Another actress who is making waves at the moment is Corinn Springer, whose most recent film BALLS had a screening during the online London Rolling Film Festival 2021. A music graduate, Springer also teaches students when she is not making films in New York City.
Here she reflects on her experience making the film.
I met Yann Toderi (writer, director and co-star of Balls) about nine years ago in New York City. He was visiting from Geneva, Switzerland to hire actors for his film, Cardio. At the time I was living in New York and finishing my Masters Degree in Music Performance at Brooklyn College Conservatory.
Our first meeting was actually quite cinematic; just as the subway door on the A train was closing, he told me I was perfect for a film he was shooting and gave me his email address, not knowing that I had done some acting and was studying to be an opera singer. Nine years of friendship and two feature films later, I’m very glad I reached out to him!!
Fast forward to 2018 when I was living in London, Yann called to tell me that he had written a script about a man struggling with Tourette’s Syndrome and how music and singing in particular had given him a new lease on life. He asked if I was available to be a part of it.
The story immediately resonated with me. When I was working towards my bachelor’s degree in Music Education, this was something I had studied a great deal and had written multiple papers on. Music has helped countless people get through bad episodes of ticks and other side effects that come with having Tourette’s Syndrome.
Furthermore, the lead female character in Balls happened to have a pretty similar life to mine – running around London teaching multiple students, taking on any and all genres of gigs, as well as trying to pursue some song-writing on the side. This, and the fact that the film was taking place in London (where I had been residing for two years up to this point), was an easy “yes, when do we start?!”
We filmed on and off for a solid year in London and in Geneva where Yann, Parallaxe Films and Kitchen Studio (where we recorded a lot of the music) resides. I loved filming in London. Some of the shots are even in my flat in Covent Garden and around my neighborhood at the time. It makes me nostalgic watching it now.
Filming over the course of a year posed some challenges in that I had to make sure that my hair, clothing, nails etc. didn’t change too much (or get lost) throughout the year, but it was interesting seeing how my character grew more every time we filmed. I really got to know my character, Samantha, and to understand her relationship with Alex (Yann’s character). She was quite sad deep down, but an emotionally strong character and always very brave for Alex.
Looking back, my favorite part about working on Balls was the process that we went through leading up to filming each scene. We would talk about and rehearse each scene meticulously; I think it ended up looking quite spontaneous when in fact there’s barely any improvisation on screen. My other favorite part was learning Rym’s (composer for most of the music) songs. Each one of her songs conveys a different emotion that is very relatable to both my character and my own life.
It was amazing having Balls premiere at the Geneva International Film Festival to a sold out audience, then winning New York International Film Awards for “Best Romance,” and Yann winning the “Best Actor” award (well deserved!). And obviously we couldn’t be more excited about the recent London Rolling Film Festival’s “Best Feature Film” award. This has made all of the hard work worth it. I’m very proud and honored to have been part of this film. It was truly a labor of love.
CARDIO is due out on Amazon Prime this April.
For more on Corinn, please visit her Official Website:
https://www.corinnspringer.com/
For more on the London Rolling Film Festival, including news and how to submit, please go to:
