Director Brendan Lyle Talks Tracy & Martina’s Improvised Trip Out West
Still from Tracy and Martina: Goin’ Out West. Photo courtesy of the Calgary Underground Film Festival.
In a certain corner of the internet, the duo name Tracy and Martina needs no context. Their cadence, their chaos and their very specific Cape Breton energy just clicks and makes sense, even if you’ve never been there. What started with YouTube videos has moved beyond the feed and onto the big screen.
Ahead of the Calgary Underground Film Festival April 23 premiere of Tracy & Martina: Goin' Out West, REVERIE chatted with director Brendan “mooseCANfly” Lyle about his first film feature, an improvised mockumentary following two best friends as they set off for Alberta for the first time opening for a local band with hopes of making some money.
Packing their belongings in Sobey’s reusable bags and cashing in bottles to add to their travel budget, Tracy and Martina(Justine Williamson and Greg Vardy) leave the comfort of home and improvise their way across unfamiliar grounds, one decision at a time. Behind the scenes, things weren’t all that different, mirroring the journey of the two that could be generously described as loosely assembled and slightly improvised.
“The way we shot it, we didn’t intend to make a movie out of it. Maybe four or five days before they were leaving for Alberta, they asked me if I wanted to come and just bring my camera and film. There was no plan, really,” Lyle shares. “Tracy and Martina have never been outside of Cape Breton. As soon as possible, we would just kind of roll the camera and move around whatever city we were in that night, and see how [they] interacted with that space, that world and those people.”
When the audience watches scenes of Tracy and Martina interacting — whether it would be the earlier opening scenes of Martina talking while Tracy does her laundry, or the two taking portrait-mode selfies of each other in their Fort McMurray hotel — it’s easy to see the connection between the duo. That ease of existing as Tracy and Martina on screen for this film is what stands out most.
“Justin and Greg built these characters over the last 10 or 12 years, so the characters themselves have a really deep history with each other. There’s a lot of lore there. So, for me, it was more just more so just capturing their relationship and editing it together so that you could see it on screen.”
Some of the funniest moments in the film play into its self-awareness, with brief instances where Tracy and Martina interact with the cameraman they’ve hired (Lyle), blurring the line between a scene that is being actively filmed and simply existing with the moment.
“The chaos of it all comes from the friendship between me, Justine and Greg. We have been working on Tracy-Martina stuff since I was 17 years old, so 10 years now. Making this movie without a script, I think, was the key to making it feel like friendship. It was that mentality, energy and intention that brought the friendship out of it.”
One scene in particular encapsulates the dynamic relationship and chemistry between the two and their comic rhythm that run effortlessly through the entire film.
“This was not planned. We just walked down into the lobby [of the Fort McMurray hotel] and the girls found the gym. They’re just blown away that there’s a gym in the hotel and they’re playing with the equipment. None of that being planned is just so funny to me, how they’ve never been to a hotel before realistically.”
While the film follows Tracy and Martina into new territory, it also pushes Lyle into new ground of his own: his first feature film. Lyle has previously worked on various creative short-form projects that includes music videos for Goldie Boutillier, Neon Dreams and Customer Service. With Tracy & Martina: Goin' Out West, he expands his practice and takes on the challenge of working at a new scale.
“Because I’m editing and colouring everything as well, I think the timeline is really hard for me, because it never feels like it’s finished. So, having something so long, it really makes it hard to finish it for me.”
This film is a delight, colourful and raw. I often found myself watching scenes and imagining my friends and I as if we were in the shoes of Tracy and Martina. It is an embodiment of our deeply valued relationships in its most unfiltered, unpolished and honest form, one that is deeply familiar all at once.
You can catch Tracy & Martina: Goin' Out West on April 23rd at the Globe Cinema. “Go into the movie with expectations of seeing two people out of their comfort zones. Leave a review on Letterboxd or wherever you rate your movies, an honest review. I want to hear what people actually think about it, but keep in mind, we went into this having fun and that’s what it’s about. It’s about having fun, making a movie with your friends, and it’s about friendship. That’s all it is to me.”