Carl Bessai?s Normal had its world premiere in front of a packed house at the Scotiabank Theatre ? the third such crowd I?ve seen for Canadian premieres this week. Normal is a brave and unflinching look at the way a single event (in this case, the tragic death of a teen in a drunk driving accident) can affect many lives in many different ways. The film turns slowly around the stories of the teen?s mother (Carrie-Anne Moss), the failed author who was driving the car that killed him (Callum Keith Rennie) and his best friend (Kevin Zegers). All three gave masterful performances, and were on hand to answer questions with their director, along with two other actors - Tygh Runyan (Rennie?s autistic brother Dennis), Camille Sullivan (Zegers unhappy stepmother), and Britt Irvin (his would-be girlfriend).

Bessai kicked off the Q&A by thanking TIFF audiences for being nice, interested, and making the festival such a great place to screen a movie.

An audience member kicked things off by complimenting him on his Director of Photography ? a compliment to the director, who shot the film himself. Bessai commented on the naturalistic tone of the film, and the influence of directors like John Cassavetes on his own work, before modestly encouraging the audience to ask more questions of the actors, who are ?only here for one night?.

The next question, directed at the entire panel, was about the extent to which the highly emotional, silent scenes in the film were scripted or improvised by the audience.

Bessai: There was a lot of improvising in this movie, I mean there was a script but there was a lot of silence as well, perhaps you (Moss) can talk about some of the silent films, like in the room of the dead son.

Moss: I think Carl in the script was pretty clear, I think he had a lot of that in the script if I remember correctly. I mean, you have to improve to find it to yourself, but you were quite clear on what you wanted from it.

Bessai: I think that scenes like when you?re in the space alone, we don?t have a definite idea. The script might say she?s in the room alone, here?s what she?s thinking, but it?s up to the actor ?

Zegers: Carl?s so self deprecating. The thing we all learned about working with him is that we all show up with the script, and he kind of says ?crew it, and what do you feel like doing? ? I felt like he was able to adjust to whatever we felt was pertinent to making the film. It?s really nice for an actor to be able to move wherever you want to move and it?s just the ability to go where you want to go and not have to stay in your light which in most movies if you move three inches they cut because your light?s cut off. Because Carl?s lighting it he lights the whole room and because he?s shooting himself he allows you to feel free to do whatever you want. And a lot of the time it sucks but you get those moments which end up in the film, which are these captured, really quiet moments that aren?t necessarily scripted.

Bessai: When Kevin and I met we had a bunch of conversations and he said ?I really think I should tear apart my room, I have to come back to my house and be in this room and it?s a teenager?s room, it?s not my room anymore? and I thought yeah, let?s do that ? it?s a bunch of junk cuts but it?s this kind of moment where he?s not the same person anymore. I thought it was a really great addition and a great idea.

When asked about the upscale setting of in the film, Bessai said ?Y?know, Dennis doesn?t live in an upscale home, Walt doesn?t really. I mean, it?s a nice house but it?s sort of a middle class place. What I didn?t want to do was make a kind of critique of Suburbia. I know it?s an upscale sort of environment, but it would lean toward being a cliché to make this a rip on Suburbia. I?m not crazy about Suburbia but I don?t think it needs to be constantly, for me this is the setting, it?s a kind of beautiful North American coastal, it?s heaven in a way. It?s a great area to be. Beautiful people live there, and these beautiful people who seem to have everything have these really isolated lives.