DIRECTOR'S NOTES
The idea for Face 2 Face came to me when I was away from my family directing a play at the University of Utah. My wife and I would FaceTime almost every night. On several occasions I found myself remarking, “If we were talking about something interesting, this could be a movie!” As time went on I couldn’t let go of the idea of a movie composed entirely of video chats. I began thinking about all the possible stories that could be told using this convention as a window into our technology-driven lives.
I was also teaching in the School of Theatre at Penn State University at the time, where the entire community was reeling from a scandal that dominated national headlines. It had recently come to light that Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Football’s defensive coordinator, had been sexually abusing children under the cover of a charity he had founded to help disadvantaged youth. When I approached my brother and co-writer Aaron Toronto with the idea of using this convention to explore themes of sexual abuse he was absolutely compelled by the idea. As a therapist, he had treated dozens of sexual abuse survivors and had a unique insight into the pain and consequences caused by such exploitation. In addition, we had both been profoundly affected by instances of sexual abuse that had happened to some of our own close friends and relatives when we were teenagers. Because of the themes and the strong potential for social outreach, we received a generous grant from Penn State University’s College of Arts and Architecture which was a primary source of funding for the production.
My approach to the film was driven by a desire to depict the online experience of American teens in a truthful way. Our challenge was to find a balance between crafting a precise, gripping narrative, and allowing for the organic development of an online relationship without letting it look too “produced.” In addition to that, I had concerns about creating enough visual interest to sustain the attention of an audience because the film’s concept confined us to using only two angles in any given scene: his and hers. The solution to this problem also helped capture the realism I was looking for – we empowered the actors to do 99% of the camera work. Besides painstaking efforts to create a realistic but emotionally evocative lighting design, Kris Carillo, our director of photography devised specialized rigs for the GoPro cameras that the actors could operate themselves during filming (we chose GoPro because it captured the web-cam/cell phone look while giving us the greatest amount of control during the shoot). Once those rigs were created I worked with the actors to incorporate camera moves into their blocking. This allowed for a great deal of camera motion and connected it intimately with the action and emotional journey of our teenage heroes.
Ultimately this movie is about friendship – true friendship – in contrast to the surface level-friendships that can happen over social media or in the landscape of high-school popularity. As Madison and Teel connect, they learn not only to love and accept one another, but they help each other cope with the pain and the loneliness adolescence. As true friends do, they help each other take the bravest of steps as they embrace their emerging identities and come Face 2 Face with their true selves.
- MATT TORONTO
I was also teaching in the School of Theatre at Penn State University at the time, where the entire community was reeling from a scandal that dominated national headlines. It had recently come to light that Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Football’s defensive coordinator, had been sexually abusing children under the cover of a charity he had founded to help disadvantaged youth. When I approached my brother and co-writer Aaron Toronto with the idea of using this convention to explore themes of sexual abuse he was absolutely compelled by the idea. As a therapist, he had treated dozens of sexual abuse survivors and had a unique insight into the pain and consequences caused by such exploitation. In addition, we had both been profoundly affected by instances of sexual abuse that had happened to some of our own close friends and relatives when we were teenagers. Because of the themes and the strong potential for social outreach, we received a generous grant from Penn State University’s College of Arts and Architecture which was a primary source of funding for the production.
My approach to the film was driven by a desire to depict the online experience of American teens in a truthful way. Our challenge was to find a balance between crafting a precise, gripping narrative, and allowing for the organic development of an online relationship without letting it look too “produced.” In addition to that, I had concerns about creating enough visual interest to sustain the attention of an audience because the film’s concept confined us to using only two angles in any given scene: his and hers. The solution to this problem also helped capture the realism I was looking for – we empowered the actors to do 99% of the camera work. Besides painstaking efforts to create a realistic but emotionally evocative lighting design, Kris Carillo, our director of photography devised specialized rigs for the GoPro cameras that the actors could operate themselves during filming (we chose GoPro because it captured the web-cam/cell phone look while giving us the greatest amount of control during the shoot). Once those rigs were created I worked with the actors to incorporate camera moves into their blocking. This allowed for a great deal of camera motion and connected it intimately with the action and emotional journey of our teenage heroes.
Ultimately this movie is about friendship – true friendship – in contrast to the surface level-friendships that can happen over social media or in the landscape of high-school popularity. As Madison and Teel connect, they learn not only to love and accept one another, but they help each other cope with the pain and the loneliness adolescence. As true friends do, they help each other take the bravest of steps as they embrace their emerging identities and come Face 2 Face with their true selves.
- MATT TORONTO
ROMEO AND JULIET
The themes in Romeo and Juliet seem to resonate with our story: two teenagers who cling desperately to each other while they assert their identities in a hostile world. Writer/director Matt Toronto had recently directed a rather large, outdoor, production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. It was on his mind while writing the film, so it crept into Face 2 Face in a number of different ways including a school production that Teel auditions for. Actor, Daniel Amerman, had never done any Shakespeare before and since Matt Toronto taught Shakespeare at Penn State University for many years, they had a few lessons on Shakespearean acting to help Dan prepare for his soliloquy. You may also notice a version of the famous scene at Juliet’s window in our movie.
CASTING
There were no formal auditions for the roles of Madison and Teel. Director Matt Toronto got a feel for Daniela Bobadilla’s acting by watching her performances as Charlie Sheen’s daughter in Anger Management and on the NBC drama Awake. He also watched Daniel Amerman on Arrested Development and The Office as well as a few other independent films. This led to interviews with each of them. The interviews turned out to be the most important element of the casting process. Each of them had unique and perceptive insights into the characters. Daniela was doing a film in Canada at the time so her interview was conducted over FaceTime. This turned out to be a great benefit because it gave Matt a perfect preview of the movie itself which is made entirely of video chats. After that interview, the role was hers!
Eight Day Shoot
Principal photography for Face 2 Face lasted only eight days, which is very speedy for a feature film. Most shoots last weeks or even months. On a few occasions the production team was shooting 25 pages of dialogue in a single day! Their efficiency can be attributed to the preparation of the actors as well as the dedication and professionalism of our awesome crew.
THE LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE
The ending of the movie went through a number of revisions. The Toronto Brothers wanted the finale to be as real as possible, but also hopeful. Their mother, a doctor of Psychology, referred them to some research about the effect of witnesses on abusive relationships. If a friend is witness to the abuse it allows the victim to see their own situation from a different point of view and recognize the abuse. Often this is enough to give him or her the courage to do something about it. This got them close, however, while shooting, they still weren’t satisfied with the final scene until producer Ian Michaels had a conversation with a family member, who works with Child Protective Services. She explained the chain of events that occurs when an instance of child abuse is discovered. This inspired the current ending which the Toronto Brothers didn’t complete until the morning of the last day of shooting.