|
Your new movie The Cellar
- in a few words, what's it about?
It’s a psychological
mystery horror film about battling addiction and one’s own inner demons
What were your
sources of inspiration when writing
The Cellar? Mainly the locations that were used in the film as
well as the PlayStation game Resident Evil. I wanted to make a film where the location was a big
part of the film and try to make it immersive like a video game. You just have to talk about
your movie's titular cellar - was this all filmed on one locations or did
you piece together several cellars? And did you write your script with
your location(s) already in mind? For the cellar part of the film we used 2 different locations. I
absolutely wrote the script with the locations in mind, hence the title of
the film. Do talk about your movie's approach
to horror! I didn’t set out to make an out and out horror movie, I just let the movie
take its own path and didn’t really stick to any formulas or a specific
genre, I just knew I wanted it to be suspenseful.
A few words about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand? I
just tried to be as prepared as I possibly could by having a storyboard or
a shot list and having everything worked out in my head as to how it was
going to be edited etc. As it was the first feature film I’ve directed I
didn’t expect to be taken that seriously, so I gave a lot of freedom to the
cast in terms of performance while I focused on the more technical aspects. What
can you tell us about The Cellar's
cast, and why exactly these people?
You mentioned in your review about Meghan Adara [Meghan
Adara interview - click here] bringing strength and
vulnerability to her character ‘Abigail’, and that’s exactly why I chose
Meghan for her strength and vulnerability. Obie Dean who played ‘Darren’
is an alcoholic and has had 1st hand experience in AA meetings, so he was
the perfect choice, and everyone else that was involved I know are strong,
passionate and most importantly reliable actor,s so I was fairly confident
I wouldn’t be let down by anyone. Do talk about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere! The
atmosphere was great, everyone seemed excited to be involved. A lot of the
days were long and for me personally I was just focusing on staying
focused and to not get too overwhelmed by the task. The
$64-question of course, where can
The Cellar be seen?
The Cellar has already been released throughout Europe and is available to
stream in the UK and USA from the 3rd November .
Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of The Cellar?
The reception and the vast majority of reviews have been great. It’s had a
great festival run, far exceeding what I expected, and it seems there’s
quite a lot of people that have really enjoyed it. Some people might get
frustrated by the ambiguity, but to me a lot of horror is about uncertainty
and to not be given the release from something that conclusively wraps
everything up. Any future projects you'd like to share?
The R.I.P Man, which is currently screening at festivals
and will be available for streaming 5th January. Something hopefully
slasher horror fans will enjoy. It’s also got a crime thriller element to
it. It had its premiere last month in Worthing in front of 160 people,
which turned out to be a really great event. Before
getting into directing, you started out in the filmworld as an
actor - so what can you tell us about that aspect of your career, and
which side of the camera do you actually prefer? Yeah I trained as an actor at 17 and went on to act in a whole heap of
independent horror films as well as some small roles in some bigger budget
TV and film productions, but I got to a point where I’d kind of hit a wall
and wasn’t really getting the opportunities I wanted so I thought I’d take
it upon myself to create something that I’ve got more control over. Being
behind the camera directing and producing a film is nonstop and very full
on so there’s no time to sit back and enjoy it, but the reward is a lot
greater than acting. But acting I’d say is more fun and a lot less
stressful so it’s a difficult question to have a conclusive answer.
What got you into filmmaking eventually, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? I
just wanted to take that leap of faith and see what happens. I’ve had no
formal training when it comes to filmmaking but I have worked on a lot of
films as an actor and worked and spoken to a lot of filmmakers and have
observed and learnt from them, so in my opinion just being on a film set is
the best learning experience. What can you tell us
about your filmwork prior to The
Cellar, in whatever position? It’s been so varied working as an actor on so many things. I’ve got some
great memories and some not so great memories. It’s been so varied, and
that’s the exciting thing about it for me. Going from job to job, working
with different people, in a different place doing something different. No
2 jobs are the same . How would you
describe yourself as a director?
Someone who has a vision that just ties to blag everything I guess, lolz. Filmmakers who
inspire you? Ari Aster,
Osgood Perkins, Shane Meadows, Your favourite movies?
The Crow, Return of the Jedi, True Romance.
... and of course, films you really deplore?
Nothing comes to mind so I’m going to have to say no .
Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?
www.thecellarhorror.com
www.instagram.com/thecellar2025
www.ripmanfeaturemovie.com
www.instagram.com/the_r.i.p_man
www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-r-i-p-man-2/x/37568488#/
www.imdb.com/name/nm4247986/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely
forgotten to ask? We are currently raising funds forThe R.I.P Man Part
2 -
www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-r-i-p-man-2/x/37568488#/ Thanks for the interview! |
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
