In “Things Will Be Different,” of the breakout hits of SXSW 2024, Michael Felker found the Holy Grail that eludes many first-time filmmakers: a high concept story that not only works within a low budget, but is actually more convincing because of its minimalist production value.
The film follows an estranged brother and sister who reunite to pull off a robbery together before hiding in an interdimensional safe house that is immune to the laws of time and space. They’re forced to spend two weeks hanging out on a 19th century farm, communicating with other time periods through a lo-fi tape recorder in the basement, before returning to life as they knew it.
The framing device allows the film to believably combine a sophisticated sci-fi mythology with a single location that made for a practical shoot. Like so many independent films, it was conceived as a product of unique circumstances. Felker’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted him to reexamine his own familial relationships while planning a movie about quarantine and isolation. As for the farmhouse? He wrote it because his family happened to own one in rural Michigan.
The result was one of the most unique independent genre films of 2024. In a recent conversation with IndieWire, Felker explained how he pulled it off.
“During the pandemic, I just felt completely estranged from my sister who basically led her own life in a whole other industry, raising kids in a whole other state. And I just realized months go by, even a year at times where I would just be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen her. I haven’t talked to her. I don’t know what’s up or down with her,’” Felker said when asked about the film’s origins. “All of that came about as the emotional linchpin for this whole movie, which is that I felt like I’ve let her down, I’ve not seen her enough. I feel like every attempt that I try to connect with her always falls through. So I wanted to put that into this time travel world and lore, and that’s how it all really came together.”
Family was constantly on Felker’s mind as he prepared the film, as he credits his father with instilling a love of sci-fi cinema in him at a young age. The decision to shoot a film that honored his father, influenced by his own relationship with his sister, at a family farm just made sense. And once he started seriously writing, he found that the rustic farmhouse setting was a better fit for his time travel premise than he could have possibly predicted.
“When building the world and then using a family farm as the setting and location for it all, I really liked that anytime I visited my family farm or a house that’s been around for over a century, anytime I pick up an antique or see a piece of furniture, I immediately just transport my mind to what that was like in a contemporary modern sense for the 1800s or the 1900s,” he said. “Knowing the world and rules and how these interdimensional interstates work, this kind of married itself in a beautiful way. Like, this is how they would talk to people who would use the house, but also it’s cool to be able to use that with anything that you would find in an old antique shop, or anything that you would find when going to visit relatives.”
But of course, no story of a first indie feature is complete without a major setback. For a filmmaker working on a low budget, owning your own location is the ultimate godsend. Felker thought he was in the clear by shooting on his family’s farm in Michigan, but the entire project almost fell through when he inspected the building and realized that it wasn’t equipped to handle the shoot. Rather than let the film die, his producers quickly hustled to find another location that allowed him to fulfill his vision even better than the original farm would have.
“The state in which to shoot it was not up to what we needed for the movie, so we ended up having to pivot a month before the actual shoot, January, 2023,” he said. “We were originally going to shoot in Mendon, Michigan and we ended up going to Fremont, Indiana. And this couple who had this farm that they turned into a rustic wedding venue, opened the doors to us and really let us have the run of the place. And 90% of the movie, including stuff that’s like interdimensional void stuff, all was actually at that farm. So that ended up being a nice blessing in disguise.”
With “Things Will Be Different” opening in theaters this weekend, Felker is enjoying the final lap of the marathon that is getting your first feature off the ground. But rather than leave this time-traveling universe behind, he’s already thinking about sequel ideas.
“I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire. I have more stories and scripts going right now. I have some that are within this world still, some that are direct sequels to this movie, some that are in the sci-fi space. And then there’s a couple that I’m actually entertaining of just like, it’s completely different genres,” he said. “I’m trying to see how this movie lives and breathes for a little bit, and do I need to revisit this universe sooner than later? I love this universe, and I love this world, and I love the story we have so far with ‘Things Will Be Different,’ and I just want to see if it’s something we can jump into now or maybe sometime down the road.”
A Magnet release, “Things Will Be Different” is now playing in theaters.
