Antonia Bogdanovich is the co-writer and director of “Phantom Halo,” the story of two brothers and their father, a one-time Shakespearean actor who forces them to steal to support his gambling and alcohol addictions. The brothers are named for the famous British playwright: Samuel and Beckett. While Samuel looks for inspiration from a comic book superhero who gives the film its title, Beckett tries to solve the family’s problems with a counterfeiting scheme. Bogdanovich talked to me about being “a product of LA” (her parents are director Peter Bogdanovich and production designer Polly Platt) and about how she was influenced by both her parents and her son in creating this story.

The music shifts and evolves over the course of the film.

I wanted to have that retro feel because the film got that kind of noir quality and we are seeing another side of L.A that is not a typical L.A, South Central, a different environment than you usually see when you get there to visit. I also wanted to have that kind of Americana folk feel because the boys are kind of struggling. Kind of simple and not a lot of instrumentation. But it was really just to feel like the songs go with the scene and I think I wanted that from my dad. It is an internal instinct as well. And I had a great editor who helped me to choose some of the more “shake your moneymaker” songs. He said “Your film can support this kind of music” and it really worked. I’m really happy with the way the music moves with the story. When I started to listen to alternative hip hop, it was just great. Why not use this and support artists that are up and coming or trying to get their name out there, like I am. It is always good to have one or two iconic songs in your film that people recognize, like the one that was perfect for the heist scene.

There are a couple of different points in the movie where people say that they don’t want to think about their past. Is that something that is particularly resonates for you? Is it an LA thing?

It is definitely not an LA thing although I am a product of LA in many, many ways because I grew up there. But I will say that people in general and specifically in my family, deal with the past in one of two ways, either by dealing with it and talking about it and working through it emotionally or not, like basically saying it never happened or not talking about. Not saying that it didn’t happen, but trying to move on and say “I don’t want to talk about the past.” So I would say my mother was a lot like that. She had a tough childhood and she had a lot of challenges, and she chose to kind of, I won’t say bury it, but she just chose to live more in the present and not deal with her past. And I think Miss Rose in the film is like that, though she is not based on my mother in any way. It is clear that she’s had some rough times, and that is the way she deals with it. Samuel, on the other hand, is acknowledging “we are in the mud and we are going to be stuck here until we get out of the situation” and “we need to talk about this” and his brother Beckett’s whole thing is the future. He is like “we are going to be able to get the money for this house, we are going to be able to do this”. Samuel says they need to deal with it now and recognize what already happened. So you know that is kind of my inspiration. I tend to be a little of both. Probably I talk about the past too much but am working on not doing that.

Samuel loves comic books and makes money reciting Shakespeare. How do those two kinds of storytelling, one considered high and one considered low, combine in the film?

My inspiration for the comic book was actually my son. At the time, he was three or four. I had decided that the youngest son escapes through some medium that is contemporary to his time. My father didn’t let me watch television when I was growing up. So I didn’t watch television but now television is so good. So I didn’t think that was appropriate. So I needed to find something that the father wouldn’t approve of. Comic books. My dad’s wouldn’t let my father read comic books. Sometimes, when you come from an intellectual family or a highly creative, artistic family, they are snobs about certain things. So I wanted the father to be a snob about comics and not be able to relate but for Samuel it’s like, “No, it’s a beautiful art form.” And there is a lot in it which we all know about it now. Those of us who appreciate comic books. But my son, who was about four, really loved superheroes. There’s an innocence to Samuel that was like my four year old who wanted to be Superman or Spider Man. And I started buying comic books to do research and he was like four and he was reading them. Of course I watch superhero movies but I’m not a fangirl by any stretch of the imagination. It was something that I chose for this character to have and I wanted to do the research. He is using comic books to escape. We all use art to escape our lives. The worse our lives are, the more we want to escape. I remember when Eminem hit it very big, I would listen to him for long because I was going through a hard time. I was young, and I could relate to his lyrics. So Samuel is relating to the character in the comic book because he is trying to escape his present situation. He is a dreamer.

What do you want people to learn from this film?

I want people who have alcoholics in their home, who are young who know they can get away now. Their fathers don’t have to die so they can get away. I wanted people to see the characters disappearing to a better place. We can change our paths. We don’t have to end up like that. That is why I didn’t have either brother, drinkers or partiers at all. These boys are not doing that. I wanted it to be the boys arguing and making use of their intellect that they inherited clearly from their father to make a better life. I want people to know that they are not alone and that there are other people out there that have this situation in the home. And sometimes the most unlikely person is the hero. And if you have family you can’t depend on, the children are depending on themselves. And also maybe for people to get a taste of Shakespeare. It is accessible to the masses. You don’t have to be highly educated to enjoy Shakespeare. I tried to really use passages that are pretty clear on what Shakespeare is saying.
People get turned off by the language but Shakespeare was kind of a street guy. Actors during that time of Shakespeare, they were considered the lowest on the totem pole. They were low class people. I was just telling a story that I could relate to and I think everybody is going to take something different away from the film. It is interesting how people relate to different things in a movie.

What is the best advice you got about directing?

Have a really good script. First and foremost ensure that your script is in top shape before you direct. Really know how to talk to actors, and really know what you want. Go in there extremely prepared because if you are just trying out, you are not going to have a lot of time to shoot. And you are going to have very little time and probably have to shoot six to eight to nine pages a day. And you really can’t mess around. You have to know exactly what you want. Once you have shot, you can’t really go back. You can’t be in the editing room, going, “we did not get what we needed.” You have to be prepared, if not over-prepared. You have to know what you want. You have to know the vision of your film. You have to do your homework and do the legwork to know how you are going to shoot the film, what your vision is, what you are trying to say. And then, actors change dialogue and I think you have to be open for that. That is totally legit. I think it’s important to make actors to feel confident and that they can be part of this process. But also when they are suggesting something that you don’t agree with, just be confident enough to say, “No I don’t agree with that.” Because you can’t be intimidated by your actors, even if some of them are more experienced than you. You have to know how to talk to your actors and respect them and work with them as a team in collaborative fashion, but remember that you are ultimately the boss and will definitely take the fall if the film that does not turn out right.