Heartland: Rachael Cain of Somnium

The writer/director talks about her bringing her debut feature film to the screen, and the challenges of getting pinned with the "most promising" filmmaker label.

For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here.

Film Yap: This is your first feature, and your screenplay won the L.A. Screenplay Competition and also got notice at Cannes. While I'm sure that gave you a leg up on getting it produced, was there any hesitation -- like, "Now I've actually gotta go make it?"

Rachael Cain: Oh, definitely. I was terrified at every turn. Making that free fall from the comfortable creative realm down into the reality of filming is so scary. I feel like I could have dragged my feet forever. Ultimately, I think I had to forgive myself in advance for all the mistakes I knew I’d inevitably make before I allowed myself to let go and make it.

FY: Tell us a little about your filmmaker journey and how you arrived at this point.

RC: I grew up making VHS horror movies with the neighborhood kids, then went on to study Film Production at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts. After graduation, it was either NYC or LA. I had a messy first draft of a script about a young, aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles, so I picked LA. I spent my early years in LA bartending nights and tinkering with the script at coffee shops most days, pitching the film to anyone who’d listen. In 2017, I took a part time job working the coffee bar at a film production studio and, in between serving celebrities their flat whites, I managed to secure my first small chunk of financing for SOMNIUM. In 2018, my cinematographer Lance Kuhns (who I met via my Instagram account for the film) and I, along with our tiny skeleton crew, traveled to Georgia to shoot the main character’s flashbacks scenes. The film studio I worked for had a branch in Atlanta and offered us a generous discount on trucks and gear. I knew, though the script was very much still finding itself, the flashbacks were complete. And sensing it would take some time to raise the rest of the financing, I was excited to weave the texture of the authentic passage of time into the film. The Georgia shoot went better than I could have hoped. We used footage from those scenes to launch a Kickstarter campaign in late 2018 and cut together a sizzle reel to accompany my pitch package, which ultimately helped tremendously in raising the rest of the financing. After weathering the storm of 2020, we finally picked back up again and completed filming in LA in 2022, over four and a half years after we shot those Georgia flashbacks. With our tiny budget, we spent 2023 slowly checking off the 160 visual effects shots with our Visual Effects Producer and artist, Matt Lathrom, before putting a final polish on the film with sound, music and color in early 2024. The film just had its premiere at the Chattanooga Film Festival, winning the 2024 Audience Award, and here we are!

FY: What gave you the idea for this story about a young woman arriving in Hollywood trying to make it? Any parallels with your own path?

RC: Absolutely. I’ve always acted in my own short films and I think there was even a period in the initial few months of writing SOMNIUM where I considered starring in it. (That would’ve been an impossible task — I don’t know how people do it!) But I think the story parallels any young artist, setting out into the world, eager to prove themselves. It certainly continued to mirror my own as a writer/director, often struggling with imposter syndrome and wishing there was an easy button (like a Somnium clinic) to help get me where I wanted to be.

FY: How difficult was it to find your lead actress, Chloë Levine? What made you think she was right for Gemma?

RC: Chloë came to me as a suggestion from my NYC casting director, Bess Fifer. I had seen her in The OA and the 2016 Cannes film THE TRANSFIGURATION. It’s a strange experience, casting someone to play a version of yourself. I obviously saw parts of myself at that age in her, but it was more a feeling I had of boundlessness to the depths she could navigate, emotionally. She’s wise beyond her years and really fearless in front of the camera. I knew the shoot would be a challenging one, logistically, too and so I appreciated that Chloë is also a filmmaker and would come in having a strong sense of production.

FY: The production values of "Somnium" are pretty spectacular -- photography, music, special effects. What's the secret to making a great-looking film on a shoestring?

RC: Thank you! I think the secret is connecting with the right people. (And then somehow convincing them to work on your project for probably far less than what they’re used to making haha.) I spent a lot of time, early on, making a long list of artists I wanted to work with in that intersection of the Venn diagram for “has experience” and “hasn’t worked in features.” I thought, if I could find talented artists in that sweet spot of their careers where they had plenty of experience on commercials or music videos, etc. but had a hunger to tell stories, I’d get the good stuff. And so I started reaching out. Lance Kuhns, my cinematographer, regularly shoots shorts for SNL and had lensed several commercials, but primarily wants to work in features. Olivia McManus, my production designer, had designed so many top commercials and music videos, but was interested in how set design could help convey a character’s evolution on a longer journey. Peter Ricq, my composer, was a musician but had never scored a feature, apart from his own. And our Visual Effects Producer, Matt Lathrom’s bread and butter was corporate screen replacement gigs while he spent his off-hours and weekends creating our incredible, mind-bending VFX shots. Everyone gave so much of themselves to pull this thing off and the film shines because of it. I so greatly hope that it opens future doors for them.

FY: Any advice to aspiring filmmakers that you wish someone had passed on to you?

RC: So much advice! When starting out: scale down and use what you have around you. If you can, whittle your vision down to one kernel of an idea. It’ll make pitching, submitting to festivals, marketing, etc. later so much easier. In pre-production: spend the majority of your time and energy building your team. With the right creatives around you, your ideas only get better. Also, pick your battles ahead of time. A film is just a very long string of creative choices. Make note of your non-negotiables beforehand so that, when you’re inevitably in the trenches on set, you can make those big decisions with confidence. A lot of the time, this just means staying rooted in story. Know when to be flexible and where to stand your ground. On set: get coverage, get coverage, get coverage! No matter how much you believe your vision is etched in stone, things will change in the edit. Think of every shot option you can get on set as a gift to your future self. And finally, stay open to ideas. Some of my favorite ideas were not my own. I find that the best creative results come when we’re open and in a state of play.

FY: What's next for you?

RC: I’d very much like to experience the luxury of writing and directing a film I wasn’t also required to produce by default haha! I’ve got a few new scripts I’ve been tinkering around with, each kind of feeling like a different, scaled-down facet of SOMNIUM. I think I’m most interested in trying to do something small, really well. Getting down to the bone of it. I recently moved to Austin, TX, and if you drive an hour in any direction, there’s something really hauntingly beautiful about the landscape. So if I could imagine what’s next, it’d hopefully be simplifying and filming something here in Texas with fewer people/locations, etc. That is, if I’m lucky (and crazy) enough to do it again.