Slamdance Film Festival 2024: Interview With Writers Caleb Davis and Director E’an Verdugo For RESTORAGE

At this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, in the episodic section, is the family dramedy Restorage. This sci-fi-infused, intriguing concept is one not to miss.

I was able to speak with co-writer Caleb Davis, co-writer/director E’an Verdugo and star  Jacob Daniels about the project, its interesting origins, how the story evolved, and much more:

This interview has been edited for clarity.

This is Kristy Strouse with Film Inquiry. You guys just got here, you said? You just started your fest?

Caleb Davis: Yeah, we just got here. Literally flew in today.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, flew in today and we’re exhausted. Just checked in. We’re from Dallas, so.

So, this is much colder.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah. It’s colder, but it’s snowing here. It’s snowing, so it’s magical, but my ears are, like, really hot.

It’s a thing. Sorry, to tell you. Have you ever been to Slamdance?

E’an Verdugo: I have not.

Welcome! You have hot ears now.

E’an Verdugo: Oh, I have hot ears, all because of Utah, yeah. [Laughs]

Congrats on the episodic! So, you both shared in the writing?

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, so we both created it and wrote it, and he produced, and I directed.

Where did this originate from, and how was the writing collaboration?

Caleb Davis: We’ll piggyback, we had made a really silly sketch comedy, like a short film, in a studio where I had done some work in the past, and the owner of the studio pulled me aside while we were shooting, and was like, “It sounds like you guys are having a blast and having so much fun. I just want to let you know, I own an entire storage facility. So if you ever have a short film you want to shoot in a storage unit or something, go ahead and use it.” So random. But awesome. Once that happened E’an Verdugo was like, hey, this guy, he’s got this storage facility, let’s come up with an idea and pitch it to him and just see what, where it goes.

That’s wild.

E’an Verdugo: So originally we approached it like, hey, let’s do something that’s a little bit like Kim’s Convenience or something that’s like a dramedy, but maybe they own the business. But then Caleb, when I pitched this to him, he’s like, that’s really awesome. “What if we have a storage unit that is a portal?” And then from there, we were like, okay, let’s explore that. That’s where it all kind of started.

Caleb Davis: After that, it was getting into the outline. With a pilot we wanted to structure it in a way where we could keep it very open-ended and finish with some form of cliffhanger. And so, really, the outline, I would say, was the most important part of that. It’s crafting something in 30 minutes that we could actually tell a unique story with that’s singular, but then also sets up the Netflix countdown, and you want to say “Okay, yeah, that’s fine. I’ll watch the second episode.”

“Are you still watching”, sort of thing?

E’an Verdugo: Yes. Hopefully. But also, that was the most fun part for us, was the brainstorming and the outlining and coming up with all these things, and including the rest of the first season. The pilot is just the pilot, but we also have all this other stuff that we’ve planned out, and that’s been the most exciting thing for us.

Yeah. So, that’s like the weirdest writing prompt.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, absolutely. I think having the boundary already of, okay, you’ve got a really solid location. I think we went and looked at it even before we had an idea of what we would like. Yeah, that’s right. But it fit perfectly. I think that was cool. Knowing the genre of what we wanted to do, dramedy, and then incorporate a little bit of sci-fi. So, we had all these pieces, and we knew that there was going to be something with family dysfunction. It was all there, and then we just really needed to sit down and hammer out what the outline looked like. After that, it just kind of flowed pretty easily.

So, when you’re writing this, were you thinking about the entire season, the complete story? Do you already have that written? Are you working on it?

E’an Verdugo: Yeah. So, while we were doing the pilot, we were thinking of the whole first season. We have all of that outlined, and we’re working on writing each episode. We also intentionally structured the first season in the same way the pilot is structured. We have a lot of things happening, but there’s still a pretty big opening at the end, setting up a second season and potentially another. But we also wanted to have a clear story arc within the one season while having a lot of potential for the future.

Yeah. So, you already have it outlined, just not written yet?

E’an Verdugo: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I’m sure there’s plenty more of the –

Caleb Davis: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

E’an Verdugo: – it’s all going to take place in the storage unit, or at least partially.

Caleb Davis: Yes. Well, there’s a lot in the storage unit.

That’s a character in itself. 

Caleb Davis: It is. Yes, absolutely. I think that was cool, and even in creating, going from script to actually seeing it, our art department and our DP, did such a great job in creating a character out of this.

E’an Verdugo: It is.

Caleb Davis: It’s true.

E’an Verdugo: Even in the lighting effects and stuff like that. It’s funny. In the moment, we’re going, “Oh, of course, there’s sort of lighting effects that happen as the portal thing or whatever is happening inside. It’s like moving or whatever. But that’s actively creating this character out of the space, which we sort of – I mean, it’s intentional but unintentional. I don’t think it was even – It’s not like we’re being like, ‘Oh, it’s a character.’ in the script. But it’s becoming that, which is really cool.

Yeah, kind of have its little mind of its own.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah. Well, yes, exactly. Which could be scary. You know, now next time when we go –

Jacob Daniels: Yeah, it could go – it could go horror.

E’an Verdugo: It doesn’t. But it could. It could.

E’an Verdugo: It does not. It just kind of gets sillier. It does get sillier. But, yes, it could. Horror can be silly, too. Horror can be silly. That’s true.

You said you worked on a silly sketch comedy. Is that what you said?

E’an Verdugo: Yes.

Caleb Davis: It was actually – so Jacob here, he’s one of the actors in Restorage. He’s the brother of Robert. But he actually acted across from Caleb in the short film. So both of you guys were there. It’s called Good Cop, Bad Cop. He’s a criminal who’s being interrogated by a police officer who’s beating the heck out of him. And then he starts to leave, and he says, “Wait till you meet the bad cop.” And he’s like, “I thought you were the bad cop.” The bad cop walks in, and it’s Caleb. But instead of him being even worse, he’s just literally just bad at his job.

Caleb Davis: Yeah. Like really over-the-top ridiculous. So it’s like a three-minute short where it’s ridiculous. So we – A lot of improv. So much. A lot of improv. Whatever was written by me was completely changed. And that’s a lot of the set that he creates as he’s directing is allowing characters to sort of thrive within a space where it’s like, “Okay, hey, well, you should maybe just say that. That would be great.” A lot of improv. And so, up accidentally, as the cop, shooting the guy in the leg, and then I don’t end up screaming. Yes, we did that sketch. I think I end up performing surgery to get the bullet out. And it’s stupid. It’s very stupid. But we were laughing the whole time. And it just helped us essentially get funding.

Jacob Daniels: I wonder, honestly, I wonder if it was my scream that he was like, “What is going on?”

Caleb Davis: Probably. Probably.

Jacob Daniels: Maybe, yeah. There’s a moment where I just cut loose with a shriek.

E’an Verdugo: Oh, right. It was the shriek that sold it.

Jacob Daniels: Yeah, I think so.

The shriek heard around the world! And a storage facility. So random. I love it. It’s so bizarre. It seems perfect for you guys, though that it would happen that way.

So obviously that was improv and that was totally different. But what about with this script? Was there any flexibility with collaboration in the character at all?

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, someone else asked that recently. I tried to encourage the actors to bring some improv. But most of the characters didn’t. It was kind of like serious roles except for Chase, who’s Connor Boyd. But he was like, “I just want to stick to the script.” And I’m like, “Well, feel free to.” And he’s like, “Yeah, okay, okay.” But he just stuck to the script. The one time that we had like an improvised scene was when the receptionist at the nursing home, had similar lines of dialogue of him kind of being off-putting towards our main character. But Caleb pulled our friend Francis in, who was just a PA day of, and told him like, “Hey, just riff with Connor.” And then they both improvised. And I think in the first cut, it was like an eight-minute scene. It was like three minutes or something of interaction. But yeah, that was a very improvised moment. And we both think, I think, it’s the funniest part of the whole thing.

Caleb Davis: Yeah. Yeah. Again, I think this is, for all of the stuff that we’ve done in the past, which have been kind of silly, this is not very silly. There are moments of silliness for sure. But it’s not necessarily humorous. Like you’re not supposed to. If you laugh, that’s great. But it’s okay if you don’t, because that’s not the point. Except really that scene. It is the scene that is just so, there are lines that are said that are so very funny, and none of it was written. None of it was written. No.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah.

And what was your impression when you first read the script?

Jacob Daniels: Well, he came in and he’s like, “Hey, so here’s the situation. This guy wants to give us some money to make something at his storage facility.” And all of us, like we’re all, three of us were writers also, and we were all just like, “Well, good luck with that. I’ve always got the impression that everyone was like, okay, sure, Ian. Okay.” And then Ian comes back with a script, and we’re reading it, and we’re like, “Shit, this is good.” It was such a perfect, like, you know, the obvious thing to do with that premise is like, “Oh, you’ve got this storage facility, and either it’s like a sitcom situation like Kim’s Convenience thing where it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re following, it’s a workplace comedy sort of thing, or it’s like this thriller where it’s like it’s a storage facility, we find a dead body, and it’s like this noir thing, whatever. But what they were able to achieve with the device of the door opening and closing and like creating this magical element to it that it just opens up, it opens up the story in a surprising way. Also like metaphorically what it represents for this family as well, the idea of being able to restore something that’s broken.

We all need a storage facility in our lives. Who were some of your inspirations for the show?

E’an Verdugo: I think for the pilot specifically, I really enjoyed Noah Baumbach‘s like, what is it, The Squid and the Whale, and the Meyerowitz stories, like seeing the dysfunctional families that are like kind of, they’re broken, but there’s like some comedy that’s happening, but it’s not about the comedy necessarily. So that’s like a big thing. And I think also for the pilot, we liked the show Living with Yourself with Paul Rudd. Oh, that was fun. It’s like a comedy that’s sci-fi, but it’s really not about the sci-fi. It’s more than that. And then Dead to Me and Severance was another. Severance. So those were kind of like the inspiration for us.

Caleb Davis: Somebody recently mentioned a film that I thought was sort of a great comparison in grounded sci-fi that we could do, which was Primer. If you know the film Primer, which is like an amazing sci-fi. Which was also shot in Dallas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it’s a time travel film, and it’s incredible, and it’s such a grounded sci-fi film. And I think it’s really cool to reference and look back. I don’t think that was intentional. No, it wasn’t. But if you look at the two, I saw that recently, and somebody had mentioned that. I was like, oh, that’s so true. That’s such a good grounded. I’ve never seen Primer.

E’an Verdugo: Well, literally there’s all this time travel. But anyway, now I’m just talking about Primer. We should all go watch Primer. It’s amazing. That’s the message to take away.

Jacob Daniels: Also interesting with Stall, I just put this together, but it’s a similar sort of situation where it’s just like this very mundane setting, and then there’s the magical things.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah.

Jacob Daniels: Like having to do with doors.

E’an Verdugo: Dude, that’s right. No, I love sci-fi when it’s grounded. I love that when something seems normal, and then there’s just this slightly off thing that happens.

Jacob Daniels: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it also is just about, in reality, the little bits of magic that could happen and possibility. And I feel like that’s the thing that’s like the sci-fi, or even magical elements is really stinking cool, because it can only take you so far emotionally, like with a story. But if you have characters that you’re seeing change or go through something, and it’s amplified by the sci-fi, it just makes it more enjoyable and entertaining.

E’an Verdugo: Absolutely.

Jacob Daniels: Can I ask a question? Do you feel like this fits more in the sci-fi realm or like the magical realm?

E’an Verdugo: I think it’s more sci-fi. I will say it ends up being way more sci-fi. From what we have outlined for the rest of the show, it definitely ends up being more sci-fi. And the pilot’s a little more ambiguous.

Jacob Daniels: Right, right, right. And then as you start to figure out.

E’an Verdugo: Because we didn’t have a ton of money.

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sci-fi. Sci-fi. Just whisper. But sort of what we have for the rest of the show is definitely like, as you get into it, it’s definitely sci-fi.

Have they not shared with you?

Caleb Davis: Oh, no. I don’t think we really have.

He seems very bummed about this.

E’an Verdugo: I think, yeah.

Jacob Daniels: All I know is that my character is in the rest of the season. That’s all he cares about. That’s definitely all I know.

Well, he seems genuinely curious as to what’s going to happen.

Do you have any other questions that you want to ask? [looks to Jacob]

E’an Verdugo: Yeah, you got some questions, Jacob?

Jacob Daniels: Yes, thank you. What happens? [laughs]. We’ll talk about it after.

Yes, yes. Well, that’s all I got. Thank you very much for taking the time. It was wonderful chatting with you. You guys are fun! Congrats!

Film Inquiry would like to thank them for speaking with us!