Your new movie Game
of Groans - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s a nerds vs girl gang film.
The official description is “A nerdy group of game players
encounters a sadistic girl gang … and all hell breaks loose!”
Stupid
question, but still - why Monopoly? I was looking back at an
article about the old Polyester Books shop having been busted back
in the VHS days and their stock confiscated due to them stocking Faces
of Death and other material deemed offensive by the Australian
government. Their old business
card was a “Get out of Hell Free” spoof on Monopoly. The concept for the film just
formed from there when I went into a day dream about the card.
What were your
sources of inspiration when writing Game
of Groans?
Before making short films,
I often think of the cinemas that show mine as the short before the main.
These theatres show cult films, so I try to make shorts that will
fit the various genres played. In
this case, I had gang films like Faster,
Pusscat ... Kill! Kill! and The Warriors as the gang genre on my mind.
On the nerd side, Revenge of
the Nerds stood out. There were so many in the ‘80’s with similar
themes where the nerds fought back against the jocks.
These always had the hot chicks that the nerds couldn’t normally
get, yet the tables would somehow be turned.
How would you describe Game
of Groans' brand of humour?
It’s black humour in the
Mel Brooks/Troma sense. I’ve
noticed that the mainstream is catching up though and DC has been using
black humour with The Suicide Squad and the spin off series Peacemaker.
It’s a bit slapstick,
ultra-violent and in bad taste. It
is never malicious though.
Game
of Groans doesn't exactly hold back when it comes to (comicbook)
violence - would you like to elaborate on that a bit?
Sure.
One of the things that is impossible at a zero budget is to get
highly choreographed action, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t
other ways to achieve an exciting fight scene.
I decided to pull out all the stops to keep this a fast paced, hard
hitting film and that meant being relentless.
What
can you tell us about Game
of Groans's director Gerardo Chierchia, and what was your
collaboration like?
I’ve made quite a few
films with Gerardo now and have learned to just trust him.
I don’t discuss the films in as great a detail as I would with
any other cinematographer/director. I
just get him the script and there might be a brief conversation over Facebook chat.
I try not to dictate too much with
anyone involved in my films so that everyone has enough creative freedom
to feel that the end product is their own.
All my shoots today have been volunteer, so it is important that the
talent feel that they are creators rather than employees that must do
what they are told.
You also appear in front of the
camera in Game of Groans
- so what can you tell us about your character, what did you draw upon to
bring him to life, and have you written him with yourself in mind from the
get-go?
My character of Darvis
first appeared in Time Goddess.
I first created Darvis when I remembered some of the silly times I
had with my late brother, years ago. My
brother died a few decades ago in his 30’s and I was just remembering
the times we would sit around, tell silly stories and try to make each
other giggle.
Steve always laughed when I
imitated Bruce Spence, who played the Gyro Copter guy in Mad Max
2.
He also played a yobbo in an old Ozpoloitation film in the 1970’s
called Stork. I built up
the character “Darvis” from that voice and just imagined how nerdy,
pervy and silly he would be and then added in a bit of “Brainiac” to
the character.
What can you tell us about the rest of your
cast, and why exactly these people?
Nearly all of the cast are
actors that have worked on heaps of films with me before.
Same with the crew. There
were only a couple of new additions in that we had a new soundie and Grace
Liu did her first role with us.
Starting with Anastasia C. Kouloukas, she
worked her way up from being an extra as “the screaming girl” in Dark Night of the Zomboogies to starring in
Parental Duties, Sinister Symbiosis and the feature
Badass Bunyip.
She’s found her spot as a dominant character that can inflict
pain.
Melanie Kuhn started as an extra
too in The Road to Hell is Still Undefined.
She got a main spot in Toxic Alien Zombie Babes from Outer
Space where I could see that it was time for her to step up.
Her performance in Game of Groans
was that good that a lot of
the cast and crew were telling me that she should have her own film, so
she will star in a pirate film called Hunger for Treasure.
Grace Liu was a last minute
addition because one of the actors pulled out.
She really came through and has a spot in the upcoming Onan and
the Trojan Matzah Ball. I
can see her starring in her own film soon.
Glen Cook [Glen Cook interview
- click here] and Brett Sixtysix have been in heaps
of my films. Glen is actually
the gaffer and Brett runs the Fitzroy Art Collective.
Glen starred in Hamlet for the Fireys that will soon be on
the big screen at the Warrandyte Film Feast.
Brett makes his own movies but is pretty damned good in front of
the camera too.
Do talk about the
shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere!
My films are different in
that we have a collaborative atmosphere.
Unlike all the other film sets that I’ve been on, there is no big
gathering at the start where the director gives a speech and tries to get
everything enthusiastic. Some
of those sets just feel cult like to me and they are rife with egos. The norm for our sets is that I
say hello to everyone as they come in and they get themselves set up.
There are lots of hello hugs with cast and crew.
Once we are up and filming, anyone can speak up with a suggestion.
The positions are all respected so the director still gets the last
say and everyone follows instructions.
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Many of the crew and actors have
university qualifications in filmmaking, so their opinions are wanted.
We are small, no budget shoots so sometimes people will do multiple
jobs too. Anastasia, Glen and
Vixey have often swapped out from acting in one scene, to taking over
sound, or second camera in another scene - if they are not in front of the
camera in that scene. We’ve had scenes where crew were
all called in to be extras, so I think all of my regular crew have been in
front of the camera too.
The
$64-question of course, where can Game
of Groans be seen? Game
of Groans can be seen
free on YouTube, but it is on restricted due to the heavy nature of the
film. You have to be over 18
and logged in to view it -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy3F8PomB_o Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of your movie? The film has only just come
out so I don’t know what people think of it yet.
It’s on restricted view too, so far fewer people have seen it
than usual. I guess I’ll
just have to be patient and find out in time. Any
future projects you'd like to share? The main upcoming project
is Toxic Alien Zombie Babes from Outer Space.
It’s almost finished but we have something
like 3.5 hours of edited footage so far, so there is more work to do to
cut it back a bit more. It has
been the big project during the lockdowns with footage filmed from all
over the world. One thing holding it back was that
a lot of it was self shot. My
self shot scenes weren’t up to scratch so Gerardo and I decided to wait
until the lockdowns were over and then spend a day getting mine done.
Unfortunately, we have kept going back into lockdown in Melbourne.
We are just so close to finished that it is frustrating! Lol.
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Your/your movie's
website, soci
al media, whatever else?
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChNUuG84Sakk7AVSpJ4yTOg
Twitter - @DarkVisible
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Not really.
We are always busy making films so there is no way to cover
everything. I think we did go
over a lot here though. Thanks
for the interview!
Thanks for the opportunity
Mike.
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