Every found footage-horror film needs a strong dynamic to tie its entire narrative together. For Man Finds Tape, it finds that through its two siblings, Lucas and Lynn, who are faced with uncovering their family’s secrets about a small town conspiracy.
Lucas and Lynn, played by Kelsey Pribilski and William Magnuson, respectively, truly see the terror of it all, but their bond remains unbreakable all the way through. Playing such integral characters, Pribilski and Magnuson had much to prepare for.
I recently spoke with Pribilski and Magnuson about their roles on Man Finds Tape, developing Lucas and Lynn’s siblinghood, and getting hands-on cinematography experience.
Pribilski and Magnuson knew that Man Finds Tape would be special for both of them, but there were some specific parts that motivated them to join the indie film’s cast.
“I love characters and movies that deal with the abyss,” Magnuson began. “That’s what I was drawn to immediately. I’m a fan of conspiratorial rabbit hole movies too, so those two things definitely jumped out at me right away.”
“I’m a huge fan of the horror genre individually from all of this,” Pribilski added. “It being a horror movie, I love Blair Witch and the Paranormal Activity [movies]. The challenge of trying to remain grounded while all this chaos is going on, that excited me for sure.”
As Man Finds Tape revolves around the brother-sister relationship between Lucas and Lynn, Pribilski and Magnuson were incredibly focused on finding the commonalities that made their characters unique.
“William and I are naturally very silly goofy people,” Pribilski said. “Being able to infuse our characters with a little bit of the playfulness lent itself to our little sibling dynamic of — when you’re messing around with your brother, it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re 12 again, we’re 10 years old again.’ We’re right back there!”
“Fundamentally, we both very much also cared about the assignment,” Magnuson continued. “We were both extremely invested. The characters are very different and have different objectives, but as actors, we have the same objective.”
“[Also], having a sense of humor when you’re dealing with something dark, I think, allows you to put down your defenses a little bit and allows you to be all the more creative.”
Despite Lucas and Lynn facing several challenges, both physical and supernatural, there’s a grounding to them that viewers can resonate with. Pribilski and Magnuson explained which traits from their characters stuck with them while filming.
“I always want to know what’s really going on, so I think there was a natural overlap there,” Magnuson said. “The extent to which I want to know what’s going on in any given mystery is different from Lucas.”
“That need to understand the need to make sense of the senseless, that’s something that I really connected with and had a just a blast taking that to the nth degree. I, too, am very skeptical like Lynn.”
“I’m not quick to really believe what you like,” Pribilski said. “If I were put in that situation, I [would be] like, I don’t believe or trust any of this. I’d have her journalistic suspicions and apprehensions.”
Given how Man Finds Tape builds up its supernatural mystery meticulously, there are a few intense scenes that stand out. For Pribilski and Magnuson, there were two moments in mind that stuck with them.
“The Boone’s Barbecue scene, that’s where stuff starts getting real,” Pribilski recalled. “The fact that I got to do some of the handheld camera movements and see the POV of the film and my character’s POV at the same time, and seeing what’s happening, that was definitely the crazy thing.”
“It’s a found footage film, so a lot of the coverage is GoPros and surveillance cameras. We don’t have cameramen or grip guys in the corner just standing there with sandbags, so it felt immersive.”
“Running through a very old, real-life barbecue joint where [Brian Villalobos]’s playing The Stranger down the hall in the dining room, and I’m with the camera, was probably one of the more immersive moments for me,” Magnuson recalled.
“On a different level with Kelsey, we had that scene where I’m apologizing to you and really cracking under pressure was, I think, one of the first moments in the film.”
Furthermore, since Man Finds Tape is a found footage film, it means that Lucas and Lynn are also moving their cameras around. Pribilski and Magnuson discussed what it was like to get hands-on experience with cameras as their characters.
“I produce, and I direct, and I write as well. So I know story beats and how things should work in that sense,” Pribilski explained.
“Holding the camera was newer for me, but even though I did get to hold the camera for a lot of the shots, our DP [David Coone] and I worked very close together, and he was responsible for more.”
“Any time I needed to hold the camera, we were gathering that footage anyway as backup, and some of my actual shots that I filmed did make it in the final cut, which is hilarious to me,” Pribilski noted. “He was showing me camera movements and training me in between takes, and we would rehearse blocking beforehand for that scenario.”
“I love the Texas switch moments,” Magnuson explained. “In reality, you know David’s there, and you’ve rehearsed this handoff. David understands not only traditional cinematography, but he also understands from a character level how these things operate.”
Outside of the tension-building moments, Man Finds Tape also has some incredibly disturbing scenes that may certainly trigger scoleciphobia for some. Pribilski and Magnuson recalled the excitement about using practical effects for those moments.
“There were some really good artists at play for that scene in the kitchen, and interacting with that was radical. And you [to Kelsey] were more involved in that situation,” Magnuson recalled. “That was very hands-on, so to speak, and it was disgusting!”
“Meredith Johns with Hawgfly Productions is responsible for the practical effects, and she’s so talented. She works on all of the big stuff in Texas,” Pribilski said.
Man Finds Tape also has some mysterious characters that go unexplained, like the Stranger. Some scenes that involve the Stranger are some of the most cryptic scenes in the film, which Magnuson explained from Lucas’s perspective.
“I felt like a dog that caught a car, but you actually catch one, and then he’s like, ‘I am totally out of my depth on this,'” Magnuson said. “Lucas is so single-minded with how he pursues his objective that he has no forethought about the consequences of that.”
The film also has some crazy anomalous phenomena, which could be seen in the action-packed climax of the film. Pribilski went into detail about what she loved about recording that insane and twisty climax.
“That scene was so intense because every character was just coming to terms with the apex of their emotional peak,” Pribilski explained. “I think that scene felt the most chaotic and real as well, but it’s funny that specific shot of going into like a different portal. It’s so funny when you shoot things, you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I appear in the location that’s completely different!'”
Because Man Finds Tape was also filmed in Texas’ small towns, Pribilski and Magnuson had some interesting experiences with these different communities.
“We’re all in Austin, so it’s more of a city hub,” Pribilski said. “When you go to other small towns in Texas as an indie filmmaker, a lot of the time you can be met with resistance. We were filming outside, and the town sheriff came, and he was just like, ‘I just wanted to see what you guys were doing,’ and he was just super excited!”
“A lot of the time you’re met with such resistance with filming in public, but it was so funny to go to these smaller towns and then just be so excited to hear that people are making a movie.”
“Most of the time you show up to a place, a small town, and they’re like, ‘Hello, welcome,'” Magnuson added. “Often when you’re filming in a dense urban area, they’re like, ‘Get away from me, I’m calling the cops!’ In a small town, they’ll bend over backwards to help you, and they’ll write you on Facebook.”
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Man Finds Tape releases in theaters on Friday, December 5th.
