As the pandemic starts to ease and life still very short of normal resumes, there is a big question out there: Does a pandemic movie still work? Stop and Go, while absolutely both shot and lived in a bubble, is a fun ride regardless thanks to the chemistry of its two stars Mallory Everton and Whitney Call.
The premise is relatively simple: Two sisters set out on a road trip to rescue their grandma, who is stranded in a nursing home that is barely functional as Covid-19 is now running the show. The women state the pandemic was a huge motivator for getting the film done.
Call, who plays Jamie and co-wrote the script, states it was a race against the clock. “We came up with the idea as a way to scrape ourselves off of the depression and mania… The Covid backdrop was fueling the story, and with it so hard to tell when we would be done with this or how long people would be interested in watching a Covid movie, we had to get it done.”
The pair took the plunge and got it done in epic time: “We wrote it in two weeks, produced and filmed it in two weeks, and got the first cut done in two weeks,” continues Call.
Everton, who plays Blake as well as co-wrote and co-directed, also attributes their success to the fact that it was their first feature. “It was just a complete bombastic experiment. We did decide early on if the speed ruined the product we would stop, but we just kept coming up with creative solutions. Filmmaking is just problem solving and we just kept rolling forward.”
The film is primarily a road trip movie that relies heavily on the combo of Call and Everton to drive the story and entertain the audience with admittedly limited resources. It’s clear the pair have been working together a long time—Everton states it's been basically since they were eight years old.
“Our older siblings were dating and we met at a carnival. We were the bait to make the siblings look cute to each other.”
Call even has a great slogan for the pair: “We’ve made dumb things since ‘98.” More seriously, she adds, “We always wanted to make stuff together… We went to the same college and I joined a sketch comedy group (Studio C out of Brigham Young University) and Mallory came to watch my audition, and we needed a videographer. She joined the team as the videographer and then auditioned, and morphed into the group.”
Brigham Young’s Studio C now has a larger reputation in the area, scoring a paid television deal where both Everton and Call worked for six years. Post-Studio C, many members of the group formed their own production company and continued making comedy for the web. Call thinks making a feature was a natural progression and the pandemic just sped up the process.
The road trip stakes of the film are aptly raised throughout: Get to Grandma more quickly, there’s a lower risk of catching Covid. Additionally, if they reach Grandma before their sister (who seems to believe Covid is a hoax) then she’ll likely be safer. The pair admitted a road trip shot during a pandemic had a lot of pros and a lot of cons. Pros: Empty roads. Cons: Cops still patrol those roads.
Everton reminds aspiring road trip filmmakers to get their permits. Luckily for the pair when cops stopped their shoot for extremely slow going on the road, they recognized the scrappy filmmakers from their Studio C days and simply asked for a picture.
Everton also thinks next time they’ll take more than two months: “I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone,” she mused. “It was really really hard. Give yourself enough time.” Call agreed but also attributes navitee to providing momentum: “Instead of the whole idea of ‘we are never gonna get this done’ we just answered the question of ‘how can we make this work?’”
Everton’s advice for first-time filmmakers: “You can’t be too precious with your first thing. It’s not gonna be your opus, and even if it is, you have a different mindset with that first one. In many ways, I’d rather make two films a year and learn from each one and keep growing and going. I wish I’d been this brave earlier. It’s okay to make something that isn’t totally perfect.”
Imperfect is pretty much the definition of life under a pandemic, so a first-time road trip movie with rough but fun edges feels like it fits the bill for the times. Call just hopes the film makes people feel less isolated.
“It's a message in a bottle for this past year… Hopefully, it can help you take a moment to relax and laugh with people and make you feel less alone.” Everton echoes the sentiment, “I hope people can find solace watching it… We need that release; we need that laughter.”
The characters also need to get to Grandma, and while there’s much "stop and go" along the way, this is a comedy that you can bank on giving a happy ending.