t control where it sent you. They put a camera in it and pointed it to the sky and took a picture of the sky. Based on the constellations, they were able to determine where on earth, and what time period he was in, and calibrate the machine to send the rescue team to go get him. That’s obviously the big budget version of a time travel movie.

I thought it was interesting that they used that camera, an inanimate object, to do the time travelling, so to speak, or at least give the information. Then I thought, “What if the camera itself could take a picture of the future?” That was the jumping off point.

The apartment complex where this film takes place is so important to the film and it’s like its own character. Can you discuss how you found that spot?

BK: The location was a really big deal. We called it the first miracle of the shoot. It seems easy at first because it’s an apartment complex and there are plenty in California. You have tons of where it’s in a courtyard and the apartments are facing each other. But once the script was done and we started looking for locations, you realize we need to take over the whole complex. We have to be here day and night for weeks, and no one was going to go for that.

Cooper had the idea to start hunting for derelict or condemned apartment complexes. There’s a big list because you have to register them with the city of Los Angeles. We started visiting these locations.

BPC: The list doesn’t give you the owners’ e-mails or phone numbers. They only give you the addresses of where they live.

DP: Or where they think they live.

BK: That’s true. It was a big process and it took about a month, at least. We were driving around LA to the often terrible places because they were these rundown buildings.

BPC: And you broke into that one that we ended up getting.

BK: That’s right! We couldn’t get in and almost didn’t look. It was gated and locked, but my spider-sense was tingling and decided to jump the fence and wander around. Initially it didn’t seem like what we wanted. But we kept coming back to it and thought it was pretty cool. It had a nice rod-iron gate. Luckily the letter we sent got through to the guy and he called us. The fee worked out.

DP: Has it been torn down yet?

BK: I don’t know, it wasn’t a few months ago because some permitting thing got screwed up.

BPC: Yeah, a few of the PAs that we keep in touch with say they’ve been by it and it’s still there.

DP: That’s crazy!

BK: We could do re-shoots.

BPC: Or a sequel.

With the way the film went, that’s not entirely out of the question.

BK: People have talked to us about a sequel, or TV. Because TV is blowing up all over the place, we’ve definitely gotten people nibbling at it. It’s very episodic, a la “Quantum Leap” meets “Morning Edition,” that show where the guy got the newspaper every morning that told him the day’s events. Were we ever to go that route, I don’t think we’d do a hero story, like “Quantum Leap,” but something more consistent with the tone of this thing, which is someone falling from grace or getting in trouble with the machine.

I think we want to try something different before we revisit this idea.

I’d like to talk a little bit about the casting because the acting was great across the board. Not just with singling out Danielle and George because they’re here, but everyone was great. How were you able to get the actors on board?

BPC: It was both traditional and nontraditional ways.

BK: For Danielle, she was in Girls Against Boys, we were at the premiere screening at SXSW. I was totally floored. The movie was good and Danielle was really good in it. She did a Q&A afterwards and I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to work with her?” We didn’t write the script with her in mind, but about a week and a half in, we were both like, “You know who would be awesome for this?”

BPC: I had been thinking it but didn’t want to say anything because it jinxes things when you imagine someone in that role; it jinxes the project right away and guarantees that you’re not going to get that person. I didn’t want to say anything to Bradley because that would’ve gotten his hopes up because I knew he’d think it was a really good idea.

Literally a few days later, he burst into this office saying, “I HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA!” He does that on occasion, and they’re almost always really good ideas. They’re usually about the story. He says, “DANIELLE PANABAKER AS CALLIE!” and I said I was thinking the same thing but didn’t want to say anything to you.

We looped up with Rick Montgomery, who has been a casting director in Hollywood for over twenty years and worked on a bunch of much bigger films. He read the script and said he wanted to come on board and help, but he also wanted to produce it with you. He has relationships with talent and agents that I just don’t have. We pitched it to him, not to throw him under the bus, but he said, “Danielle? You’re not going to get her.”

DP: I didn’t know that!

BPC: Oh yeah. But he came around a day later and said, “Let me reach out and see what she says.”

BK: The worst she can say is no.

BPC: I’ll let you take it from there, because I don’t know how your agency works, but they probably have like four people read it before they even give it to you.

DP: My understanding is that sometimes agents don’t even forward stuff on. I’m very lucky that mine are amazing and they do send scripts to me. I was at a place, and I’m still there, where I was skeptical of doing another genre piece. This had some scary stuff, but, to me, it’s not a typical genre story, in terms of thrashers and thrillers, like I’ve already done. I took a look at it. When you look at Callie as an actor, it was so exciting to play a character that had so many options. It’s never just what’s on the page.

I went in and met with these guys, and that was it.

BPC: Can I ask them a question?

Of course.

BPC: It’s so interesting to me because we went into it knowing that we don’t have an entire body of work where can show you what we did. We just mostly have words on page. You guys both have bodies of work that is tangible and visceral and you can watch it. As actors, how did you make that leap of faith, where you say you’re going to trust this director knows what he’s doing? Where is that line and when did you decide to trust it?

BK: No one ever asked me for a reel, because I’ve done a zillion short films. No one asked me for anything. I expected the agents…

DP: I think there’s something exciting about working with a newer director. Particularly working with a writer/director, you’re working with someone who is passionate about the project. If you write and direct it, you give a shit. That’s what interesting to me.

Again, you guys were so prepared. It wasn’t like “I’ve got the script and we’re going to go out and do stuff.” You were very prepared so it never felt like you didn’t know what you were doing.

GF: When I read the script, and I try to read anything I can, I was really happy with it. I could tell that there was going to be a twist and that something was going to happen. I didn’t really have any problems with it. I liked it so much and thought, “This is a movie I would like to see.” With Jasper, it didn’t play with any stereotypes. It was a very realistic approach of what would happen if these three people had this encounter. You sent me this pitch packet and everything was really detailed and broken down. There was heart in it and I could tell you both knew what you wanted to do and how you were going to get it done. When I met with you guys, I tried to ask a few questions, and your confidence came through and I really wanted to be a part of it.

But, as you say, it really is a leap of faith.

BK: The pitch packet helped. That’s good to know.

But to circle back to your question. That’s how we found Danielle. For George, he was in LOL and I had seen him in some short films. There was something about his work that kept pulling me back.

BPC: He had this really interesting short on his real where he said something like, “I’m a motherfucking fuck.”

GF: That was my first I made with my brother. It’s called The Harsh Life of Veronica Lambert. That was one scene that was on my reel.

BK: That was with your brother? That was the one that moved me. I expressed a real attitude and fierceness. I think that’s what started drawing us towards George.

Finn, Matt O’Leary’s character, was the hardest. We almost had to push the movie because had we met with a lot of people and none were working out. I had been accused of writing a lot of myself into that character and maybe that’s why I was so tangled up in the decision making. But we met Matt and he was great and it all worked out.

Is there anything you want people to take away from the film, either after it plays here or beyond?

DP: I want people to watch it again after they see it the first time.

BPC: Debate it with however you came with, friends.

BK: We want people to drag their friends.

BPC: Buy a hundred copies of it, mention it on Facebook, Twitter…

BK: I hope people will want to see it again, but in the best sense. You see movies where you think, “I need to see it again but don’t want to, just to understand it.” I hope with this one, it’s clear but they’re curious to see what Danielle does on a second viewing, and see George’s descent all over again.

GF: For me, given the opportunity: don’t fuck with time.