TFTV alumni Justin Martinez (BFA, ’04) and Ben Turner (BFA ’03) are the creative talents behind Live and Let Dive, a nail-biting segment of V/H/S Beyond, the horror anthology that drew rave reviews during its debut at this year’s Fantastic Fest. V/H/S Beyond, the latest installment of the storied V/H/S horror series, is now available to watch on the streaming platform Shudder.
Launched in 2012, the first installment of V/H/S was an anthology of five found-footage short films that premiered that year at the Sundance Film Festival. One of the five shorts was written and directed by Radio Silence, the filmmaker collective founded by Martinez alongside fellow TFTV alum Tyler Gillett (Scream, Scream VI, Abigail) and others. V/H/S has since inspired six sequels, including V/H/S Beyond, and over the years has drawn a legion of fans and featured the work of top horror filmmakers.
Described in various reviews as “one of the most exciting and terrifying segments” (OffScreen Central) and “a rollercoaster ride of tension, revulsion, and unrelenting suspense that must be seen to be believed” (MovieFreak), Live and Let Dive tells the story of a birthday skydiving trip that goes horribly wrong. TFTV recently caught up with the filmmakers.
What are your official credits on the film?
Justin: I’m the Director, VFX Supervisor and VFX artist.
Ben: I’m the Screenwriter and Editor.
What’s the official synopsis for Live and Let Dive?
Ben: A group of old friends go skydiving to celebrate Zach’s 30th birthday, only for hostile alien creatures to attack their plane midair and send them plummeting into a citrus grove where the creatures pursue them to even more horrific ends.
Can you describe the trajectory of the film, from conception through to distribution?
Ben: Justin and I have worked on various projects together throughout the years going all the way back to our time at the University of Arizona. He’s a master storyteller, a visionary director, and a VFX legend. So last year when he asked me about the possibility of pitching a segment for the next installment of V/H/S, it was an immediate YES from me. Once I was on board, we filtered through various ideas over the next couple months and landed on what would become our segment, Live and Let Dive. Justin shared some harrowing YouTube videos of midair collisions and skydives gone horrifically awry. He posed the question ‘What if aliens attacked during a skydive?’ We wrote the script, and it was met with incredible enthusiasm by the producers and the studio. Principal photography took place over one week in April of 2024. The exterior scenes were shot in an orange grove in Pomona, CA, while the interior aircraft scenes were shot on a soundstage in Burbank. Post-production took place over the next couple months, and we achieved picture lock sometime in June of 2024. All the while Justin had been doing the visual effects not only for our segment, but for several other segments in the movie. Sound design and mixing happened over the next month or so, and the whole thing was “done” by mid-July 2024. V/H/S BEYOND premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 20th, 2024, and was released on Shudder on October 4th, 2024.
Justin: Ben has laid things out perfectly here. The movie presented plenty of challenges along the way, due to its ambitious premise. Initially, we imagined that we could get the actors into a real plane and do the scenes while in flight, but some roadblocks had us pivot. We ended up adapting the vision for the movie to fit a model that had actors in a stationary fuselage with a few shots that showed real footage out of a window that a professional skydiver would capture. The orange orchard is another example of a challenge we faced. Up until about 2 weeks until we were supposed to shoot, the script called for us to shoot in a cornfield. This was almost impossible for us to find during that time of year, so we went in search of alternative locations. There wasn’t a lot of time to rewrite the script, so the location we chose would have to be similar to a cornfield. Ultimately, we decided on an orange orchard, and it was an even better setting in the long run. Plus, we got to throw an orange at an alien.
What is your connection to the V/H/S franchise?
Justin: My connection to the franchise goes back to the very first movie. I was a part of Radio Silence at the time, and we were asked by producer Brad Miska to do a segment for an anthology he was putting together. We had been making videos for YouTube as Chad Matt and Rob. I don’t think any of us could have predicted what V/H/S was going to become, but it’s been such a special experience for all of us. I’ve been doing the VFX for most of the segments in the V/H/S franchise since V/H/S/94, and every year I asked them if I could direct one. This year they said yes and now you have Live and Let Dive.
Ben: When Justin was a part of Radio Silence, I was able to work in the camera department on a horror anthology they directed called Southbound. It was on that movie set, back in 2014 where I first met Brad Miska, one of the producers of V/H/S Beyond. However, aside from being a fan, writing our segment with Justin was my first professional connection to the franchise.
How familiar are you with screening your films at festivals? How was this screening special?
Justin: I’ve been fortunate to have movies screen at many film festivals around the world. The first V/H/S premiered at Sundance and that was an amazing experience. It’s one of the top film festivals in the world and felt like an achievement. The movie also played at SXSW which I attended, as well as the Torino Film Festival in Italy. Southbound premiered at TIFF and that was also a highlight. Fantastic Fest for V/H/S/Beyond will always have a special place in my heart. I’ve never put more into a movie than I did for Live and Let Dive, and to watch that audience experience the movie for the first time was truly special.
Ben: This is the first movie I’ve written that screened at a festival. We had our world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX, and our west coast premiere at Beyond Fest in Santa Monica, CA. These screenings were special in that they were the culmination of all our creative efforts on the project. They were a chance to revel in the magic of a darkened movie theater, sitting with our cast and crew, with a chance to share our segment with the incredible fans of the V/H/S franchise. I was overcome with emotion, pride, and gratitude.
And a question we love to ask our alumni: what did you learn at TFTV that you value to this day?
Ben: We learned so much! I began as a creative writing major and switched to TFTV (it was called Media Arts when we were there) after a screening of Run Lola Run in a film aesthetics class I was taking for my minor. The energy and visual language of that film felt inspiring! So much so that the opportunity to explore the craft of cinema by working in a close cohort of my creative peers felt too good to pass up. I’m so grateful to our professors like Michael Mulcahy for exposing us to experimental films such as Print Generation, and Beverly Seckinger for showing us the deeply personal nature of documentary film. My little ‘James Cameron or bust’ mind was expanded thanks to them.
Writing had always been an important creative outlet for me ever since I would disrupt class with jokey antics in sixth grade, get sent to detention hall after school, and spend hours writing creative essays as ‘punishment.’ I suppose the joke was on them lol. This passion for writing carried over to a screenwriting class in the TFTV program, where a professor named Annina Lavee guided us through idiosyncratic parameters and incredible possibilities of the format.
While I value everything I learned at TFTV, I’d say the most important is the value of relationships. I feel so fortunate to have connected with such an exceptional group of people during my time at Arizona. Many of them continue to be dear friends, and in Justin’s case, an otherworldly creative collaborator.
Justin: Embrace new technology while respecting the old. During my time in the Media Arts program (now TFTV), we stood on the brink of a digital revolution with accessible 24p cameras like the DVX100. I entered the program learning the art of storytelling through film, and by the time I graduated, we had fully embraced the potential of 24p video. The faculty at TFTV were incredibly supportive, encouraging us to explore and express the stories we wanted to tell, and the ways we wanted to tell them. My journey into filmmaking began with a passion for stop motion, and the tools I acquired in the program allowed me to elevate my storytelling. This eventually led me to explore VFX, enabling me to create more ambitious narratives than I had ever imagined. It was at TFTV that I truly discovered the filmmaker I aspired to be.