Lilli Keeve
Adam Rioux’s coming-of-age debut, Urchins, is a poignant meditation on identity and discovery. The film follows Ari (Breanna Yde), a college freshman on spring break, who meets a group of strangers and embarks on an unforgettable journey. While exploring the wilds of beautiful Florida, she discovers more about herself and what she wants out of life.
In my conversation with Adam, we discussed the challenges of shooting on location and working with a small crew, how his personal experiences shaped the film’s inspiration, and the movie that changed his life. The transcript has been edited for space and clarity.
Film Obsessive: Thanks for joining me today to talk about your feature film, Urchins. I’m super excited to dive into it with you…pun intended, I guess! Has being a filmmaker been your dream since you were a kid? How did you get into it?
Yeah, I was one of those kids. I think everybody, especially filmmakers, put on plays for the family or grabbed whatever camera was available and made videos with their friends. I had made a short film with my best friend when I was, I think, seven or eight, and I kind of dipped in and out of doing stuff like that. But I grew up in such a small town in Florida, so Hollywood was never even in the realm of reality for my life or anybody I knew. Even the high school I went to had a TV production program, but it was all about doing the news. So, my parents really pushed me to [take] a standard path. Even when I went to college, we didn’t really have a film program, or at least [one] that I knew of. It was just something that I had always held in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t able to actually find the path until I just started looking for it myself.
And what were some of your inspirations for your film, or other filmmakers that you really looked up to?
I get inspired by other films and filmmakers, but it doesn’t always directly influence what I’m making. I thought that Lady Bird was such a beautiful film. And when I think back, I think it had to have something to do with some of the kernels of inspiration for Urchins, but really, the main inspiration was when I was in college. I used to work a lot with sororities. And I was creating videos with sororities, and it was me with, you know, however many college-age girls just making these videos. It was very intimate. And I got to see what it was like to be somebody coming of age, trying to find themselves in the most, you know, scrutiny type environment, like there’s so much going on. And I think that really informed the character in her journey, because I was seeing it constantly for a couple of years, and it just made me really want to write something that explored that, and what it’s like to see yourself maybe not fitting into that environment? And that being okay, even though it might be something that’s pushed for or considered standard.
And Breanna Yde, hopefully I’m pronouncing her name correctly. She was so incredible. She has such a beautiful presence. And how did she come on board? Her kind of character journey is really beautiful to witness as well. How did you get her to be attached to the project?
Yeah, it happened so quickly. I had reached out to another young actor, and I just said, “Hey, would you want to do a reading of this and send in a self-tape?” And he was super excited about it. He was like, “Hey, can I recommend a friend of mine?” And it happened to be Bre, and so he put us in a text chain. She happened to be in New York when I was in New York, and the next day, or something like that, we went and got coffee, and it was one of those…you kind of like, connect, and you see eye to eye, and you feel like you’re speaking the same language. We think similarly.
So I sent her the script, and she read it that night and texted me at like 1 am and said, “I would love to do this.” And I think the reason why she took it is that she had an acting hiatus. She kind of took a break from acting projects, and I think she really wanted to come back into something that she really believed in. And I know that she really resonated with that journey, because she had experienced something similar in her own life. And obviously not for me to speak on, but I think that’s why she chose to take on the project, because of the character and story. I think you can see that in, you know, what’s going on behind the facade of what she’s dealing with internally.
Well, her acting was just so stunning. I’m so excited to see what she does next, and the way that she has this very kind of quiet but powerful on-screen presence. I was really stunned. Everything was so beautiful in this film, especially the cinematography. It’s so naturalistic. I felt like I was there on this journey with these characters in Florida and everything they get up to. So, if you just want to talk about the crew and how this film even happened?
Yeah, and this film only happened because the crew was so great. We had such a small crew. It was like 11 other people, so tiny for a feature film. And at the lead of it, my cinematographer, Tom, was just so perfect for the role, and was so excited for it. He absolutely crushed it. Not only is it visually so stunning, but you can sense when somebody’s in their element there on set. And he truly was going above and beyond and just creating such a beautiful dynamic, not only for a comfort level on set when you have such a small, small group, but also in the middle of the woods in Florida or on a river. It’s really nice to have a calming presence behind the camera, and Tom really did that. But it was, yeah, it was everybody coming together, and just being on board for it, understanding that there was a heart behind this, and it was about creating authenticity.
So that meant giving the actors the time to blend, and to try some things, and to feel like, you know, teenagers who were just on a road trip. So, yeah, I mean, we just were being as flexible as possible, too, because filming in the backwoods of Florida without a massive budget means you’re kind of subjected to the elements, whether it’s rainstorms or just other big things happen. We had a lot of things happen on set — it was always just trying to make sure that we could walk away from the day and actually get the scenes, even though we were maybe fighting against factors that we couldn’t control.
I worked in Louisiana on an independent short film, and it was kind of a wild experience. Again, a small crew, and as you said. You’re subjected to the elements, especially in the country, like in St. Francisville, a small town…it’s out there. So many mosquitoes, so many bugs, and at night, everything that comes out. I think I actually picked up on some of the night scenes, all the bugs, and the noise. I was like, “I know what that’s like, being in that and hearing everything.”
It was funny. We scouted it, and it was not there. There weren’t as many cicadas, and it wasn’t as loud when we got down there. But, days before shooting, it was so loud. I called it a symphony of them. You couldn’t think very well because it was so loud. And we were supposed to film a night scene… we tried to build a sound barrier around the talent so we could cut out the noise, but it was so loud that you could still hear it on the microphones. And that was another thing of like, “Okay, so now we maybe need to rewrite some of these scenes to be in a different environment where they’re still loud, but not as loud.” It’s also really hard to act if you have that loud a noise always going on around you; it just kind of feels like you’re in an echo chamber in your brain. We can’t make them act these very serious, intimate scenes while, basically, a massive crowd is yelling at them. That’s what it felt like.
Well, it honestly didn’t really deter me. I was present in those scenes with them. I did want to mention that when you’re talking about the elements and kind of shooting on location, you never really know what you’re up against or what you’ll encounter. In nature, everything was so integral to the film, and especially moments of Ari’s character just sitting in silence and looking up at everything and being like, “Wow, this is beautiful, and maybe this is what I’m really after.” It really resonated with me. I just wanted to kind of mention that as well — all of that really came together for the story, too.
Thanks. Yeah, it’s a natural love letter to Florida. That’s how I’ve always thought about it. And it’s the parts of Florida that not a lot of people know about. I think most people think about Miami or the beaches, but there is such a massive ecosystem in the middle of the state, whether it’s the springs or the rivers or these very secluded forested areas. And, yeah, it’s sad because a lot of that land is starting to become endangered by some of the different developments. It’s really important, I think, for us to maintain these lands, preserve them, not only for the natural ecosystem, the animals, but also just for humans to keep you know this world as a sanctity. It’s like a place for us to go and be a part of. So yeah, Florida’s so beautiful.
I’ve never been, but it almost made me want to go after watching this film.
There’s a lot of Florida hate, but there’s a lot of beauty there as well.
I wanted to touch upon the color palette and the mood; it reminded me of Waves and Spring Breakers, the world and everything. Did you particularly like, aside from Lady Bird, other films that were an inspiration for the mood board, or just the kind of general world-building of the film?
Moonlight was also something that we looked at a lot when talking about color and stuff. I think one of the big things that Tom and I focused on was knowing that it was going to be naturally super saturated, because we were spending time in these outdoor environments. The forests in Florida are so luscious because it gets so much rain, and it’s truly so beautifully dense. And then the springs that we shot some scenes in are just naturally turquoise blue water — it’s the clearest, most beautiful water ever, and it looks like you’re in the Caribbean. We knew that a lot of the natural, outdoor elements were already going to be so saturated.
We wanted to complement that without oversaturating. I think Spring Breakers kind of [has] an oversaturated feel to add to that spring break element. I didn’t want this to feel like it was always about this party lifestyle. I wanted to lean into the natural element, but complement it indoors with more natural, muted tones. What really brought it together was that we worked with Company Three and an awesome colorist named Jake White, and we basically spoke on, you know, how we miss the saturation in film. I feel like nowadays, people are starting to desaturate more and more to create a filmic look at times, which doesn’t fully track to me, and we wanted to maintain some of that, but we knew that we had already had that baked in. So it was just writing those lines to make it so it didn’t pop out too much in your face, but it also created the world around it, and felt very natural, like you were immersed.
Wow. Well, the cinematography, editing, sound, and just everything were so succinct and really beautiful. I wanted to talk a little bit about the other characters that Ari becomes friends with and is very enmeshed with. They were so real, raw, and relatable. Were they based on anyone that you knew in your life?
I’m a big fan of creating amalgamations in each of my characters. So I would say the closest to a real-life person was the dad character. As a kid, for some reason, I just connected with people’s parents more. I would spend a lot of time talking to their parents — the Clark character is very much based on specific people that I grew up around, and dads that I would have those like river-side conversations with. Or moms that I would chat with while somebody’s running an errand or doing a chore. The friends Jack, Izzy, and Elijah are all just like people that I grew up around, and no specific person, but just like thinking about who those people kind of are in these small towns. To me, they really helped kind of boil, like a small town, into three very distinct people and three people that probably would never leave that town.
That was really important to me. It was like, I wanted to pick three people who were probably gonna — I think we, a lot of people who come from small towns know this idea. There’s a division between people who know they’re going to leave their town, and then people who aren’t. And I wanted to focus on the group of people who were never going to leave this small town, no matter how much they talked about it or how much it seemed like they were ready for something else. Because I needed Ari to come and meet those people, somebody who was looking to get out, looking to go somewhere, and to meet these people who had their boots, you know, just like cemented into the ground.
The performances were incredible. I was really blown away. I’m familiar with some of Ted’s work from Fear Street, but not with the other actors. How did you find them?
Yeah, so Trey, who plays Jack, I don’t even know. I just met him. I think he’d seen a film at one of the festivals that we played at, and we connected on socials. And then Sam, who plays Izzy, is a good friend. We had worked together in a music video, and she was a neighbor, basically, in New York City. So, as we had always been talking about that, and she was one of the first people that I brought onto the project, and she knew it front to back. She had seen multiple, multiple drafts of the script, and the rest were either recommendations from people or casting calls from Actors Access. I wasn’t able to use a casting director for this, but I just kind of put out as many feelers as I could to find the people who kind of fit the right tone.
Well, you did a really great job. They were really incredible, really wonderful performances all around. It’s a miracle when a movie gets made. My dad’s a filmmaker in the industry. I’ve seen it firsthand. I know it’s treacherous. It can be so many things. And on some days, did you ever feel defeated? It obviously did get made, but it’s a long journey.
It’s tough all the way through the process, but the hardest part definitely became when we got on set. At times, it felt like everything was working against us to get it done. And I think that that’s just the nature of going into your first feature, possibly slightly underprepared and definitely under budgeted. We had seven rain delays on our first day, like you can’t combat that. We knew it rained in Florida. Two of my producers are from Florida. I’m from Florida. We knew that this was going to happen, so we came up with contingency plans. But then once you get there, you realize, oh, wait, we can’t do this out of safety, because lightning, every rainstorm in Florida basically comes with lightning. And if you have lightning, then you shouldn’t be working. And then if you try to work inside, we didn’t have the budget to be able to throw sound-dampening carpets onto the roof. So just every day you’re dealing with new things popping up.
A lot of it was scheduling, too. It’s a very ambitious movie to shoot for such a small budget. So I think I always knew that we were going to be losing stuff, and I just hope that we never lost anything too critical. Not many people know this, but we lost about 15 pages from day one of the script, or day one of the production script, just to make sure that we could come out with a movie. Rather than getting every trying to get, like a small piece of everything, we focused on quality of where we could. And that’s [partly] why we have such a short run time, which I love. I love that it’s a tight watch for everybody. I do miss those scenes, though. There are some really beautiful scenes that, if I could shoot them, I would totally have.
Oh my gosh, wow. Well, it’s really a beautiful film. I’m excited for more people to see it. So, what is the movie that changed your life?
Into the Wild by Sean Penn actually inspired me to live out of my truck and become a rubber tramp for about half a year after watching it. I think there are just so many truisms in that movie, and realities of life explored. And it’s such a beautiful film, and it really does like touch on the human experience and what it means to try and connect with others and be a part of nature and the world. And that just changed everything for me, as a human and then also as a filmmaker.
That’s one of my favorites and was also a movie that I saw and thought, “Wow, that’s something special,” and it definitely changed my perspective on how I view the world and what we’re really here for as people. That’s such a great pick.
“Happiness isn’t real unless shared” is an all-time truth. It’s something that I carry with me in my life, and I think about that. With everything that you do, it’s about the people around you. And that’s why it was so important, not to go back to what we already talked about, but it was such a selective process for finding the crew for this, because it was so important to make sure that we all, like, blend well together and, like, we can be friends, because I knew it was going to be a difficult experience, but if you have the right people around you, then it doesn’t matter.
In a way, it kind of mirrors what Ari is experiencing on her journey, sharing experiences with other people, finding out what being a human means to her. I pick up on some parallels there. And I just want to say the ending shot of your film is so breathtaking. I was like, “How is this even real?” And then with the rain and everything – it was stunning.
Thank you. That is when you know it is actually shining on you. When everything’s happening, and it feels like [life is] telling you, “Hey, you can’t make this movie. You can’t make this movie,” and then something like that happens. Because that was all luck and circumstance. It could not have timed out better to have that shot turn out as beautiful as it did, and it was also such a blast shooting that — that was by far one of my favorite moments, not even just on set, but of my life. It was such a beautiful moment with five of us out in the water.
That’s the wonderful thing about filmmaking, too, is that you get those gems of moments that you couldn’t even have pictured or imagined were possible. It’s really magical. What is the timing for your film’s release?
We are starting a mini theatrical run this summer, starting in LA. We have our worldwide premiere on July 9 at the Laemmle Royal, and then we’re followed fast by a bunch of other screenings. We go to New York, then Chicago, and we bring it back to the home state. We have a couple of weekends in Florida, and then we go to Atlanta, [plus] a bunch of panels, Q and A’s, and afterparties. We’d love to see everybody there, and then after that, we’ll kind of see where it goes. We’re still figuring out our plans. As indie filmmakers, you have to be kind of flexible to figure out, like, what’s the best job? I’m really excited for people to see this in theaters. I think it’s so important to get back into theaters.
Yeah, absolutely. There’s really nothing like the theater experience, and this is the type of film where you definitely have to be with people to experience it all.
I’m so glad you liked it. It’s so fun that people are starting to get to see it now. It’s been quite a labor of love for some time.
Well, congratulations. The film is beautiful, and I think it’ll resonate with a lot of people. Thank you so much for your time today, Adam, and best of luck with your future projects. I’m excited for everyone to see Urchins.
