Bye “Orionis an ambitious indie space saga whose exploration of human nature is decidedly grounded.
The film stars Andrew McCarthy as Jim, a NASA bigwig tasked with helping Apollo (Drew Van Acker), an astronaut with memory loss, figure out what happened to cause his ship to crash and leave the other crew dead. Their back and forth is the backbone of the film as unexpected twists and discoveries gradually unfold.
Director Jaco Bauer found many valid elements in Anna Vitayatil's script for Orion. Viewers will be taken on the film's first journey when it makes its world premiere in FilmQuest in Provo, Utah, October 25.
“I don’t think there is any absolute truth in this world anymore,” he says. “It really touches on that theme without being too flashy. Science fiction is very intriguing to me. I like the genre because it's a little more expressionistic way of conveying emotion.”
Bauer credits his co-stars for helping walk the film's tricky tightrope, making the largely two-handed performance feel expansive. He cites McCarthy's curiosity about a script that's very different from the Brat Pack roles that first made him famous as one of his big advantages.
“He has to know exactly what's going on,” Bauer says of McCarthy. “He portrays Jim really well: there's a cerebral aspect to him, he's a master manipulator. There's a moment in our film towards the end where we see some of the humanity behind it. I find him really professional and I think his range is much wider than we've seen before.”
Aside from the dialogue, Bauer and his cinematographer David Kruta strived to make the film tense and dynamic, which is no easy task for an indie production.
“We actually used quite a few different lenses,” says Bauer. “For the flashbacks, we used anamorphic shots and also changed the ratio. Sometimes we used a very wide-angle mode. Most of the effects were done in camera. For me, the acting always comes first, so it is important that the actors feel that. Because everything happens under one roof, the movement is motivated. So I would come in the morning and we would somehow block it, and as soon as we did that, I would meet my director of photography to see how we could best do it. adjust the camera to suit them. Sometimes it's just for visual effect, but mostly it was planning their journey and allowing the camera to follow them or capture them in the best way possible.”
Also critical were the sparsely used shots of distant regions of outer space, which helped convey the scale of the story, including the stunning final scene.
“Especially at the end of the shot, you step back and just see the smallness and scale of what’s happening,” Bauer says. “For me, there's something really wonderful and emotional and sad about that image. It's kind of subconscious, but in the back of my mind I always wanted to give the feeling that there's something more out there. It makes the world feel bigger, even though it's a film with two settings.”
And while the vastness of the universe is noteworthy, Bauer had a lot of fun creating all the fun and thrills out of a small story.
“I really tried to mislead the audience in subtle ways,” he says. “I think it all comes down to the performances. If the performances weren't believable, you're in big trouble. So I was very happy to have Drew and Andrew as my main guides through this maze of twists and turns.”
Check out the first footage of Orion below.
