Lean more about The Naturalist

the NATURALIST
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
1
To the Reader
5
2
Plot Summary
6Style
3
Production
8Press
4Characters
9
Cast
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
To the Reader,
Welcome to the Electronic Press Kit for The Naturalist. In the following pages, you will
learn more about my short student film: the world, plot, cast, crew, production and
inspiration for what Fantastic Fest has dubbed “One of the most poignant and disturbing
bits of dystopian sci-fi we’ve seen this year.”
Since our premiere at the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival, The Naturalist has
garnered Jury Award Nominations at PiFan (the largest fantastic festival in Asia) and the
New Orleans Film Festival in addition to winning the Spirit Award for Narrative Short at
the Brooklyn Film Festival. We had our international premiere with a screening at the
Centre Pompidou in Paris, and have since screened around the world at over 15
festivals.
This film has been a passion project for all involved, and on behalf of the entire cast and
crew, I thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Connor Hurley
Page 1 of 9
PLOT SUMMARY
A gay man living in a genetically modified society is given the chance to alter his sexuality.
Long-term partners Simon and Oliver live in a militant future that mandates genetic
therapy for all “abnormalities,” including homosexuality.
Despite the oppressive state, Simon and Oliver have each other. That is, until a police
officer arrives at their door for a routine inspection. He scans Simon’s genome,
detecting chromosomal abnormalities consistent with previous scans; Simon’s
corrective therapy has not been effective. The police officer orders him to be relocated
for “closer examination.” Simon and Oliver deal with this grim news the way they’ve
dealt with past relocations; they go on with their lives as normal.
Enter Eden, a genetically-modified heiress and old friend of Simon’s. Oliver finds Simon
and Eden’s friendship to be too close for comfort, and is threatened by Eden’s reemergence after all these years. Before Eden leaves, Simon agrees to see her again.
Eden returns, this time offering Simon a genetic virus that attacks and edits DNA. With
this drug and by “carefully monitoring the environment,” Eden explains that they could
finally “be together.”
As the threat of relocation and separation becomes imminent, Simon will have to
choose between his partner, his dignity, and his own survival in a short film that turns
the notion of sexuality as “choice” on its head.
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PRODUCTION
Connor Hurley
Writer/Director/Producer
Brooklyn-based filmmaker Connor Hurley is currently making festival rounds with his
thesis film The Naturalist as well as his first feature film, Skook, which was recently
awarded the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival. In
addition to music video, fashion film and television work, he has several feature films
in development.
connorhurley.com
Siena brown
Producer, Assitant Director
Siena Brown is a New York-based producer, production manager, and assistant
director. She is an alumnus of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a
BFA in film and television, and a recipient of the Martin Scorsese Young Filmmakers’
Scholarship and the Brett Ratner Scholarship. Since graduating, Siena has been
working as a freelancer on independent films, including production managing and
assistant directing the feature thriller Nightmare Code in Los Angeles.
Michael Crommett
Director of Photography
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he holds a BFA in Film and
Television with a minor in Documentary, Michael’s work has appeared on the Discovery Channel in over 200
countries, and he has also shot commercials and corporate projects for businesses of all sizes.
He was the sole cinematographer on two feature length documentaries. One is entitled Following Boruch, and
the other, helmed by Academy Award Nominee Christine Choy, is set for release next year.
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CHARACTERS
Simon
Simon has always struggled with his
sexuality. It took him a long time to come
out to himself, and an even longer time to
come out to Eden, his best friend of many
years. Knowing her heart would be broken,
Simon withheld his sexuality from Eden
even as he became involved with Oliver.
Eden cut off ties with Simon after he came
out to her. The film centers on their
reunion years later.
Eden
The daughter of a wealthy
pharmaceutical giant, Eden is
accustomed to always getting what
she wants. As such, it was especially
difficult to accept that the man she
always wanted, Simon, didn’t feel the
same way. After Simon came out to her,
revealing his longterm relationship with
Oliver, Eden refused to speak to Simon
and they grew apart after several years.
Genetically-modified to appear
younger, Eden has re-emerged to win
Simon back.
Oliver
Oliver has always had strongly held
convictions, and doesn’t disguise the fact
that he is threatened by Eden’s presence. He
came out in his teen years, and
encouraged Simon to come out. His
confidence in his identity comes in stark
contrast to Simon’s struggle with his
sexuality. Oliver would rather see his grim
prospects through to the the end rather
than compromise his integrity and seek
safety on Eden’s compound, as Simon offers.
Page 4 of 9
CAST
Walker Hare
A prominent face in the London and New
York theatre scene, Walker recently wrapped
production on Dawn of Conviction, a feature
film. He was recently awarded Best Actor in
a Leading Role at the at the Brooklyn Film
Festival for the film Delivery. Most recently,
Walker worked as a writer, actor and producer of the pilot Two Dudes and a Van,
which is currently seeking distribution. Alena Chinault
Born and raised in Texas, Alena moved to
New York to study Literature and Cinema
Studies at NYU. In 2011, the role of Eden
reawakened a desire in Alena to perform,
taking her back to a previous decade of
modeling, ballet and modern dance. She
is currently enrolled at the Atlantic Acting
School, and pursuing acting and modeling
professionally. Stephen Sheffer
Stephen has appeared in Doorman
(Sundance/Cannes), The Process of Art
(Montreal World Festival) and Stand Sentry,
a short he directed. The Bone, a short film
he wrote and directed, screened at New York
City’s Landmark Sunshine Cinema as part of
NY Shorts Fest. Currently, he’s working on the
feature-length screenplay Birth Control.
Page 5 of 9
STYLE
There are two distinct worlds in
The Naturalist:
SIMON’S WORLD
Despite the stressful outside world, Simon and Oliver have
forged a home for themselves, a naturalist enclave forged
in a decaying ghetto
Hydroponic lamps foster an indoor garden.
Windows covered in a yellowing newspaper collage cast
a warm haze over the apartment. The stairwell is sterile,
haunted by flickering fluorescent lighting.
EDEN’S WORLD
A modernist getaway in a gated
community, overflowing in nature. Clean and sterile, with
dramatic windows looking out on peak foliage and a
stunning lake view.
Camera
the RED ONE mx
The film was shot in the
2.55:1 Widescreen ratio using
Cooke S2/3 prime lenses.
To achieve both the sleek, modern and cinematic
look as well as the immediacy of the documentary, verite style (relying almost exclusively on
natural light), we used the Red One digital
camera package.
Page 6 of 9
Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville exhibits
the modernist and noir influences seen
in the film.
The almost exclusive use of natural light
and the non-linear editing style owe a lot
to Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. A late 80s-90s analog style was
implemented in the productin design and
with a visual effects motif of hazy VHS
images to signal Simon and Oliver’s reapproriating artifacts of America’s post-Cold
War glory days.
To achieve a successful suspension of disbelief with
The Naturalist, I had to create a textured, varied and
cohesive world. Extensive research into the forefront of modern
medicine crafted something viable from a concept that was, in
reality, implausible. In order to really sell the illusion, we carefully
considered every shot. My background in drawing and painting
allowed me to communicate my vision by storyboarding every shot
in the film. To illustrate the future, my DoP and I opted for a
classical, painterly aesthetic, choosing to shoot almost exclusively
with natural light. We also chose to use Cooke S2 prime lenses for
their cinematic, graphic novel-esque quality and to recall a
nostalgia for the operatic, romantic period pieces (The English
Patient and Evita, for example) of the late 1990s, tragedies from a
more optimistic era in which these lenses were in wider use. This
nostalgic lens choice was accented by our use of the Red One
camera, which offered a distinctly modern, digital look renowned
for its “filmic” quality.
With The Naturalist I wanted to explore docudrama techniques
with the use of personal, semi-autobiographical narratives, nonactors (some of whom play written versions of themselves),
improvisation techniques, handheld camera operating, digital cinema technology and a reliance on natural light. This digital realism
style evoked the illusion of a documentary reality, which
encourages modern audiences already attuned to the style. With
disbelief suspended, I was able to punctuate the film with more
cinematic moments of heightened reality and still allow for a level
of plausibility.
Page 7 of 9
PRESS
Excerpt From Director Connor Hurley’s Huffington Post Article “Would You Choose
to Be Straight? New Sci-Fi Film Explores Origins of Sexuality,” dually posted on the
Huffington Post Arts & Culture and Gay Voices blog
When I was around 12 years old I got really into classic films, and was especially interested in closeted stars. I loved Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, which “outed” a lot of stars. After I saw Psycho I was reading into Anthony Perkin’s rumoured bisexuality. Apparently he wasn’t very happy about being gay. Someone, probably erroneously, attributed a quote
to him saying if there were a gay-to-straight pill, he’d take it. That thought never really left me.
Since coming out and making this movie, I’ve grown out of the self-pitying gay kid thing. That’s not to say
hypothetical scenarios like the one at the heart of this film don’t cross my mind. I’ve always had a close bond with women,
and I think I’ve definitely fallen in love with women emotionally. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t resent being gay in times like
that.
My head goes into a tailspin when people say homosexuality is a “choice.” To me, it’s a copout: it tries to define an issue
that isn’t fully understood. Is sexuality determined by genetic, psychological, or environmental factors? Is human sexuality
strictly defined or more fluid?
So it’s no surprise my first film explores the idea of choosing your sexuality, and the ethical and psychological repercussions of that choice. When I was writing the script, I was stuck in a neurotic cycle of hypothetical questions: If sexuality
were a choice, what would I do? Would I leave behind my partner of the past two years, would he leave me? These paranoid scenarios informed the relationship drama at the core of The Naturalist.
In addition to questions on the origins of sexuality, the film addresses the uncomfortable potential for the next phase of human evolution. I was inspired by what I was reading about advances in genetic and biosynthetic
engineering. The film is definitely a dramatic projection of the future, but right now as a society, we seek to “normalize”
with drugs. Why wouldn’t we want to “normalize” our DNA? I came out to my parents not too long ago, and I realize how
hard it is for them to think about their child struggling. Even parents who are gay-friendly, though they would be fine with
their kid being gay, wouldn’t want that for their child if they had a choice, right? I really wanted to play with peoples’ sympathies and make them question even liberal standpoints.
“A damn fine downer...The choice our lead is faced with isn’t an easy one and I sure as hell
won’t be spoiling it. If you get a chance to see it, do yourself a solid and make it happen.
Beautiful film.” -Ain’t It Cool News
One of Fantastic Fest’s Top 5 Shorts!
The Naturalist Also has been featured on IndieWire as Project of the Day for January 11th, 2011, has been
written about on NYULocal, and launched a successful crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter.
Page 8 of 9
CONCLUSION
On behalf of the entire cast and crew, I thank you for reading our
Press Kit.
Currently we are in the festival application process and are seeking
distribution. If you would like to view a copy of the film, please contact me
via the information provided below.
It is my hope that you enjoy the film as much as I’ve enjoyed making it.
Connor Hurley
703.915.6361
[email protected] www.connorhurley.com
Be sure to also:
Check out our trailer
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Page 9 of 9
2013 Connor Hurley

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