We recently connected with Vivian Kerr and have shared our conversation below.
Vivian, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
A lot of developing self-confidence and self-esteem is just getting to a point where it doesn’t really matter anymore what other people think about you or your work. I recently made the jump into directing features, starting with my first feature SCRAP that is currently on the festival circuit, and I was definitely holding myself back for so long. I wasn’t sure I could really make that leap, and I just got to this point with the project after 5 years of working on it that I thought, “I just don’t care anymore about whether or not I feel ready. This story matters to me so, so much. So if anyone is going to screw it up, it’s going to be me!”
And actually, I also have to credit Anthony Rapp, who was my co-star in the short film version of SCRAP that I wrote and starred in back in 2018, who helped give me confidence. When I came back to him and said I had written a full-length script for SCRAP and I wanted to make it my feature debut, he could easily have said no. But he believed in the script and he believed in me as a director and was willing to jump on board. I will always owe him a huge debt for that. The same with Lana Parrilla, who plays Stacy in the film. She was so incredibly supportive and encouraging, and you really need that as a first-time director.
Once we were on set and I was actually in the process of making SCRAP, I just knew I was exactly where I should be. There was a moment one day at dinner-break when I was sitting upstairs in this house we were shooting in and I was eating alone and downstairs I could hear the entire cast and crew chatting and laughing. I just remember this overwhelming feeling of gratitude that they were all here for me, to make this film happen that I had dreamed up. It still makes me emotional to think about. It felt like fate, like things were finally clicking into place for me. I’ve really fallen in love with feature directing and now that I feel like I’m on a clear mission, I feel a huge boost of confidence.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m an actress, writer, director, and producer. In 2023, I traveled to 14 film festivals with my debut feature film SCRAP co-starring Anthony Rapp, Lana Parrilla, Khleo Thomas, and Beth Dover. SCRAP has 6 more film festivals coming up and has been winning some really incredible awards, including the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at Naples International Film Festival, Coronado Island Film Festival, and Fargo Film Festival. I’m looking forward to continuing to travel with the film in the next few months. I’ve also got some upcoming short film collaborations with friends, and I’m finishing post-production on my second feature SÉANCE, which will hopefully premiere later in 2024, which I produced with my production company Rue Dangeau. And I am also writing the script for what I hope will be my third feature film.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say the first quality is kindness. I think there’s this misconception that kindness is some ethereal quality that someone is either innately born with or not, but I really see kindness as an action. I’ve seen people in our industry know what the kind thing to do is in a given situation and choose to do the opposite because of their own ego and selfishness, or because being kind would involve some difficult conversation that they don’t want to have. You have to have guts to be truly kind, and especially in independent film, you need to treat people well to have true longevity. The reputation you build matters. So the advice I would have is to really try to understand what’s going on with your colleagues, and see how you can help them do their jobs better. There’s this misconception that everyone just needs to be left alone to do their jobs properly, but really, people need help, especially on a smaller indie project. Even if it isn’t in your job description or your department, if you can help someone out, do it.
The second quality is curiosity. I just came back from Sundance and the best panel I listened to there was one that Canon put on with a bunch of DPs discussing their choice of lenses. I loved how these guys, all of them with decades of experience, were so curious about how they could work with new directors to best serve the emotional needs of the story through their choice of glass. They were so eager to understand the director’s point of view. I was really impressed that such skilled craftspeople could still retain that child-like excitement. I’ve worked with cinematographers who were not particularly interested in my thoughts and sort of wanted to make all the decisions themselves in terms of the technical aspects, and I just don’t want to to work anymore with people who aren’t interested in equal collaboration and who don’t have a sense of wonder and play. I recently worked with an incredible DP, Johanna Coelho, on my second feature SÉANCE, and that was the first time I ever felt a DP wanted to educate me. We went down to Keslow and did lens tests and I loved how curious she was to see how these different lenses and filters would look in candlelight or firelight. It was so fun.
And the final quality I would say is accountability. Be responsible for your decisions. If you pass the buck all the time and pretend your mistakes are other people’s fault, no one will trust you. No matter how badly you screw up, if you go to your colleagues and say, “I messed up and I’m sorry, and I want to work together to make this right, so let’s have a real conversation about it,” there’s pretty much nothing you can’t come back from. As a director, pretty much all I want from the people I work with, at the end of the day, is accountability. If you are someone who is inclined to get defensive or passive-aggressive, my advice would be to really pay attention to that and, frankly, probably get some therapy for it. No one wants to work with someone who is smug or arrogant or negative. Be positive and be able to pivot.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I have to attribute a lot of my personal growth in the past 12 months to my colleague and editor Toby Yates. He sadly passed away unexpectedly this past November, but Toby and I worked together for about five months in 2023 on my second feature SÉANCE. He was just an incredible mentor and friend to me during that time. He and I had also worked together on SCRAP, so he was a big part of my life these past 3 years.
I was going through so much on both a personal and professional level in 2023, and he really sat me down and helped me envision my career from the long-term perspective. So I would say stepping outside of myself and seeing things more from the big picture is my biggest area of growth in the past 12 months. One film can feel all-important in the moment, but if you realize that your goal is to make a dozen more features, suddenly whatever is happening on one of them that feels like a crisis really isn’t that serious and instead is an opportunity to get better for the next one. Toby really kind of toughened me up and sharpened my senses in the most gentle and supportive way. He was a true friend and mentor to me, and the kindest man I’ve ever worked with. I was so lucky to have him on my first two features. He’ll be greatly missed by so many in our industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.viviankerr.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/viviankerr
