Filmmaker Jeffrey Morris Talks About Sci-fi Short Film ‘Oceanus’Posted by Wilson Morales
December 22, 2015
2015 has been an amazing year for Black filmmakers. F. Gary Gray proved with ‘Straight Outta Compton’ that studios can take Black films outside the states and make a profit, especially when you look at the $200M haul that Compton has grossed. After the critical success of his first film, “Fruitvale Station,” Ryan Coogler showed that his follow up, “Creed,” was no sophomore slump. Then, there’s Ava DuVernay. For someone who didn’t have a film released this year, she’s was constantly mentioned throughout the year on her other activities. Whether she’s having a Barbie doll in her honor or directing an Apple commercial with Mary J. Blige and Taraji P. Henson, she’s continues to build her legacy.
Black filmmakers are continuing to make strides in areas where they haven’t been a factor in. Most recently, Blackfilm.com spoke with filmmaker Jeffrey Morris on his directorial debut, the short film ‘Oceanus: Act One,’ which premiered this year and where he hopes to turn into a feature. We’ve had our share of Black actors in the sci-fi genre, but hardly, if ever, directed by one. Morris hopes to crack that door and bring in a fresh story to the genre.
The cast includes Sharif Atkins (NBC’s ER), Megan Dodds, Bruce Davidson, and Malcolm McDowell.
In ‘Oceanus: Act One,’ a disaster of global proportions begins a life-and-death struggle for a couple in a research base under the Pacific Ocean.
Morris is also the Founder of Futuredude Entertainment. His publications include the genre-bending adventures Venus, Parallel Man, Brainstorm, and Slingshot. Morris is an award-winning director of commercials and documentaries for clients such as Prince, Delta Airlines and NASA.
Talk to me about putting this project together and what was the attraction or the inspiration?
Jeffrey Morris: Let’s see. Back in the ’90s I used to direct commercials and music videos a little bit. I’ve always had aspirations to be a director. I was looking to combine a lot of different factors together. I’d been involved with education, and I’ve also loved being an illustrator. In a lot of ways this project was about respecting all those aspects, production, design, and science. I was going to do a story that was set in space. The brutal concept was to show the capabilities of my team and then myself as a designer and director.
I thought, “You know, there’s lots of stuff that is set in space. What if we do something under water?” I feel like under water has been a very under served story line, basically. You’ve only had a handful of stories that have been done under water. With the exception of probably 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Abyss, a lot of the other stuff was really campy and silly. I wanted to see if we could do a very serious thing that was character driven, that was based under water. That’s really the impetus for it.
It’s a good production design for a short. What is the ultimate goal down the road?
JM: I’m going to be taking the short and turning it into a full feature film. We’re planning to shoot in April. We’ll be shooting here in Los Angeles and we would shoot another three weeks and complete a full story. In addition we’re looking at pitching this to the SyFy channel and a couple of other places as maybe a mini-series. I’d like to write it off as more of a mini-series and have creative control and production control and actually make six hours or so of it. That’s really the plan right now.
You want the biggest audience you can get. What ultimately would be the sell? Will it be the production, the story, the acting? Granted, everybody can say all in one, but what, ultimately, do you want to sell for this project?
JM: Well, what I want to do is I want to open up a world. I’m doing it as a feature in order to get people into the world and excited. I see it as a door, a door into the world. Now, that world could go into more movies. That door could go into a streaming digital piece on a series, or it could go into an actual television project. I guess my point is that what I’m trying to do is just open a door and show people what this world could be like. I’m trying to take them down a path that’s not typical these days. We’re going into space. We have super heroes, but being able to go underwater and have really cool submarines and really interesting ideas that deal with science, which is what we’re going to be doing with the feature, that’s really what I’m trying to do.
The thing that Gene Roddenberry opened up the door to people thinking about the future with Star Trek, I want to do the same thing. People thinking about the future under water. There’s a premise here that is really ultimately going to deal with human beings being forced to live under water if they’re going to survive. This concept, and the reason why I chose to go in that direction, is I figured that today’s audiences it’s not enough to go, “Hey, isn’t it cool to live under water?” That would be enough for me, but I think that a lot of people need a little bit more push. That’s what this story was all about; I was trying to create a circumstance that just forced us to have to evolve. Forced us to have to grow up and look at things a little differently. That’s what I’m trying to do with the story.
How did you go about putting together your cast?
JM: I worked with Bialy/ Thomas Casting. They cast Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead. They’re a very talented group. I went in early and I thought that Kathy was going to be really essential to this. What I did is I went in with the production design book and I showed them my illustrations and my concept and the script. They were pretty excited about it and they wanted to help me get some decent actors to really back up my vision. We went through lists of different actors and I wanted to work with Sharif Atkins because I just have always admired him. I think he’s great. I thought it was very important to have a strong African American lead male character in the story who was going to really show some strength and intelligence and humor. I thought he did a great job with that.
With Megan Dodds, I was really going for more of a Sigourney Weaver kind of strength and dramatic energy. Megan, I looked at a lot of reels, and hers really stood out to me. She did a CSI episode. She was a character in that. She was in the movie Ever After and a few things. She’s more of a Shakespearean actor. She’s done a lot of stage and that sort of thing. She actually did a big play in London that ran for a while with Idris Elba. She’s very talented and I thought she would be a great lead. I’m hoping that when we finish the feature it really breaks out for her. I think she’s really talented.
Then we have Bruce Davison who is another actor that I’ve always liked. One of my top ten actors. It was a real honor to get to work with him. I actually got to direct him the very first shooting day, which was cool. Then ultimately I thought that we needed something to help explain the story so I explained the technical aspects, I thought we’d add a computer voice to the story. I was able to get Malcolm McDowell to come out and had a blast working with him. He’s agreed to continue into the feature and he’s going to be doing the computer voice for us in a feature film, which is cool.
Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot about diversity and opportunities. Whether it’s we’re at the door, we’re not at the door. Where do you see yourself in this mix? Are you getting the opportunities? Is it a matter of finding your way to get in the trenches to get that opportunity?
JM: I think the key for me is in a lot of this has to do with being an entrepreneur first, as opposed to just going into it as a creative. The fact that I’ve really worked on the business side and I found investors and people who could really back my vision financially, that’s allowed me to create. That was the hard work. That’s the majority, unfortunately. It actually takes a lot of work Keeping the funding flowing and keeping the chance to actually fund a show.
We self-financed this project through my private investors that have funded me. The point is, I guess, through doing the entrepreneurial side and building a business, I’ve been able to get enough financial power to be able to create a vision so that when I walk in the doors people see what I’m doing. Recently, I was at Amazon. When I go in with the quality of the content I’m finding that the doors are opening because of the material. Whereas back in the nineties when I was pitching out here, I felt that there was a real resistance to the idea of a black filmmaker who wanted to do science fiction.
I haven’t really been running into that right now because of the quality of the material that I’m doing and the diversity of the material. I’m intentionally creating material for everyone. I’m not trying to focus on material on one group. I’m trying to create something that’s for everyone. I think that also helps. I would say that I haven’t run into overt resistance to me walking in the door as an African American filmmaker. I’m an artist because of the quality of what I’m coming in with.
