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Your movie Clean Break
- in a few words, what is it about?
A thriller about
three roommates who are living the bachelor lifestyle, until one of them
gets a girlfriend who will stop at nothing to get rid of any excess
baggage. Clean
Break was your first feature film as a director - so how did it
come about even?
Well, Corey Brown, the writer, and I have been working toward shooting
our first feature film since we graduated from film school. We
had tried our hand at larger budget scripts, but found that we needed to
start with a low budget, one location film. Corey pitched this
idea to me and I subsequently pitched it to producer Geordie Sabbagh.
He immediately optioned the idea and off we went, on the journey
that was our first feature film!
What was your collaboration with your
script writer Corey Brown on that one like, and how did you first hook up
even?
We met in the film program at York University back in 2000. We
have been friends and collaborated ever since. Corey and I have
worked together in some capacity, mostly him as writer and me as
director / producer on every film from shorts to features. With so
much history and hard work between us, we have found a really great
working relationship. I am involved in the ideas from the start
and we work together to piece together the story and characters. I
read every draft and provide feedback and Corey knows how to interpret
my comments and make the script better with each pass.
Seriously, to what extent could you identify with
your main character, the "slightly" psychotic Tracy, and any of
the other characters you could identify with more?
Well, Tracy doesn't like guys who use women and then dump them the next
day. She is on the quest for true love that will last forever.
In that way, I suppose I agree with her philosophies. But
she takes it one step further. If anything gets in her way
of moulding someone into her one true love, she will not hesitate to
kick it out of the way. And then she finds herself in a battle
against Cam, the ultimate player and womanizer. She doesn't just
want him out of the way, she wants to teach him a lesson.
Do
talk about the film's look and feel for a bit?
We wanted to play on the Stepford Wives look. She wants to
be the perfect girlfriend and wife and has dreams of a nice happy
home with kiddies running around and a devoted husband. She's
a little more old fashioned than the other characters, who are 3
guys in their mid-twenties and finding themselves at clubs and
with different women every night. When Tracy moves into
their house, you can see the physical change from a bachelor pad
to a home with a woman's touch.
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Usually thrillers have a dark look, but we stayed with the
bright, warm colours because I wanted to contrast the picturesque
scenery of what looks like a perfect relationship with the
sinister nature that is hidden just below the surface. This
is not just another horror flick. This is something that
could happen to anyone. I'm sure a lot of people can relate
to having a roommate bring a significant other home. And all
of a sudden, they are always around, but wait, aren't there only
two of you paying rent? We've all watched our friends
entwine their life with their partner, and you can see that it's
unhealthy, but they won't listen. This situation is taking
all of that just one step further.
What can
you tell us about your cast, and why exactly these people?
When we auditioned actors, I actually was looking for a Brunette
to play Tracy. Tianna Nori [Tianna
Nori interview - click here] was one of two blondes that
auditioned. And she just blew us away. She was intense
and believable and when she walked out of the room, I knew she was
Tracy. It goes to show that you should always keep an open
mind when casting! Her performance carried over into
production and as you can see on screen, her voracity and
dedication to the character never wavers.
We almost couldn't find a Cam. With two weeks to
production, we were still auditioning. Samy Osman came into
the room and auditioned with the emotional scene at the end of the
film. He was so sincere, it moved me and I was so happy we
found our Cam. He could play both sides of the spectrum from
the womanizing, arrogant player to the guy who hides his heart
because of a deep secret.
Clean
Break is pretty much restricted to one location - so what can you
tell us about your location, and the advantages and challenges of filming
there?
We shot for 10 and 1/2 days in MY PARENTS' HOUSE!! Bless them for
opening their home to 30 people running up and down, painting their
walls, moving their furniture and turning their basement into a kill
zone. We could only shoot this $15,000 film in 12 days because it
was all in one location. Even then, I had to cut a lot of planned
shots. We shot each room out one at a time and it was great
because we really got to know the location and didn't have much travel
time between sets. However, it was also very small for
accommodating that many people who are all working as fast as they can.
But hey, for your first feature, you gotta do what you gotta do to
get the film done!
As far as I know, your film has only just been
released to the general public - so what can you tell us about the release
as such, and audience and critical reception of your movie so far?
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We won Best Drama Feature at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival and played
to a sold out house at Blood In The Snow in Toronto. My first two
feature films Clean
Break and Silent Retreat were playing the festival
circuit at the same time, so many reviewers saw both films. While Silent Retreat
was a bit of a polarizing movie, it seemed that all the
critics liked Clean
Break, even the ones that were not so hot on Silent Retreat!
Any
future projects you'd like to share?
One Drop is my next film.
An elevated
genre/dramatic horror about a single mother who overdoses and wakes
up in a medical facility to find that everyone is dead and she's
nine months pregnant. As she struggles to escape she
discovers the facility's secret, they've tampered with the
boundaries of death and brought people back to life, but those
who've returned, have not returned alone.
www.facebook.com/onedropmovie
Your/your movie's
website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.filmmonkey.ca
www.facebook.com/cleanbreakfilm
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/73501740
iTunes: http://bit.ly/1mREjdP
Anything else you are
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Sean Kaufmann, Leora Morris and Serge Plourde were the supporting actors
in the film and really filled out the cast to make this film come to
life. Brad Smith (Canada's Bachelor) and Rachelle Corbeil
(Playboy model) make a cameo in the film too!
Thanks
for the interview!
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