Interview: Lisa Stock: In By The Eye

Originally published as a post on 12/05/10.

I met Lisa Stock at the first Faerie Escape Atlanta, in 2010; I watched the short prequel piece for her film project, The Medisaga Trilogy, and was thoroughly impressed. I asked her if she’d be interested in an interview, and she said yes; it’s taken this long, however, for our busy schedules to match up to allow that to actually happen.

I narrowed the interview down to three basic (and rather mundane) questions, to which Lisa graciously gave thoughtful and interesting answers. Without further babble on my part, may I present . . . Lisa Stock!

Tell me about your “In By The Eye” company.

I started InByTheEye in 2003 – and got its name from a Vladamir Nabokov quote that speaks directly about the moment of inspiration (see web site for quote).  There are a lot of reasons to have your own company – the primary one for me being that I can maintain creative control of my projects.  InByTheEye’s long term goal is produce and support films, writings, plays, events, and art utilizing myth and fairy tale as a point of inspiration.  What has changed since 2003 is that I’ve broadened my perspective of what a project can be.  It doesn’t have to be a straight to festival short film – it can be a film that shows in galleries or as a backdrop to a stage play, etc – unusual venues, mixed media, are all taking a larger role in InByTheEye’s current and future ventures.  I want to be involved in creativity that pushes boundaries visually, narratively, and thematically, helping us to see something ordinary in a new way.

Tell me about your “Titania” project.

TITANIA is part one of The Medisaga Trilogy.  This is a series of three feature-length films retelling the fairy tale of the Armless Maiden through Shakespeare’s fairy queen, as well as other characters from Midsummer and Greek mythology.  After having her wings violently torn from her body, Titania must go on a journey of healing to become whole again.  The trilogy is currently in pre-production, with the 15 minute prequel (“The Titania Prequel”) having already been shot and currently making the film festival circuit.

The trilogy stories are complete and the scripts are currently going through revisions.  I’ve been working on the scripts since late 2005.  I’m a director who works a bit backward from most of the industry in that I’ll bring my actors on very early and do rewrites catered to them.  The actors never tell me what to write – but I’ll cast for the type of character and then watch them work, listen to their voices, see their movements, and that helps me to round out my characters and my stories.  Most of my TITANIA actors have been with me since 2006.  They have tremendous patience.  And we’ve been through thick and thin together – including the tragic death of our original Titania, then the difficult process of recasting our lead and moving forward. I’ve been so fortunate with my cast and crew – by the time this is all over, we’ll truly be a family.

This tale appealed to me because of the endurance and perseverance of the maiden.  She doesn’t get help in this story like heroines of other stories do – she’s cast out into the forest to fend for herself and achieves her goal very much from her own will.  It’s a personal tale of healing and becoming whole again – something we can all relate too.  And I find as I write one draft of the script to another – that I discover new things about her journey, and about my own.  It has changed quite a bit from the first script I had 5 years ago.  That is the beauty of living art.  But I know I’m coming to a point where it’s ready to live its next life in actual production.

I would love to convert The Medisaga Trilogy, or its characters, into book format.  There are many more tales to tell with these interesting folks.  As I’m writing, or even on set, I’ll watch a character walk off and think – there’s another story where they’re going.  Sometimes I’ll discuss those with my actors to help them get into the head of their character.  And sometimes they’ll mention something to me – maybe something small, such as a token they want their character to wear, and that will set off a whole new scene in my head.  Some of those have made it into the script and some are filed away.  There’s a whole world out there stemming from The Medisaga Trilogy, but right now – I only have three films.

Tell me about yourself.

I graduated from film school in New York City at the City University of New York – in the 1990’s when we were still cutting and splicing actual film!  But I’ve been telling anyone who would listen, since I was 4, that I wanted to be a movie director – so it’s been a pretty straight forward path for me.  Being a visual artist, the cities I’ve lived in have played a direct role in what I create – even fantasies.  The challenge of making one place look like another is great fun.  I shot several fairy tales inside New York’s Central Park, and if you frame it right, it can look like a deep, dark forest anywhere in the world.  Until you watch the outtakes and see the buildings, and dog walkers going by!

Larger influences on my work have existed in some of my life experiences.  I traveled to Russia in the 1980’s and that’s where my love of fairy tales reignited, particularly in the laquer boxes.  I’ve also worked in major art museums – which inspired me visually (Andrew Wyeth and Gustave Dore were two major influences on the TITANIA dream scene – available on the website), and I also worked a few years for an archaeologist, which gave me a sense of true timelessness that I try to bring to my stories.  All in all I pull from a variety of sources, push it through my brain and personal beliefs, and come out with a tale that I hope will take people where they’ve never been before and at the same time they will see themselves in too.

Currently, the biggest project for me and InByTheEye is The Medisaga Trilogy.  It’s a slow process with funding and all the logistics involved (we plan to shoot in three different countries), but we’re moving forward steadily and hope to be in production next year.  However, 2010 was a very interesting year for me creatively and personally.  After 19 years in NYC I left and moved operations south to Atlanta.  It was a huge change and I’m still carving the pathway, but am already doing more writing and more live events down here.  First one for me will be a twisted, very dark, haunting version of Alice in Wonderland.  So hope you’ll all keep a check on InByTheEye’s website for what I think will be a very busy and exciting 2011.

Thank you, Lisa! I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next.

For those reading this post: if you are a creative of any stripe with a  professional attitude and portfolio, I’d love to work with you on an interview or guest blog post. Please contact me at: leona@leonawisoker.com for details.