David Marmor’s indie horror film 1BR will make you never want to move to Los Angeles! Currently enjoying a hit run on the film festival circuit, he took the time to chat with LRM Online about making this, his directorial debut.

We found out what inspired the film, where he found such a creepy apartment complex to set it in and what he’s working on next.

Below is the official synopsis for 1BR:

“After leaving behind a painful past to follow her dreams, Sarah scores the perfect Hollywood apartment. But something is not right. Unable to sleep, tormented by strange noises and threatening notes, her new life quickly starts to unravel. By the time she learns the horrifying truth, it’s too late. Caught in a waking nightmare, Sarah must find the strength to hold onto her crumbling sanity…or be trapped forever in an existential hell.”

LRM Online: So, I didn’t make it to the Beyond Fest show of 1BR, but I did watch a screener. I really enjoyed it.

Marmor: Cool. Thank you.

LRM Online: Where did the idea originate? How long had you been working on it prior to going into production?

Marmor: I mean it’s been around in one form, or another, for a long time. The original seed of the idea came when I was in my early twenties, when I first moved to LA, and it was just the experience of landing in this big, anonymous city. I lived in an apartment complex that was very similar to the one in the movie, and I found it just to be this really surreal, kind of creepy experience. You know, you’re surrounded by people either walking overhead, and you’re sharing walls with them, and you’ll wave to them on the breezeway, but being LA I didn’t really know any of them. I arrived here a little bit like Sarah in the movie, without a lot of confidence, but with sort of big aspirations, and then immediately felt very lost in the sea of humanity of LA.

So, that was really the beginning of it was just that feeling. Then, as I was living here, I started to get really interested in the history of utopian communities, and fringe religions and such, that have grown up in LA over many decades. It seems to be a breeding ground for that kind of thing. So, I was reading about a lot of those groups, and then that sort of came together with just what I found to be this sort of surreal, and sort of existentially horrifying world of apartment complexes. That was really the seed of the idea.

I wrote the original draft years ago, and then put it aside, and wrote a bunch of other scripts in the intervening time, and then when I signed with my managers, Allard and Jarrod, they asked do you have anything else that you can show us? I was a little hesitant, but I dug it out, and they really responded to it. I had to really update the script cause it was very old at that point, and they signed on to produce and went out, and hooked up with Alok and Shane, and got the money together, and then it happened pretty quickly after that.

LRM Online: And this is your first feature I believe, is that correct?

Marmor: Yep.

LRM Online: What was your background? Had you gone to film school? I saw you had made some shorts.

Marmor: So, I went to USC for film school. Well, going back further, I actually studied computer science in college, and I had a first career at a video game company. One of my classmates started a game company right out of college, and I was employee number one at the company, and worked there for a few years. But I always had my eye on movies, and so I eventually had the opportunity to come down here to USC for grad school, and I did that. Then, just kind of kicked around for a long time doing freelance work, and hoping that I was going to get my big break as a director, and it just doesn’t happen that way. Then, at a certain point I really rededicated myself to writing. All the friends I had, who had gotten anywhere in the industry, had done it through writing, and I always sort of like felt in my heart like I wanted to be a writer-director, but I had not ever really put in the work to become a writer. So, then I really dedicated myself to that, and that really is what started everything. Cause it was one of the scripts I wrote that got me representation, and that was what led to to getting 1BR made.

LRM Online: Oh cool. So, it’s kind of like pushing yourself to develop that talent, in addition to directing, that led to your success.

Marmor: Yeah, exactly. But the interesting thing about it was that to do that, I really had to decide that it was going to be okay if I never got to be a director. Because oftentimes you come into the industry, and whatever you come in as is what the world sees you as, and so I knew that if I sort of established myself as a writer, there was a possibility that I would just always be a writer. I just thought at a certain point I decided, you know what, that would be fine. I find writing to be so fundamental, even though it’s not as appreciated in the industry. Although, now with TV, the way TV has become ascendant, I feel like things are really changing, and writers are finally getting some of the respect they’re due at least in TV, if not features.

LRM Online: Yeah, the writer-producer is a king, or queen, in television.

Marmor: Exactly.

LRM Online: So, your lead is played by Nicole Brydon Bloom. I was curious how you found her. Was it the typical casting process? Did you see a lot of actors?

Marmor: We did. Yeah it was fairly typical. She actually just put herself on tape. She’s New York based. So, she put herself on tape for us, and the casting process on this movie was really difficult, and a lot of that had to do with just the fact that we were a very low budget movie. And what happened really was that we had a relatively higher profile actress who got interested in the lead role, and by then I had seen Nicole’s audition, and I felt like she was just perfect for the role. It was obvious from the audition what an amazing actor she was, as well. But the producers quite reasonably felt that it would really help to sell the movie to have even a moderately sized name in it. So, we ended up casting this other actor, and we went down the road with her. I flew to Toronto to rehearse with her, and then I think it was two or three days before we were supposed to start shooting, she dropped out.

LRM Online: Oh, wow.

Marmor: Which is a real hazard when you hire somebody who’s a much bigger name than your budget really allows. You’re very much at their mercy, and it almost sank the whole production. I had always had Nicole at the top of my list, and so we said, well look, either the movie doesn’t happen, or we just have to cast the person that I actually think would be best for the role. So, we reached out to her, and she was totally game and flew out I think the next day. I got one afternoon of rehearsal with her, and then we started shooting the next day.

LRM Online: Oh, wow. That’s a quick turnaround.

Marmor: I mean the pre-production on this movie almost killed me. It was crazy, and it was so crazy that it was a relief to get into production. The production is exhausting, but at least we were just actually doing it, you know?

LRM Online: And part of the casting as well, I was going to ask you about, was finding the right apartment complex to get the idea across. In terms of the exteriors was it just one place that you found? Did you combine different complexes?

Marmor: No. So, the exterior as you see it from the street, and then all the courtyard stuff in the breezeway, that’s all one complex up in Chatsworth. We got really lucky. We had very limited options, because of our budget, but that place was kind of perfect. It really resembled the place that I had based the script on. It has this quality of you turn the camera one way, and there’s beautiful trees, and a trellis, and a pool, and it looks inviting, and then you turn it another way, and it kind of looks like a prison.

It just like had that kind of mix that I was looking for tonally. So, we shot all the exterior stuff there, and then all the interiors were a set that we built. So, we built one set, and then we re-dressed it to be all four of the apartments that you see in the movie.

LRM Online: Yeah, I figured the inside would be a set.

Marmor: Yeah.

LRM Online: As far as the one in Chatsworth goes, if the movie’s a hit, they’ll be promoting the place.

Marmor: Yeah, exactly. Star tours of the apartment complex.

LRM Online: Of the cult complex.

Marmor: Right.

LRM Online: So, what’s next for you? I know you’re out promoting this one, and playing the festivals. Do you have your next thing written, or are you planning on taking time away to do that?

Marmor: For the next month basically we’re going to be traveling pretty much constantly. I think I counted it up, and we have seven festivals in October that we’re going to, and I think we have nine that are actually happening, but we can’t all go to them all at the same time cause they overlap. So, October is just our big month, and then things will quiet down after that. I’m going to be doing my next movie with Alok and Shane, who produced this one. It’s based on another script that I wrote. I’m going to do another pass on the script starting when I get back from the festivals. But yeah, we’re going to hopefully next year go into production on that. So, it’s exciting.

LRM Online: Is that in a similar genre, then?

Marmor: No, it’s quite different. It’s sort of a small-scale science fiction story. It has no horror element to it.

LRM Online: Okay. I’m sure that’ll be just as interesting, and since it has a sci-fi element, it’s just as likely to play Beyond Fest in like two years. So, I’m looking forward to it.

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