Seeing the film with an audience changed it in the best way. For Mercer it was a feature debut; for West, his first produced feature script; for Mercedes, a feature acting debut. Kearsley described the same sense of discovery watching the finished film on a big screen.

Gloria Mercer: The premiere was thrilling. It was the biggest screen the film’s been on — we screened at Alamo South Lamar — and the audience reaction was beyond my expectations. SXSW has been wonderful.

Cody Kearsley: It’s always a special moment to see the director’s vision fully realized. As actors we work in the scenes, but seeing the cinematography, sound, and music come together made it feel new for all of us.

Tandia Mercedes: I loved seeing it on the big screen. It was gratifying to watch all our work assemble into the finished film.

The film operates on several registers: thriller, relationship drama, coming-of-sexual-awareness, and a meditation on safety versus liberation. Mercer explains how the project began with something personal and became a genre piece.

Gloria Mercer: I wanted to tell a contemporary story about relationships that speaks to women’s experiences. I’d had relationships that left me feeling small and realizing I’d changed. That feeling of waking up to who you’ve become — and who you don’t want to be — felt important to explore.

Working with Aidan, we developed those feelings into Alex’s character and decided to place them in the lovers-on-the-run framework. We played with the contrast between feeling trapped and finding freedom, and set it in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. That heightened scenario — running away with a pair of bank robbers — let us explore those emotional truths through genre conventions.

Although West is the credited screenwriter, the film’s perspective on feminine experience was developed collaboratively. Both Mercer and West emphasize how the script emerged from sustained trust and teamwork.

Gloria Mercer: Aidan is someone I trust. Even though he wrote the film, he always brought me into the writing process, asking what mattered to me. I felt involved from the start.

Aidan West: We made the movie together. When people ask how a man wrote this story, the truth is Gloria’s voice and ideas were central from conception onward.

Gloria Mercer: Splitting responsibilities made indie filmmaking manageable. Aidan produced and was on set every day, and the crew and cast all wore many hats to get this done.

The project began as a short, but the feature evolved over several drafts. The bank-robbing aspect and genre elements arrived later, shaping the film into the tense, layered piece it became.

Gloria Mercer: We shot a short as a proof of concept after Aidan had already written a feature script. That short helped crystallize the feature’s tone and approach.

Aidan West: The earliest notes date back to around 2019. The film changed a lot over time — early drafts leaned more toward straight drama. The bank-robbing angle and stronger genre sensibility came later and were very helpful in shaping the final script.

The film relies on strong performances at its center. Bethany Brown, who plays Alex, wasn’t at the roundtable, but her presence was frequently mentioned. Kearsley and Mercedes discussed preparing quickly and building on-set chemistry.

Cody Kearsley: I felt like I came in pretty close to shooting.

Gloria Mercer: It wasn’t literally a week, but the prep time was tight — a few weeks to a month.

Tandia Mercedes: We had time to rehearse and connect before filming, which helped a lot. Everyone on the crew was welcoming, and that off-camera warmth translated on screen.

Gloria Mercer: I wasn’t fully familiar with Cody’s breadth beyond his TV work, but when he auditioned I immediately saw him as Matt. He brought thoughtfulness and sensitivity to the role, and his on-set rapport with the cast helped the film immensely.

Cody Kearsley: Shout out to Bethany — she created the tone on set, and that support was crucial.

Intimate scenes are central to the story, and shooting them in cramped, outdoor conditions required careful planning. The team worked with an intimacy coordinator and rehearsed choreography to keep actors safe and comfortable.

Gloria Mercer: Tolmie Greaves, our intimacy coordinator, was on early and essential to the process. Shooting intimate moments in a van or tight woods locations isn’t glamorous, so having someone to advocate for consent and safety was invaluable. She encouraged joyous consent — that phrasing was important to me.

Tandia Mercedes: The intimacy coordinator helped us set boundaries and talk through what we were and weren’t comfortable with. Because we connected beforehand, the scenes felt easier and more natural on camera. I remember after shooting a van scene we’d all sit in silence for a beat and then laugh — that moment of release was part of the process.

Cody Kearsley: The choreography can be very technical. A scene can look effortless on screen, but in reality I was doing awkward moves, crab-walking around trailers to hit marks. The intimacy work involved constant attention to choreography, camera positions, and safety.

Cinematographer Devan Scott helped shape the film’s visual language. The forest sometimes feels expansive and seductive, sometimes oppressive — a duality the filmmakers threaded into camera movement, color, and texture.

Gloria Mercer: I’ve worked with Devan before and relied on his input throughout prep. We referenced films by Robert Altman and other gritty ’70s cinema, using long lenses, zooms, and a fluid approach to movement to create a specific texture. Devan also handled color and film emulation, so the image evolves across the film in how “dirty” or textured it feels.

Gloria Mercer: We shot digitally on a Sony Venice with additional B-cameras. Devan’s approach to emulation and color timing was a huge part of the film’s look.

Aidan West: We also used a Blackmagic for some coverage.

Small, specific Canadian details — city names, regional references, and local music — create a sense of place. The filmmakers embraced those elements rather than hiding the production’s Canadian roots.

Adam Manery: I love when Canadian projects name cities — it feels authentic.

Gloria Mercer: The place names were deliberate. We shot in Canada, and the geography and route references felt true to the story. We also leaned into Canadian music for the needle drops — artists like Destroyer and Le Ren appear on the soundtrack.

Aidan West: Many of the locations we referenced are familiar to us, so they fit naturally into the world of the film.