Your new movie Alley Trash
- in a few words, what is it about?
Alley Trash’s premise is undeniably simple: Jay
Winger plays a pothead, attempting to find an isolated spot where he can smoke
a joint after a concert. Wandering through various downtown back alleys, he
experiences a series of bizarre circumstances while encountering members of
the criminal underworld. One of my media studies professors remarked that I
have a tendency to explore clichés and mess around with them, so this was
something I attempted with the different scenarios and decisions presented to
the viewer.
Why did you choose the "choose your own
adventure"-approach for Alley
Trash, and what are the challenges making a movie that way?
Alley Trash was my undergraduate thesis
project in media studies at McMaster University. I was in a combined
degree program, also studying theatre & film, so I wanted to try
something different from the more conventional approaches I’d covered
during most of my preceding academic career. Not to mention that a handful
of people in the course had already announced their intentions to produce
feature-length films, so I wanted my project to stand out. I fed my
advising profs some bullshit about how the way we watch movies and TV is
changing, and that my interest in exploring new ways was the primary
motivator. I suppose it was a motivating factor, to some degree, but
interactive “choose your own adventure” videos was simply the first
unique idea which came to mind during the initial pitch meeting. I
didn’t happen to come up with anything better, so that was that.
It’s definitely challenging to write a
multiform narrative such as this. Depending on the direction you take, you
could be writing the same story two, three, four, or however many
different ways. It takes a lot of discipline and dedication, because you
have to be invested in your story and characters enough to want to do that
without losing interest. As soon as you lose interest, things get sloppy.
For a narrative like this, things absolutely need to be tight as fuck
because there’s also a risk of the audience losing interest. To avoid
these problems, it is recommended that this type of narrative be kept
short and simple. That’s where I made a mistake with an earlier
storyline, which I ended up scrapping entirely during the pre-production
stage. I tried to write a convoluted espionage narrative that was too
elaborate for this type of format, and more suitable for a conventional
feature-length runtime. My ideas for that storyline were just too big, in
general, and I wouldn’t have been able to realistically pull off most of
them.
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Other
sources of inspiration when writing Alley
Trash?
During the research stage, I tapped into some
heavy philosophical discussions about free will and the difference between
choice and decision. The BioShock game series frequently came up in regard
to that. I joined a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with some co-workers.
Films like Conspiracy Theory, The Manchurian Candidate, and
American Ultra
were influential in developing the unused espionage storyline, which was
about sleeper cell spies and mind control. Old horror movie titles
containing the word, “don’t” were the basis for the narrative
decisions in an earlier draft with the working title, Thriller Night. That
was an obvious homage to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, since the storyline
was more of a slasher horror narrative. Thriller Night’s premise
surrounded a love triangle involving the main character and his best
friend’s girl, so I was encouraged to look into Eve Sedgwick’s work
regarding notions of homosocial desire in literature. In Alley Trash,
there’s a nod to the old cop show, The Shield, which starred Michael
Chiklis. From the start, I wanted to go down some weird dark corridors
that would typically be explored in something like a David Lynch film, and
I feel like I sorta got to do that with this production.
At least to me, Alley
Trash does have a comedic side to it - would you at all agree, and
do talk about your movie's brand of humour for a bit? I
always laugh whenever Winger’s character says the line, “bitch, I
ain’t yo’ man!” I hope everyone else does as well. Some of his
facial expressions crack me up at different points. I’ve never really
intended to produce a full-fledged comedy genre film, but there’s
usually at least a dark or self-aware sense of humour to my work. The odds
were stacked against us on this production, which made me suspect it was
likely doomed to be a piece of shit, so we just had fun with it. Since
none of the cast were professional actors, we had to work within their
limits, and I just got them to ham it up. The whole thing ended up being a
joke, but most people would probably say that about a humanities degree in
general. What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand? Ever
hear of Ed Wood [Ed Wood bio -
click here]? I had to play it real fast and loose for this one.
I had to go guerrilla, since I didn’t really have time to block scenes
or even dick around with setting up a tri-pod in most cases. We’re
talking a shoulder rig for my DSLR, natural lighting occasionally assisted
by smart phone flashlights, with the intention of re-recording audio in
post. I managed to design lighting for some indoor scenes of the
mostly-produced first draft, Thriller Night, but the original leading
actor had to drop out mid-way through production due to health problems.
That basically forced me to scrap the footage and storyline and come up
with something new on the fly. Since the supporting cast were still
available, I threw them into the mix, and revisited an idea that I’d
shot with Winger as a proof of concept: The back alley stoner who has the
worst luck when it comes to smoking a joint. Looking back, I’m not sure
why I didn’t just follow through with this premise from the beginning. I
shot and edited all the scenes over three nights, then did ADR and
post-production audio the night before the deadline. Six months of
research and development, and, here I was, still scrambling through
piss-soaked alleys like an amateur at the last minute, haphazardly trying
to get my under-developed, guerrilla student film in on time. I cut a lot
of corners and did a rush job, and I still ended up handing it in a few
days late.
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Do talk about your cast, and why exactly these
people? I was short on ideas,
resources, and time, but I needed monsters, or killers, or some kind of
gimmick for Thriller Night. Since I was aware certain actors (read:
friends) happened to be available, I decided to revisit some characters
from my previous shorts, Blackbags and
Banana Seat
Bloodbath. Of course,
the unfortunate incident with Thriller Night’s lead actor occurred, but
pretty much everyone else was still available to shoot. I simply
transferred the roles of the Meathead (played by David Kolenkski), Ski
Mask Guy and Ghostface (as themselves), and the Banana Bike Killer (played
by Jay Winger) to the world of Alley Trash, then asked Winger to pull
double duty by filling in for the lead as well. Courtney Make, who plays
the Meathead’s quarry in one of the scenes, was available to reprise her
role from a Meathead-centric short I’m currently finishing. All these
people are a lot of fun to work with, have a great attitude and sense of
humour, and are willing to put up with my delusions of being an artist.
They’ve also been reliable as fuck the many times that I’ve found
myself in a pinch and needed someone I could count on. A few words about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere? Intense.
Draining. I was already rushing to complete Thriller Night, since I’d
wasted so much time developing the espionage storyline. I had a few weeks
to get it done, and was making good progress until the lead actor dropped
out. I mean, he dropped out while we were on location, setting up to shoot
one of the last remaining scenes. We’re still not entirely sure what
happened that night, but he suffered an intense nosebleed out of nowhere,
as well as some other issues, and it was kinda scary. Whatever it was had
eventually passed, and I sent him home to recover. I was worried that
maybe the production was too much for him and that I’d worked him too
hard. Regardless of that, he was all fucked up, and we were now into the
final week before the project deadline, so I scrapped everything. I spoke
to Winger about stepping up as the new lead, and production commenced the
next day. At that point, I only had until the end of the week to shoot and
finish post-production, so we just improvised everything based off a few
vague scene ideas. For the dialogue, I think I only took 10 minutes per
recording session, ‘cause I had to spend the final night bouncing around
town to each actor’s home. We’d record one take and I’d be like,
“boom! Got it. Good enough. On to the next one.” They’d always ask,
“are you sure? I can do it again.” Sometimes, I’d say, “fuck
it,” and we’d do one more take. Most of the time, however, I’d
insist it didn’t really matter, and we’d move on. I tried to keep
things light and casual so it would still be fun for the cast, but I had
to also keep things tight and on point in order to complete everything
within that ridiculously short timeframe. The $64-question of course, where can
Alley Trash be seen? For
the time being, due to technological limitations, it is only accessible
via YouTube
(https://youtu.be/8QSLK_L9vy0).
I’ve also released what I’m referring to as a director’s cut
(https://vimeo.com/220792734),
which is a linear edit of how I intended the plot to unfold. It’s kinda
like a walkthru, I guess. The proof of concept experiment, A Hamilton Back
Alley, is also available on YouTube
(https://youtu.be/5MU5qY1H0U8).
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Alley
Trash yet? People
generally seem to think the interactive multiform video narrative model is
a cool or interesting idea. I haven’t really received any extensive
feedback, especially in regard to how or if the element of interactivity
effects the viewing experience, which is something I was hoping to explore
in the long-term. Other than that, I’m just fascinated by everyone’s
individual preference when it comes to deciding how to navigate through
the story. I don’t know why, for sure. I guess it’s a statement about
someone’s personality. Maybe? Or not, I dunno. As an assignment, I think
the final grade received was a B, or something. I’ve never really cared
about grades and shit like that though. Just the experience itself. Any future projects you'd like to
share? Now that I’m graduating,
I have more availability to work on the personal projects I’ve been
neglecting since I went back to school. I’m just wrapping up
post-production on a few shorts, including a follow-up to The Ojibway
Switchback and one about the Meathead. I got the idea to develop a web
series based on Banana Seat
Bloodbath, but haven’t really made much
progress with that. I have a few ideas for some projects, which might
include branching out more into documentaries. Otherwise, I’ve been
assisting a friend as his director of photography on a few projects, for
which we’ve been toying with the idea of compiling and releasing as an
anthology. We shot a little 5-10 minute zombie film on Super 8 as a kind
of experiment with the medium. That was fun. I’m also handling
post-production audio for that, but I’m not sure what the plan is
regarding a release. We might expand it and turn it into something a lot
bigger. Or not. I guess you’ll have to wait and see.
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Your/your movie's website, Facebook, YouTube,
whatever else?
Alley Trash:
https://youtu.be/8QSLK_L9vy0
Alley Trash director’s cut:
https://vimeo.com/220792734
Vidoe McNasties Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/VideoMcNasties
Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask? I
think I’ve said enough at this point. Thanks for the
interview!
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