‘Undertone’ director Ian Tuason on negative space, spirituality, and letting go

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Siddhant Adlakha: How did your background in VR audio experiments influence the form this movie takes?
Ian Tuason: When I was making VR experiences, I was always designing a 3-D soundscape wrapped around the viewer so I could let the viewer explore. I used what I learned from that when designing the soundscape of this movie. I only had directional cues in mind, specific directions for certain shots. And it shows in the script, which has more audio direction than camera direction.

SA: You play with auditory negative space in some interesting ways, because this movie is as much about silence as it is about sound. How did you then complement that with the use of visual negative space, like the shots of dark, empty hallways?
IT: Now that I think about it, the negative space in the frame implies a lot of space around Evy that she can't see. A lot of it is behind her. But I think the frame disappears at that point. When there's that much negative space, that frame starts extending around you watching her. So that might be the reason why directional audio is more effective in this movie, because of the negative space on screen.

SA: As moviegoers, we’re so used to our eyes being drawn towards what’s happening, and this sense of active engagement. But you seem to play with that, because you build anticipation, and there seems to be a discomfort with the fact that there isn't something “happening” in the traditional sense, visually, but there’s a lot happening aurally instead.
IT: I would say that there's a lot happening, but it's just in your head. And I think that's why a lot of people are coming out scared from this movie, because you're scaring yourselves. So, thank you all for your good imaginations.

SA: I wanted to ask about working with your lead actress, Nina Kiri. She's basically the only person we see throughout the film, so I was curious about what your day-to-day interactions were like on set, and the process of building that performance with her from the ground up.
IT: Yeah, she's a writer, director as well, so she really got to know Evy and asked me all the right questions. It came to a point where she knew everything that I knew about Evie. And Evie's based on me, so she related what I was talking about—with being isolated in my house, caregiving for my parents—to her own fears of one day doing that. It also brought her back to childhood memories, which affected how she imagined she would be in that situation. Once we got to that point, where she really knew the character inside and out, I didn't have to direct her much. I was watching the character unravel day after day on set. And at the end of it, I just felt like no other actress could have done what she did. So she's now my favorite actress of all time.

SA: Speaking of the personal nature of her performance, and of the film, what was it like getting back into this space that you grew up in? I know that a lot of it was dressed for the movie, but I'm sure that must have brought a sense of personal involvement and a lot of memory to the filmmaking process.
IT: It did bring back a lot of memories, cleaning out the space for the production. I cleaned out the space with my crew. I'm a good friend of our DP, Graham Beasley, so we had some good conversations about certain toys that we found in the house, and certain decor. Someone would look at a series of books, like my Highlights magazines, or Childcraft encyclopedias, and then they would share memories of when they used to read those as a kid. We really turned into a family during that whole process. For me, it was nice to have people in my childhood home after a few years of just being isolated there. So, there were a whole bunch of emotions and feelings throughout the process.

SA: Isolation feels like such a key underpinning of the film, both visually and aurally, and Evy is a character who is isolated emotionally too. How did you go about translating that sense of isolation and making it an aesthetic experience?
IT: Well, I just set a bunch of principles that I didn't want to break, like never showing the outside, and never showing anyone's face except for Evy’s. These are things that after 90 minutes may make you feel isolated as well. I even closed off a lot of the house. It was just really two rooms upstairs and downstairs, and a staircase in a hallway that we really focused on. So there aren’t many places to escape to. I think claustrophobia is what I had in mind when I was making these decisions.

SA: What were some of the spiritual influences you tapped into for the film? Given your background, was there any influence from Filipino folklore?
IT: Not from folklore, but it was mostly Roman Catholic scripture, like the Book of Solomon, which describes a lot of demons. And there is one story about a statue in a small island in the Philippines, a real statue that we show the face of in the movie, and it has a baby skull in its hands (the Saint Rita of Cascia, or “Black Maria,” in the Church of Our Lady of Divine Providence on Siquijor island). I would say the movie turns the Roman Catholic religion into folklore. I think it’s mentioned in the movie that the demon Abyzou is mentioned in other scriptures. There are some Muslim scriptures that have it, and I think the name appears in some Jewish scriptures. This kind of demon, I think it transcends any religion because it's an archetype at that point. And I'm sure sometimes I have visions of Kali in Hinduism. So I think lore in general is what I was tapping into.

SA: Something that struck me about the film is that while we have these audiovisual mysteries, and these lingering shots and scenes, ultimately what seems to be underlying them is the mystery surrounding death. Like when Evy asks the nurse about her mother—
IT: When she asks, "Can she hear me?"

SA: Yes, exactly.
IT: You'll never know.

SA: Was that a challenge for you, because of the personal nature of the story?
IT: Not really. I was seeking by the time my parents passed, so I wanted to know as much as I could about death. And that's why I know about Kali. I think based on all the scripture I've read and what I'm beginning to understand through hours and hours of meditation and contemplation, Hinduism does paint an accurate picture of the non-duality of life and death.

SA: Did you find that this—I don't want to call it a confrontation of death—but this filmic acknowledgement or search, did it help you find any kind of catharsis? Or were you already well on that journey by the time you made Undertone?
IT: No, it provided me with a catharsis, and I was on that journey already, but everything's interconnected. And that's another great thing about Hinduism, is that cause and effect are the same thing, and everything's interconnected and influencing each other. So I don't think I could have made this film unless I went through that dark experience, and I don't think that I would've felt the catharsis of creating this film without doing the inner work. So yeah, I'm beginning to see that the more I get to the center.

SA: Whether in terms of technical challenges or spiritual learning, what do you take from Undertone going forward into your next project?
IT: I feel like there's a higher power guiding the work I did and because of my intentions. I'm just finally being conscious of things that I was unconscious of before. The more I let go, and the more I surrender to the flow, the more I see all these things happening before me, to a point where I don't feel like I'm doing anything consciously. That's what I'm going to do for my next film, and for tomorrow in my life: just to get better at surrendering and letting go. That’s my plan.