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Your upcoming movie GroupChat - in a few words, what's it
about? GroupChat is about a lot of things haha. My elevator pitch was
"Host meets Dungeons & Dragons" as it revolves around a
group of friends who go online to play an in-universe RPG (role play
game) called Necromancer. But the story itself delves into social and
gender politics, betrayal and trusting our instincts.
With GroupChat revolving around a
role-playing game, is that something you enjoy to do in your personal
life, and if so, some of your favourite games?
Not for many years but I would love to pick it up again. I always loved
the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer 40k and Warhammer as I was
obsessed with monsters as a kid (well, still am) and would revel in that
world and its lore. It's actually a huge part of how I became a horror
fan. Just love monsters and creatures. My eldest brother (who still
plays) is also an amazing painter and was really into it from a very
young age so I would paw through all his books looking at the pictures
of monsters and read his Elf Quest comics. But as I grew up I could
never find people who wanted to play so I’ve not played in years, even
though the lore and art of it all is still very close to my heart. The
games I play now are mainly board games, PS5, Magic, the
Gathering. But not half as often as I would like. As a child, Space Hulk and Hero Quest
were always my go-to, and loved Blood Bowl. (Other)
sources of inspiration when writing GroupChat?
Well, I am a found footage freak. I love the genre, and when done well,
I think it's the best subgenre out there. As you may have guessed from
my earlier answer Host (2020) was a huge influence. It's just a perfect
movie. But not just the film, but the way it was shot over Zoom, the
time it hit. Just amazing, and completely blew me away. Other than that,
I'd have to say the Unfriended films were also up there in terms of
cinematic influences. On a more personal level, this film was really a way for me to cope with
the passing of my father a few years prior. Not to go too deep into
it, but I was in a situation where I wasn't allowed to grieve my own
father's passing. As he was one of my heroes his death was catastrophic,
and not being 'allowed' to grieve properly left a heavy hole in my soul.
As it was such an immensely personal script, I threw everything I had at
it. I took the world at large, politics, work politics, gender politics,
and betrayals that I have had in my life. Just threw my emotions into
it. It was funny as when I was getting people to read the script for
feedback, I started with close friends and family, then moved my way up
to professional writers and producers I know. The people who knew me
more personally all said "Jesus, this must have been so hard for
you to write." And the people who knew me in the more professional
sense said "This is really powerful stuff." So my hurt, my
trauma, though painful to write, definitely brought something amazing to
the script.
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Soon after writing I had hit another rather awful life change that put
me in a really bad place. Once I managed to get my footing back, I
needed something positive to get me out of the darkness, so took it upon
myself to make this script a reality. So it was born from a dark place
and helped me through another. Do
talk about your movie's approach to horror!
The approach to horror in this film is as personal as the film itself.
The "horror" aspects of the film are not the true horror
behind the story. Much like George A. Romero films, the horror is people,
not the things that go bump in the night. That and the more personal
horror of trauma, as well as other topics that are close to my soul.
Horror is such an amazing genre as you can explore so much in
situational metaphors. There's some really dark stuff in here, but I can
present it in a much safer way as it's through situational metaphors. How close
will you stick to the actual groupchat concept in GroupChat?
Part of the fun with found footage is how you can manipulate reality, so
we've definitely had a lot of fun with that. I feel that there are
several ways of doing found footage. Pull it off to make it as real as
possible is the most commonly used one (though people have said that's
impossible since The
Blair Witch Project did it, I disagree. There are very good
faux documentaries that have definitely pulled that level of deceit,
including one called S&Man that totally fooled me when someone just
randomly put it on). Then there's the other approach like Deadstream
that knows what it is and has fun with it, or the much-mentioned Host
which convinces you you're in reality then springs the horror on you. GroupChat
is a mixture of the latter two approaches. Though the film is
crafted with the logic that if you put it on, you could easily be
convinced it is a livestream, it does have fun with the screen life
aspect when it gets going. But like any great found footage film (and
yes...I'm saying GroupChat is a great found footage film) we add a
little extra, play around in the sandbox and do something a little
different at times. A few words about your directorial approach to your story at hand?
The whole point behind my approach was to make it as organic as
possible. It's a horror film based around magic with some obviously not
real things happening. So to balance out the lubriciousness, the
characters needed to be as real as possible.
We had so much prep work building up to the shoot, that once we got on
set it was just about the ebb and flow. Actors would say "I've got
an idea" and before hearing it I'd just say "go for it"
as I knew they were all so in sync that they could pull something off
and improve it. There's a point in the film where the cast just
completely crack up. And that's genuine, no one knew what the character
was going to do, and it was genuinely hilarious. Other points they
pulled some stuff that knocked us all on our arses, we just didn't see
it coming and it worked so damn well. They had such freedom because they
all knew the story and their characters so well that they could explore
their spaces and reactions to the world we had created. What
can you tell us about GroupChat's cast, and why exactly
these people? Simple and boring answer. They are all amazing. Each one just nailed
their characters and seeing the finished film I honestly could not think
of better people to play them. There is a cameo or two of people I've
worked with before like Debbie Rochon [Debbie
Rochon interview - click here], who is just so damn good I'd cast
her in anything I had a role for her for, but most of the cast came
through a lot of interviews, demo tapes and chats. Do talk about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere? When I first told people I was going to shoot a feature film in 4 days
they laughed at me and called me crazy. Then I told them how I was going
to do it. They still laughed and called me crazy but added "you
know what... I can see that working"
My approach was to create a real world.So, 5 actors, 5 cameras.
Everyone getting shot at once with up to 30 minute takes. Sounds insane.
But my logic was, get theatrically trained actors. On stage they can be
there for an hour without a break, so they must be able to pull off 30
minute takes. For this I had one simple rule. Stay in character. If you
stumble on a line, stay in character. If someone else stumbles on a
line, stay in character. If something unexpected happens, stay in
character. If there's smoke, the set is on fire so get the fuck out. But the point was they would remain in character at all times, so
whatever happened they were completely immersed in their character.
But theatrical training or not, we needed to rehearse, and that is where
Jennifer Jones came in. She is an amazing acting coach and worked with
the cast to really get the best out of them. And when we had to change a
key member 5 days before shooting, she really pulled it out of the bag.
All this made for a truly amazing and authentic performance.
So the shoot was insane. As mentioned, we had 5 actors running on 5
cameras doing up to 30 minute takes, all at once. That made for great
collaboration and real-time character interaction that really brought
the set to life. Yes, it was definitely a challenge for everyone
involved, but it really paid off. This was not only having an amazing cast, but also an amazing crew, our
DOP Kemal Yildirim [Kemal
Yildirim interview - click here], who was running 5 cameras at once, his assistant Dan
Burgess and the one-man army that is Lewis Chadwick who was recording
and live sound mixing 5 people at once. Having one makeup/FX person
(Rebecca Wheeler) running that entire one-person department. Mel Morley
who not only produced this alongside me, but took on 1st AD
duties too! Not to mention having to keep an eye on the five people
at once, make notes during and then give feedback between takes. It was
a challenge, but that energy and these people really brought the set to life.
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On-set atmosphere is very important as we all know. I stick to “Uncle
Lloyd's" (Lloyd Kaufman) on set-rules: "Safety to people,
safety to people’s property, make a great movie." I personally
carry out risk assessments, fire evacuation, check for people’s
allergies, make sure all food requirements are taken care of etc. So I
always want everyone who sets foot on that set to feel comfortable,
valued and above all else safe. Onto the shoot atmosphere, I had a plan set from day dot. From the
moment I started casting it was about getting the actors into character.
For the audition sheets I sent a one page monologue that was the film's
events from that character's point of view, so even before they got the
part they were taking in the character. Pre-shoot we had rehearsals
(with the amazing aforementioned Jennifer Jones) and got the cast to
hang out, so they had an organic friendship on set. But my immersive
shooting plan didn't stop there. The film was low key set around
Halloween and was shot in order. So for the first day we shot act one.
For this I had a pumpkin spice candle lit and Horrorpops (a psychobilly
band) playing on a Bluetooth speaker as in act one everything is
relatively nice and normal. On day two, where things were going a bit
more horror, I had a pumpkin spice candle when they walked in the door.
But further into the set I had a Halloween Horror Nights candle and The
Creepshow (a slightly more aggressive psychobilly band) playing. On the
third day, when it was all kicking off, I had the Halloween Horror
Nights candle lit as they first walked in and The Menstrual Cramps and
Dream Nails (punk rock bands) playing. So as soon as they set foot on
the set each day, the vibe was different. You of course also have to talk about
GroupChat's wonderful poster by Graham Humphreys, and how
much of a say did you have or demand in its design?
Graham Humpreys....I used to collect his artwork on VHS' back in the
day not knowing the name (as they didn't credit artists on the box). No
idea why, but I assumed the artist who created this work was American
and dead. Again, no idea why, but without the internet I guess I just
came up with a backstory for this unknown to me artist. One day at a Bizarre Magazine event I met this very kind, unassuming person who said
he was a poster artist and his name was Graham Humphreys. So later on I
went back home and googled his name....well, my then
thirty-something-year-old mind just blew, and the next time I saw him I
geeked out so much that the time after I felt the need to apologize,
haha. He was amazingly gracious about it, as only he can be. But the
fact I'd actually met a legend of mine was just too amazing to
comprehend. Since then I have had the great pleasure of hanging out with him at
various parties and gatherings and he is one of the nicest people you'll
ever meet (I know a lot of people say this, but with him it's true).
When it came time for the poster art, I knew I needed something special
with this film so I made sure there was a budget for Graham's works. I
approached him through his site and asked if he had time for the
commission and thankfully, he did. I mocked up a basic design and gave
it to Graham and he created the masterpiece that is now representing my
film. Honestly, it's a literal dream come true. I genuinely shed a tear
when I first saw it. This piece of art is just so amazing on so many
levels it's unreal. The $64 question of course, when and where will GroupChat be
released? We are starting to submit to festivals now so hopefully
later on in the year it will be gracing the screens. But as we have only
just started submitting, we have no dates as of yet. Any future projects you'd like to share?
I have a shoot-ready script that we are currently shopping around with
my producer Mel Morley. Again, very personal in parts. It's born from a
different place, explores different aspects of different trauma.
There’s still a lot of ‘me’ in there, but it’s a different vibe,
more action and gore heavy, but still a character piece. This one will
be more traditionally shot. I would like to go back to found footage at
some point. But this script demanded a more traditional cinematic style
to bring it to life. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else? Well yes, haha. Here's another fun thing
about this project. As it's a very character/dialogue-led screen life
film, it's a challenge to post a lot about it without major spoilers or
just having pictures of people on screen. So instead of a GroupChat Instagram page, we have created a page for the in-universe game of
Necromancer they are playing (@necromancergame) where we are blending
the reality of the film around the publicity of launching/promoting a
fake game. This has led to the website https://necromancersaga.com/ which
has its own little surprises hidden in it. Though we are currently using
the page as if it's for the fake game promo, there are lots of easter
eggs and links to the film and its reality, as we are continuously
blending that reality as the campaign goes forward. Though we are
sticking to its reality, we want people to figure out it's promo for the
film and have fun with it. There's another very secret easter egg that
will be a constant, but that's being kept a secret as people will click
once they see the film. Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
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Yes, firstly I'd like to thank every single person who supported and
continues to support this film in every way they do. As I mentioned,
this film is hugely personal to me and the love and support it's got
from so many people has just been amazing. And that includes people like
you who are giving me the chance to talk more about this film online. It
is really appreciated and that's not just from me, but everyone else who
has taken part in this film. I could do like several interviews on how this got put together and
they'd all be different, haha. There was just so much going on, people
coming in and saving a potential crisis, showing support and spreading
the love. If anyone would like to keep up with my personal/professional account on
Instagram it's @cereal_and_horrorstuff and my producer is @mrlmorley
there we'll be posting the more blatant GroupChat content and updates,
but if you want to get into the spirit of things then make sure you
follow @necromancergame for some reality blending fun Thanks
for the interview!
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