We have talked about this before [click
here], but bring us up to speed: Your new movie The Lashman,
what is it about?
It’s about 3 years late, is what it is haha. No, seriously, it's a
slasher film with a nod towards the traditional tropes of the genre. Sex-starved youth, boogeyman in the shadows, violence and all that. A group of
friends head for a vacation in a secluded cabin only to find that their
campfire tales are the thing of nightmares. The Lashman is going to have
its premiere shortly - so do talk about that for a bit, and how do you
plan to release your movie onto the general public? Well
it's funny because the distribution model has changed so much even in the
past few years. DVD is a place where indie movies go to die now, in that
once it's out on, DVD people kind of just file it on a shelf and stop
talking about it. I am setting up screenings at film festivals and horror
conventions obviously. And I am taking it to some non-traditional venues
as well. Planning to play it in bars, and house parties. Anywhere willing
to show it really. I want to let people in far off cities watch it, and I
can live tweet or skype in afterwards to do Q&As. I just like the idea
of going to wherever people are. Most movie theaters in the classical
sense, charge and arm and a leg for rental with no guarantee you can
recoup cost if the weather goes bad, or things like that. I just want it
to live and breathe a little. I’m sure someone will bootleg it soon
enough, and it will end up on the torrents. That doesn’t really bother
me as I want people to see it. However I would encourage anyone who steals
it to show some love to me and other indie films by donating to Kickstarters, buying
T-shirts, just anything that helps put money in
pockets of film makers to make more of these things. I do plan to take a
more punk rock approach I guess, and just tour it like a band. One night stands in odd venues. Sometimes we charge admission, sometimes we might
just pass the bucket around and hope to make enough to get to the next
city. We haven’t taken money from anyone yet via crowdfuning. It's all my
cash on the line at this point. I'm not against that idea, but Im happy we
were actually able to finish it without those kind of funds. It's much
easier to ask when you have a tangible thing to give them back. All that
said, it would be nice if a distributor came along who really cared about
it the way I do and was willing to throw some support behind it. But I
don’t expect that really. I mean who can love their children better than
their own parent? We’ve had some offers from some great companies, but
no one is going to love it like I do, and I don’t want it to be just
another movie piled on with a dozen other movies. As
far as I know, there have been numerous delays during The Lashman's
post production - would you at all care to elaborate?
Cameron McCasland |
Yeah, it has been a long time coming. I actually realized that we put
the new trailer up 3 years to the day that the original teaser went up.
That was kind of poetic, and at the same time heart-breaking. I wrote an
open letter a while back outlining some of my personal woes that delayed
the film. I had some health issues, and went through a pretty bitter
divorce that started not long after we finished our principal photography.
I have two lovely children, who live with me. They needed me at that
moment, and honestly I was in a place where it was hard to focus on making
movies and doing it right. I don’t regret it at all. I'd rather be a good
father than anything else. The movie got tied up in those court
proceedings, and it just seemed like it would never end. We finally came
to an agreement, and at that point I was ready to get back to work. In the
long run, I think it was for the better. We (myself and the mother of my
children) are amicable now, at least as amicable as anyone can be after
these things. We are both committed to making our children happy, and
thats the most important thing. And I'm happy. I have someone in my life
who loves me a great deal, and my whole world view is better now. It was
just a long hard road, and I'm glad I have finally come to the end of it.
David Vaughn, Stacey Dixon, Shawn C. Phillips,
Jeremy Jones, Kaylee Williams |
Sitting
on the material for quite so many years, how has this at all changed your
perception of the film, and maybe even the film as such? Well
it gave me a lot of time to mull over what we had accomplished, as well as
some pitfalls. I did go back and shoot some pick ups in 2013 with Josh
Ickes, who was my director of photography and editor on the movie. That I
think added a great deal of terror to the film. We could have put it out
without it, but I have grown a great deal as a filmmaker since we started
this project, and I am glad we got those new pieces in. Making a movie is
strange. You build this kind of family unit, and once the work is finished
you all move on to other projects. Some people get closer, and some you
kind of lose touch with. We all just have this moment in time where we
were together and it was a special place. That part of it, the memory of
it changes a bit once you forget how hot, or tired, you were. It's
like summer camp in a way I suppose. I think most everyone in the cast is
still talking to me at this point. I beat them all up, but only in the
sense to get the best work out of them. I think this is a completely
different type of role than people have seen Shawn C. Phillips [Shawn
C. Phillips interview - click here] in, and Im
proud of that. Same goes for Stacey Dixon. She shines so much in the last
15 minutes of the movie. I love her dearly for how vulnerable she became
out there. It has been kind of nice as I showed it to some of the cast
& crew a few weeks ago. I had showed them a work in progress cut in
2012 and they were amazed at the difference after all the post production
had been done.
Lee Vervoort |
With
The Lashman being a slasher movie, how do you think your film will
stand out of the crowd? I love the slasher genre. I think
there are some people doing good work even today. But I think what the
genre has lacked as it has grown is the relationships between the main
characters. The emphasis became so much about the antagonists that we lost
site of the story. Everyone wants a cool killer, and the ridiculous kills.
And that's fine, we have some of that as well. But this one is a bit of a
slow burn. We let you get to know our campers a bit. And when death comes
creeping in, it comes quickly. I think that is what is going to resonate
with people. I wouldn’t want to compare my movie to the stuff that came
before it, as I have respect for those films, but we are able to stand on
the shoulders of giants and dissect their tropes. The good ones, like Halloween,
Friday The 13th,
Maniac, etc. were all doing something in their
current time frame. We are able to use all that hindsight and set our
movie in the past. So you won’t see cell phones, or things like that. But
we also won’t beat you over the head with bad dialogue, pop culture
references, and goofy looking clothes that look like a high school girls
80’s party where everyone is wearing bright yellow, and has their hair
all teased up. We just kind of let it breathe, and I think it feels like
that moment in time even though it isn’t.
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As slashers are rather
sequel-prone, will there ever be a The Lashman 2 - and/or other
future projects you'd like to talk about? Well, I have a
lot of ideas in my head that I want to get out. This movie has taught me
not to reveal too much before it's ready as I don’t want to disappoint my
audience waiting for things that never come to fruition. As far as what is
next? I just shot a documentary for the band Quiet Company down in Austin,
Texas, and I'm currently piecing that together. I have a romantic comedy I
would like to shoot, and I think I may do that before I get back into
another feature length horror film. I really just want to make westerns. But I am currently developing an anthology series, and we are just weeks
away from starting production on that. It was going to be for television,
but has morphed into this other thing where we will release some shorts
and then pull them together collectively to make a feature film. My idea
initially was to direct one short myself and then get some directors I am
friends to take a turn while I produce. But I keep getting these stories
that I just want to make, you know? Josh Ickes, who I mentioned was my
D.P. on Lashman, wrote a story that he is going to direct for it. We do
have a few friends from our Lashman cast coming back in one form or
another. I'm really excited to see Josh take the helm for his portion.
That's a scoop I suppose. So more horror movies are on the horizon for
sure. I'm also doing a lot more producing these days. I worked with Lee
Vervoort [Lee Vervoort
interview - click here] last year on his movie The
Truck, and worked on a movie with Matt
Riddlehoover called More Scenes from a Gay Marriage. Matt has a new script
he is putting together that is fantastic, and I'm planning to produce that
here in Nashville later this year. As far as Lashman 2 goes? I do have a
few story ideas. When I built this world I left it open, in the sense that
we could make movies with this monster in all kinds of time periods. I
thought for a while about making a comic book or something like that. Or
just doing a new Lashman short every Halloween. But really I think time
will tell. If people latch onto this and want more then I’ve got a few
ideas. I'm not sure if I would direct it myself or pass it on to someone I
trust. I know that right now I have a lot of other things I want to do
first. I will say that the best bet for more Lashman, is to go see this
first one and show it some love. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
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You can find the
movie at facebook.com/lashmanmovie
and on Twitter @lashmanfilm. I'm on Twitter @CamMcCasland and I usually
answer questions over there. I'm not hard to find if you go looking. Anything else
you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? No,
I think we have it covered. But I will take this time just to say thank
you both to you, and to all of the people who have supported the long road
to The Lashman. I hope you all really dig the movie. Stay out of the
woods. Lashman Getchya! Thanks
for the interview!
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