1 of 2 | Clockwise from left, Georgie Farmer, Roman Hayeck-Green, Yasmin Finney and James Scholz star in “LifeHack,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Triple Media Film
LifeHack, in theaters Friday, unfolds entirely on computer screens as a group of hackers perpetuates a cryptocurrency heist. Cast members Georgie Farmer, Roman Hayeck-Green, James Scholz and more said capturing the film on screens added stress.
Farmer plays Kyle, the leader of the cyber crew. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Farmer described how each character’s room was set up in a studio, and actors were filmed simultaneously with cameras attached to their computers.
“Excuse the pun, I couldn’t hack the premise of acting whilst having to look like it’s on your desktop,” Farmer said. “It felt like a play. You were running 30 pages of dialogue at a time for a scene and doing 30-minute takes at some points.”
The gang targets a crypto millionaire. By cyberstalking his family and impersonating their accounts, they are able to unlock his crypto wallet.
Hayeck-Green plays Sid, the hacker who panics the most when the heist works, thinking about the prison term if they are caught. He said the method of filming made it natural for him to act panicked.
“It just added to the frustration and tension of having to do this huge heist while talking on Discord,” Hayeck-Green said. “There might be a little bit of lag so the characters are fighting against that.”
YouTube vlogger Scholz was in his senior year at the University of Utah while filming his role. His real-life commitments contributed to his portrayal of Petey in his first acting role.
“It was a bit of a crazy period trying to graduate school and filming this movie and study for exams,” Scholz said. “I had to tell my professors that I need more time on a project because I’m trying to be in this film.”
LifeHack is the first movie for director Ronan Corrigan, who wrote it with Hope Elliott Kemp. It is the latest “screenlife” film from producer Timur Bekmambetov following films like Unfriended, Searching and last year’s War of the Worlds.
Unfriended was a horror movie on computer screens, Searching, a mystery and War, a screen-centric adaptation of the alien-invasion classic. Corrigan thought a heist movie on screens would be the next step.
“We came up with this idea of Ocean’s 11 on a Discord server,” Corrigan said. “It’s not train robberies or bank heists. It’s little brats on the internet stealing your crypto wallets.”
The cast filmed Corrigan’s 15-minute proof of concept video to attract funding. The next step was a 30-minute version, and LifeHack kept growing.
“It felt like we were pulling off our own heist trying to get this film made,” Corrigan said. “We were constantly like, ‘Look at this, give us some more money, look at this, give us some more money.'”
Jessica Reynolds and Yasmin Finney get off their screens for part of the heist. Finney plays Alex, one of the hackers, and Reynolds plays Lindsay, the millionaire’s daughter who wants a cut of the loot.
After obtaining passwords, their characters have to download information onto a flash drive from the computer of Lindsay’s father while the others watch on their screens.
Cameras were set up to mimic a CCTV camera in Camden, London, and Alex had a phone camera in her handbag.
“There was somebody guiding the bag to get the right angle,” Finney said.
The British Finney and Irish Reynolds also enjoyed filming in bustling Camden.
“That was a moment I’ll never forget in my career, just being in the heart of Camden because you don’t film much in London,” Reynolds said. “Not much films in London, never mind amidst Camden which is just so hectic.”
Aside from hitting the technical marks to keep the screen action flowing, the cast also related to their characters. Farmer said Kyle is motivated by caring for his friends.
“Ultimately, his actions are not very good,” Farmer said. “There are definitely better ways to show that you care about your friends but for me that was the way in with Kyle. After all, he’s loyal to his friends above everything.”
Finney said Alex is motivated by the social justice of her crimes.
“I think that she’s a warrior,” Finney said. “You can really sense that all she’s craving is connection and she has that with these boys and also she has it with the heist itself.”
Hayeck-Green related to being the comic relief of the group.
“I guess bring my cheeky side out a little bit,” Hayeck-Green said. “I’m also a very serious, lovely guy as well so don’t you worry about that. There’s many sides to me as there is to Sid.”
Scholz said Petey reminded him of many fellow college-bound students online, but Reynolds struggled with Lindsay. Lindsay is an influencer and appears in more social media-style videos than her co-stars on their bedroom computers.
“I didn’t relate to Lindsay at all, to be honest,” Reynolds said. “She’s kind of opposite to me as a person, opposite morals, opposite social media presence, all that stuff. It was actually just about trying to find the truth in her without making her too silly or annoying. I wanted to make her still interesting and funny from an honest standpoint.”
