Your new movie The Follower
- in a few words, what is it about?
The
Follower is about a young video blogger called David Baker who decides to
investigate the haunted house of one of his follower's.
What were your inspirations when writing The
Follower?
Paranormal
Activity, Creep, The
Visit, Grave Encounters, V/H/S, Blair
Witch.
What can you tell us about your
co-writer Vincent Darkman, and what was your collaboration like?
I
met Vincent Darkman during the scripting process of a French TV series. I
sent him the story concept and he re-contacted me few hours later. He
really liked the idea so I proposed to him to work with me on the whole
script. He handled the full structure of the movie and all the dialogue.
He also worked on the psychology of the characters. It
was a really complete and synchronized collaboration because we have the
same sensibility and understanding of the horror genre. The binom worked
fully.
Why
did you choose the found footage approach for The
Follower, and what do you think makes your movie stand out of the
crowd of found footage flicks being made of late?
Found
footage always interested me since I saw Blair
Witch Project and Cloverfield. I remember the first time
I saw Cloverfield in a
theater - I really enjoyed it and wanted to do the kind of very realistic and
immersive experience that found footage permits. So, naturally I used this form for my feature
debut ... and the second reason is
a budget matter.
Unlike
many other found footage films, The
Follower got a big twist in the middle and
it turns into a psychological thriller. That's not a usual thing in found
footage films. Secondly,
we didn't want to have a film with cheap images, so we opted for proper
cinematography with a good lighting.
Related
to my last question, what are the challenges of making a movie the found
footage-way?
Writing
a script of found footage isn't an easy task. For
example, as the protagonist holds the camera, he is the director and you
can only show what he can see (POV). You
are very limited in the narration, and it's more complicated to present
different angles without justification. During
the editing process, you don't have a lot of choices like in traditional movies.
You have to show most the scenes without any cuts, and you can't delete
shooting mistakes using other shots. Finally,
the most difficult thing is to get a proper balance between professional movie
and the amateurish camerawork the character would suggest.
As a filmmaker, to what extent could you
identify with the film's lead character David the vlogger, actually? I
spend a lot of time on social medias, watching YouTube videos or posting
short horror films. It's really hard to be watched by lot of people
because it's saturated. I imagine for the background of The
Follower is finding a
situation that creates a sort of buzz for the protagonist. What
can you tell us about The
Follower's cast, and why exactly these people?
We
shot the movie in France but we wanted an English-speaking movie to
distribute it in the US. So
we cast the internet actors living in the area and who could act in
this language. Most
of the cast are native English-speakers language except Carol who is
French. We
found in Nicolas Shake as the lead a credible personality for the
YouTuber.
You
of course also have to talk about the mansion you shot a big portion of
the movie in for a bit, and how did you find it and what was it like
filming there?
Carol's
house is the most creepy thing in the movie and it's also a kind of
character. We really needed an emblematic house where people wouldn't like
to go. And as the budget was quite low, the house added nice production
value to the movie. I
found it through one of my contact in the South of France, the place I come from near
Biarritz. The house is dated from 1900's and all the decoration is native.
All
the team slept there during our 12 days of shooting, and it was quite creepy
because we heard that it was haunted for good...
A few words about the shoot as such, and
the on-set atmosphere?
Shooting The
Follower was very intensive and stressfull. We had only 12
days of shooting for 79 minutes of screen time. We
worked a lot in the preparation process to make the shooting possible
under low-budget conditions. Sleeping
in that creepy house was really immersive for the creativity so we found
new ideas during the shoot.
Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of The
Follower?
The
movie has been released for one month only so it's a little bit early to
speak about the audience. Concerning
critical reception, opinions are divided. We got some really good feedback as well as less good.
Any future projects you'd like to
share? We're presently working on two feature concepts. One
of them is the adaptation of my awarded horror short The
Shoes, a story about demonic shoes who kill people. In its feature
form, i want to explain the origin of that shoes. Secondly,
we work on the development of Reality Horror Show, a
thriller about a lonely girl who is participating in a strange reality TV
show. For these two projects, we are looking for production companies to work with.
We hope that the success of The
Follower will permit us to find one.
What got you into making movies in the first
place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
I
started to direct movies at the age of 14 years old when I took the
vacation camera of my mom. I directed several short films with my young
brother as actor. Few years later, I won awards at local amateur film
festivals in my city, and I went to Paris at the age of 18 to do a cinema
school for 3 years. I
studied at ESRA Paris, which teaches direction/editing/scripting/
lighting/effects and provides a professional cinema graduation.
Eventually, I've learnt much more on the sets.
How would you describe yourself as
a director? Perfectionist, demanding, rigorous, passionate,
serious, ambitious. Filmmakers who inspire you?
Stanley
Kubrick, James
Wan, Sam
Raimi, George
Romero, Quentin
Tarantino.
Your
favourite movies?
Evil
Dead (1981), The
Exorcist (1973), The Conjuring, Blair
Witch Project (1999), It, The
Shining.
... and of course, films you really
deplore?
Blair
Witch (remake 2016), Rings
(2017).
Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
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The links below will take you just there!!!
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Kévin Mendiboure:
www.kevin-mendiboure.com
The
Follower:
http://www.terrorfilms.net/film/follower-new
www.facebook.com/thefollower.themovie/
https://www.instagram.com/thefollowermovie/
https://twitter.com/FollowerFilmOff
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? As mentioned previously,
we are currently looking for a production company to finance our future
feature projects. Thanks for the interview!
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