Written by James Bunn

The success of El Mariachi set a standard that seemed almost impossible to measure up to. How could anyone else possibly create something so groundbreaking for so little? Eventually, industry conventions would be shattered once more, in the early 2000’s, by a filmmaker that would prove lightning could strike twice in the same spot. Filmmaker Shane Carruth, with no prior experience to speak of, would craft his 2004 debut Primer, copying the famous Mariachi budget of seven thousand dollars. The cult classic time travel mind-bender dazzled audiences and critics alike, often lauded as one of the finest entries in sci-fi since Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much like Robert Rodriguez’s feature debut, Carruth would serve as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and sound designer. Carruth would take the Mariachi approach even further by serving as the composer and one of the lead actors.

SYNOPSIS

Primer is the story of engineers and best friends Aaron and Abe, who spend their free time on entrepreneurial tech projects. One particular project, involving the electromagnetic reduction of an object's weight, leads to the accidental discovery of a form of time travel. Wanting to explore the potential of their creation, they build human-sized apparatuses, with themselves as test subjects. Curiosity quickly becomes an obsession, as the pair's seemingly harmless experiments spiral downward toward compromised morals and ethics, ultimately testing the strength of their bond.

BACKGROUND

Details on Shane Carruth’s life prior to the making Primer are, for the most part, a total mystery. The only known details surrounding his origin are the fact he was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, graduated from Stephen F. Austin University with a degree in mathematics, and worked as a software engineer before becoming a filmmaker. Prior to film, he wrote short stories and got halfway through a novel before losing interest in that practice. Shifting his focus to filmmaking, he decided to audit a film course at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. However, he would leave after only two week because the class was oriented around theory and not practice.

CONCEPTION

While the initial basis of the story was founded in the disintegration of a friendship, Carruth also drew inspiration from the history of calculus, the origin of the number zero, and the development of the transistor. 70’s films like Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae, and Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men also influenced Primer’s narrative approach. Carruth credits these films with having its characters ask the “right questions” and delivering information in a realistic manner. Regardless of how fantastical certain elements got, everything would be rooted in realism.

FINANCING

Carruth established his seven thousand dollar budget with money made during his time as a software engineer.

EQUIPMENT

The camera of choice was an Arriflex 16SR 16mm camera. The format of stock was super 16mm, so it is safe to assume the specific model was the SR3, being the only camera in the SR-line to support such format. Kodak Vision 200t and 50D Super 16mm were the particular stocks used during principle photography. Audio was captured with a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorder (brand unknown). Aside from sparsely utilizing a couple cheap fluorescent banks, all the lighting would be handled by whatever light was available at the various shooting locations. For dolly shots, a straight and round track would be utilized. Editing was handled on a PC with Adobe Premiere.

PRE-PRODUCTION

In an effort to keep the dialogue as realistic as possible, Carruth spent time studying physics and running his script by actual hardware engineers and physicists. The lines written for and spoken by the leads often included shorthand jargon that professionals of this specialty would use in real-life conversations. While the inclusion of this language would confuse most, “dumbing it down” would have compromised the integrity of the narrative. After the screenplay was complete, the entire film was storyboarded using tungsten slide film. During the casting phase, Carruth auditioned over one hundred different candidates to play the two leads. Local actor David Sullivan would be cast as Abe, with Carruth ultimately casting himself as Aaron. The two leads would spend four weeks rehearsing at a Dallas library, consistently running through the material until it became second nature.

PRODUCTION

Principal photography took place over a month-long period in 2001. The crew would consist of Carruth himself, David Sullivan as a production assistant, two camera operators, a camera assistant, and a sound recordist. Shooting locations included Shane's parents' house, a U-Haul storage facility, a Hilton hotel, and departments at the University of Texas. Much like El Mariachi, most shots were captured in one take to avoid wasting film stock.

POST-PRODUCTION

Post-production, which took nearly two years, was a gruelling process for Carruth, almost resulting in a total abandonment of the project. Originally shot on film, the negative would be transferred to miniDV cassettes, which were then dumped into a computer to edit digitally. Shooting most things in one take spelled trouble if any shots were lost or if there were issues in continuity. He also had trouble with editing on Adobe Premiere, an application not designed for feature film work at the time. The difficulty in question was simply due to a lack of features needed to properly handle a feature and system crashes happening often. Aside from this difficulty on the picture end of the spectrum, sound design took the most time and had the most obstacles. The vast majority of the film's sounds, including dialogue, were rerecorded by Carruth himself due to only having mono location recordings..Having to teach himself sound design from scratch, Carruth cites Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey with inspiring his approach. With no previous experience in music composition, Carruth composed the film’s minimalist score using FL Studio (then known as Fruity Loops).

RESULTS

The final cut of Primer resulted in a clever and multilayer mind-bender clocking in at a lean seventy seven minutes. The first act may come off as slow and boring to some, but will pay off greatly with the big reveal at the head of the second act. The obscured use of multiverse theory will leave one constantly questioning which version of reality is actually being presented in each scene. Despite being narratively oblique, viewers can find solace in the main characters also not fully understanding what is happening to their own reality. Multiple viewings can be rewarding, but also raise just as many questions as it answers. It’s almost impossible to believe that a first time filmmaker pulled off a piece so meticulous and well crafted, with little to no prior experience. Though rough around the edges at times, Primer will leave an impression that lasts long after closing credits.

DISTRIBUTION

After finishing the final cut of the film in November 2003, it would be submitted and accepted to the Sundance Film Festival. Upon receiving word of its acceptance, Carruth would spend the month supervising a 16 to 35mm blowup so it could be properly projected at the festival. Around this time he hired publicity firm MPRM, which would result in signing with the William Morris Agency. At Sundance, Primer not only won the Alfred P. Sloan Award for films dealing with science and technology, it also won the Grand Jury Prize in an unanimous vote. Shortly after, Carruth would enter negotiations with ThinkFilm and Magnolia Pictures, ultimately entering a deal with ThinkFilm. According to Mark Urman, ThinkFilm’s head of theatrical distribution, negotiations were unusually lengthy compared to standard deals. The main reason for this being Carruth's desire to maintain as much control over the rights as he could and maximize his backend profits as opposed to payment upfront.

RELEASE AND AFTERMATH

Primer would receive a limited domestic and international theatrical release in late 2004, earning over eight hundred thousand dollars at the box office. A home video release, distributed by New Line Cinema, would follow in the spring of 2005. The film would receive generally positive reviews from critics, some comparing its innovative narrative to the likes of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film quickly gained cult status on the internet, with many fans spending years collectively breaking down the film's narrative and mapping out its dense web of timelines. Despite the critical success of Primer it would be a number of years before Carruth would release a follow up. In 2009, Carruth began pre-production on a project titled A Topiary, with Steven Soderberh and David Fincher attached as executive producers, which was ultimately left unrealized. In 2013, Carruth premiered his second feature Upstream Color at Sundance to critical acclaim.

In 2014, Carruth announced his next film The Modern Ocean, based on the international shipping industry. Pre-production for this project began in 2015, with Jeff Goldblum, Anne Hathaway, Keanu Reeves, Tom Holland, Daniel Radcliffe, Chloë Grace Moretz, Asa Butterfield, and Abraham Attah announced as the ensemble cast. In 2018 Carruth revealed that The Modern Ocean wasn’t happening anytime soon. Aside from his own films, Carruth consulted on time travel sequences for Rian Johnson’s Looper that were deemed too expensive to shoot, was an additional editor on David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, scored season one of Starz drama The Girlfriend Experience, and directed an episode of Breakthrough for National Geographic. As an actor, Carruth has starred in a few short films, a cameo in Swiss Army Man, and a starring role in 2018 psychological thriller The Dead Center. In 2019, Carruth revealed that he was working on one more project before leaving the industry altogether. In 2020, news broke that abuse allegations against Carruth were made by filmmaker Amy Seimetz, his Upstream Color co-star, whom he was in a relationship with from 2011 to 2018. Carruth has since denied these allegations but has retreated from the public eye altogether, leaving the future of his career in question.

REFERENCES:

1. Mr. Breaks (2004, October 22). Mr. Breaks Interviews Shane Carruth, Director of PRIMER!!. Retrieved from http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/18669

2. Savlov, Marc (2004, October 22). ‘Primer’ Time. Retrieved from https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2004-10-22/234250/

3. Tech Support Filmmaker Magazine. Spring 2004 https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/spring2004/features/tech_support.php

4. Otto, Jeff (2004, October 21). IGN Interviews Shane Carruth. Retrieved from https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/10/21/ign-interviews-shane-carruth

5. Lee, Chris (2004, November 7). Here’s a how-to ‘Primer’ in film. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-nov-07-ca-carruth7-story.html

6. Wilonsky, Robert (2004, February 11). The Hard Sell. Retrieved from https://www.sfweekly.com/culture/the-hard-sell/

7. Mitchell, Wendy (2005, April 18). DVD RE RUN INTERVIEW: Shane Carruth on “Primer”; The Lessons of a First Timer. Retrieved from https://www.indiewire.com/2005/04/dvd-re-run-interview-shane-carruth-on-primer-the-lessons-of-a-first-timer-78289/

8. The Numbers®. Primer (2004). Retrieved from https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Primer#tab=international

James Bunn is a content creator with a passion for 70's cinema, low budget indie flicks and the filmmaking process. He hopes to, one day, transition from appreciating films to making his own. He currently releases music under the alias Boutique Paul and is a host, composer, and sound engineer for The K Cut & Prefer Not To Say Podcast.

Guerilla Filmfare: Primer