Video Van is a new film by Casey Rup starring Jessie Edelstein + Drew Connick. Ariel Gardner (director of the first [REDACTED] PRESENTS film “Big Tujunga Canyon Rd”) spoke to Casey + Jessie about the process of making the film.

*NOTE: Video Van was produced under the Vision World “Vow of Chastity”

AG: Hey Casey Rup & Jessie Edelstein. Who are you, where do you come from, and why?

CR: I'm just a simple man, on an ongoing search for God, and increasingly awestruck by the passing of time. I come from Houston, TX but I live in Los Angeles now. And why??

JE: My name is Jessie, God sent me from Heaven because he was bored.


AG: I love "Video Van." Casey, what was the synthesis of the idea for you? What were the core feelings you were hoping to convey with this piece?

CR: Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! The synthesis for the idea came from a couple places...  My good friend Drew, who plays the John in the short, sent me a photo of these laundry vans that he had access to, in case I wanted to shoot something with one. I was also, at the time, working on a feature screenplay revolving around a UFO cult comprised of painted-faced camgirls - so I kind of blended these two ideas/images into one little proof of concept VHS experiment. Jessie, who plays the Performer, is an artist that I am a big fan of and whom I also spoke to about the feature that I was writing, so she was a natural fit and somebody I had been wanting to make something with. I never consciously thought about wanting to convey any sort of core feelings - but in hindsight, the tone is very strange, isn't it? I guess a feeling of elated bewilderment would be nice. Conveying specific feelings or tone is always something I struggle with because my interests, much like life itself, vary so extremely between intensely scary, intensely funny, intensely blissful, and intensely bland. But always intensely.

AG: Jessie, how did you get involved with this project?

JE: Casey asked me.


AG: Casey, which artists do you carry with you in your head & heart when conjuring a project like this?

CR: Ryan Trecartin & Harmony Korine are two guiding lights - especially on a project like this one.

AG: How do you feel one is supposed to grow creatively if they don’t receive accurate feedback?

CR: Just keep practicing. It's tough to do it in a vacuum, which is why feedback is nice. But even without feedback, just keep experimenting and trying new things. Switch it up. It is our biological nature to grow. If you keep making things, you will creatively grow, evolve, and hopefully stumble onto something that resonates for other people.

JE: You don't (obviously).


AG: In which ways would you like to grow as an artist?

CR: I would like to continue to build the confidence to finish more projects. I've always had a tendency to get halfway through a project and then convince myself that it wasn't worth finishing. This one was an exercise in completion. Shout out to Bobby for helping me with that.

JE: I wanna be 5'10".


AG: How do you feel about “Video Van” when you think about it?

CR: I giggle, chuckle, AND snicker - and I feel happy that I finished it despite it not having some profound message that I felt absolutely needed to be put out into a world that is already so full of stuff. I also feel motivated to keep experimenting on small $0 short films - to continue to hone the craft, develop the voice, and practice for the next BIG ONE.

JE: A lot of good memories, I always love collaborating on creative projects. 


AG: Do you think art is more a product of your inner-self or the context you are surrounded with? Is “Video Van” a product of free will or predestination?

CR: For myself, I think it has to be a combination of both. Anything I have ever made has always been deeply personal, even in an abstract way such as this one. So my instinct is inner-self first and foremost, but I think your inner-self is at least partly shaped by the context you are surrounded with - and those surroundings always find their way to creep in or even inspire projects that I make. 


AG: What is your favorite brand of bottled water?

CR: Probably Essentia. I never felt particularly strong about specific brands of bottled water until my fiancé started to bring packs of Essentia home. I guess I'm a creature of habit.

JE: Holy water.


AG: What is the future of cinema?

CR: I'm going to see Harmony Korine's Aggro Dr1ft tonight at a darn strip club of all places - and I'm very interested to see what that's all about. The movie, not the strip club. I think social media is going to continue to change the structure of filmmaking - it's pretty wild that all these kids are learning basic filmmaking principles on their phones from such an early age. I think this kind of rapidly evolving tech, smaller gear, AI, etc. will keep pushing filmmaking further into more and more absurd places until it eventually comes back full circle where making something like Muybridge's "The Horse in Motion" is the most radical thing you can do. 

JE: Reality shows.


AG: Are we human or are we dancer?
CR: I unfortunately don't have all the information I need to answer that question at this time. 

JE: We are all robots.

This film was produced for the October 2023 Vision World. If you like this, you might like the films being screened at Vision World in March 2024. Get tickets here.