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Your movie The Hounds -
in a few words, what is it about?
The Hounds
is about two parallel stories that join together at the end of the movie.
Some people did not like this structure but some other did, anyway it
seems that the ending of The Hounds
made everyone happy - we wanted to create
something different to the usual horror movies and The Hounds
is definetely different. It has a slow beginning but an adrenaline rush in
the second part of
the movie.
What were your inspirations when writing The
Hounds?
Well,
what inspired us were some articles we read in the newspaper. The Hounds
is
based on a true story, actually to several events happened in Europe and
outside the EU. At times, The
Hounds plays like your typical slasher movie. A genre at all dear
to you, and some of your genre favourites?
We
mixed the genres we love the most, but as we love movies which bear a good
plot we created some gory effects that suited our story. Maurizio and I love ghost stories, zombie, slasher movies, gory movies and of course the
tension that Japanese directors can build in their movies.
How would you
describe your directorial approach to your story at hand - and how would
you describe working with each other to begin with?
The first part of The Hounds
is shot using basic shoot angles and ordinary
camera work. Slowly the camera movement speeds up and so does the number of
shoot angles. The editing style is kept at the same pace all along the
footage - this is to avoid confusion as too much information might have
caused the opposite effect. So far everybody liked the increase of speed in
the second half. Maurizio and I always work together closely to get as many ideas
and inspiration from one another as possible. In addition we work for fun, we love every
aspect of filmaking. The
Hounds features quite a few quite graphic gore effects - what can
you tell us about the creation of those, and the importance of gore to
your movie and the genre as such?
We
created all the FX ourselves. As I said, we love every aspect of the cinema
industry. We wanted to avoid a massive use of digital FX as we think that
digit FX are quite cold, so we used them only to correct some mistakes
(like posts or microphone appearing during some takes). What can you tell us
about your key cast, and what made these people perfect for their roles?
The
cast suits The Hounds perfectly
as we are facing an extraordinary
situation with ordinary people. Unfortunately this is based on a true
story where some guys that are just wanting to have a fun weekend end up
finding out that their lives are changed forever. The actors managed to
be natural all the time and this is not easy as they are all professional
actors. You
just have to talk about your location for a bit, and what are the issues
and advantages of an extended outdoors shoot?
Over in the UK the
weather is your worst enemy! I don't mean the rain (but it helps if it stays
away!) but the clouds as they move so fast that the light keeps changing.
The DoP was not happy at all. The advantage is that england offers
natural locations for a cheap price, ie pubs, woods, landscape, the actors
speak English and the beer is excellent ;)
What can
you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Well,
the atmosphere was great. We made a good bunch of friends and we are
still in touch with each other. With a small group it is easier to
understand each other's needs. There was never a case of arguing or any
problem ... apart from techinical issues! As
far as I know, The Hounds
is only about to be released. So what can you tell us about critical
reception so far? If you talk about reviews, we had about
40 - only one or 2 are bad, and of course
they come from Italy! This not bother us because everyone has his own taste
and his own point of view. We had a couple of reviews over in the US and they
where very positive. Someone said that The Hounds
is one of the best
independent film seen this year, someone else compared us with master Sam
Raimi and this made us happy! (I hope did not offend Sam though! Sorry Sam, you are the best!)
Let's go back to the beginnings of
your careers: What got you into filmmaking in the first place? Well,
filmaking was in my veins since my dad showed me his family video shot on video8.
As a child I used to make monsters out of clay and I moved
them using stop motion techniques. Then maurizio and I started making
shorts and eventually came The Hounds
which I funded myself. We started
writing the plot just for fun without any idea to where we would go. One day
I said, go on, let's make it! We started reading books and info about how to
produce a film and here we are! What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to The
Hounds?
We shot
several shorts, then videoclips for music bands (we still do that), and I co-produced a film with ben gazzara, the very last he
starred in, it is
called Ristabbanna (it's not horror though). Any future projects you'd like to share?
Yes, we
have 4 more plots ready to be shot (horror of course). We are looking for
a distribution and production company interested in co-operating with us. How
would you describe yourselves as directors?
I think
about ourselves as big children who want to tell their stories on screen.
Once on set we like to listen to everyone's point of view and
discuss possible changes that might improve the plot of the movie. We work as a team, in fact every plot is read by me,
Maurizio and the DoP Tommaso (Brunori Borgstrom). In terms of experience,
Tommaso is a well known
cameraman and filmmaker, he started his career with Corman [Roger
Corman bio - click here], and once he
read The Hounds' plot he decided to work with
us. Since then we work closely
together. Filmmakers
who inspire you? Easy to say! Sam Raimi first of all. When
I watched Evil Dead I wanted
to become a filmmaker. Then again I love Shyamalan and Clint Eastwood, not
to mention Stanley Kubrick and Mario Bava [Mario
Bava bio - click here]. Maurizio is a fan of Alexandre Aja and so am
I. We both love the Asian style, those directors are the
masters of tension at the moment. Your favourite movies?
Well,
easy to say for me: Evil Dead,
Clockwork Orange and The Unforgiven - as you might not have expected there is only one
horror movie. The fact is that I love the whole bunch of 80's movies from
Craven, Carpenter, Romero, Yuzna and so on. At the moment I watch a lot of
independent movies and I must add that some directors are just
amazing!
Maurizio likes Alexandre Aja
for sure, and he watches every horror movie released! ...
and of course, films you really deplore?
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I don't
have a film that I deplore because I don't consider myself better that
anyone else so I don't judge. What I mean is that I respect whoever is
brave enough to take a camera and shoot a film, even if it is a nonsense
movie. What I really deplore is the work of some producers/distributors
that release bad films only to produce some income. Those movies have a
basic plot and ordinary production values that are good enough only to be
thrown in the bin. This pisses me off because the mass would say "well,
nobody has ideas in the film industry anymore!" But this is wrong,
what we really miss is a good production that would helps us to develop
our plots and ideas.
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.thehounds-themovie.com
www.moviedel.com
www.vimstream.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/the-hounds/106385256087054?ref=hl Anything else
you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Yes,
your review was the funniest we had so far! Many thanks! I want to thank
our distributor over in the USA, Midnight Releasing, because they have been
professional and helpful all the time. As Italians we are used to a
different approach when it comes to business issues, so we are very
impressed by the American mentality.
Thanks
for the interview!
Thank you for
your time and stay hounds!
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