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Your upcoming movie The Wrong Floor - in a few words, what is
it about?
It’s a story of toxic hobos, gangsters, guns, monsters, corruption
and retribution. Ultimately one man must find his missing father and save
the world in the process. You cite 1980s B-movies and grindhouse flicks
as one of the main inspirations for The Wrong Floor
- care to
elaborate? B-movies and grindhouse movies in particular set
out to exploit specific genres to deliver as much ‘bang for your buck’
as possible on tight deadlines and minimal budgets. Sometimes the results
were ridiculous, unintentionally hilarious or brilliant - but always
entertaining. Grindhouse producers didn’t care much for dramas, love stories or
mysteries and neither did their audience. It was all about horror, action,
sex and sci-fi - or at least that’s what they would
market the films as. The Wrong Floor
is a mixture of all of the classic
grindhouse genres, with huge concepts shot with similar constraints.
Other sources of inspiration when writing The Wrong Floor? There is a growing underground music scene
known as synthwave/darkwave/outrun. I have been a big fan of this
music for the past 5 years or so. The music is inspired by movie
soundtracks of the 80s. Artists such as LA Dreams/Sollerekt, Absolute
Valentine (who features on the trailer), Mitch Murder (who did the
soundtrack for Kung Fury) to name but a few. This was definitely the main
reason that I wanted to make it with an 80s feel.
Heather Percival |
The Wrong Floor's plot outline
does suggest quite a bit of violence - so how did you go about this aspect
of your movie? The violence is OTT in places. Tazers, guns,
decapitations, people crushed, guts ripped out etc… It was mainly done
with practical effects and it does add some horror elements to the mix. What can you tell us about your
directorial approach to your story at hand? Although we had
Roger Ellis on second camera who did a brilliant job, most of the camera
work was done by myself. With such a small crew, it was mostly a case of
shooting as close to the way it played out in my mind in the quickest way
possible. Sometimes I had to compromise on the shots as we didn’t have
the time or money to be setting up cranes or using drones etc, but
ultimately, that’s what grindhouse is all about - doing the best you can
with what you have to work with.
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Carl Hamill |
Do talk
about your key cast, and why exactly these people? The lead
character is my brother and co-writer/co-producer Carl Hamill. I wanted
Carl as the lead as he has experience as a stage actor and he knew the
story inside out. Plus he was always available! The next person we cast
was Heather Percival. Heather really stood out as the ideal candidate to
play the lead female character - Clarissa. Heather is very experienced in
stage acting & directing. What
can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Filming
took 2 years with shoots happening most weekends as well as evenings, as
most of the actors had day jobs. The atmosphere was always great. The
whole cast (over 200 in total) got on like a big family and everyone was
100% committed to the project. There were plenty of tough times when
things over-ran etc but the cast were always very understanding and
supportive. With so many different locations, and some shoots featuring up
to 40 actors, the supportive atmosphere really helped us to get through
relatively unscathed. Aisleen Hodges from Gatling Gun Productions helped
us out on such occasions to act as production assistant which really
helped the efficiency and organisation of the big shoots.
You're
presently running a fundraiser for The Wrong Floor
- so do talk
about your campaign, and since the movie's already in the can, what will
the money be used for? Although we are now in post
production, we still need to get the film finished and out to the
audience. The money will go towards special effects - gunshots,
explosions, greenscreen etc... as well as colour grading, sound design and
music. These elements are an essential part of the overall film production
without which the film will never be complete. We also need funds to
produce press releases, promotional materials and festival submissions. We
have however saved one final scene to be shot. This will feature some of
the donators to the IndieGoGo campaign :-D There are other perks available
such as pre-release limited edition DVDs, Blu-rays and retro VHS tapes!
http://igg.me/at/thewrongfloor/x/8859939
Any idea when and where the film
will be released onto the general public yet? All being
well and subject to funding, we are hoping to have some local cinema
showing showings over the Christmas period. Dates and venues to be
confirmed
Any future
projects beyond The Wrong Floor
you'd like to share? We
have several ideas for future productions including a creature feature, a
post-apocalyptic adventure, a nazisploitation movie and a zombie flick, we
may even shoot the trailers and let the audience decide :-D What
got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal
education on the subject? I have made short films for fun
for many years. I ran a professional recording studio called Roasted
Studios for 12 years. During that time there was a shift away from audio
and more towards video production. That gave me the perfect excuse to get
into movie production :-D I studied Music Technology at university, and
taught briefly at Leicester College, but I also did a film making
course called Max Q, which was a great introduction to the subject. What can you tell us about
your filmwork prior to The Wrong Floor?
The only
films I produced for myself were as a teenager with a Sony handycam.
Titles such as Cheap & Nasty Superheroes and Home Alone
5 - luckily both have disappeared. I have produced quite a few music videos, but to be quite honest, I didn’t have much creative input into
those. How would
you describe yourself as a director? Enzo G. Castellari [Enzo
G. Castellari bio - click here] with
less zooms (not for lack of trying). Filmmakers who
inspire you? Enzo G. Castellari, Spielberg, Richard Donner,
Terry Gilliam, Shane Meadows. Your favourite movies?
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Oooh…
I couldn’t possibly list them. But here are my favourites from 1986 -
Iron Eagle, No Retreat No Surrender, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of
Gold, Stand By Me, The Boy Who Could Fly, The Color of
Money, Fist of
Steel & Land Of Doom. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? Marvel movies. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo, whatever else?
http://www.facebook.com/thewrongfloor
http://www.facebook.com/roastedfilms
http://igg.me/at/thewrongfloor/x/8859939
Thanks
for the interview!
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