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Your movie Android
Re-Enactment - in a few words, what's it about?
It's about a guy who is unable to let go of his unrequited love, and
his subsequent abuse of his wish fulfilment now that he has the means to confront this lost love, at least spiritually. Android
Re-Enactment was (to my knowledge) your first feature film - so
what made you choose such an ambitious subject for your debut?
I shot a feature before Android
Re-Enactment, but our tapes were stolen
from the film school they were being stored at! I really wanted to make another one, and my landlord at the time (I lived
in a basement!) actually encouraged me to use their house to shoot a movie
while they went on vacation. I was really excited and wrote something I
thought we could make in there, but that ended up snowballing into
something bigger. My frequent collaborator Adam Buller got involved as an
actor/producer, and connected me to more team members, as well as a wealth
of locations to use in Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, Adam broke his arm (I
think it was his arm) shortly after that, and we had to delay the shoot a
few months for him to heal. In that time, we were gifted with a more
thorough pre-production! With Android Re-Enactment
being a science fiction story at its core, is that a genre at all dear to
you, and some of your genre favourites? And what can you tell us about
your movie's approach to science fiction?
I'd say I'm more of a horror guy, but I do love science fiction. My
favorites? Time Crimes (Los Cronos Criminales), Starship
Troopers, Robocop, Total Recall (Verhoeven!)... of course
Alien, Aliens...
Terminator and Terminator 2.
For Android
Re-Enactment, I have to credit Adam with selling me on the
idea of doing it as 'retro future-istic' - as we could get basically all
of our set dressing for free if we just embraced the look of how we thought
the 60s would imagine the future to be. I wanted the androids to be very
accurate, very human-like on a surface level, have a lot of artifice in
their programmed behavior, but beneath that, strangely have souls. (Other)
sources of inspiration when writing Android
Re-Enactment, and is any of it based on personal experiences - not
the android angle probably, but maybe the jilted love story?
Oh man, I don't wanna say haha. But yeah, it was inspired by a date that I
felt bombed in the most humiliating way. I want to think all of us wish we
could redo certain days! So, I should mention Groundhog's Day as an inspiration too.
Feasibility wise; I thought being able to kill characters multiple times
in a story would be a nice boost to the production value. At
times, Android
Re-Enactment is actually pretty funny - so do talk about vour
movie's brand of comedy for a bit!
Glad you enjoyed it! I think the majority of the humor is just in Ermus's
selfish justifications for his own bad behavior, and some slapstick humor
from Mayter's actor (Adam Buller). There's also the contrast between the
two of them that lends well to humor, Ermus being over-serious, and Mayter
being quite goofy and mischievous. What can you tell us
about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
I will have to bullshit here a bit, it's been so long! If I know me, I
would have wanted everyone to sound as natural as possible, and to have
grounded emotions. The circumstances of course are ludicrous, but it's
important to me for the actors to maximize their emotional realism so the
story can be more meaningful, while still remaining ridiculous. When there
was something to punctuate in the story, a beat, or an action scene, the
goal would be to give it some extra punch. When possible, I also like to
move into each scene still riding the feeling from the last one in the
camera work, so hopefully that it could flow together well. Do
talk about Android
Re-Enactment's cast, and why exactly these people?
Our lead, Jeff Sinasac (Ermus, the protagonist) was a replacement two
weeks before we started filming! My previous lead was forced to drop out
as he couldn't get the time away from work. I cast and fired another
very close friend shortly after that, as I was in a bit of a panic.
However now, I cannot imagine anyone else but Jeff as Ermus. He embodied
the character so effortlessly, my job was just to stay out of his way. I
had seen Jeff act in my friend Rocky's film Priority One, and I gave him
a call as a last ditch effort for our movie to come together. Jeff
instantly committed and saved the movie! He would later do 90% of the CGI shots, too!
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Adam Buller (Mayter, the antagonist) I had been making stuff with for a
few years at that point. I was regularly writing roles for him, as when he
commits to something he gives you his entire soul every time. I remember,
for another friend's film within a few years of us making Android
Re-Enactment, Adam sourced and wore a contact lens in one eye to give
himself a lazy eye for the role. I do not think that was even in the guy's
script. I'm sure that must have been a hassle to deal with, and possibly
headache -inducing to shoot with all day as an actor. I think he did it
for weeks, too! Most of all - I'm sure no one asked that of him! But my
point is, whether that was before or after my movie, I already knew this
about Adam, he'll go all in - and that's just so valuable to a filmmaker
like me. Sarah Silverthorne (Candy, the leading lady) we found her through auditions. She
just had this magic that none of the competitors did. She carried such
positivity with her every single day. And the days were sometimes really
long. I remember she had hours and hours of make up and hair with Elena
Seepe each day to get her awesome hair style. Sarah was such a breeze to work
with, and I regret not being able to make something else with her in the
lapsed time! Everyone else mostly came from random casting calls and Adam's theatre
troupe, and their friends. They were all very nice to work with; Bill
Poulin, Todd Dark, Mel Cline... everyone delivered, and they were perfect in their roles. A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
It was a lot of fun punctuated by moments of tension. We struggled with
sound, as our location would get decimated with late afternoon traffic
every day. Roaring motorcycles and chugging trucks. The building we had
for the majority of the film was an abandoned printing press. It would get
smoldering hot. Everyone was so tough. I had no idea how lucky I was to
have such a resilient team. I sometimes argued with the DP, as I wanted
more coverage, and he wanted to preserve the existing lighting he had
meticulously set up. It was a learning experience. Looking back, I want to
say that we were both right! Filmmaking for me is often about compromise,
you've got to balance what you can live with what you truly want. Kevin
Davidson (the DP) is a very generous soul to go to bat for the movie like
he did, and I'll forever be grateful!
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Overall, I think Jeff described it as like a summer camp. We shot in
Niagara Falls, in multiple blocks. This company called Historic Niagara
had given Adam the keys to several buildings, for sets and for
accommodations. We were really lucky, and Adam was really smart to score
that. The whole experience was like a hippy commune, I think! We got boxes
of 'end of the day' pizza donated all the time. We all stayed in the falls
for the shooting blocks, having breakfast together in diners, joking
around, and making art, it's a feeling I'll chase for the rest of my life. The
$64-question of course, where can Android
Re-Enactment be seen? Well! We debuted on Amazon Prime a few years ago, and after a couple
months we were actually banned, without the right to an appeal, for a
reason they wouldn't state. But our distributor Indiecan has a channel
with the film available now on Vimeo On Demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/androidreenactment Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of Android
Re-Enactment?
Honestly, I don't think many have seen it. I noticed it was pirated, and
that seemed to be getting more votes than on IMDb. We did get a bunch of
really nice quotes, which are on the poster! We had a publicist, and
played a few fan-expo type things, and another festival which has
unfortunately vanished. But I think for the most part, we weren't very
visible, and didn't play many places, and it's such a niche subject matter
not many know to even look for it.
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What I noticed though was that parts of the movie weren't working. Years
after our premiere, I recut what would be released by Indiecan. I cut out
what I thought were the worst seven minutes. Of course I cannot fix
everything, but I'm much happier with this cut of the movie. We've had
just one other website review til yours in that time that I'm aware of and
they gave it a 7/10... but to me it read like a 9/10! Maybe I'm just
overly positive and biased, though! So thanks again for checking out our
film and giving me a space to talk about it! I really hope it can reach
its intended audience - fans of cult genre film! Looking back on your first movie
after all these years, how do you feel about it today, and how do you
think you've grown as a director since?
So yeah, it's still my first 'completed' feature. I am proud of it. I know
it's far from perfect, but I'm okay with that. I'm sure I was influenced
by many movies to make it, but I can arrogantly say I still see stuff
happening on say Black Mirror years after we did it! Of course they do
such a great job though, haha. Anyhow, I haven't directed another feature
since then. I would say in the absence of the anomaly of Android
Re-Enactment I have
become more grateful and respectful of people's time and energy. On the
technical side, I have learned tons since then, much of it from working as
a grip permittee in Toronto for several years, and also a few years after
as a CGI artist also taught me stuff I'm excited to implement. What got you
into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? I watched Ghostbusters in the theatre as a kid, and I was hooked! I
wanted to draw comic books but I struggled with consistent technique. That
sort of taught me storyboards, though. I bought this book Making Movies
by John Russo, and that opened my mind to the very real possibilities of
making an indie film wherever you live. I got my first film job as a
camera assistant on a bank commercial while living in Jamaica. Then, I
went to Trebas Institute in my early 20s for Film and TV Production.
Then, after years and years of indie work, doing no budget gore FX for
people, working in art department, PA-ing on infomercials, and years and
years of locations working overnight watching film trucks; which actually
isn't on set at all, but it's where I dreamt of set -- thing began to pull
together. Really though, the training is never over, and I hope I never
stop learning. What can you tell us about your
filmwork since Android
Re-Enactment?
I haven't made any more features! I tried to make so many, but never could
crack the code or align the planets like we did on that first one. After Android
Re-Enactment, I did a bunch of bizarre short horror films, you can see most on
my Vimeo channel, but the most significant was Greater Than - a half
hour neo-noir body horror movie. After that, a series of life events kept
me away from making my own films for nearly 10 years. During Covid, I
shifted to CGI work, which finally I'm beginning to implement into my own
projects. Since moving to Japan nearly 3 years ago, I've gotten a lot of
new momentum (coming out of the Corona dungeon) -- and I met with some
fine folks here and we've been making short films together, filling
different roles on each other's projects. Any future projects you'd like to
share? Right now, I'm in post production on a mini-webseries I wrote and
directed called The Hounds of Asterisk. It'll likely be my
second longest work after Android
Re-Enactment, though it's still under an hour in
total. I shot it here in Tokyo with my filmmaker pal Ryan Gilchrist who
worked as the cinematographer, and actor Nick Rock (and a handful more of
amazing folks) -- and for this I also casted a few pals from Toronto who
acted remotely. We did it for peanuts.
It's a much smaller, more subtle story than Android
Re-Enactment, and designed as a
stepping stone to get back into directing. It's a very understated dark
comedy/emotional horror about a lonely man who is trying to secure a pet
dog from the internet, as 'ethically' as he can.
After that, I have a 1 hour animated horror project I've been developing to do.
How would you describe yourself as a director?
A good friend of mine said, "You're obsessed with obsession."
And I think that describes what I like most! I like to follow the
indulgences of my characters. Filmmakers
who inspire you?
So many. You can probably guess the big budget filmmakers, but I'll still
name my fave: Dario Argento. Mostly, I'm inspired by any crazy person
who's able to pull off a feature with minimal funding; right now it's Curry
Barker (Milk and Serial) and Michael Cheslik (Hundreds of
Beavers). In Tokyo it's Doug Roos' Bakemono [Doug
Roos inerview - click here] - who does it all himself, and keeps
insisting that I make an extreme horror movie... and back in Toronto I'm
inspired by my friends who made In a Violent
Nature - Chris Nash, Peter Kuplowsky and Shannon Hammer. I'm inspired by Steve Kostanski's imaginative creations...
and my good pal Justin McConnell's Lifechanger work ethic and grit. Your favourite movies?
Right now? Battle Royale,
Robocop, Scarface,
Alucarda, La
Chiesa, Buffalo '66. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? I actually tried not to cop out of this question, but if I don't like
something I tend to complain to my friends and then forget about it. I
actually like quite a lot of 'bad' movies. What makes it hard too, is
every time I re-watch a movie I feel differently about it. Not in a
completely polarizing way, but it's just so subjective in what I'll notice
that day. Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?
Android
Re-Enactment has a Facebook group! I have a Vimeo page with a
bunch of my short films: www.vimeo.com/godinthegrass/videos Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
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For Android
Re-Enactment, we had so many great people helping us, and
whenever I talk about it, I want to shout them out for their huge
contributions; Steve Walsh (co-producer/gaffer), Elena Seepe (hair and
make up), Jacob Murphy (practical FX), and Dave Coleman (location sound
and composer) in particular were all absolutely indispensable and their
respective talents are staggering. Also, there's a whole art culture in
Niagara Falls that helped too.
Other than that... I'm an extreme horror author, too! I have two books out
so far: Rat of Many Faces and Celebrity Sundae. They are both super
nasty, and could offend anyone capable of being offended. I love extreme
horror! I think it's really refreshing to write more grimy stuff after writing
sanitized scripts for decades, trying to get bucks to make them. I have a
third book on the way! Thanks for the interview!
No, thank you! What a massive interview! I feel like you can clone me from
this interview; you can just plug it into ChatGPT and then use this to
prompt movies in the future by me if I'm not a sentient frozen head
psychically prompting them myself!
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