February 8, 2010

Back in early October, Paramount teamed with Mountain Dew and MySpace to create an intricate on-line supernatural web-series titled Circle of Eight to debut on the social networking site. The ten-episode series was about Jessica, who moves into the historic building complex known as The Dante in Los Angeles. Her neighbors, while a bit odd, seem overly friendly to welcome her. But then she starts seeing a strange array of deaths that don’t seem to be real and begins having visions of her true connection to the place.

Now that the on-line series version has officially aired, Paramount Home Entertainment has prepped a slightly alternate cut of the show as a full length feature film for DVD. Shock had the opportunity to speak with lead actress Austin Highsmith who portrays Jessica about her experiences on the project.

Robg.: This was filmed for MySpace but feels like a feature. Was the filmmaking process any different knowing it was going to be cut up for episodes on line? Or was it the same as making a feature?

Austin Highsmith: It was pretty similar but it was different because the director Stephen Cragg would say, “Ok, we need to do a couple of different things here. We need to do some shots that will only work for the web and some shots that will be for the long form.” So we had to do things a couple of different ways so there would be a punctuation mark at the end of the episodes for the web. And then we’d do a version where it didn’t quite resolve itself or leave a cliffhanger for the feature.

Robg.: Can you tell us a bit working with the cast? Had you known or worked with any of them beforehand?

Austin: I didn’t know any of the people beforehand. I was familiar obviously with DJ Qualls, and I was familiar with Katie Lowes, and I had a blast working with everyone. I’m actually still friends with a bunch of them. I especially loved working with John Bishop who I thought was unbelievable. I love my scenes with him. I thought the cast were all really hard workers and we had fun. I know that’s such a generic response, but it’s true. [laughs]

Robg.: This is a fairly complex story – for you, what was the most interesting aspect of the script when you read it? Was there something that stood out and made you want to do this?

Austin: When I first read the script, I just thought that Jessica had such a dynamic journey. She just went through so much and I thought it would be really challenging as an actress to go in and try to play all the different levels that she’s going through. Because there’s also a lot of flashback scenes and then the stuff you see in the video tapes, so I thought “Wow, this would be a really fun challenge.” It was also the first time that I’ve had the opportunity to carry a story like this. So I was really excited about that.

Robg.: Are there many differences between the MySpace version as opposed to the feature cut on the DVD?

Austin: The movie version is a little bit different than what was presented on line. There’s a couple of scenes that were added to the feature length. There was nudity added which was not me, by the way. [laughs]

Robg.: You guys shot this at Linda Vista Hospital, correct? Did you know the history of the place before shooting there?

Austin: The very first film that I ever did when I came out here (to Los Angeles) was an independent horror movie that was never released except for I think in Hong Kong. Anyways, we filmed Circle of Eight there, so I was really familiar with the location, but it is super creepy. I mean there was one scene we were shooting where I’m supposed to be coming out of a hallway and there were all these dead gelatinous pigeons and it was really disgusting and creepy. One of the PA’s that I had gotten close to was courageous enough to wait with me in the hallway until they called action. When I ran out, he took a picture because he said, “I feel like there’s something else in here with us.” There’s definitely a face in this picture just hanging in mid-air. A lot of people had experiences like that. I remember a piano started playing randomly in the middle of a shot. And when we went and found it, it was covered in a backroom and the keys didn’t even work, which really creeped me out.

Robg.: As an actor, what’s one of your favorite things you got to do on this? Anything stand out that you’re proud of?

Austin: I really like the scene when I came down the stairs from Evan’s (Ryan Doom) loft with Katie Lowes and Josh Kelly, because it allowed for such surprise, at least for my character. I really loved shooting that scene and I loved that whole exchange. It was also a lot of fun to do all the fire stunts and that kind of stuff, even though it was very stressful and difficult. It was still a lot of fun and my stunt double was phenomenal and amazing.

Robg.: What stands out about this experience personally?

Austin: Definitely just being able to feel the character arc through out the entire piece, because most of the other films I’ve done, I’ve been more of a secondary character so for me what stands out is the experience of shooting 15 hours a day and becoming really super close with the crew and the director and everyone involved and at the end of the day walking away being pretty proud of what I did. I loved the story when I read it, I thought it was going to be a great challenge.

Robg.: To our readers, I know this may be spoiler territory so if you don’t want to know, turn away now, but the ending is pretty wide open for interpretation. Do you have any thoughts on what the ending to Circle of Eight really means?

Austin: Well, basically, from at least the way that I understand it, she’s responsible for trapping these people’s souls in the building because she can’t make a sacrificial decision. She always chooses to save herself and as a result her choice has made these people have to relive the same day in their life where they die about 90,000 times. So they’re really trying to convince her to make the choice to sacrifice herself and save somebody else. And there’s an alternate ending where she finally does that she gets to release their souls. This is why they are so mean and weird to her immediately because they are so annoyed with the fact that she can never come to the realization that she needs to make a sacrificial choice.

Robg.: Thank for clearing that up!

Circle Of Eight is now available on DVD.