Reeves: In terms of the balance, the balance was very easily dictated by what the characters were going through. The interesting thing about the movie was that it was a grand-scale monster movie. It has a kind of epic scale, and yet it was being done from a very intimate perspective. That immediately told you that you couldn't see anything that they wouldn't see. When we were talking about it we felt, "What would be great is if we could introduce you to a group of people and have this look like found footage?" When we looked on YouTube there were a lot of parties that people would document, and you would see this stuff of going-away parties or people just having fun. There's something about this generation, where they're constantly documenting their lives. So it was very real to think that these were kind of people who you would find a document like this from.

And it also worked for us dramatically, because there's something about that stage of your life, of being in your 20s, and being those sort of hipsters, where your perspective is off and you don't have any real sense of what matters. That sort of hovers in the background, the priorities of your life. You're not really at a stage where you're confronted with that stuff in a big way yet. And the idea of those people suddenly going through an experience and it reshifting their priorities, suddenly you start to realize, "Wait a minute. What's important?"… that was kind of the idea of doing something about these 20-somethings, because an event like this would immediately knock them on their heels, and they'd have to react. What that evening would be like with these people seemed very authentic, that these were the kind of people who would make a movie like [this], and that was critical. You directed Cloverfield, but to the masses out there this is a J.J. Abrams film. How comfortable are you with that?

Reeves: J.J. and I have known each other literally since we were kids, and we met making 8-millimeter films. We've just been friends forever. We created Felicity together. He produced the first film that I directed, called The Pallbearer. It's not a surprise to me that people are seeing the film as a J.J. Abrams film, because, in a way, when you look at the elements of the film, the actors are all unknown, for the most part, and aside from the success I have had in TV, I haven't been directing movies in a long time. And there's actually a movie I was planning to direct at the time when he came to me about this one.

But he has created a certain brand of entertainment. He's sort of not just, I think, a filmmaker and creator now, but he's also a brand that people associate. And certainly there's so much mystery associated with this that it immediately does hearken back to Alias and to Lost. So people will make that association naturally. ... One of the great things about working with J.J. is that he has total respect for filmmakers, and he was giving me the opportunity to do my version of this movie, and that was really what he brought me in for. So being a great producer was really about letting me direct the movie the way I felt I'd do it, and he was totally supportive in that. I love J.J. I love working with him, and I would do it again in a second.OK, Cloverfield becomes a hit and Abrams and Paramount approach you for ideas about a sequel. What would you personally want to see?

Reeves: The thing about a sequel is, first of all, who knows that there will ever be a sequel? We don't know. It depends not only on how the film does, but also on the creative imperative. When this movie was sort of bouncing about between all of us and we were trying to figure out how to make it, we knew that not only was it a fun idea for a movie, but for us it was a great, engaging experiment, something for us to figure out how to do. I think what we'd need to do is figure out a compelling reason to make another movie. Obviously, if the movie has done well it means that people embraced it and we'll have to find some fresh way to approach it.

One of the things, though, that I will just say personally ... as we were making the movie that tickled me was the idea that this is such a strange age, where we process so much of what we're doing through technology and put it up on the Internet. And I just felt, especially through a lot of stuff I'd seen on YouTube and the Internet, when people were filming events, they'd take out their videophones and they would start snapping pictures and sending pictures of these incidents. So one of the things that I wanted to do when we were talking about the extras in that scene around the head of the Statue of Liberty, the first thing that I wanted the extras to do was to walk up to that head, and once they realized that it was in fact the head of the Statue of Liberty, that they'd take out their videophones and start filming it. That moment had to be captured.

And there's another moment on the bridge, which to me was kind of a fun thing—it goes by in an instant—but as Hud [Miller] is walking onto the bridge, he looks over and there's somebody filming with their video camera. It turns out that what they're filming is that huge ship, that tanker that's on fire, and also the headless Statue of Liberty. And then Hud turns back, and when he turns back that guy is filming him and he's filming that guy. I thought, in a weird way, there are multiple movies being made that night, and there's a whole other story about surviving this evening that was being made parallel to this, and that that might be another story. I don't know that we'd ever do that, but I just always liked the idea that there were several—not several, but hundreds, thousands of movies being made that evening, and you were seeing just one. I don't know that we'd do it that way, but that's something that amused us, and I found it to be an interesting idea just within the film, regardless of whether or not that movie was ever made.The movie ends and it pretty much just stops, but after the credits roll there's some static and a few obscured spoken words. Now that the film has opened, what are those words?

Reeves : I can't tell you that. At the end of the thing we were doing the mix. We were just about done. We'd mixed all of that great music, and I turned to [co-producer] Bryan [Burk], and we said, "Let's just do one more little thing." There was a thing in teaser trailer where I'd jumped up to the mike and said, "I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!" And that all got turned into people thinking we were doing Voltron, because I speak so quickly that they thought I said, "It's a lion. It's huge." But I actually said, "It's alive." I apparently have some diction and enunciation problems. In any case, at the end of this we kind of were like, "OK, this is our last sort of touch. Let's put one last little thing in there." But it's too early to give that away. So there is something there at the end, but it's too early. I want to give people a chance [to see the movie for themselves], but there is something there.And there are rumors that there's something in the water in the last shot of Rob [Stahl-David] and Beth [Yustman] at Coney Island. Any truth to that?

Reeves : Is there a creature? I will tell you, there is something in that shot as well. There is something. You have to look at that shot. There is something going on in that shot. Whether or not it's a creature or something else ... The thing about that shot is that almost nobody sees the shot, but once you see the shot and the thing in it, you'll never stop seeing it. If you get the chance to see the ending again, there's something there where once you look for it and find it you'll never be able to look at that shot again without seeing it. But until you find it you kind of don't see it.Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman, how strange was the secrecy element of Cloverfield? You couldn't even tell your friends what you were working on, right?

Lucas: It's so difficult, or it was for me, because you want to be so excited, and you want to tell your family and your friends that you've just booked this movie. It's so overwhelming, but you couldn't say anything. Everybody kept asking, but we just couldn't [talk about it]. We had to sign so many confidentiality papers, and we were sworn to secrecy.

Yustman: [left] I actually found it kind of fun. Most of the time when you're doing a movie everyone knows what you're doing. This time no one did, and it was fun to be able to have my friends ask me and be able to say, "I can't tell you. You're going to have to go."Do you worry at all about that biting the film in the ass? The film, the monster, it's all this big secret. What if, in the eyes of the audience, the film doesn't live up to the hype?

Yustman: If the movie wasn't good I would be worried, I guess.

Stahl-David: I was nervous when I went to see it. What I'm most proud of is that it's unconventional. Going to the movie and having the experience that you have in this movie, which I think is very intense, and I don't think there has been this combination of hand-held and special effects ... the whole question of the hype online has been "What is this thing?" And I don't think that that's the experience you have when you see the movie, that it's this spectacle of just looking at this monster. It's about this journey. Love it or hate it, it's unconventional, and I think it's going to trigger a strong response one way or another. Part of the marketing push is that it stars a bunch of unknowns, the idea being not to distract audiences from the story or monster by plopping a huge star at the center of it. A, how OK are you being referred to as unknowns? And B, how exciting/scary is the notion that by next week, if the film's successful, your profiles will shoot way up?

Yustman: It's overwhelming. I don't know what's going to happen, really. I'm not really prepared for anything. I've never been in this position, ever in my life, and I just feel so happy that I'm a part of it. Whatever happens, hey, we did it. It's out there. And we're all so proud of it.

Lucas: I think the only thing about the "unknown" thing that bugs me is ... I guess it's nice because it lends to the film and the realistic style of it, but they say it as if it's like your first project, like you've never worked before, and I have been working in this business for 10 years. That fact that it's like "She's so unknown and this is her first big thing," I'm like "Not really, no."

Stahl-David: "Selecting a group of nobodies ..." I hope I stay a nobody. I don't want attention on the street. I like to act weird and make out with my girlfriend in public and trespass, so I'm hoping that I can keep it pretty low-key.Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller and Mike Vogel, what were your auditions like? What did you think you were auditioning for?

Caplan: We were given one scene that was just kids in their 20s, and they're to get ready for this party, and they don't get along, and it seems very much like a coming-of-age, 20s, urban movie. And then for the callback we had to do that same scene coupled with a new scene that all of a sudden we were in France and this girl was plunging an adrenaline shot into the heart of this guy. Then they asked us what we thought this movie was about, and we kind of guessed, and they just laughed maniacally at us because we had no idea. And then we later found out that that scene was actually from Alias and was not going to be in the movie at all, and they were just trying to throw us off.

Vogel: But I got really excited because it said France. I was like, "If I get this part I'm going to France. This is awesome." If you'd known in advance it was a monster movie, would you have pursued it?

Caplan: I think the J.J. aspect would have made me probably attempt to get into it, but I don't think I would have been foaming at the mouth because it's not really ... I never thought I'd be in a movie like this.

Vogel: [left] There have been so many bad attempts and campy reproductions of something like this that it definitely makes you think for a second. When they first told me what it was, I think most of us thought it was Star Trek. They laughed at that notion. And they followed it up with "No, it's a monster movie." My stomach just dropped, and I was like, "What am I about to sign on to?" But then you start thinking and realizing this is J.J. Abrams. The guy has his finger on the pulse of that audience, that demographic. He's a complete tech guy, a tech geek, and he knows this stuff inside and out. If there was somebody to put the trust in ... like Lizzy said, you take the ride with a guy like J.J.

Caplan: I was actually really hoping I got this role because it was obviously J.J. and all these people, but I needed a concrete reason not to do this other film that would have required me to fly to Prague two times in two weeks and show my boobies, just get my boobies out.

Miller: Damn!

Caplan: Yeah, I didn't want to do it. Pop tart!

Miller: Would you have done it?

Caplan: Well, eventually I'll do it, but not for [that movie in Prague].T.J., how did you approach your role, since your character is mostly behind the camera filming the night's events and you actually ended up doing some of the camerawork?

Miller: I have to convince people I'm in the movie because I'm on screen such a small amount of time. It was really strange. When I found out that I wasn't going to be on camera it was kind of jarring. When I first saw that in the script I thought, "Well, how am I going to make any impact? No one's going to relate to this character. It's going to be a forgettable character in the film." I don't think that happened. I think that he's just as much a part of this as anything else, even though you don't see him. I actually tried a lot to get myself in front of the camera, because I wanted you to relate to me and know who I was. And I found out, finally seeing it, that J.J. Abrams and Matt were correct in keeping me to a minimum of screen time, because that's jarring. The audience sort of fuses with Hud, and each time you see him and the camera turns around they go, "Oh, we forgot. Somebody else is shooting this, not us." I liked that [Reeves] kept that to a minimum, so that people would be able to get in line and mesh with this character ... and also so that I don't become famous from this at all. I'll never get another job.