Your new movie Apparition
of Evil (at least your segment) was entirely shot found
footage-style, and I believe it was also mostly ad-libbed - so in what
way, if at all, did that influence your performance? Well
it made it slightly difficult, there is only so much that you can do in a
found-footage scene. I mean, how many people just set up a camera in the
corner of the room to film their day-to-day events? It was challenging to
find a reason for my character to keep filming incidents, but I think we
did it in a clever way. Luckily the idea of a video diary, documenting his
house move, gave the character a handy excuse to keep filming things as he
went along.
How
did you get involved with the project in the first place, and how did you
end up as the movie's producer? I
started filming my segment before the overall feature was even planned,
just as a personal “pet project” really, between my acting jobs. Then
I had the opportunity from a contact I have with a distribution label to
submit any unreleased features that I owned, so I decided to finish
filming “The Move” (which is what it was called way back then). It
became tricky to pad the story out to feature length, without seeming too
boring for the viewer, so I decided to keep “The Move” as a short film
and film a wraparound to bookend it as a feature film. It then became
“The Curse of Carrie” and eventually “Evil Apparition”, and then,
“Apparition of Evil” upon release. I’m glad we didn’t decide to
call it “The Curse of Carrie”, as it’s a bit of a misleading title,
the character of Carrie is barely seen on screen in the final edit, and I
don’t think her name is even mentioned in the story. So anyway, that’s
how I ended up as the producer, it started out as just my own short film
that grew. As far as I know, you
had a big hand in the casting of Apparition
of Evil - care to elaborate?
Kate Marie Davies |
Keiron
Hollett |
A lot of the cast I
knew from being friends with them from previous films we’d worked on
together, Dayna Shuffle [Dayna
Shuffle interview - click here] and Paul Sutton [Paul
Sutton interview - click here] were actually working with me on a
music video for a band called Great Northern Hotel at the time we filmed
their scenes. I’d spoken to them briefly about my project and we agreed
to film some improvised scenes while we were together, I gave them a brief
backstory to our characters and to the haunted house, but I didn’t want
to give them too many details in order to keep our first meeting more
natural. And it actually worked out brilliantly because both Paul and
Dayna came up with story elements that actually were integrated into the
mythos later in the film. Keiron Hollett, who plays Alton in the
wraparound, is my partner in crime and we have been working on a couple of
feature film projects recently, he has been helping out a lot behind the
scenes. I met Kate Marie Davies while filming Blaze
of Gory in South Wales
and I’d been wanting to work with her for a while, having seen some of
her work on the preview clips for Kaleidoscope Man. I had also been
wanting to work with my friend, and horror genre icon, Suzi Lorraine [Suzi
Lorraine interview - click here] too,
but as she lives in America we had to figure out a way to incorporate her
into a scene shot in England. A voiceover cameo was the natural solution,
she did a great job and I hope her fans enjoy her cameo in the scene.
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What can you tell
us about your director Brel Offkel [Brel
Offkell interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like?
A
lot of my scenes were shot alone, it was just simpler really. Especially
when my character was running about the house or on location, there was
always the worry of catching a crew member in shot. So we all agreed that
I’d work on the Hendry scenes alone (except for any SFX shots, where I
couldn’t do it on my own). A few words about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere?
On Apparition
of Evil there were lots of different shoots, in different
locations with different cast and crew. So each scene had a very different
experience for me, as an actor I enjoyed every minute of my scenes, but as
producer I think I preferred working on post-production the most. I was
sorry when it was over, which is why I decided to start another film. I
would have loved to have been present on the Australian and American
units, Dion Cavallaro, Cain Harrip, Chad Hylton, Kelly Hylton and BJ
Hylton led those units, and their segments were shot before I came along.
I love how those two short stories turned out, they are brilliant and so
different to each other, they really help break the overall film up, so it
keeps changing and stays interesting throughout.
You recently also starred in the
upcoming anthology Blaze
of Gory - so you have to talk about that
one for a bit, and how did you get hooked up with that project? I
got the role through knowing producer David VG Davies [David
VG Davies interview - click here]. Blaze
of Gory is
going to be a really crazy and gory horror, I’ve seen clips and trailers
from some of the other segments and they look brilliant. I star in the
Beer Cellar segment near the start alongside Kate Marie Davies, Sabrina
Dickens and Juliette Strange (among others). The Beer Cellar story is
about a couple who run a pub (mine and Juliette’s characters) and
they have run into some financial difficulties, but have found a rather
insane way of making money fast. Other
future projects you'd like to share? Well
I’m currently working on a few, but you know how it is, we can’t
always talk about them until near the release. I’ve just finished
working on a scifi called Portal, which is about virtual reality addiction
in a time where programmes are dealt in the shady underworld, almost like
drugs. I’ve also been working on a couple of horrors, a demonic
possession movie called Blood Curse, starring my good friend Melissa
Hollett [Melissa Hollett
interview - click here], and I’ve also been working with Brel again on a zombie film. Your/your movie's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.nathanhead.tv,
or find me on Twitter - @NathanHead
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Anything else you are
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Aye,
people should check out my other recent release; Theatre Of Fear! Out on
DVD in the UK at the moment. It’s about a crazy family of carnival
performers who enjoy killing people, but the wealthy father of one of
their victims hires a hitman to track them down. I star as Trinculo, a
disfigured clown who is falling in love with a girl he only just met, and
will do anything to be with her. I've also got another film coming out
(probably out by the time this interview goes live) called Legacy Of
Thorn, I appear as John Lawrence alongside Melissa Hollett, we play the
parents of the protagonist Jess (played by Jade Wallis) in the flashback
scenes, people should also check that out, it's a gory slasher film and a
lovely nod to the slasher classics of the 1980s.
Thanks
for the interview! A pleasure as always, Michael!
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