Atlanta Filmmaking Duo Rebrands, Takes On Southern Gothic
Brad Carter portrays a man obsessed with finding the voice on a number station in Ruckus and Lane Skye’s short film, ”The 7 Sevens.”
RUCKUS SKYE AND LANE SKYE
In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish and to make films together, Ruckus and Lane Skye are a duo in life and in filmmaking. Their films are born out of the great storytelling tradition of Southern Gothic.
The Skyes are highly praised for their screenplays, but they recently decided to move in a different direction with their newly created production company, Crooked Crow Films. The name was inspired by a fictional brand of whiskey they created for a character in one of their screenplays. Instead of comedies, which they had been making previously, they hope to make darker, more intense films like thrillers.
To bolster their new image, Ruckus and Lane wrote and shot a 10-minute short called “The 7 Sevens.” They were transfixed with “number stations,” which are illegally transmitted radio signals of just a voice reading a series of numbers or letters.
“What was interesting to us,” said Ruckus, “is that no one will admit it’s them, and the government doesn’t even admit they exist.” Lane added, “Some people say it’s traffickers, aliens, maybe lizard people. So, I love that there’s this thing that exists in this modern culture where we know everything [but] no one really definitely knows what these are and what their purpose is.”
“True Detective” actor Brad Carter portrays a man obsessed with finding the voice of a woman on a number station. He overhears a woman at a diner (the woman is portrayed by Kate Kovach), is convinced that she is the voice and then kidnaps her.
“The 7 Sevens” was shot in a 1970s camper. In the film, the camper is packed with vintage radio gear and photographs of women. For those photos, the Skyes asked their friends to run around East Atlanta while they photographed them, surveillance-style. Ruckus explained their methodology with the camper: “We wanted it to look like this guy was just obsessed, he never left, and all he ever thought about day and night was finding the voice. So what would his place look like? It would look cluttered, and it would look almost gross.”
The Skyes have several film ideas in the works. Crooked Crow’s first feature film will be a music movie. Carter, who is also a musician, will be the front man in the film, and the filmmakers promise to provide plenty of dark themes in this project.
“24 FPS (Frames Per Second)” is a weekly segment on “City Lights with Lois Reitzes,” where we hear from local, independent filmmakers.
In these segments, they tell us about being a filmmaker in Atlanta, their projects and the how-tos of film production.
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