First of all, why don't you introduce yourself to those of us who
don't already know you?
My name
is Morgan Muscat and I am an independent filmmaker based in Mississauga,
Ontario, Canada. Filmmaking has been a crucial part of my life as far back
as I can remember. My love for filmmaking started out as I wrote short
stories that I wanted so desperately to make into movies. I learned how to
write a script and soon enough I was shooting them at school and at home.
In 2000, I had my first taste of industry working as a production
assistant on a cooking show called The Gathering Place with Graham Kerr. I
went to York University where I studied English but also dabbled within
the film department and then did a three year program at Sheridan College,
where I graduated with honours in 2008. Amidst all that I stayed firmly
situated within the industry, working on independent feature films,
television shows and music videos, as well as creating my own short films
in the process. In 2005 I launched my own indie production company,
Moonlit Road Entertainment, which has produced several diverse short films
since then.
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Your recent film Severance,
which you wrote and produced - in a few words, what is it about?
Severance
is
a sci-fi dramatic short about a heavily flawed man who discovers that he
is being replaced. His wife, his job, his whole life is being snatched
from him and as he delves deep into the thick of things he begins to
realize that the person responsible for it has a greater plan. It plays
out very much like an episode of TV’s The Outer Limits and is
geared more towards those who prefer thought-provoking films as opposed to
just visual experiences. It’s a compelling piece that makes you wonder
what you shouldn’t take for granted in life.
What
were your inspirations for Severance?
For
me it was the desire to craft a mystery of sorts, a mind-warping tale of a
man who has to come to terms with the fact that his life is being taken
away from him. The obvious inspirations come from The Outer Limits and
The Twilight Zone and their stories that within half an hour have
to tell a bizarre tale and keep you engaged. I remember watching these
shows and saying “wow, I’d love to write an episode”. So I wrote and
produced Severance, completely financed on my own. It went through
a lot of changes from its conception and at one point gearing towards a
full-blown horror project, complete with grisly gore effects and death
scenes. Then I decided to make it more of a thinking film, something that
could lure audiences in without the visual gimmicks, so it became a sci-fi
drama.
Severance - on-set photo |
A few words
about Severance's director, Dany Gehshan? Dany
is a solid filmmaker and a great friend. I had approached him very early
on in his career, sometime in 2007, when he had finished co-directing a
comedy spoof. We started talking about Severance to a point where I
had sent him an early version of the script and he came back and said he
thought it was a great little piece. So after several meetings with him I
decided to bring him aboard. What I like about Dany is that he possesses a
great personality and it made working with him an absolute joy on set. He
is also an actor, so it was fantastic having him direct the film because
he worked really closely with the actors, more so than most directors do.
It was a very tightly knit set where we treated one another more as family
members than as friends during production and that was Dany’s
intentions, as well as mine, right from the beginning.
You
have also recently wrapped production on The Devil Walks Among You.
A few words about that one?
The Devil Walks Among You
was
a short written and directed by Ryan M. Andrews [Ryan M.Andrews
interview - click here], in which I served as one
of the producers. It is basically a hybrid of sorts in that it blends the
horror genre with film noir, about a sultry woman who tells the tale of
the first time the devil came to earth. What I loved about the film was
the atmosphere that Ryan wanted to create by blending both genres. I
myself have never seen a film noir horror film so the fact that we got to
go that route with it was a neat experience for me. I also loved the cast.
We brought in a regular of mine, Robert Nolan [Robert
Nolan interview - click here], to play the role of The
Devil. Robert and I have known each other for a number of years and have
worked on many projects together so working with him again was just a pure
delight. Sandra DaCosta [Sandra
DaCosta interview - click here] was cast as Lilith, the lead, and she owned the
role right from the audition to the screen. I also loved working with the
crew, who were absolutely professional and friendly. We’re still in post
production on that one, but when it’s done it should be really fun.
You want to expand The Devil Walks Among You
into a series, right? How's that going to work,
and who came up with the series-idea in the first place?
Ryan
and I have spoken briefly about expanding The Devil Walks Among You
into a series and
while I think it’s an excellent idea I am undecided if I want to tag
along for that one just yet. Ryan came up with the idea and he’s
obviously really jazzed about doing it but I think if the time is right
I’ll come aboard to help develop it. At this moment though I want to
focus more on developing feature films and a couple of short films I am
hoping to make within the next two years. But if the The Devil Walks Among You
show
does indeed come to fruition and I am available to do it, I’ll
definitely be on board for it. What
can you tell us about The Devil Walks Among You's writer/director
Ryan M.Andrews [Ryan M.Andrews
interview - click here], and how did you two first hook up? Ryan
and I first worked together on the set of his slasher horror feature Black
Eve. He wrote and directed the film and I came out on it as a
production assistant for a few days during the shoot in March 2010. We
shot in an abandoned retail store in Brampton, Ontario, and I remember the
days being extremely long, but I had the opportunity to chat with Ryan and
found him to be just a terrific individual as well as filmmaker. What’s
more was that he possessed the same appreciation for horror as I did, so
we immediately hit it off. Since then we remained friends and we made The Devil Walks Among You
together as a follow-up effort. We have a few
collaborative horror films lined up including a feature film which I will
serve as a producer. I really love working with Ryan because we are both
so alike in our love for visualizing a horror story from script to screen.
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Together
with Ryan M.Andrews, you are currently working on the Stephen
King-adaptation Suffer the Little Children. What can you tell us
yet about that project, and how did it come into being in the first place?
Suffer
the Little Children was
a short story from Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection.
I read the story a while back and noticed on King’s site that the
“dollar baby” rights were available, so I quickly optioned the rights
and wrote the script. When I was done my first draft, I started thinking
of local directors who I wanted to approach to direct. I at one point was
considering directing duties but felt I should leave that task to someone
else as I already had my hands full with writing and producing duties,
among other things. Having come off Black Eve, I thought of Ryan
and decided to approach him. I was quite happy when I learned he would do
it and then we collaborated on The Devil Walks Among You
together, almost like sealing
the deal if you will. The story itself is quite compelling and eerie and I
knew it was the King project I wanted the challenge of writing. I love the
characters and as I read the story I could picture everything in my mind,
from opening shot to closing shot. The cast will be great also, I promise
you that. When crafting the script, I decided to remain true to King’s
idea and retain the same atmosphere and creepiness that was quite evident
in the story. Obviously things have changed since it’s an adaptation but
for the most part I wanted to respect King’s work and not create a total
remake of the story. Right now we have a terrific script and some solid
actors on board so I’m really pumped up to make and I’m certain that
we’ll have an amazing product in 2012. Let's
leave the future behind for the time being and dig back into your past,
shall we: How did you get into filmmaking in the first place, and
do you have any formal education regarding the subject? Like
I said I’ve appreciated the art of filmmaking since I was younger so it
was only natural that I pursue my dreams of becoming a filmmaker. I
studied Media Arts at Sheridan College between 2005 and 2008 where I had
the opportunity to learn about all areas related to the filmmaking
process, from pre-production to post-production. Before then I had some
experience on set, but nothing in terms of theory. I also had the
opportunity to be taught by some very inspiring people at Sheridan who
themselves are veterans of Canadian TV and film. I think the largest
growth for me as an independent filmmaker is the projects that came after
graduation, such as Severance and Suffer. You
also have a bit of a background in acting and still act in the occasional film,
right? What can you tell us about that aspect of your career? Acting
is something I like doing but not nearly as much as filmmaking. I was part
of the drama club in high school and back then I acted in a lot of
theatrical plays. Since getting into the film industry though, I don’t
do stage work anymore. Nowadays, I act because I have blast in front of
the camera and it’s a nice feeling not always being behind the scenes.
Most often I cast myself in cameos in the films I write and produce as
kind of an in joke to the people who know me. Other times I’ll act in
some films made by friends as a favor. I do it only when the opportunity
arises, but I don’t go out looking for work as an actor, it just finds
me. Will I do more? Perhaps! HA!
On
top of that, you have co-directed two movies, the documentary Hurricane
Hazel: A Tribute to Hazel McCallion and the boxing drama Title
Match. What can you tell us about these two films, and why didn't you
stick to directing?
Despite
the title, Hurricane Hazel has nothing to do with treacherous
weather conditions but rather about the astonishing political career of
Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, who has been in office for more than 30
years. The title is actually the nickname of McCallion herself, a nickname
most Mississauga residents like to refer to her as. That was a mini doc I
pitched while at Sheridan that I was granted the opportunity to make, so I
brought the cameras into her busy office and we started shooting some
scenes for the interview.
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Title
Match is a boxing drama that I wrote, produced and co-directed that I
wanted to make because I loved the concept of it. Since I’m not a huge
sports fan and because I love a good challenge, I thought making Title
Match would be an opportunity for go down unfamiliar territory and
formulate a story around a sport I didn’t care much about. Shawn
Robertshaw (co-director) came up with the initial concept of a downtrodden
boxer but it was I who drastically altered the story to make it more
believable, and so we introduced humanistic elements rather than the
supernatural that it was originally going to revolve around. I wrote the
script, it was well received, and we went to camera few weeks later.
Another films you produced was Duel. What can you tell us about
that one?
Duel
is
an action film that blends live action with hand drawn animation, in the
vein of Sin City. It has been by far my most ambitious project and
as a result it has taken me to a lot of festivals in Canada and in the
U.S. and has brought me a lot of exposure since it’s completion. The
film is about a suicidal man/comic book artist who finds himself caught
between fantasy and reality when the world he has created in his graphic
novels becomes a little personal for him to handle. The film played at the
Mississauga Independent Film Festival and at the Queens International Film
Festival in New York, among other notable festivals in Canada. So with
that film I’ve really had a lot of doors open for me and I’m grateful
for having worked on it. Any
other films of yours you'd like to talk about, any future projects? Well,
right now I’ve been focused on getting Suffer to the next stage
of development. It’s a pretty ambitious project for an indie film so I
want to take my time with it to ensure the final product is something I
can be proud of instead of something that’s rushed. At the same time
I’m looking over some scripts and am also circling another horror
feature that Ryan Andrews has in development, which I would produce. I’m
keeping details pretty tight-lipped on both projects at this time. Apart
from writing, producing, acting, directing, you have pretty much filled
every other position in a moviecrew at one time or another. Tell us a bit
about the various functions you have worked in and the films/TV-shows you
have worked on? When
I’m not writing or producing my own projects, I like working within the
industry on as many features or TV shows as I can just to see how other
productions are being run and of course to network. In the past I’ve
worked as a production assistant and as a locations manager as well as
have had the opportunity to be a Producer’s Assistant on the popular
travel show Departures for two exciting seasons. Recently I worked
as a PA on the third season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada
and, in addition to Black Eve, I also PA’d on the independent
feature films Burning Daylight, Reviving Ophelia and
There is no
Undo. I was also a location manager on the comedy Finding ODO,
starring Mike Bullard and Ali Rizvi. So yes, lots of diverse roles on many
diverse projects. Since you have produced a whole bunch of
movies written and directed by other people - what does a movie-idea have
to have so you want to produce it? For
me, I love associating myself with different genres. I’ve done action,
sci-fi, horror and drama, so when I am looking to produce something there
needs to be a story I can relate to, or that I find intriguing enough in
terms of originality or creativity. The script itself needs to be strong
too, otherwise why bother committing to it? When I write something with
the intentions of producing it, I want to ensure that the story is perfect
before I step forward and move into production. I treat things the same
way when I’m just producing, such as on Duel or The Devil
Walks Among You; both had intriguing stories, so I wanted to make
them. Filmmakers, writers,
producers who inspire you? I
don’t think I have a specific person who inspires me, but I do
appreciate the work that Christopher Nolan and David Fincher deliver on
each of their films. I also admire John Carpenter for the contributions he
has made to contemporary horror, both as a writer and director. These
filmmakers rarely disappoint me and thoroughly entertain me, so they often
inspire me to want to do my best as a filmmaker.
Your favourite movies?
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Once
again, I don’t have a specific film or films because I don’t feel I can
appreciate just a handful of titles. For me, I love the horror genre, and as
such I would opt to go more for psychological horror rather than the slasher
killer type. Think Jaws, Halloween (1978) and
The Fog
(1980) instead of the killer in a mask stabbing teenagers-formula that is
so popular these days. Those are the films I tend to admire for being effective
and original rather than sticking with the standard. ...
and of course films you really deplore? I
deplore the idea of remakes and belated sequels. For me, I
love tackling projects that are innovative and present something fresh to
the public instead of routine. With so many remakes and sequels on the
release front in Hollywood this year, it’s sad to see the route that has
been taken where people opt to see something familiar rather than original
and as a filmmaker it’s quite disheartening to see. The freshness and
fun of the original is quickly tarnished by ravenous companies wanting to
turn in a quick (and hefty) profit based on a familiar idea. The word remake sells,
even though the final product typically winds up an
atrocious mess. Your website,
Facebook, whatever else? You
can visit my website (www.morganmuscat.com)
to learn more about me or the work I have done with my company, Moonlit
Road Entertainment, or check out my IMDb profile
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2911850/).
You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and even MySpace. I’m pretty
accessible. Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Well,
you wouldn’t have known to ask, but I’m getting married this July to
the sweetest, most beautiful woman in the world! Just thought I’d throw
that in there since I don’t mention her often during these interviews or
just how loving and supportive she has been to me and my career. Thanks for
the interview!
You’re very
welcome, and thank you for the opportunity.
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