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Your new movie Ghost
Note - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s about a mixed up teen girl who digs up some dark family secrets
and gets in over her head as a demon seeks revenge for the sins of her
grandfather. Basic
question, why a blues musician? And is (delta) blues a musical style at
all dear to you? I am a guitar player and I’ve been a
huge fan of the blues/rock players like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and
Stevie Ray Vaughan. I’m not really “into” the delta blues style,
but I do love Robert Johnson and Skip James. But I really loved the idea
of a blues musician being the bad guy and being possessed since they have
been associated with selling the souls for so long. Ghost
Note's Mallory is pretty much the typical misunderstood teen - so
to what extent could you identify with her, and is any of the movie based
on your own experiences?
Personally I don’t identify with her at all. But I am a
father and have witnessed some mixed up teen girls. I kind of feel like
all girls go through a time of trying to discover who they really are, so
they try different things to see what sticks. Like Mallory and witchcraft.
She’s not just completely devoted witch. She’s just trying it out.
(Other) sources of inspiration when writing Ghost
Note?
As an indie filmmaker, you are always trying to figure out how to make
a movie cheap. So when I first decided to make this project I just wanted
to have a cool house for most of the film to be shot. Originally the
script was just a haunted house story. So researching old mansions and
attics was a huge inspiration when writing the movie. Also, while I was
writing I had the complete collection of Robert Johnson playing on a
continuous loop. But the main song that really inspired the character of
Eugene Burns is Hard Time Killing Floor Blues by Skip James. It has
a haunting melody that I felt just embodied Eugene.
Ghost
Note has its fair share of rather gruesome scenes - so for the
sake of the gorehounds among our readers, could you at all talk about the
bloody bits of your movie for a bit, and how were they achieved?
Unfortunately there was supposed to be much more gore in the film and
due to money restraints we ended up having to skip some of them. There is
no CG at all. Everything was a practical effect. We really had a great
makeup team lead by Josh Fread. We would ask him how long it would take to
do a gag and he would say 3 hours and we would tell him you have 20
minutes and he busted his ass and got it done.
What
can you tell us about your movie's approach to horror? And is that a genre
at all dear to you? I am a huge horror fan ever since I was
traumatized at 15 years old when I saw Suspiria
in the theater. Before
that I thought of horror as Frankenstein and the
Wolf Man. Don’t get me
wrong though, I love those old Universal horror films too, but
Suspiria
showed me that you could actually scare the shit out of somebody. But I
think there is a problem with horror today. It’s really hard to find a
real scary movie. There are some out there but it seems like you really
have to dig deep to find one. Most horror today seems to utilize the jump
scare too much. Which is good for a moment but doesn’t make it scary. So
my approach on this was I really wanted to flesh out the story and
characters so people can put themselves in the situation.
Do talk about Ghost
Note's overall look and feel for a bit? The entire
film takes place over 3 days during Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving is
generally a very happy holiday where family gets together and has a good
time, I really wanted to make it look dreary. It wasn’t nice and happy
for this family. All of the colors were dark and subdued and the weather
was cloudy and stormy. I wanted to use the look of the film as a metaphor
for a dysfunctional family. What can
you tell us about Ghost Note's
cast, and why exactly these people? The film was shot in
Dallas, TX and there is a very close group of amazing actors. So some of
the cast are friends, but I like casting actors that just naturally seem
to be that character, so I really look for actors that I see as the
character when they are not acting. If that makes sense. We didn’t have
a lot of time for casting so I think we got a little lucky. The Grandma
role was easy because I knew Allyn Carrell and she was my first choice.
Mallory and Rodney were more difficult to cast because I really needed
them to be attractive but still a little awkward and I think Alicia
Underwood and Justin Duncan nailed exactly what I was looking for and I
think they will go on to do great things.
A few words about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? We had a very
small crew so everyone got along very well. We shot a totally of 22 days
and 12 of those days were at the house and even though the house was 6000
sq ft it seems very small with a movie crew there. We had to take over the
kitchen for makeup and the garage was filled with gear. There wasn’t a
lot of room for people to spread out. We didn’t have any trailers so
everyone became close. I think we all made a lot of new friends during the
filming. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Ghost
Note so far? Since the film hasn’t been released
yet, there have only been a couple of festival screenings and a few
advance screeners for the blogosphere, but so far, the response has been
very positive from both audience and critics. We’ll have to wait and see
when the film is released on August 1st. Any future projects you'd like to
share? Nothing definite at this point. I’ve got three
possibilities, one psychological thriller, one post-apocalyptic action and
one horror. I’m just now starting to get prepared for the fundraising
part of filmmaking. I probably won’t make my decision for the next
project for several months. What got you into filmmaking in the first place,
and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
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When
I was a kid I had friends that had 8mm cameras and we would run around and
shoot things, but I never saw them develop any film or edit. I didn’t
know anything about it but it was fun. When I was around 17 or 18 I saw
Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange on VHS and that’s when I decided I
wanted to be a filmmaker, but I still had no idea how to go about it. So
instead of going to film school, I joined the Air Force and was stationed
in Germany. While I was there me and 3 other guys got a detail of cleaning
out an old warehouse. In that warehouse we found several cases that were
filled with ¾” video equipment including a camera and editing
equipment. Playing around and shooting and editing short films, more like
skits, on that ¾” video equipment is where I really started to learn
the craft of shooting. But the hard part was learning how to write. I
spent the next 10 years studying the craft and writing screenplays before
I really started to try to make a film. Then it takes several more years
of trying to get people to buy a script or have enough faith in you to
give you money to make one yourself. Do
talk about your filmwork prior to Ghost
Note? Ghost
Note
is my first feature. I wrote, shot
and edited many short films leading up to this. Basically, around 12 years
ago I had a feature script I was running all over town trying to sell.
Then I found a producer who was willing to make it but needed to raise the
money. We spent the next year trying to raise money and couldn’t do it,
so I wrote and directed a short called Unglued that did very well on
the festival circuit. From there I tried to do another feature and
repeated that same process of “try a feature, can’t raise money, make
a short” for the next 10 years. But I am very proud of my short work and
have been lucky enough to always get better and better cameras. Started out
using SD Video, then moved to HD Video, to 1080p to 4k to 35mm film. Ghost
Note
was shot at 4.5k on a Red One. How would you describe yourself as a
director?
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I would say I’m pretty easy going as a director
for the most part. I have been known to get angry on set but usually
it’s because I am very focused on my job and don’t like when people
are screwing around. The hardest part of being an indie film director is
knowing where to compromise when something doesn’t go right. We don’t
have the luxury of, as Robert Rodriguez says, opening the money hose to
wash problems away. So, that’s me as a director just moving from one
compromise to the next. Filmmakers who inspire you? There
are so many it’s hard to say. Of course the main ones are Kubrick,
Hitchcock, Dario Argento, David Lynch and David Fincher. But I also love
some of the big blockbuster guys like James Cameron. Steven Spielberg has
been a huge influence on me. Currently I’m thrilled with the indie
filmmakers that have gone on to make blockbusters like James Gunn, James
Wan, Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards, Fede Alvarez and other Dallasite
David Lowery. Your
favourite movies? Clockwork Orange, Suspiria,
The Shining,
Mulholland Drive, Halloween,
Alien, Fight Club and the
Wizard of Oz. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
The only one I can think of off the top of my head
is I Heart Huckabees. I know a lot of people loved that movie but I
just didn’t get it. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
http://www.ghostnotemovie.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ghostnotemovie/
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Can’t think of anything. J Thanks for the interview! Thank
you!
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