Lisa Mausbach turns an apology into a dark comedy

What has your directing journey been like so far? Was it something you always wanted to do? 

I used to say that I want to become an artist when I grow up, and I think for my whole life I was delusional enough to believe I could. I’ve always loved curating ideas and obsessing over visuals. As a teenager I spent every free minute on Tumblr, hunting for inspiration and building a little world of my own. That hunger for images didn't stay online for long. I picked up an analog camera and fell in love with finding frames on my own - that split second of deciding what matters and what doesn't. 

Horror also doesn't get enough credit for how funny it actually is - the genre has some of the best timing out there, whether it's building up to a jump-scare or landing a punchline. 

Eventually, I studied media design and photography. There, I realised what I actually love is making creative decisions: writing, researching, putting ideas together, finding solutions, and then convincing people of them. So directing wasn't really a single moment of 'this is what I want to do' - it grew out of everything I was already obsessing over. My Tumblr is still there, and sometimes I go back to remind myself that there was a time online without brainrot. 

What does it mean to you to win a YDA? 

It still feels a bit surreal and weird. Specifically winning Gold in Comedy means a lot to me. Although the pressure to be funny now has gone up considerably. Comedy is such a hard category to get right, so this feels like real recognition. It's also given me a lot of confidence to keep pushing in that direction with future work.

That tension between what's happening and how someone reacts to it is what makes it funny, and it only works if nobody on screen is trying to sell the joke.

The film carefully balances a horror-like tone with deadpan, surreal comedy. How did you approach finding that balance? 

The balance was actually clear to me from the very beginning. I think contrast is what makes a film interesting in the first place; if everything sits in the same register, there's nothing to push against. Horror also doesn't get enough credit for how funny it actually is - the genre has some of the best timing out there, whether it's building up to a jump-scare or landing a punchline. It's the same muscle. So the dark tone was a way to build tension that the deadpan comedy could then deflate. And there's a practical side to it too: at the end of the day, this is an ad for flowers. It's not supposed to scare anyone off, so you need to keep a balance between the weird and the fun. 

Above: Director Lisa Mausbach, whose film won a YDA Gold in the Comedy category. 

How do you approach directing comedy without making it feel too obvious? 

For me, deadpan is exactly that contrast: playing the most ridiculous actions with a completely straight face. That tension between what's happening and how someone reacts to it is what makes it funny, and it only works if nobody on screen is trying to sell the joke. Timing and editing matter just as much. I like films that don't over-explain a moment or linger on it too long. But most of that groundwork happens way before we shoot. I'm pretty meticulous in prep, and casting is a huge part of it. 

I've always loved working with contrasts to build tension, finding beauty in imperfections, in quiet little contradictions.

I choose actors who already get the tone, and I talk them through exactly what kind of film we're making before we ever get to set. By the time we're shooting, everyone already knows what we're going for, so there's very little explaining left to do, actually. Watching the footage back, there was this one recurring moment with our lead, when he had a stare down with a sheep. The second I said 'cut,' his serious expression would just melt into relief at the very end of every shot. It was a nice reminder of how much tension that deadpan look actually held.

The soundtrack is key to the film’s tone. How did you develop it?

The music was actually a process of letting go of my own plan. Going in, I had a really specific idea: a slightly off-key bassoon and a careful, tentative violin pizzicato. But my editor cut the first version with something completely different, and I fell in love with it. 

From there we moved in more of a jungle direction - still with that weird, dark undertone I originally wanted, but less minimalist than I'd planned, with this bassy drum running through the whole track that gives it an almost hunting, chasing feel. I worked with Supreme Music to build that world out and I think it was a perfect match. We layered in a lot of strange animal sounds and rhythmic human breathing, which gave the whole thing this playful quality.