I N T E R V I E W
W I T H T H E D I R E C T O R :
Q: Now you're a young guy...you made your first feature film for under 10 grand and it rockets to Sundance... What was the hardest part of the whole process?
A: It wasn't scrambling the money together, or begging for a church to let us shoot in their location...although those things weren't exactly 1-2-3. I can easily say the hardest part was just deciding to do it. There's a world of expectation out there that you can't do things like this...for no money...all by yourself...it just doesn't work that way.
I found an enormous amount of pressure to turn my dreams in for a suit and tie. And as long as I believed them, they were right... the tightrope walker, 80 feet above the ground, doesn't say, "Nope. Can't do it" then go marching across the thing.
Q: Can you tell us a little about the cast and crew...the production?
A: My sister is the lead actress. The rest of the cast is from New York, although my father and mother have small cameos. I even show up in there somewhere...I won't say where though. And everyone...down to the director worked for free.
We shot the film in my hometown of Stafford Springs, CT and my entire town got involved. The cops lent us their cars, their uniforms and their yellow tape. Now if I had shot the film in LA, it might've been a whole different story. People there honk when they pass a production to mess up the shot. In my hometown, people were stopping by to see how they could help. I asked around and one very generous soul willingly gave us his truck, yes, gave us his truck for a crash scene in the film...the one you catch a glimpse of in the trailer.
For locations, I used friends' houses, the town hall, a local convenience store...my parents even moved out of their house for a month and stayed on a friend's couch while we shot in their home.
Q: What was it like when you heard the film got into Sundance? Were you surprised?
A: Once we had advanced pretty well into the submission process, I had the feeling we would get in. For me, the most fantastic part of the whole thing was calling up all the people in my town who helped, and the cast and crew on the phone... hearing them scream at the top of their lungs...
Q: How did you come up with the idea for the script? Can you tell us a little about the story?
A: I started writing the script when I was 19 years old..(laughs) The film is largely character driven...the story represents my view of the world at the time. It features a convenience store clerk in a nowhere job, in a nowhere town. He looks around and sees a dismal world...a world he would leave if he could only muster up the strength.
Q: How does the vampire element come in?
A: I wanted to blend genres. As you can tell, in alot of ways this isn't your typical horror film. And audiences feel that. They come out with more than they expected.
By, first and foremost, telling a real story about 9-5 jobs til death do us part, I brought more to the film than just blood and guts. And it's not about that cuz life isn't about that. The vampire element is the freedom from that lifestyle. It's the visceral breaking out of system.
Q: If you could give advice to other indie filmmakers looking to follow in your footsteps, what would it be?
A: Don't go looking for someone else to give you a directing job. Being a Production Assistant for 3 years doesn't bring you closer to your goals.
Make your own film. Spend a year on your script, perfecting it...mine took me 8 solid months. Get your friends to help you, but don't compromise your vision. If they won't take you seriously, there's a world of crew members out there looking to get into production, looking for new directors like yourself to work for. And I probably don't have to tell you that there's a world of actors out there, willing to act in pretty much anything...a lot of amazing ones.
I say start with a feature film and be serious about your work. Aim high because it's the only way you'll hit high.
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