Tina Kakadelis
Remember March of 2020? The frantic purchasing of toilet paper, masks, and hand sanitizer? While you might have spent those early quarantine days bingeing Tiger King in your sweatpants, the Baer brothers, Garrett and Brandon, were in the early stages of planning their debut feature film, Don’t Log Off. Ahead of the film’s release, Garrett and Brandon Baer sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to discuss pandemic filmmaking, crafting characters through a Zoom screen, and why a sister is essential to the brothers’ dynamic.
The Baer brothers are not psychics. They didn’t have the idea for Don’t Log Off before the world as we knew it shut down, but it didn’t take long for them to pen a script about someone disappearing during a Zoom birthday party while their friends helplessly watch it happen in little video squares.
“One of our best friends had a Zoom birthday party a week into COVID,” Brandon explained. “I suppose the boredom of being home just led to this idea of what if. What if he was kidnapped during that Zoom? Ready, set, go, and here we are today.”
“I think it was the unknown as well,” Garrett added. “We found ourselves constantly wondering about what we were supposed to do or what we were not supposed to do. How to connect with people. We have grandparents who, fortunately, are still with us, but how do you explain Zoom to someone who lived most of their life before computers were a thing?”
“We found ourselves also yearning for connection, and we felt like genre was an underutilized medium through which to explore those larger themes of isolation and connection,” Garrett continued. “Also, we love a fun ride. We love a whodunit. We love a howdunit.”
And a fun ride it is. Like other computer-based films that have cropped up in recent years, Don’t Log Off must use the tools of the trade. How much does a tiny Zoom video square really tell you about a person? For Garrett and Brandon, these glimpses into the homes of their characters have to provide the audience with enough information to understand their motivations.
“We were excited to build the characters with our actors,” Garrett said. “They’re all wonderful and dedicated, and gave so much of themselves to the process. Some production elements certainly were born out of necessity because we were shooting in July 2020. Others, though, were creative choices that each actor made in building their character. Things like mask choice, certain costume elements, and production design were something we built with the actors.”
While it might go unnoticed by many, Khylin Rhambo, who plays the techie Brian, chose to have his character drink a Black Cherry White Claw with his cereal. Anyone who has had cereal and a White Claw separately will tell you the combination is unfathomable to all except a very specific subset of people.
“I am obsessed that you picked up on that detail,” laughed Brandon. “We loved that moment. We always knew that Brian was sort of going to be like the tech guy pounding White Claws the whole time, because we all knew those guys. That moment, though, we can’t take credit for. It truly came from Khylin.”
“Same with the graffiti behind him,” Brandon continued. “There were so many elements of this film that we’re so lucky to have captured and we can’t take full credit for. It really was born out of location scouting the actors’ apartments over Zoom. We would literally hop on Zoom with them and say, okay, can you take us around so we can see what is even possible here? We did also send production design boxes to each of their apartments with elements of the script they needed. For example, Ariel’s [Winter] character is obsessed with candles, so we sent her a box with all the candles and all of the other stuff that she needed that were specific to the script. Our cinematographer Ben Goodman also worked over Zoom with our cast to help them with camera, sound, and lighting.”
Anyone who has siblings will tell you that it’s easy to love them, but hard to work with them. As for how Garrett and Brandon handle things on set?
“It’s just a lot of screaming in front of the cast,” Garrett deadpanned. “No, I think ultimately we respect each other a ton. We’ve been working together for the better part of a decade now. We both came up in theater and have co-directed plays and staged readings before. When you’re literally in the room with a team of people, you have to figure out your shorthand in a language very quickly. We don’t know quite how it works. We just know that it works. We feel very grateful that, every so often, I will have a half-completed thought and Brandon will just step right in and say it better and more succinctly than I ever could.”
“I think the other piece of the answer to your question is that we have a sister who I think keeps us in line. That probably is the real reason we work well together. It’s all about that sister,” laughed Brandon. “She’s always a sounding board. She’s one of our first watchers and is the biggest supporter across the board.”
All of us relied on different things to get us through the COVID lockdown. Some of us picked up new hobbies or cared for a sourdough starter like it was a human child. What got Brandon and Garrett through early lockdown also served as the inspiration for Don’t Log Off.
“What got us through that period of lockdown, was our friends,” Brandon said simply. “It was that group of friends who saved us from boredom. When we look back on that period, we can look at all the characters in this film. They’re all amalgams of our closest friends who got us through that time. This film is none other than a love letter to all of them.”
From Epic Pictures’ specialty horror label DREAD, DON’T LOG OFF will have a limited theatrical release on July 11. The film will be available to rent or purchase on video-on-demand (VOD) starting July 15. Pre-order now!
