Interview: ‘Things Will Be Different’ Writer/Director Michael Felker on Sci-Fi and Midwest Vibes
In Maker’s Dozen, we ask folks in and around the film industry 12 questions and have them ask one of us.
Michael Felker is a writer, editor, and director. His feature debut Things Will Be Different premiered at South By Southwest, and releases in theaters and streaming on October 4.
We spoke with Michael about his filmmaking influences, the movie’s midwestern winter vibes, directing actors, and more!
This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
1. What’s the Michael Felker origin story?
I guess the origin story is me moving around a lot as a kid and finding comfort and understanding in the world through watching lots of movies with my family. We basically raided Blockbuster every Friday night and just picked like five movies to watch in one week. And my bread and butter was science fiction that my dad would like to have us talk about afterwards at fast food places or diners. So yeah, just being a cinephile at an age when I didn’t know how to be anything else.
2. Congrats on getting Things Will Be Different into the world! What are some unexpected responses you’ve been getting from audiences about it?
My favorite response was during a Q&A where someone tried to pitch the entire theory of what happened in the movie in front of 400 people, which was genuinely awesome. They had the microphone and they’re like, “I don’t have a question, here’s just what I think.” It lasted for a good five minutes and we all just couldn’t help but laugh. I was just cheering her on.
3. You’ve cited Looper, Blood Simple, and The Assassination of Jesse James as inspirations for this film. How did those movies help you tell this story?
Growing up with a science-based family, we just love science fiction movies. So I always think about time travel movies and that’s why I lean to Looper, which is set in very unassuming locations like diners and a farm. I also love Blood Simple because it’s an unpredictable noir of a movie where characters make choices without understanding why other characters make other choices. You never know what a character is going to do, and it’s shocking and exciting, which is what Things Will Be Different chases a little bit. And then The Assassination of Jesse James gives us a specific time and place that is very unique because of how it’s shot, and gets that across with the use of Vaseline filters over the lenses. The Lensbaby work we ended up doing for our movie gives this weird tilt shift-like prism to the whole look. So I really liked how Jesse James shoots the movie in order to put us in a time and place that’s beyond our own.
4. The movie has several great needle drops. What was your approach to the music during the writing process and then in the final film?
During the writing process I actually formed a Spotify playlist of songs that kind of got me amped, but also gave me inspiration for certain sequences and moments in the movie. Given the time travel aspect, we have songs that are already out to give us a sense of the place where the characters are. And then when time travel happens, we have specific needle drops written for the movie that give a sense of familiar songs we’ve heard before, but they’re definitely not songs that we’ve heard exactly in this way because they were written for the movie. So I think they’re really cool in terms of just giving a sense of place, but also a sense of another dimension that’s just slightly different from our own.
5. The movie’s Midwestern winter vibes are impeccable. How did you envision integrating the setting into the narrative?
When we were building the world, we always thought we’re gonna be shooting on our family farm in Michigan. But for multiple reasons, we had to shift. Not too far though, just half an hour southeast to Fremont, Indiana. My experience at both farms really gave me a sense that there’s something weirdly ghostly and otherworldly about the giant wintry landscape of the Midwest. It really helps me get the sense of isolation, but also knowing that there’s a history and world that we’re trying to understand beyond it. I’m glad it comes across for you as someone who lives in the Midwest.
6. As an editor yourself, what’s a choice you made in post-production that you’re particularly proud of?
My co-editor Rebecca and I had a lot of moments that we found in post-production. I designed a lot of the script as if I was editing it already on the page. But there are a couple tiny character moments Rebecca found that you just couldn’t script or even direct, like in certain conversations between Joseph and Sid that were like unspoken banter and laughs and little looks that helped bring the brother and sister relationship to another level. Those moments are the ones I think about that were magic in the editing process.
7. Describe Riley Dandy and Adam David Thompson in three words each.
For Adam, I’d say tall, talented, goofball. He seems gruff and imposing, but when you talk to him he’s just such a goofball. And Riley, I would say infectious, gifted, sister. There’s a charm and energy she brings that makes the room brighter.
8. What have you learned about directing actors?
The number one thing I learned about directing actors is that you can’t fix too much in editing, so it really comes down to giving them the space on set. Anytime there’s a scene where they really need to command the room, I make sure that everyone stays quiet and then I tell our 1st AD, “This is the one time we don’t need to rush. They get all the time in the world.” If you give them all the space in the world to create the performances and get in the headspace of the characters, it will sing so well on the monitor and eventually in post and eventually on the screen.
“There’s something weirdly ghostly and otherworldly about the giant wintry landscape of the Midwest.”
9. Which filmmakers or artists have been most influential to you?
I’m a ‘90s kid. And everyone in the ‘90s who loved movies loved watching Shane Black and Tarantino movies that are just poppy and full of energy. But I also love the Coen brothers, the Wachowski sisters. The Matrix is what got me into making movies, so to see them not only explore new ways in which world-building and lore can be shown in movies, but also what the camera can do and how to make the cinematic language feel new and fresh was really inspiring to me.
10. Overrated or underrated: sharing a profession with your spouse.
Underrated because she is the first place that calls me on my BS and tells me if something’s not working. I wrote Things Will Be Different relatively quickly and got it off the ground pretty quickly, but there are drafts that will never see the light of day that she went over with a fine-toothed comb. It’s always fun to come home after our work time and download and just hear each other pitch something new over dinner.
11. What’s your go-to advice for aspiring filmmakers?
I think it’s really, really tough to just walk onto a movie and know how everything goes, so I’d say watch as many movies as you can so you can start forming your own voice and seeing what works for certain filmmakers and why they work and what their voice is. Then go outside and practice shooting so you can figure out how to execute that voice as best as possible. Exposure and practice. I felt very confident going in just because of practice and exposure.
12. What’s your movie of 2024 so far?
I’ve watched a lot of movies in 2024, a lot of them on the festival circuit. The one that stuck with me is I Saw the TV Glow. I think that movie is profoundly brave and transcendent, and breaks a lot of rules in order to get in the headspaces of characters that people are still wrestling with today. As a kid of the ‘90s, growing up watching television late at night, whether it was Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, or Cartoon Network, to have that be the fulcrum of realizing who you really are and digging deep inside of yourself is really amazing. It’s the first film I’ve seen in a long time that feels like a movie for our generation specifically.
+1. What’s your question for us?
Is there a movie you’ve seen recently that makes you go like, “Man, I can keep covering movies for another 10 years”? A movie that reignited your soul again?
Chad: That’s a great question. One that just came out is Rebel Ridge, Jeremy Saulnier’s latest one. Just seeing what he does with his different subjects and characters and how he gets them out of these intense situations is so compelling to watch.