Behind the production of ’13 Minutes’ by Lindsay Gossling and Travis Farncombe

In an instant, life can change drastically. What starts out as a typical sunny day can change your perception of tomorrow forever. This is the case with the tapestry of stories woven together to create 13 Minutes.  What starts out as a normal day in sunny Oklahoma is catastrophically shifted, leaving a community to rebuild from the ground up.

Developing each character’s story line to show a spectrum of human experiences when developing the story and characters “We gave them all personal journeys and challenges,” says Travis Farncombe. “We talked about what they wanted, what they needed, what their goals are, why they would listen to [storm] warnings or not listen to warnings. Why they would hear warnings or not hear warnings and why they would behave properly or not.”   

Travis Farncombe and writer/director Lindsay Gossling conceptualized 13 Minutes  from a desire to create a film about the volatility of life living in Tornado Alley both in terms of the weather and the community issues faced by those who inhabit it.

“We are living in turbulent times. Threatened by a landscape of intolerance, ravaged by natural disasters and now beset by disease – mother nature is peeling back the mask of civilization and amplifying divisions. Messages of warning are being shouted loud and clear by experts and activists alike and those messages are resoundingly met with apathy and inaction.  Humanity is slowly watching the storm approach, caught up in our own lives, ignoring the wailing sirens that are urging us to find a path to safety before it’s too late. With 13 Minutes , I wanted to create a world that represents a microcosm of global issues, have nature destroy that world, and leave the audience asking whether it will be rebuilt any better than it was before,” commented Director Lindsay Gossling.

The storm in 13 Minutes took on a life of its own as a central character in the story, certified storm chaser Travis Farncombe was the mastermind behind the anatomy of the storm day.  “We started the day with a pre-dawn thunderstorm that sets up an outflow boundary for the end of the day and then the skies clear. The land heats and we build instability. Then we start to see cumulus clouds build and then ultimately a line of clear storms develops that rages across the state of Oklahoma.”   

For Travis, storms have been a lifelong passion “when I was young, I experienced a tornado event with my family up at our cottage. Cottages across the lake and a trailer park were destroyed. That event ignited this curiosity and fire [in me] to understand more about severe weather.” As he got older, he started chasing storms instead of studying them. “There is nothing more sensory than standing out on the plains as the wind is howling in toward a supercell and you can hear the roar of the hail coming as the storm is approaching.”

13 minutes is written by Lindsay Gossling and Travis Farncombe and directed by Lindsay Gossling.  The film will open in theaters nationwide on October 29th.

Cast: Amy Smart, Thora Birch, Peter Facinelli, Trace Adkins, Paz Vega, Anne Heche, Sophia Vassilieva, Laura Spencer

Produced by: Travis Farncombe, Lindsay Gossling, Karen Harnisch

Cinematographer: Steve Mason

Running Time: 108 minutes

Rating: PG-13

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