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Under the umbrella title Revenge of Awesome, you plan to make
no less than five feature films this year. Why that many, and how do you
find the energy needed to pull that project through to the end?
When I started making short films back in 05-06, I would pool a bunch
of actors together from the neighboring towns and they would stay with me
and we would shoot like 3-4 shorts or trailers or music videos in a
weekend. When I did my first feature which was Creep
Creepersin's Frankenstein, we did that
in a weekend. My second feature we shot in a night. Once I realized I
could do this like this, I just started making movies whenever I could. So
by 2009 I was making 9-11 features a year. I have just been lucky enough
to work with really great people. So with last year's slate, we had five on
it but I ended up making seven last year. So as far as why that many, it's
kind of like these movies are movies that I want to make. Not a producer
coming in and saying I need you to make me a ________ film that has to be
like this, these are films for me. And again I'm lucky enough to not only
work with great people but also people who think my stupid ideas are going
to be great. As
far as I know, Revenge of Awesome is still in its fundraising
stages as we speak - so what can you tell us about your fundraising
efforts? Honestly, I don't know. Last year we raised a
fifth of what we needed but still managed to get the films done. Some
independent investors came in once they saw what we were doing but
usually, I set a date whether we have the budgets or not and somehow,
they come together. indiegogo.com/revengeofawesome
I'd like you to now talk about the individual
films for a bit: Satanicus? Well this film
is obviously completely influenced by Argento. Without a doubt. I
absolutely love a lot of his imagery in his work especially in the 70s-80s
era. I love the dark, sparse, nightmarish set pieces. And all the broken
glass. But sometimes the stories didn't resonate with me. I didn't
identify with the characters. So like this film Satanicus is like a film
for me by him. If that makes sense. It is a "damsel in distress"-film but I really want this image heavy and less dialogue. I have been
huge on dialogue and some of my actors get so pissed at me when they see
an eight page dialogue scene. With every film I do, I try to push myself
into places I haven't been and doing a feature like this kinda takes me
back to a web series I did in 07 called Decomposing Jack where it's just
super nightmarish and weird but with this film I am almost fully relying
on visuals to tell the story. I almost don't want the characters to even
know where it's going or what is happening. They will watch it once it's
cut and be like "that's what I was looking at?" or "that's
what I was reacting to?" - it will be a lot of fun. Why a
giallo-style thriller, what do you find fascinating about the genre, and
some of your genre favourites? Honestly, Opera, Inferno,
Tenebre, I don't know if you would count this one but
Strip Nude for Your
Killer is great. But really my love for the genre is mainly in part to
Goblin. I listen to Goblin a lot when I'm location scouting or getting
ready in the morning to get to set. This film I've wanted to do for a
couple years now and just thought it was time. I was actually taking a
shower at 6am listening to the Tenebre score before going to the White
Zombie set and said to myself, "it's time!" That's how stuff
usually works around here. Haha. A Woman Troubled? This
is about a woman who starts off fucked. We see in the first minute that
she has killed her abusive husband. And in fear she hides the body. She
knows a rough shady guy that lives next door and gets him to help her
take care of her problem. He gets physical with her too and she has to do
something else unthinkable. Then after a few days two detectives come
asking questions playing good cop bad cop. Good cop falls for her and bad
cop knows she's guilty and tries to extort her. So it's just like one
fucked thing after another. And we are left with this triangle and how to
proceed from there. How
will you approach the noir-aspects of your story, and why did you choose
shooting it in black and white? Well, I love that 1940s
glamour look that the actresses had. I love films like Laura and
The Woman
in the Window and such, but then in the 60s you had those roughies come out
that were like noir films but super violent and exploitive and cheap like The
Defilers, Scum of the Earth and Bad Girls Go to Hell. So I want to try
to merge those two in a classy way. I want to shoot in black and white
because I really want to have those hard edges on the lights. I want there
to be distinction in the black/white, good/evil thing and also there will
be a lot of cigarettes. I want to smoke to hide people faces and
intentions and dance in the light. Murderous Assholes? Now
this film is one that a ton of companies have passed on because they think
it's just too much. I've been trying to get this made since 2009. It's a
great script and I'm tired of waiting for someone with the balls to say
"Yes, let's do it!" It almost happened so many times. It's
time. Gay
gangster action comedy - you just have to elaborate on this! It's
about a private dick who is about to kill himself when a not so attractive
tranny/drag queen walks in and asks him to kill her ex lover who happens
to be the head of the West Hollywood gay mafia. All the characters in this
are gay but we aren't like "oh we are all gay!", it's just that
they all happen to be. It's like Pink Flamingos meets Pulp Fiction by way
of Ruthless People. It's super fun. Romance
Macabre? It's a story of a totally awkward dark guy
that has no social skills falling for a girl that's a tad bit above his
equal who finds his awkwardness charming. But due to his inability to
communicate properly and lies stacked upon lies to impress loses her and
tries to win her back. Flat out: Why a romance film, and how will
you approach the genre? Because there are tons of people
who fall into these descriptions and there aren't really any films like
this for them. And these fuckers fall in love too. It's almost like Natural
Born Killers but the couple are total sweet social misfits who
aren't murderers per say but completely have no filter telling them right
from wrong. Just socially inept. The Visible Man? It's
about a guy who while working on an experiment for the government on
invisibility, has an accident, that makes the whole world invisible but
him. With
films about invisibility being traditionally a tad heavy on the effects
side, how do you plan to tackle that challenge? There
aren't any effects. Everyone is invisible. They aren't there. Lol. Speaking
about all five films: Anything you can tell us about your projected
cast(s) yet? I can tell you that if you follow my films you
will see some familiar faces for sure. With out a doubt. But you will also
see some that will surprise the shit out of you. But that stuff will be
revealed in the coming weeks. Charlie Vaughn [Charlie
Vaughn interview - click here] is the lead in Murderous
Assholes. He always has been. He has been the one championing this
film from the start. With stories as diverse as the above -
where do you get your inspiration from?
I love genres. I love the different types of films out there and that by
not really knowing it there are formulas for them. It's neat to know
that if you add this story element here and this kind of character here
with this kind of shot there you end up with this _________ genre film.
That intrigues me greatly. Pushing those ingredients and bending those
aspects ever so much is really fun. You end up with something so
different but yet so familiar. So it's like exciting to see something
you didn't see coming in a film that your brain finds soothing due to
the repeated nature of the formula. I also get inspired by finding two
genres that shouldn't go together and making them fit in this weird
collage of a film.
Once your funds
are raised, how do you plan to proceed - and any idea yet when any of the
films will be released onto the general public (and yes, I know it's
waaaay to early to ask)? I'm guessing these will be wrapped
by August. Hopefully these will start being available by years end. If
you ever wanted to talk to me about the future of distribution and where
the biz is going, that might be different questions for another time. With
my output, I have seen every trick and shady dealings with distributors
and networks. I can talk your ear off about all that for hours. Haha. Any future projects beyond Revenge
of Awesome you'd like to talk about?
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Yes. We are wrapping our White Zombie remake that I'm doing with Elina
Madison very soon. It's really weird for me because I'm playing the Bela
Lugosi role [Bela Lugosi bio
- click here]. Big shoes to fill. After that we are doing another classic
remake, then I'm going to Minnesota in March to shoot a werewolf film with
a producing partner named Joseph Crandall who I've worked with a lot in
the past. In fact we are running a contest right now through my new
podcast called Creepersincast where we are looking for someone to name
the film. If you win, we use your title, give you a writing credit and a
bunch of other little goodies. I'm also starting a video talkshow that
will start airing on my YouTube-channel www.youtube.com/Creepersin
called Creep's Show. It's going to be really fun. So for any of this info
just check Creepersin.com
often.
Last year, you
launched (and finished) a project similar to Revenge of Awesome,
which we talked about at some length [click
here] - anything you'd like to add to last year's conversation? Yeah.
The films came out great. Lots of good stuff. Worked with amazing people.
Had a blast. Hopefully those will start becoming available in some form
here in the coming months. Your/your
project's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else? Check
out indiegogo.com/revengeofawesome
to find out how you can get your name in the credits. You don't have to
contribute any money either. Following me on twitter is good too
@creepersin Thanks
for the interview! Thank you!
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