Reveel Interviews Wayne Cella: The Writer and Director of ‘Talisman’

Family is always important but friendships are unique because they are chosen. You decide who you want to spend time with and stick with them through a large part of your life. Sometimes, friends can become family. Wayne Cella, co-creator of Covered Sun Films, has lived a similar experience which inspired him to write and direct the short film series, Talisman. Working with Danny Gevirtz (Director of Photography), Collin Roach (Actor), James Yoder (Lead Actor), and John Manning (Co-writer and Producer), Wayne created a sci-fi short film series about a young man who comes into possession of a strange necklace after his grandfather passes away, leading to something truly extraordinary when the talisman begins to reveal its secrets. We have interviewed Wayne Cella to get a behind the scenes look into Talisman and his new TV movie Insignificant.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

1. In your own words, can you tell us what Talisman is about?

Wayne: Talisman is really a story about friendship and the lengths that we’re willing to go to protect the people we love. Below the surface, the story is about how the relationships we keep influence us and how sometimes, we can lose our way and need to rely on others for help.

We always hear people say how important family is, and I don’t disagree, but sometimes family isn’t blood. Sometimes, family is chosen. This is a story about 3 people who are bonded by their common experiences and become family. The cool part was that it happened on-screen and off-screen. The entire cast and crew really bonded into a family. I’ll forever be grateful for that experience.

2. As the writer and director, where did the inspiration for Talisman come from?

Wayne: When I wrote Talisman, I was in the process of reconnecting with some friends that hadn’t been a part of my life in a very long time. When we were young, we were best friends and hung out all the time. We were like family to each other. I had been struggling through some things at the time though, and those friendships ended. Years later, one of them reached out to me and we started to get close again. That set things in motion and I ended up reaching out to one of the others. So, 25 years later, we started this whole second chapter. In fact, while we were filming Talisman, I ended up reconnecting with the fourth friend.

When we were young, we’d drive out to the Pine Barrens in New Jersey and search for the Jersey Devil or visit haunted places. Really, it was just an excuse to hang out and drive around. In Talisman, Ryan, Jimmy and Connor are sort of doing that same thing, so the experience that the characters have of watching a meteor shower is rooted in my experiences growing up.

James Yoder (Lead Actor) and Danny Gevirtz (Director of Photography) on the set of Talisman

3. Were there any unexpected challenges on the production that you or the crew had to improvise to solve?

Wayne: I had found this amazing location nearby in the woods. It was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote those scenes in the woods. When I originally scouted the location, we were in the midst of a dry spell. However, when it came time to shoot, it had been pouring rain for weeks. When I went to check out the location again, it was swampy, overgrown and tick infested. So we pivoted and decided to film in a nearby county park. We went to scout and the location was even more ideal.

When we returned the next day to shoot at our ideal location, there were hundreds of people at the park for a free concert. On top of that, there were police officers everywhere, so I really figured we were going to get shut down. They asked us what we were up to, we told them and they let us continue on. But the looks on their faces were priceless. James (Ryan in Talisman) had a black eye. It was makeup of course, but it looked real. And Collin and Jack (Jimmy and Connor) had these bulging veins protruding from their faces. It was hysterical. I don’t know if they let us go because they were freaked out or what, but I’m really glad they did.

Shooting was challenging though. We had to shoot some scenes with no audio and for dialogue, we waited until in between songs from the band’s set. Later, we went back and our sound mixer added foley to the scenes with no sound, but if you pay close attention, there’s not a lot of dialogue in the woods. Once the band finished up, we were able to film the aftermath of that scene and get good audio. It was challenging, but it also bonded us all. We were determined to get it done.

4. What led you to enter the film industry?

Wayne: I started writing at a young age and always had a vivid imagination, I suppose. I wrote stories when I was young with my friend up the street, then I wrote a 150-page murder mystery with another friend, and then I started writing and making short films when I was 18, with those friends that I’d go out to the Pine Barrens with. My best friend, John Manning, who co-wrote Talisman with me, had written a feature script in 2000 and asked for my help, but I really just gave him my perspective on one of his main characters.

So, I always had an interest in storytelling and filmmaking, but it seemed so difficult to really get into the industry. Instead of pursuing it, I went and got a steady job. Over time, though, that urge to create really started to come back. So, after close to 20 years of not doing anything, I wrote a couple of short films. I filmed them with varying degrees of success and then I decided I wanted to write a sci-fi series. I worked on it for a few years, but it was really complicated, and had a lot of characters and locations. At that point, I don’t think I would have been able to handle it. I pared it down some and that became Talisman. They’re not the same story at all, but I guess you could say that they live in the same universe.

5. Was Talisman your directorial debut? If so, what were your takeaways from working on the series?

Wayne: Technically, Talisman wasn’t my directorial debut. I have directed some short films. I always say that Talisman was the first time I really went all in though. Rather than using friends, I used actors and created a budget and all of that. So I guess you could say that it was my “next level” directorial debut.

Talisman is the project that made me believe in myself and really hooked me on the process. That whole experience was so amazing. I got to work with amazing people on every aspect of it. From working with my best friend, having Danny Gevirtz onboard as Director of Photography, Mark, our sound recordist and all of the actors, Israel, our Special Effects designer and Occlusion VFX, Ernesto, our sound mixer, everyone was incredible and great to work with. And a high school friend, Justin Geller, did the score. It really was a joy. And that gave me the confidence to keep moving forward and working on other projects.

6. Congrats on creating a full 55-minute pilot for “Insignificant”! Can you describe your experience directing the pilot, especially amid the pandemic?

Wayne: Directing Insignificant was very different than Talisman. It was still a joyous experience, and that cast and crew is family to me as far as I’m concerned. The stories could not be more different though. Talisman was this fun adventure, while Insignificant is a really personal and emotional story for me.

While we were gearing up to film Talisman, I saw a news story one morning that brought up some very traumatic memories for me. It was something that I had tried to bury away for almost 30 years, but in one fell swoop, the bandage was ripped off and I had to relive it and deal with it, which wasn’t easy or fun. However, a lot of things began to make sense to me for the first time. And it became the catalyst for putting a lot of my pieces back together and a lot of healing. It was then that I decided I wanted to share my story to help others who have gone through or may be going through what I went through. And that became Insignificant.

So while each project has been so much fun to make, watching my amazing cast bring that story to life, really gives me all the feels, as they say. Insignificant is not a complete re-telling of my story, but it’s definitely shaped by some of my experiences.

Filming in a pandemic is definitely a bit stressful. As the director, you’re responsible for everyone, or at least that’s how I feel. It’s very important to me that everyone is comfortable and taking the proper precautions. I’m a big proponent of making sure everyone is safe on set under normal circumstances, so that has definitely ratcheted up in the pandemic. We even made the decision to push back a short film we helped produce in January, because it just seemed like too great a risk to take.

Daniel Martin Berkley and James Yoder in Talisman

7. What made you decide to make Talisman and Insignificant into a series rather than a feature or short? 

Wayne: I like writing series because they allow you to really explore the story and the characters in a way that a feature doesn’t always. Talisman actually started out as a short film. Once we wrapped the short film, it was immediately clear that the cast had great chemistry and we wanted to continue to tell the story. We made the decision to split the short into 2 web series episodes and then wrote the rest of season 1.

Insignificant is definitely a story that works better as a series. The idea would be for you to watch the main character evolve and grow as the series progresses, and I don’t think that’s something that can be achieved in the span of 2 hours or 90 minutes. I do have an idea for a feature that I’ve been trying to write. That may be a couple years down the road though.

8. If you could inspire one change to the film industry, what change would you want to see?

Wayne: I do wish that there was more collaboration sometimes. When I started Covered Sun Films, it was really meant to be a co-op of creative people who helped each other make their ideas. I never really envisioned it as mine. It was ours. And we would produce our projects. To some extent, we’ve begun doing that recently.

Collin Roach, who plays Jimmy in Talisman, is a writer, director and musician as well as an actor. He and I have collaborated on a few music videos and a short film that he wrote and directed. In fact, he helped write Insignificant.

The change I’d like to see is just more of a willingness to help one another. That’s not always easy, of course, but I do think it’s important to share what you know and try to give back in whatever way you can.

Watch the Talisman series for free on Reveel, which is available on iOS devices, Android devices, Macbooks, PCs, Roku, and Fire TV.