‘Neo-Dome’ brings together longtime friends Bonnie Discepolo and Anna Camp as they discuss their Oscar-qualified short, its scrappy indie creation, and hopes for a full series. This conversation took place ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
“When people see it, they think, well, this looks like a giant Hollywood movie,” says Discepolo. “How did you do this? And in truth, we used all of our scrappy indieness.”
“As a woman in this industry, as a woman in general, I am always fighting to be heard, to be seen, to be valued,” Camp says. “I believe that that’s why this particular film resonates with so many people. That’s also why I fought so hard to have Bonnie, a woman, direct it. Because to me, that’s the heart of Neo-Dome is how much Monica has to fight to get anywhere in life.”
In this conversation for ‘Neo-Dome’, director Bonnie Discepolo and actor-producer Anna Camp reflect on their lifelong connection, their creative trust, and the collaborative process behind their Oscar-qualified short. They discuss the project’s evolution from standalone film to episodic proof-of-concept, the challenges of pitching a female-directed neo-Western in a consolidating industry, and the urgency of securing financing to expand the story into a series. They also talk about the character-driven heart of the film, shooting its tense survivalist drama in Palmdale over just three days, the scarcity of women-led genre projects in the Oscar race, and their determination to push ‘Neo-Dome’ forward despite the obstacles.
After an economic collapse in America, Monica Dawes (Anna Camp) travels alone toward the promise of a distant Utopian dome. When she hitches a ride with Gary (Michael Mosley) and Larry (Nicholas Logan), her journey takes an unexpected turn on the road to the Neo-Dome.
‘Neo-Dome’ was created by Matt and Mark Pfeffer. Bonnie Discepolo directs from a script written by Matt Pfeffer. The cast includes Anna Camp, Michael Mosley, Nicholas Logan, and Anthony Discepolo.
‘Neo-Dome’ is currently available for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters to watch through the Academy portal.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to chat with the both of you today. How are you doing?
Bonnie Discepolo: Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate your support for ‘GraceLand’ and ‘Neo-Dome’ and just all of the time you’ve taken. It really means a lot.
Anna Camp: Yeah, thank you.
AF: The two of you are both from South Carolina and from what I can tell on IMDb, this was the second short that Bonnie has directed you in.
Camp: Yes, and hopefully not the last.
Discepolo: No more shorts. Features after this.
Camp: We want to move into features. But yes, this was the second short that Bonnie has directed me in. Yes.
AF: Were you all actively looking to do another project together?
Discepolo: I’m always wanting to work with Anna.
Camp: Absolutely. I mean, after working with Bonnie twice as a director, and I’ve worked with her, also, as an actress before. I mean, she’s just a creative voice that I absolutely love and am inspired by, and she’s so smart.
Just ‘Neo-Dome’ and obviously ‘GraceLand’, but neither would be as successful without her at the helm so I feel very lucky to have gotten to work with her twice.
Discepolo: Thank you, Anna. I would say Anna was producing ‘Neo-Dome’, and she obviously is starring in it as well, but she pushed to have a woman director. It was completely her doing with all of the rest of the producers to fight to get a woman. I had to pitch and win the job.
But working with Anna is an incredible joy because she’s such a giving, talented, nuanced performer. Every time we get the chance to really dig into it, I feel like—because we’ve known each other for so long—we get to really explore character in a deep and trusting way, which is so special.
Camp: Very true. It’s very rare when you know somebody for basically your whole life, you get to keep working with them. So yeah, I feel very grateful.
AF: ‘Neo-Dome’ premiered as an episodic pilot and is being pushed for Best Live Action Short for the Oscars. Where do things currently stand on moving forward as a series?
Discepolo: ‘Neo-Dome’ originally was, as the script, a short film. When we started working on it, everybody involved thought there’s so much character here, there’s so much story to explore, we really see it long term being a world that we can explore episodically, especially with Monica’s character going into her backstory and having seasons of television.
So when we shot it, the object was to have a standalone short that worked completely as a short film. Even though we did some festivals like South by Southwest and SeriesFest in the episodic world, we also did a lot of festivals as a narrative short, like Cleveland and Mystic.
The idea has been have a working narrative and then also be able to use this as a proof of concept to go out and make the TV series. So as we push the Oscar forward, we’re really hoping that it will get attention and eyes on it so that we can keep the momentum going to continue to shepherd the TV version forward.
Camp: I agree. Listen, we have so many ideas for what the potential series could be. It’s a very difficult time to sell anything right now. It’s been represented by CAA. We’ve gone out with it places.
People are comparing it to other things, which blows my mind because it’s nothing like what they’re comparing it to, just because it’s this kind of post-apocalyptic road trip journey type of concept.
It’s not at all like what shows that I know are on the air that are in the post-apocalyptic genre. It’s been a bit frustrating. Our hope is to get some financing and make it independently and then find a home for it because I believe in it so much.
The other crazy thing is that everywhere I go—I was just on a red carpet the other night for the Out 100. I was honored and I felt so lucky to be there, but everyone’s asking me about ‘Neo-Dome’. And I just want to be like, That’s awesome. Does anybody have money? We need money to make this.
That’s the thing. We can do it on different budgets. It can be a very large scale, but it’s also very character-driven. That’s the main thing is that we want this to be a very character-driven story and focused on Monica and how she’s trying to get to the to the dome.
Obviously, I’m not gonna say what’s in the dome on this specific interview but you know what I mean. We definitely need partners to come help us make something that we believe in wholeheartedly.
Discepolo: I’m on a mission to meet the Wachowskis. I feel like if they come aboard—
Camp: Go, Bonnie, go!
AF: Given how so many studios are consolidating, looking to consolidate, and cutting back on spending, does it feel daunting to be going the independent direction?
Discepolo: That’s interesting because everything I’ve always done has been independent. I think ‘Neo-Dome’ is such an exciting moment because when people see it, they think, well, this looks like a giant Hollywood movie. How did you do this? How long did it take you to shoot it?
And in truth, we used all of our scrappy indieness to do this on a pretty affordable budget with great actors in a short amount of time. And so I want to say, no, this is a little polished gem. This is what we can deliver on a budget.
I think that it’s energizing and exciting. It being in the Oscar conversation thrills me because it’s not the typical fare, it’s not what you usually see. If regular Hollywood that’s consolidating is like, we don’t know how to make a big budget thing, sees this that was made in 15 minutes, and it’s short and great, and people keep asking for more, I feel hopeful.
AF: I’m impressed at how quickly it was produced.
Camp: Oh yeah. I mean, we shot it over how many days?
Discepolo: Three days.
Camp: Three days. We shot it over three days. The budget, obviously, as it always does on any project, got a little bit bigger throughout the time of making it. (Laughs)
But I just keep thinking it wasn’t made for that much money at all. That’s a 15 minute short. If these episodes are 30 minutes, we would just have to double that budget that we originally had. It’s not that crazy.
It’s an incredible television show. I’m also very hopeful and I’m proud of what we did. I know if we can do that, we can we can definitely keep going forward.
Discepolo: What I feel most excited and motivated about this is that Anna, Mike, Nick, and even my dad, who’s in the back seat, this short, even though it’s sci-fi and cars, the spectacle is there, but that’s not what it’s about.
So many films in this genre are really—they focus on plot, they focus on the visual effects, and that’s all there, but we focused on the actors and the characters and that is the thing I’m most proud of—that we’re taking genre and really making it about the relationships.
AF: Anna, did you do any particular prep for the role or bring anything to the character that wasn’t on the page?
Camp: Gosh, I hope so. (Laughs) That’s what I always try to do is when I read a script, obviously, and especially with this one with ‘Neo-Dome’. Matt and Mark Pfeffer—there wasn’t a lot on the page, honestly.
A lot of the dialogue, once we got Michael Mosley, Nick Logan, Bonnie, and me in a room, what we’re actually saying is not at all what we are thinking or trying to do.
When you read the actual short film that was first brought to me, you have to figure out what is actually going on here. What is happening? What are they doing? What do they want from each other?
It’s a lot of discussion between us as a team as to what is all the subtext that we will be putting on to the screen. If you would just—with any other actors and director, I would be slightly afraid of what the end product would have been.
You could actually take this kind of nondescript dialogue, and it could go in many different directions. I think there was even a point in the beginning of the rehearsal process where—I forgot who it was on the team, but kind of wanted it to be a little more comical or big.
I think we were all like, that’s not the story that we want to tell. To make something grounded, intriguing, and mysterious. Also, just who Monica is, right? I don’t carry guns around and I’m not trained in all that. But what is she doing? How is she fighting to get somewhere, right? As a woman in this industry, as a woman in general, I am always fighting to be heard, to be seen, to be valued.
I believe that that’s why this particular film resonates with so many people. That’s also why I fought so hard to have Bonnie, a woman, direct it. Because to me, that’s the heart of ‘Neo-Dome’ is how much Monica has to fight to get anywhere in life.
Discepolo: I will always say this to anyone who asks, but most especially because we most recently worked on this, that Anna is one of the most thoughtful, nuanced, emotional actors that she’s bringing so much character. When we get on set, she’s done so much thinking.
Michael Mosley and Nick Logan—they all came with these really, really deep and truthful characters. When we put them in a situation that I just viewed as the tension of survival, you have these two men who you think are the predators in this situation, and what is Monica doing to survive, to navigate it, to just get a little closer and stay out of danger.
Watching the changing power dynamics and making that feel incredibly tense while no one is saying what they mean. It’s like doing Shakespeare. It’s a very big ask for an actor and I think they all just nailed it.
AF: Westerns tend to typically feature stupendous landscapes and this of course is a neo-western. Where were you all looking initially to film it and was there anything in particular that inspired the look?
Discepolo: It’s a collaboration. We looked at Joshua Tree. We looked all over Southern California. We thought about Arizona. The main thing was a vista that was completely desolate and had one long eternal road with no changes, no twists and turns.
You’re just on this epic road with a view at the end where we could do all of the visual effects of the ‘Neo-Dome’. Anna and I talked about this a lot that envisioning it was sort of like the Emerald City and Dorothy on her way down the yellow brick road to this place that was not getting closer.
We found it in glorious Palmdale, California.
Camp: Palmdale. There’s one gas station and there’s that one restaurant, there’s one hotel. It’s pretty amazing though. It worked out absolutely perfectly so we were very thankful and lucky to have found such a great place.
Discepolo: The sunrises and sunsets—
Camp: Yeah, the sunsets were so beautiful.
AF: I can imagine. I’m assuming the dome itself is in California.
Discepolo: Oh, well, that’s just where we shot it.
AF: I remember the car had California plates.
Discepolo: Ah. Good eye.
Camp: The car did have California plates. Yes. I mean, it could be California. I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no.
Discepolo: (Laughs)
AF: It’s been a pleasure getting to chat with you this afternoon. I just had to remind myself that ‘A Little Prayer’ actually came out this year so I’ve got to make sure to factor that into my end of year list.
Camp: ‘A Little Prayer’. Yes, it did come out. I’m so, so happy that so many people got to see it. It’s been a long road from being at Sundance to finally coming out. So yes, have you not watched it? You gotta watch it if you haven’t seen it.
AF: I was at the premiere. That’s where we met!
Camp: You were at the premiere. Oh my G-d. That was like 5 million years ago. It feels like.
AF: January 2023.
Camp: January 2023 feels like 5 million years ago. Well, I’m so sorry. It’s nice to see you. Oh my G-d.
Okay, well, yes, it came out. We’re very excited. Thank you for being such a huge supporter. It really does mean so much to us. And little movies like this, we need all the help that we can get so thank you.
Discepolo: I’m so excited that we’re doing the Oscar run, but it feels like a genre movie is not usually typical Oscar fare. I think Anna and I are just really hopeful that people will watch it because I think—there’s three out of a hundred studio films directed by women this year and so just getting people to see woman-led genre film feels like this big act of if people watch that, then maybe we will be considered for not just tiny little romances.
Camp: How can Oscar voters watch ‘Neo-Dome’?
Discepolo: It is on the Oscar platform. They have a portal where they can just watch it.
Camp: Just making sure we put that in the article that you’re writing up.
Discepolo: Yeah, but did you know? Because I’m crazy like that, I went and counted every single Oscar film to get the numbers on how many were directed by women versus men, and two-thirds of the Oscar qualified shorts are directed by men.
AF: Wow.
Camp: Wow. Wow.
Discepolo: Because I’m obsessive.
Camp: I just I’m glad you were doing that. My ADHD would pop off. I wouldn’t be able to sit there and count.
Discepolo: I was like, I just gotta know. I have to know.
AF: Yeah. I know at least two of them. This one and Malka are directed by women.
Discepolo: Yeah. So one-third is great. One-third is better than it used to be, but still not (inaudible).
Camp: Still pretty low. So we gotta keep keep fighting the good fight.
Discepolo: Danielle, are you wearing a ‘Superman’ shirt?
AF: Yes, I am.
Camp: Yay!
Discepolo: So happy. This is the greatest interview of all time!
Camp: Represent!
AF: I’m like, what shirt should I wear today? I’m interviewing Bonnie, she was in ‘Superman’—might as well go with that one.
Discepolo: Great choice. Anna, do you have anything else you want to say about ‘Neo-Dome’ before we?
Camp: I think we said everything we need to say. We’re gonna keep on—we’re gonna make it. We’re gonna make it. So thank you for your support. I have to jump off because I have another Zoom.
AF: All right. It’s been a pleasure. Happy Thanksgiving!
Camp: Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you so much. Bye.
Discepolo: Thank you again. Bye.