Have you ever stood on a bridge and been tempted to throw your phone down into the water? Or chuck it right out the car window, letting it smash into little pieces behind you? When’s the last time you hugged a tree, or felt grass beneath your fingers?
Living in a constant state of technology overstimulation, leaving that all behind is a romantic idea that I know many of us have pondered. I say this while typing on my macbook, surrounded by technology. Mel Eslyn’s new series, “Penelope,” was inspired by modern day Luddite culture, exploring many of these ideas as we follow a story about a teenager, Penelope, who needs to leave it all behind in order to find herself. Set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, this series speaks to all of us who crave a more meaningful connection with each other, nature and ourselves.
“Penelope” premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the Episodic Pilot Showcase. Mel Eslyn also recently debuted her first feature, “Biosphere.” She previously was a producer on many Duplass Brothers Productions such as “Horse Girl,” “Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off,” “The Lady and the Dale,” and “Room 104.” “Penelope” is written by Mark Duplass of “Creep,” “Safety Not Guaranteed,” and “Baghead.”
Can you talk about the origin of this story? And can you talk about the collaborative process with Mark Duplass?
Mark brought me this idea, he said, “I’ve been watching this show, ‘Alive,’ with my parents and my kids. We’re all captivated by watching somebody learn to make fire. It’s so crazy. It’s weird, but we’re not watching him do anything other than survive.” At the same time, we’re all in lockdown. We’re thinking about our own survival and mortality. And then from there I also was like, I want to run away to a cabin. We were circling all these themes and ideas.
He then pitched me this idea of this show about a girl named Penelope, who is a 16 year old girl. It’s kind of the response to a show like “Euphoria.” But is there another version, almost like a wish fulfillment, of the kids now who are yearning for another time. They’re nostalgic for a time before they were even born, free of technology. Like, can they throw away their cell phones? Can they embrace this community, which we had also read about in The New York Times, these Luddite teen groups where they’re getting together and they’re throwing away their phones and they’re being like, let’s go meet in Central Park and just read and touch grass.
Yeah, I read that too.
It was speaking to so much in both of us and what we’re interested in. And so we were like, what if we take that and we tell this story of this callback to simplicity, but through the eyes of a 16 year old girl and kind of give teens this alternative path. Ideally it wouldn’t just be a show for a 16 year old girl, that it could be a more universal theme.
Mark does this thing where he, sorry, it’s gross, but he vomits out scripts so fast. Like, annoyingly fast. He sent me the whole season. He wrote it so quickly. And we just started collaborating on it.
At some point we both realized we were starting to test the waters with some of the distributors we know and love. Everybody was a bit scared because we were in the pandemic and nobody wanted to spend money or make anything. A lot of people were like, we can’t envision this, or we want you to add a bunch more action sequences and really push it to a place where we’re like, no, we want to make something very specific. And we’re like, what if we take all this money that Mark makes from shows like “The Morning Show” and we pay for it ourselves.
The only way to do this is if we do it. So Mark said, “go direct all episodes. Showrun, you got this.” It was like this passing of the baton. It originated with Mark, then we came together, made it our shared vision, and then he pushed me off and said, go make it on your own. It became as much mine as it was his in the beginning.
I know you’ve been with Duplass Brothers Productions for a while now. Can you talk about your transition from being a producer to now a director?
I mean, it was always the goal and the path to write and direct from a really young age. I found journals from like seven or eight years old talking about how I was going to make movies. But somewhere along the way, just because I’m such a go-getter I realized I’m producing because I’m literally doing everything and I’m making it happen. And so I kind of accidentally got on the path of producing.
And around that time was when Mark and I met and he was just like, “there’s something here. We have this amazing connection, can we do this forever?” And I said, “yes,” without even thinking about forever.
Forever is a long time!
I would love to make movies with Mark forever, but it was like ten or so years went by. And one day I looked at him and I was like, “I forgot that I was supposed to also be directing. I’m putting everybody else’s dreams before my own and can we start working towards that? “
We’d been rolling around “Biosphere” and the floodgates opened. It was like, okay, ‘Mel is going to go make her first movie finally!’ And then immediately after we wrap up the film turn around and go showrun and direct this series.
Everybody asks what did you learn or what was different? And I’m like, literally nothing other than there was no longer a me for somebody to turn to. It was suddenly like, oh, now all the decisions are yours. And the buck stops with you, which, you know, is great. I love that I have a great vision and I have a really great team I’ve built up over the years. So it was a very natural progression. I want to switch a little bit more to the cinematic elements of the show.
Can you talk about the universal relatability of this coming of age story, and also what you see of yourself in Penelope?
I have long dreamed of just running away from technology. I realize that sounds ridiculous because I work in an industry that relies on technology and continues to develop new technology.
I grew up in Wisconsin going camping and being outside, and that’s just my true nature. I think it’s all of ours, actually. I spend a lot of my time now in major cities and sometimes away from, you know, being lost in nature. And I can feel an ache inside me that there’s something missing.
There’s a bit of a hole. And I think it took me a while to realize that I think being in nature is what could fill that hole. I’m like, well, we weren’t hunter gatherers that long ago, and there is this sort of primal feeling that being with the land is in our DNA.
I think there is something that speaks to all of us when we’re just surrounded by nature. And when you’re in nature, when you’re alone, there’s so much silence. I think it’s in the silence that we can learn the most about ourselves because we only have ourselves and the nature to listen to.
I was a 16 year old girl once, and that was a really big pivotal part of my life and my development. And that’s really when I kind of became an adult and moved out and just started kind of shifting my worldview. So I think capturing that time, and her taking a path different than what I took was really enticing.
While watching “Penelope” I was thinking about also growing up in Wisconsin. We grew up camping and going to Pike Lake, which is like 20 minutes from Menomonee Falls. Going there was really pivotal. Pivotal for my upbringing and connection to nature. I always thought I was a city person and I was going to live in Milwaukee or L.A. forever or something. And then when I tried to live in L.A, I was like, this is too chaotic. Like, I love it so much and I love going there for work, but I cannot be there permanently.
No, it’s so true. I mean, I’m very privileged to be able to have a backup place. I live in Seattle as much as I can. That’s where we shot “Penelope,” because I think one of the most beautiful places in the world is the Pacific Northwest.
Yeah. I ended up moving to Utah and a large part of that decision was because of nature. We have mountains here that you can go in to camp really close by and you lose service immediately.
That is amazing. I love losing service.
Yes. I feel like nowadays you have to purposely go off grid to a place where there’s no cell service in order to immerse yourself. We don’t have self control just to turn our stuff off totally.
It’s like it’s a crazy addiction. I always catch myself doing it where I’m like, I know I don’t want to be checking my phone again. Why am I doing it? You know? And it’s sort of like the detox is real. We all need it.
What advice do you have for emerging female or non-binary filmmakers?
I said yes to everything. I think it’s this delicate balance of really making yourself available and humble to every experience which is a learning experience. Because as a director, I worked every crew job and that was vital. I think editing is actually one of the most important things for a director to know how to do and inform their shooting. But there is a moment where you go, this is too much and let’s switch it now. And so starting to become selective and feeling when that time is right, that’s what worked for me.
