Your upcoming movie Ghost Dance - in a few words, what is it
about?
It’s
a classic spaghetti western with a bit of a supernatural twist at the
end. A mysterious rider known as The Stranger wanders into a
frontier
town and has a run in with the local ruffians. With Ghost Dance being a supernatural
Western - could you elaborate on that in more detail, and what fascinates
you about the genre as such? I’ve
always liked westerns and wanted to use this film as an opportunity
to expand out from the sci-fi and fantasy genres I’ve worked on in the
past. Westerns have their own set of expectations and characters
that
work well together, the genre is well established and has great
entertainment opportunity by bending people’s expectations a little bit. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing Ghost Dance?
I’ve
been watching lots of westerns, all the Clint Eastwood classics.
A
10 movie on DVD pack from the $5 bin at Walmart started it all off really.
Very entertaining old movies, there’s no shortage of them, the one
that
stands out is Little Rita
of the West featuring a female gunslinger.
I’ve been
watching these to pick up camera shots and steal the occasional line for
my own. According
to my information, Ghost Dance was your first screenwriting
collaboration with your producer Morgan Muscat [Morgan
Muscat interview - click here] - so do talk about the writing process for a bit! My
producer, Morgan Muscat, and I co-wrote the script. I wanted to get
another pair of eyes on the project from the beginning to make sure I
wasn’t writing a complete pile of trash. A great guide was the
screenwriting book Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. I took
his plot
outline and wrote the first draft (by hand), then typed it up and sent it
over to Morgan. We went back and forth a few times to
polish up the script and flesh out the characters. What
can you tell us about the intended style of animation, look and feel of
your movie? I’m
going back to a style that I used in my first feature, Archon
Defender, with a toon-shader and ink lines around the characters to
make
them pop up. I’m still working on the look of the backgrounds.
I want to
mix the storybook look that I used on Origin and
Cold Dark
Mirror with
the new techniques that I’ve figured out in Blender.
At what stage of production is Ghost
Dance presently, and where do you see the main challenges the rest of
the way? Right
now the audio is recorded, and the storyboards are finished. I’m
creating characters and will soon start modeling the sets and locations.
I’m looking to start animation now, depending on how things go. It might be waaay too early to ask, but any
idea when the film might be released onto the general public yet?
I’m
going to take time with this project. I’ve typically done a
feature
film in 2 years, you have to work hard and cut corners sometimes to make
that happen. I’m taking my time with this film and making it the
best it
can be. Any
future projects beyond Ghost Dance you'd like to share?
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I’ve
always got lots of projects on the back burner. There’s a fantasy
musical opera film epic that I’ve simply no idea how to pull off.
So I
might go and do a music video next, to warm up for that project. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
originalsineproductions.com for
all my other releases. My latest film,
Cold Dark
Mirror is available on DVD and Vimeo VOD directly at
bit.ly/ColdDarkMirror Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I
encourage any aspiring filmmakers and animators out there, regardless of
skill level or experience, to check out
blender.org.
The Blender
community is diverse and supportive, with lots of tutorials and help for
the program. It can literally do everything you need to make an
animated
film... And it’s open source, and free. Thanks
for the interview!
Thank
you.
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