Tyler Shields "Final Girl" Interview (San Diego Comic Con 2015)

Tyler Shields is a world-renowned photographer, who has repeatedly made headlines with his striking imagery. But now, Shields is transitioning for the first time into the role of a feature-film director. At San Diego Comic Con, Shields sat down with us to discuss the feature, "Final Girl," and offered up insight into the process of bringing the story to life, this new branch of his artistry, and the social commentary so frequently seen in his work.

Shields noted that for him, the art forms of photography and film-making were the same. After being approached by the producers of the film, he agreed to take the film on, but only under the condition that the film's thesis stay away from the 'female victim' trope so frequently used in Hollywood.

"Women are so powerful, and I view them in such a powered form. But what I find interesting is that, in this movie, you have a very strong female lead and another movie I'm doing, you have another very strong female lead, and there's a lot of people that seemingly want that, right? Yet people make it very difficult for you to make a movie like that; that's what was surprising to me. The people who write checks, they don't like the idea of that, so it's difficult to get these movies made." ~ Tyler Shields, on making film(s) with a strong female lead

No stranger to controversy, or introducing strong social commentary into his work, Shields say that the issues he is most inclined to highlight are the ones that have long-standing historical resonance, be it racism or misogyny. Abigail Breslin was his first choice to play the film's heroine, Veronica, and Shields shares that she accepted the role 45 minutes into reading the script.

"This movie has no CGI, everything you see in it is real. Everyone's fighting, Abigail Breslin is 16 and she's punching people in the face. When you see people's breathing, it's because they're freezing cold." ~ Tyler Shields, on the originality and realism of "Final Girl"

View the interview in full here:

"Final Girl" will have a limited theatrical release and be available for viewing on demand.