The Signal: A Collaboration in Three Parts

Three young directors who took Sundance by storm with their experiment in cinematic collaboration share the spotlight once again with an essay on the process

by Dan Bush, David Bruckner and Jacob Gentry | Published February 22, 2008

The upcoming horror movie The Signal’s tagline is, “Do you have the crazy?” It’s an apt question—and one you might still be asking yourself after you leave the theater. The “signal” in question is one that emanates from cell phones, televisions and radios, changing those who hear it as if removing the ego and the super ego, leaving only the impulsive id.

Set in the town of Terminus, the movie follows a man, his wife and his wife’s lover as they battle to survive madness—and each other—in the anarchy that ensues following the signal.
To create The Signal, directors Dan Bush, David Bruckner and Jacob Gentry each took a turn in the director’s chair, offering a new experiment in cinematic collaboration. This relationship allowed for three different viewpoints on the same linear story, paving the way for a movie that is truly unique.

Unlike other segmented stories (like Reservoir Dogs) The Signal is told chronologically. And unlike other movies with more than one director (like Sin City) there is a very noticeable changeover when a new body settles into the director’s chair. Understandably, there is a lot of room for confusion on the set of such an experiment, leaving the directors wondering if they themselves had received the signal.

Here, the three directors re-team to compose an essay on the making of The Signal, which is written, appropriately, in three parts.

Part I: Pre-Production
The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn: A Radical Reassessment of the Facts
by Dan Bush
It’s the 11th hour. The final script is past due and if we hope to begin shooting on schedule, none of this should be happening.

What is happening?

A fundamental change to our story and the script we called Terminus. Being that I am only one of three visionary directors working to tell one big story—and that I am the guy responsible for resolving this story in part three, I am fucked. ‘Don’t you see?’ I scream. ‘If you change the rules of the game in part one then part three will have to be rewritten from scratch.’

But even as I blurt these words the unimaginable dawns on me: Every detail in the world of Terminus is absolutely dependent on every other detail. So intricately interwoven are the plots, themes and language of these three stories that in one instant all of part three became irrelevant.

I snapped. As the sun came up, I stepped into the fog that had settled in my backyard. I sat down in the wet grass, and laughed with delirium.

“I think Dan’s been signalized,” Alex Motlagh, our co-producer, warned Dave Bruckner after our next phone call. “I think we’ve lost him.” But somewhere deep inside my madness, I realized that this fundamental change would solve more problems than it would create. If I could just let go—of my story, my protagonist, my identity—then I might rediscover what was cool about the story in the first place, and consequently rediscover myself in the process.

So I sat down and wrote. This time I wrote with abandon. At daybreak, I dropped into the new world of Terminus and, suddenly, the new third act flowed right through me. The rules were simple. Everything clicked. It was one of the best writing experiences I’ve ever had.

I met with Jacob Gentry the next night and we were immediately on the same page. The new story was tighter than ever, and before we left we realized what our movie was about: It’s about point of view, shared identity and the interconnected structure of reality at the end of the world. Perfect!

This was only the first of many battles fought over the course of making The Signal, but I realized something awesome: If you are on to something good, you have to get out of the way of it. The greatest battle isn’t with other people, it is within yourself. And the darkest hour is always just before the dawn.

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TAGS cinematic collaboration dan bush david bruckner do you have the crazy horror movie jacob gentry magnolia pictures park city reservoir dogs sin city sundance film festival terminus the signal utah

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