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Your new movie Cold Feet
- in a few words, what is it about?
It’s
about the importance of being honest with yourself and your loved ones and
how it can all fall apart when you don’t open up and just say how you
feel. It’s also about what one should or shouldn’t do when trapped in
a haunted house because you’re pinned down by snipers while also having
a mysteriously murdered stripper inside. So, yeah, it covers a lot of
ground!
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Cold
Feet - and even if it might sound silly, was any of it based on
personal experience? As
far as any cinematic sources of inspiration go, I don’t recall any
particular movies that I thought of when writing it, but I guarantee a lot
of influences were at play subliminally. Oh, actually, one movie that I
thought about early on was John Carpenter’s The Thing, mostly in
regards to the scene where they wonder who killed the stripper and another
scene that I don’t want to say too much about for fear of spoiling
anything. I kind of wanted to do comedic versions of the scenes where
characters are paranoid in The Thing
and questioning who’s been
taken over. As for other influences, I always listen to a lot of music
when I’m writing, and there were a bunch of songs from Mason Jennings,
Josh Ritter, and Deer Tick on my playlist for this one. As for being
inspired by personal experiences, whatever I’m going through and
thinking about at the time always has a major impact on what I’m
writing. I wrote this one just before I started dating my wife, so back
when I was single and dating around. At the time I was asking myself a lot
of questions about my willingness to fully commit in a romantic
relationship and whether or not I actually wanted to get married one day.
The story for Cold
Feet sprung from my anxiety and confusion about all of
that. Do talk about both your movie's
approach to horror and brand of comedy for a bit! My
good friend and frequent collaborator Brad Ellis and I had wanted to make
a comedy/horror film for a long time, and the desire to do so was one of
the reasons that I came up with this story. Brad is a little bit more of a
horror guy, and I’m more of a comedy guy, but we each have a lot of love
for both genres. Each genre allows for stories that can be a lot of fun
while also letting you kind of sneakily explore deeper themes and
relatable emotions, and the comedy/horror subgenre creates even more
possibilities.
What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand? Piggybacking
off of my answer to that last question a bit, I love it when a movie can
skillfully balance different tones, and I have a lot of fun striving for
that with my own work. As for my overall directorial approach, Brad and I
tried our best to be as resourceful as possible with a very tight shooting
schedule (16 days total) and to manage our time wisely by prioritizing the
shots we wanted and making sure in advance that we were on the same page
about every moment of the story. As for how we tried to manage the various
tones and keep it all feeling cohesive, we approached every moment of the
story from the same place of truth and directed the actors to keep things
grounded, as if they were in a completely realistic drama. I had each of
the guys write a bio for their character, and we had meetings where we
discussed each character’s relationship to everyone else in the film.
That shared understanding of the various dynamics at play in this group
gave Brad and I a really solid foundation to build upon with everything we
did as directors. Of course, teaming up with the right crew, led by Mike
Testin on the picture side of things and Sean T. Faust on the audio side,
and a wonderful editor, Laura Jean Hocking, and incredible composer, Paul
Vinsonhaler, really helped us make it all sing. A few words about you co-director Brad Ellis, and
what was your collaboration with him like? Brad
has been one of my best friends and key collaborators for 26 years now. We
are incredibly different while also having a lot of common ground,
particularly when it comes to our passion for movies and our shared sense
of humor. To put it simply, Brad is the pessimist, and I’m the optimist.
Back in high school, we argued about EVERY LITTLE THING, especially when
we worked together. We then grew up (gradually) and started opening up and
communicating more clearly and honestly with one another, and now our
collaboration is pretty damn harmonious! I love that guy, and I certainly
intend to co-direct quite a few more movies with him. Many more,
hopefully! You also play
one of the leads in Cold
Feet - so do talk about your character for a bit, what did you
draw upon with to bring him to life, have you written him with yourself in
mind, and to what degree can you identify with him?
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One
of the fun things about putting this movie together is that when I first
came up with the basic idea, I decided that I wanted to create eight lead
roles for myself and seven of my closest friends and collaborators to
play, but I wanted us to draw names to decide who would play who. I
outlined the whole story and then wrote a little over half of the script
before I knew who would be playing each part. Then, when we were all in
Memphis for a screening of the last movie that Brad and I had directed
together, Bad, Bad Men, I staged a cold read. We each drew a name, and
that’s how I cast the lead roles. MAN, it was so exciting! Ha! It was a
great show of trust on all of our parts. I wanted to let the guys know
that I thought they were each more than capable of playing any of these
roles, and they all came aboard a project that they knew essentially
nothing about and to play roles that were assigned to them randomly. I was
thrilled with how that all turned out. As for whether or not I identified
with Eddie, at the time when I wrote it, I certainly did in regards to his
confusion about whether or not he could commit to one woman for the rest
of his life. Before I started dating my wife, that was a running theme
with a lot of my work. I started believing that it would change when I met
the right woman, and that certainly wound up being the case, but I
didn’t know for sure at the time. Also, I think Eddie’s a good guy who
wants to make sure that he’s being a good guy, who tries to hold himself
to a high standard, and that’s something I’ve always related to. Ever
since I was a little kid, it was so important to me to be kind and a good
person that I was terrified that I would somehow wind up being a jerk. I
think that’s the thing I feared the most! So, yeah, I definitely put a
premium on kindness and compassion and try to be vigilant about not being
an asshole. Do
talk about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these people? As
is the case with all of my productions to some extent, the cast is a great
mix of friends and actors who we bring into the fold through casting and
recommendations. I came up with the core idea on a layover to Memphis, and
right away I knew that I wanted my friends and I to play the eight leads.
Everyone else was either an actor whom we’d worked with before, someone
we met through casting out of Memphis, or someone whose work we’d
admired and wanted to bring on board. In all instances, we just knew that
each of them would give us exactly what we needed and be a blast to work
with, and, hey, we were right! What
can you tell us about your location, and what was it like filming there? That
location is the home of one of our dear friends and executive producers,
Mr. Adam Johnson. Adam is one of the kindest and absolutely most gracious
guys you’ll ever meet. He’s the ultimate host, so much so that he
allowed us to shoot our entire film at his house, where he was living the
whole time. It’s not like we could afford to put him up somewhere else,
so he just had to deal with us being there. We tried to shoot a lot while
he was at work, but when he’d get home, he had to put up with us calling
for quiet on the set before a take. MAN, he was a trooper! It’s an
absolutely incredible home that gave us a lot to work with. I actually
first saw that house a day or two after I came up with the concept for
this film. I had mentioned the core idea for the film to Brad, and when he
and I went over there, I told him I really hoped that Adam would let us
shoot there when the time came! Ha! I just had an immediate feeling about
it, so I’m extremely grateful to Adam and really glad it worked out.
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A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Overall,
the shoot went incredibly well, and the atmosphere was amazing. There was
a great go-go-go energy, as there is on pretty much any indie production
that’s on schedule and moving right along, and most people on board had
a lot of fun, myself certainly included.
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Cold
Feet? So
far the reception has been very positive overall! No movie is for
everyone, so there will always be some negative feedback. That’s just
part of the deal! The more films you do, the more it seems that you learn
to accept and eventually even embrace that fact. Anyway, it’s definitely
the movie that I wanted it to be from the outset, and it’s been a lot of
fun seeing it connect with its audience. Any future projects you'd like to share? Right
now I’m editing the most recent film that we shot, Baby Come Home,
and I’m in the very early stages of pre-production on my newest script, Breaker Breaker.
We’re going to stage that one as a play first and
then shoot the film adaptation. I’m also writing a new thriller, a
horror film, a romantic drama that’s set a few years in the future, a
sci-fi miniseries, and a young adult novel. I’m very excited about all
of them! What
got you into the filmworld to begin with, and did you receive any formal
education on the subject? I’ve
loved movies for as long as I can remember. The first film that I recall
falling in love with was Ghostbusters, back when I was three, maybe
four. I’ve just always been drawn to storytelling, and, all in all,
movies have been my medium of choice. Whether or not I would be a
storyteller and filmmaker was never a question for me. It’s just part of
who I am. As for formal education, I took a film class in high school that
was very inspiring, as well as theatre arts and acting classes that meant
a lot to me. I definitely learned a lot in those classes, and everything
else I learned by watching and absorbing movies and then going out and
making films with my friends. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Cold
Feet, in whatever
position?
I
have been writing and producing for a long time and have acted in a
variety of productions over the years, including the ones I made with my
friends. I started directing and editing as well in my early 20s and have
been doing a lot more of each over the last few years. The most recent
movies that I wrote, directed, edited, produced, and also acted in are
Being Awesome, Save Yourself, and We Got Lucky. Those
are each very grounded and stripped down comedy/dramas, and I’m really
proud of them and grateful to everyone involved. Here are links for those
films:
Being Awesome
Tubi:
https://bit.ly/BeingAwesomeTubi
Vudu:
http://bit.ly/BeingAwesomeVUDU
Save Yourself
Amazon:
http://bit.ly/saveyourselfmovie
Tubi:
http://bit.ly/SaveYourselfTubi
We Got Lucky
Amazon:
https://bit.ly/WeGotLuckyPrime
Google
Play: http://bit.ly/WeGotLuckyGooglePlay
iTunes:
http://bit.ly/WeGotLucky
YouTube:
http://bit.ly/WeGotLuckyYouTube
The
last film that I wrote, produced, acted in, and co-directed with Brad was
the previously mentioned Bad, Bad Men. That one’s a flat-out
comedy that we made with a lot of the same team that we made Cold
Feet with. It’s a lot of fun, and if you like Cold
Feet, you
should definitely check out Bad, Bad Men.
Bad, Bad Men
Amazon:
http://bit.ly/badbadmen
Google
Play: http://bit.ly/BadBadMenGooglePlay
iTunes:
http://bit.ly/badbadmenitunes
YouTube:
http://bit.ly/BadBadMenYouTube
Vudu:
http://bit.ly/BadBadMenVUDU
Judging from your filmography,
you feel as comfortable in front of the camera as behind it - so what are
some of the jobs you enjoy the most, what could you do without? I’ll
say this, I don’t know who I would be without writing. I’ve written my
whole life, and it’s something that I do every day in some capacity.
That’s just an absolutely defining part of who I am. As for acting, I
love the process, I love being on set and working off of other actors, and
I love doing what I can to help writers and directors bring their visions
to life. Producing is something I started doing in high school in order to
make our projects happen, and I get a lot of joy out of assembling the
team and putting the pieces together for our productions. In the
ultra-indie world, which is very much the world that my collaborators and
I have made our movies in, producers tend to take on a lot of positions
that bigger productions would hire in the mix with every aspect, including budgeting and scheduling. As for
directing, I’m definitely hooked one to map out a
vision and a plan of attack and then rally the troops and lead the charge.
When I write, I start envisioning the whole movie, plus I love leading a
team, so it just made a lot of sense for me to start directing when I did.
Editing is a very cool and rewarding part of the process as well, and I
get a lot of satisfaction out of having everything I need to piece the
story together right there at my disposal, to have it all be so tangible,
and to then just continue revising and exploring every last little nuance
that I can and stitching it all together with precision. So, yeah, I love
it all! Ha! Actors, writers,
filmmakers, whoever else who inspire you? There
are so many, and I know that my previous answers have been pretty
long-winded, so I’ll try to keep it brief here! Regarding actors, I’m
a massive fan of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Connie Britton, Margot Robbie,
Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Denzel Washington, Kyle Chandler, Ben Affleck,
Frances McDormand, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Kathryn Hahn, George Clooney,
Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and so
many more. As for writers and filmmakers, and this is REALLY just
scratching the surface, but Richard Linklater, Cameron Crowe, Kenneth
Lonergan, Aaron Sorkin, Kevin Smith, and David Fincher have loomed large
and been particularly influential at various points of my life.
Your favourite
movies? My
top ten favorites are The End of the Tour, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire,
Good Will Hunting, Moneyball, About a
Boy, Before Sunrise, Dazed and Confused, Swingers,
and Up in the Air, but again, that is really just scratching the
surface! ... and of course, films you really deplore? Ooohhh,
this is a tough one. I’m going to risk being cowardly here in favor of
being diplomatic and simply say that I only ever deplore a movie if I
consider it to be morally repugnant. For the record, saying “morally
repugnant” just then made me feel incredibly lame. Ha! I always try to
find things to like about any movie I watch, but, yeah, when I think a
movie is just rotten in terms of its morality, that’s when I turn on it. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
Here
are links to the movie on platforms where it’s currently available:
Amazon:
https://bit.ly/ColdFeetMovie
YouTube:
https://bit.ly/ColdFeetYouTube
Google
Play: https://bit.ly/ColdFeetGooglePlay
Here
are our social media links:
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/AllenCGardner
www.facebook.com/coldfeetmovie2021
Instagram:
www.instagram.com/allencgardnermovies
www.instagram.com/coldfeetmovie
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/allencgardner
www.twitter.com/coldfeetmovie
YouTube:
https://bit.ly/OpenDialogueProductionsYouTube
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Here’s
the link to my Vimeo page, where you can see trailers for my recent films,
amongst other things:
https://vimeo.com/allencgardner
Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? No,
these questions were great, and I just really appreciate your time and
interest in my work! Thanks
for the interview!
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