Convergence is a suspenseful supernatural thriller about death and redemption that kept us at the edge of our seats from beginning to end. A bombing in downtown Atlanta lands Ben (Clayne Crawford), Daniel (Ethan Embry), and others in a mysterious hospital that is a purgatory for souls waiting to cross over. So far, Convergence has won four awards including Fan Favorite and Best Feature Film at the Big Easy International Film Festival along with Best Narrative Feature and Best of the Fest in the FirstGlance Film Fest Hollywood.
Drew Hall, who wrote and directed the film, took the time to chat with us about the project. Hall’s previous credits include action-packed thrillers like Sons of Liberty and The Phoenix Rises.
The hospital setting was very clever and works seamlessly in the story. What inspired you to use that particular location as a gateway between heaven and earth?
For me there are always several factors that go into selecting a setting. Based on the budget I often consider, while writing, what impact the specific location will have in terms of cost. Once I sketch out the story I go back to the locations and treat them like characters. They should have flaws. They should have some sort of arc. They should be interesting.
For Convergence I was aware of a hospital in Mobile, Alabama that had recently closed but was still maintained. This is exactly what I originally wrote, so I didn’t have to go back and address a location shift. Instead we had an opportunity to shoot Convergence in the fantastical location of a “working” hospital.
That’s the production concept behind it, but the narrative elements involved come from a variety of ideas. While I was writing the first draft of Convergence I was in the hospital a good bit as my wife had just given birth to our daughter Finnley (the baby in the movie). I would routinely get lost going from the cafeteria to her room. Hospitals are, to me, completely disorienting. Everything looks the same—sterile, non-denominational, “safe”—which compounds my own sense of geography. When your characters are all at a loss for what to do with themselves, this geography makes for a fantastic visual metaphor.
The other key reason for a hospital is that it is one of few places that typically exist as both the origin and finale of life itself. I believe that upon birth and death we have a choice to make. For many that is faith in an afterlife, but what about those who are unsure or have always wanted to believe? That’s what this space was. More importantly, time, as we understand it, is not represented in the same linear fashion inside the Kairos Medical Center (the setting of Convergence). We meet characters from different eras who all carry different emotional burdens. In one very long version of the script I had actually established a rule system. If you cross over into the chapel you were committing to an idea of faith (not specific to any religion, but I happen to identify more with Christianity). If you died inside of this other space you were re-incarnated. I cut most of it as I feel that as soon as I give rules to the afterlife, I am essentially telling viewers how or what to believe. As Captain Miller says in the film, “Every man has to find faith on his own. That’s the only real rule here.”
There are several visual elements that stand out in the film, like the shadow people and the general atmosphere of the abandoned hospital. How much of a technical challenge did this movie represent in terms of visual effects?
Convergence has quite a few VFX shots in it, beyond the obvious shadow people. We often manipulated frames in post-production to help further create a sense of false geography. Walls were adjusted in post to hide corners that felt too real. Hand held shots were increased with violence and some shots, later in the film, were dramatically stabilized.
Approaching the shadows was a very mindful process developed between myself, producer Scott Robinson, and 2nd unit director/VFX producer Horst Sarubin. Fortunately, Horst has a fantastic education in visual effects as he has worked for WETA Digital on some of their bigger projects. He was very cautious on the approach to the shadows due to their obvious relationship to the story.
I had devised a plan to shoot the rehearsals with the actors and an actor dressed in an all black onesie. This way we could technically make sure the frame was perfect and I could adjust our cast performances against something real. I can only imagine that performing against a tennis ball gets tiring.
After the rehearsal takes we would shoot the scene minus our shadow actor. Horst and his team would rush in and take all the measurements and data they needed to create the shadow people in post. Once principal production was complete we used the rehearsal takes for timing and had a complete edit of Convergence without VFX.
At picture lock we finally shot the shadow VFX on a huge green sound stage. In fact every performance of the shadow people is actually a terrifically talented guy named Boogie Dabney.
There’s something very creepy about an over-zealous fundamentalist as the main antagonist of the film, but in this case, the hero is pretty dark himself. Could you elaborate on this dynamic in the story?
When I was approached by my producing partner to write a horror/thriller, I kind of reeled back. I love watching thrillers, but they don’t typically scare me because I always know what’s coming. Furthermore, I often disconnect from the characters in modern horror-thrillers. I love the classics like The Shining [1980], The Exorcist [1973], and, for police thrillers, The French Connection [1971]. All of the characters in these pictures are tremendously flawed—even the heroes. To me it adds not just depth, but a real sense of stakes to the story.
The old adage of ‘write what you know’ is relevant to Convergence. I grew up in an era of anti-abortion terrorism; moreover, terrorism that was committed by zealots in the name of God. There were several very horrific events that occurred during the late 80s and 90s not far from where I lived. The idea of someone taking peace and manipulating it into violence, almost like the transformation that occurs in zombie films, is terrifying. In Convergence our monsters don’t necessarily look like monsters.
Often we have the theme of redemption in movies and it has become such a trope that as viewers we almost know the outcome before the stakes are even established. Since redemption and faith are intertwined in Convergence I wanted a character who was, like I have, struggling with the ideology. The darkness we see Ben (Clayne Crawford) exhibit is like the concept of the afterlife, the other side—revenge. Which nicely generates the question: is he just in his vengeful pursuit or is redemption truly found through faith in something greater?
Much of the film’s suspenseful storyline comes to life with great sound design. Was there anything in particular that influenced your direction in this aspect?
The sound edit/design was composed by Jerrid Jones. I have worked with Jerrid on all of my feature films because he approaches the design much like a composer. It does not just exist for him—it lives and breathes as much as the score, the characters, and the locations. There were several radical ideas in his efforts and that is the true joy of independent cinema—we can take risks.
A whitewashed hospital can be pretty boring, but through strong editing and sound design it can breathe a sense of dread, mystery, and maintain its disorienting geography.
Jerrid and I began experimenting with dissonant noises early on in the edit. Those are sounds which are technically out of phase from one another. They don’t reach a resolution that we expect. In Convergence, we actually took the room tone and modified its pitch and phase to incorporate dissonance. The original version was just too much. One sequence in particular was so strong it made many of us nauseous, so we were forced to pull it back. The sequence where Daniel and his army kill a shadow person is a fantastic example of utilizing sound design to fully ramp up the terror. When we first screened that sequence to producers, friends, and family, if they were standing up they would unconsciously arch their backs. Many of them described a tingling, uncomfortable feeling in their lower spine. We felt like we had done the right thing.
In other places we withheld sound and isolated only dialogue, not only for a relief, but to focus the audience on the gravity of the situation. The theatrical mix was re-recorded by Jon Frost on a THX-certified mixing room at Sonic Pool post in Los Angeles. This is was my second feature with Jon. He is, like Jerrid, someone you want on your post audio team. He mixes as if he were conducting an orchestra. Dialogue, SFX, score, and ambient sounds are his instruments.
There’s a clear representation of heaven when souls cross over in the chapel, but the image of hell is not that clear cut. Is there a reason for the conflict to stay grounded in the limbo that is the hospital?
I find it very interesting that you feel there’s a clear line to heaven. That’s very cool. I never wanted any sort of bright light or other ascension tropes, as I mentioned earlier, because it feels like I’m dictating what to believe. I imagine hell to be the complete and total disconnection from God, friends, and family. It is a place of forgetfulness. I often wonder if residual haunting and ghosts are in hell, forever trapped in a world between ascension and their own past, forced to live or relive the same actions again and again, without any sort of interaction.
Many have speculated that I was suggesting the limbo in Convergence to be purgatory, but what if it was a hell of sorts instead? Hospital cafeteria food can be pretty awful.
What are you working on now and what can the audience expect from your future projects?
We have a comedy coming out this year called Nigel and Oscar versus the Sasquatch which is a very clear departure from the heaviness of Convergence. It is a funny film with an incredible cast including Tim Meadows, Neil Flynn, Adam Herschman, Christine Bently and Paul Brittain.
Our supernatural thriller based on a creepy urban legend called Black Eyed Kids is in development.
Finally, we shot a proof of concept piece for an epic science fiction film we would love to one day make called Aether: The Rise of Specter. You can see the trailer and learn more at http://www.AetherPrologue.com.
We are filmmakers, but we are also part of the audience, so our goal is to make films that are as artistically viable as they are down right entertaining.
Watch the Convergence Trailer: