Sloane

Introduction

Sloane is an up-and-coming director in the Terrafilm Underground scene. Sloane's signature style is vivid, abrasive, and chaotic, influenced by B-movies, cult classics and exploitation films. Sloane's work evokes old, outdated film styles and tropes as a way of critiquing the current cinema landscape. The films Sloane has released so far have gotten mixed to negative reviews, but they at least succeeded in getting people talking.

Backstory

Early Years

Sloane grew up in a small town in Western Australia. From a young age, Sloane loved movies, especially the more rough-around-the-edges variety. Their low-budget innovation and creativity were both entertaining and aspirational, and the more violent and tasteless, the better. Campy schlock and ugly grindhouse horror inspired Sloane to begin making movies.

As a teenager, Sloane and some film-loving friends started a collective of sorts, working together to create short movies with whatever limited materials and locations they had access to. Sloane mostly served as the cinematographer on these projects, but Sloane did write and direct a 66-minute feature called The Vicious Gang of Bikies, Unfortunately Deprived of Their Vicious Bikes. Despite most scenes consisting of people just walking around for minutes on end, getting into badly choreographed fights, and delivering dialog that only edgy 16-year-olds could consider witty, it was undoubtedly the collective’s most ambitious project, and the one they were all proudest of. Sloane’s friends encouraged Sloane to continue scriptwriting, although the rest of them chose not to go into professional filmmaking when they became adults.

University

Sloane attended film school in Melbourne, where at first Sloane had a difficult time. Far away from old friends, Sloane had trouble finding a new crowd, since few other students were interested in the kind of films Sloane was passionate about. Sloane’s professors didn’t like Sloane’s style, calling it juvenile and considering Sloane’s inspirations unworthy of being called art. This was demoralizing. Sloane considered changing styles, but decided to stick to Sloane’s guns. Eventually, this paid off, but not before causing Sloane serious stress and uncertainty.

By Sloane’s second year of film school, Sloane had thankfully made a few friends with similar senses of humor and unconventional artistic interests. Although they may not have shared Sloane’s exact tastes in trashy cinema, they respected it and Sloane’s own work. One of them, Kitty, did have very similar tastes, and she and Sloane became close friends. Soon they were having small gatherings every weekend to watch movies, and networking with other film students. School suddenly became tolerable and even fun.

In 2148 at age 21, something happened that would change Sloane’s life: Mikel Shel came to the school to give a guest lecture. Shel was a fairly well known director of cave flicks, whose work was garnering praise in the Australian indie film scene. Sloane was a huge fan of his films, and jumped at the chance to attend the lecture and talk to him afterward, even just for a moment. After gushing to him and receiving some brief words of encouragement in return, star-struck Sloane invited him to a screening of Sloane’s student film, which would be premiering the next month.

To everyone’s shock and awe, Mikel Shel actually showed up. Not only that, but he liked the film. After some continued correspondence about Sloane’s work, he offered Sloane a job as cinematographer on his next movie, which would start filming after Sloane graduated.

Adulthood

The first Shel movie Sloane worked on was Words Fail 9 of 10 Agree, a semi-satirical cave flick. It was decently reviewed, with Sloane’s cinematography attracting particular praise. Between a couple other cinematography jobs on low-profile films, Shel offered to co-direct a script Sloane had written, in order to get Sloane directly into directing. Shel’s collective would produce the film. It was an opportunity Sloane couldn’t pass up. So they made the film, Stranded on Venus with the Alien Cat Women. It came out in 2155 and didn’t get much attention.

But they weren’t stopping there. In 2157, Sloane and Shel released another film they co-directed, titled Good Forsaken God. This gory, black comedy nun movie, inspired by tacky and tasteless old sexploitation, nunsploitation, and sadistic horror films, became immediately controversial in a way that meant it was pretty much a guaranteed success. Movies emulating past styles and time periods were extremely popular, but Sloane always found them hypocritical since they seemed to mostly have an inaccurate, sentimental, rose-tinted view of the very messy and violent time periods they supposedly represented. So, by swinging far in the other direction and emulating the “worst” of the past, Sloane was making a statement. At least, that was what Sloane said. Critics were divided, but the film was very popular with audiences. People were keeping an eye on Sloane and Shel—but that would end up being the last film they made together, as they soon announced they were going their separate ways.

The controversy and relative popularity of Good Forsaken God meant Sloane’s foot was now in the metaphorical directing door. Sloane’s solo directorial debut was Massive Fright (2159), an outrageous monster/splatter movie which did even better than Sloane could have hoped. It was nominated for an award at the Terrorfilm Underground Fest, although it didn’t win.

Now in 2160 Sloane is taking a short break, but has been workshopping an idea for a new film inspired by classic slashers, and trying to think of ways to film and edit more eye-hurtingly.

Personality

In the language of our time, Sloane could best be described as “irony poisoned”. A bitter, insecure person, Sloane would rather seem like the smartest and coolest one in the room than risk showing any genuine emotion. Sloane is well aware this is a miserable way to live, but knows no other way. Cynicism and a mean, sarcastic sense of humor always win out even on the rare occasion Sloane tries to be vulnerable.

As a born contrarian, Sloane’s natural instinct is to insist that most highly beloved art is actually trash and that trash is the real art. The enthusiastic appreciation for awful films is genuine, but Sloane is incapable of expressing it genuinely, so it is made out to be part of Sloane’s Super Subversive Ironic Artistry.

It comes as no surprise that these traits lead to Sloane having difficulty forming and maintaining friendships. Not that Sloane wants many friends anyway (or at least, Sloane tells Sloane’s self that), but Sloane would like to be less lonely, even long after giving up on trying to befriend people. Now, Sloane’s introversion has turned into avoidance, and most of the time Sloane talks to no one other than those Sloane works with. It’s a far cry from Sloane’s days of networking and nights of partying back in film school. Sloane works, Sloane goes home and feels miserable and struggles to get a few hours’ sleep… that’s pretty much it now.

Really, Sloane is not a bad person, just a flawed individual who is generally unpleasant to be around. Sloane has many admirable characteristics too: creativity, perseverance, attention to detail, fairness, and an intense passion for art. You might think it’d be a nightmare to work with Sloane, but when it comes to the filmmaking process, Sloane is usually pretty patient and accommodating. (Usually.) If Sloane ever committed to self-improvement, that might not entirely defeat the self-hatred, but Sloane could certainly become someone to be proud of being. The self-awareness is already there, just not the motivation or maturity necessary to change. Sloane has a whole life ahead to develop that.

Appearance

Sloane is a slim person of unremarkable height whose most notable trait is extremely long (almost knee length) black hair, which is usually in a slightly crooked ponytail. Sloane is primarily of Tamil, Thai, and Scottish ancestry. Sloane has five piercings in each ear and one in the right eyebrow, and often wears sunglasses to conceal dark circles caused by chronic insomnia.

Sloane's common outfits include just about everything from t-shirts and jeans to suits to turtlenecks to miniskirts. Sloane prefers outfits that are just a little bit ugly; Sloane is also fond of platform boots. On Sloane’s shoulders, Sloane has a few tattoos, including one of a motorcycle with a bloodstain under it and one of a weird beetle.

Relationships

Mikel Shel

Owing to the two movies they directed together, Sloane is closely associated with fellow filmmaker Mikel Shel. Many people know that they were once close collaborators and now refuse to work together, but hardly anyone knows how or why this falling out happened.

[Content warning: Emotional abuse - Click to show/hide]

It happened like this. When Mikel attended that first screening of his fan’s student film, he instantly recognized Sloane’s talent, innovation, and youthful passion, and he wanted to own it. Sloane was the kind of vibrant young filmmaker he wished he had been. That was why he offered Sloane the job. That, and he was practically obsessed with Sloane. On set, Sloane’s feelings for Mikel quickly developed into more than just hero worship. Sloane was smitten with the director, and he knew it. He made it clear that he, too, wanted more than Sloane’s cinematography skills, and they began a relationship. An established director hooking up with an unknown young cinematographer he hired right out of film school would not at all be a good look, so their involvement was kept secret.

At first, Sloane was ecstatic to be with Mikel, but feelings got conflicted and complicated fast. The doubts only got more intense as the illicit relationship continued during and after filming and production. But Sloane couldn’t voice them. Sloane was still a nobody whose future career rested entirely in Mikel’s hands. The distance between them grew even as they became closer. Sloane cared for Mikel deeply and wanted their relationship to work, but did it have to come at the cost of Sloane’s ability to make independent career decisions, not to mention peace of mind? Sloane didn’t know.

When Stranded on Venus was being made, Sloane thought they might be in a more equal position, since they were both directing it and Sloane had been promised creative authority. But the new circumstances only seemed to make Mikel more controlling and possessive, more difficult to work with, and impossible to get through to about any serious interpersonal concerns. Sloane felt trapped.

On Good Forsaken God, an ultimate passion project that Sloane wanted to succeed more than anything, things got even worse. Mikel was clearly afraid that once Sloane’s career was established, he wouldn’t be needed anymore. So he lashed out, doing everything he could to guilt and manipulate Sloane into staying with him and doing what he wanted to do both creatively and personally. Up to that point, Sloane had still believed in him and in their partnership, but making that film was a hellish experience. It was getting harder to deny that his behavior was abusive. Sloane began to wonder if Sloane had been taken advantage of from the very beginning.

When the movie was released, its success finally gave Sloane the courage to leave Mikel and pursue a career independent of him. It was the hardest thing Sloane ever did. Thankfully, Mikel didn’t retaliate, probably because he thought that if he tried, Sloane could ruin his career by telling the world the truth about him. As much as Sloane hated him for what he did, some feeling remained that stopped Sloane from wanting to do that—besides, Sloane was less popular than Mikel. Sloane was a controversial personality hated by more than a few people, and feared that this meant Sloane wouldn’t be the one the public sided with anyway, that Mikel could spin the story and make Sloane the villain.

So for now, they are both silent on the subject of their partnership. They pretend to be civil for the public, and neither will say why it ended. But rumors abound, and Sloane cannot escape the feeling of being in Mikel’s shadow, even as Sloane’s independent career is going well.

Kitty

Sloane’s best friend in film school and for years after, although unfortunately they’ve fallen out of touch lately. She ended up becoming a sound engineer and moving to Chicago to work on cave flicks. They both miss each other a lot and each wishes the other would call.

Trivia

Sloane owns four cats, loves them dearly and frequently takes them for walks. Their names are Varla, Amy, Frank, and Lionel.
Sloane has chronic insomnia which can sometimes be bad enough to delay filming.
Sloane is an avid blogger.
Sloane will agree to be on almost any podcast, but tends to avoid directly answering any questions asked by the hosts, opting instead to be a combative nuisance.
Sloane does not believe artists should explain their art. It's a good thing, then, that Sloane's own work lacks subtlety.
Sloane is probably capable of making a masterpiece someday. The real question is whether Sloane actually wants to.