Your new movie Goodbye
Honey - in a few words, what is it about?
Goodbye
Honey is a fun edge-of-your-seat piece of pulp fiction, but we of course
wanted it to be driven by something real and tangible. The film at its
core poses a real-world dilemma: Would you help a stranger in need? That
was the seed that grew the film to be what it is today. Our lead, Dawn, is
a female trucker completing a cross-country drive at night when she comes
across a young woman, Phoebe, who claims she has been abducted and needs
immediate help. The two end up being stranded in the middle of nowhere for
the night with many twists and turns to follow.
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Goodbye
Honey?
Early
on while writing the first draft of Goodbye
Honey, co-writer and director Max Strand [Max
Strand interview - click here] and I would try and
see films together to see what movies really spoke to us. We went and saw
Good Time by the Safdie Brothers at the Film Forum and were blown away by
its non-stop pacing, cinematography and indie hustle spirit. It put fire
under our ass. It made us feel as if our movie was attainable and we were
so excited to keep moving forward. We also love everything Jeremy Sauliner
makes as well for the same reasons. And I was personally heavily
influenced by John Carpenter’s films/music as well as Leone’s Once
Upon a Time in the West and Craven’s Last House on The
Left.
You wrote Goodbye
Honey together with director Max Strand - so what was the writing
process like?
Max and I have been making short films together since 2007, so we are very
comfortable writing and working together. So much so that we actually
wrote a large chunk of the film while lying in bed together due to Max’s
studio apartment not having any room for a couch or seats. The writing
process was very democratic throughout. Every word and action was heavily
discussed as we both wanted to make sure we were happy with every
milli-decision before we moved on to the next line. What can you tell us about
Goodbye
Honey's approach to the thriller genre? We
wanted to keep audiences at the edge of their seats and were determined to
do it on a micro-budget as we had no studios backing us. We wrote a script
that was conducive to a very low budget. Max said, “if we can get a
truck and a parking lot we can make this film.” That became our anthem.
We secured the truck and parking lot on an exchange of services basis, so
free, and from there nothing was going to stop us from telling this story.
We started principal photography as soon as we could and never looked
back.
What
were the main challenges of bringing Goodbye
Honey to the screen from a producer's point of view? Everything
seems to be very pay-to-play while getting a film off the ground. We
couldn’t afford a casting agent, so we couldn’t find name-talent - which
left us without much financial backing. We thought it would be a grueling
process without real funds, but it ended up having a real silver lining. We
brought on a cast and crew who were willing to take part in our film not
for the benefit of merely a paycheck but because they really believed in
the project as well as in Max and myself. This was not a clock in clock
out experience for any of us. We did it because we loved it, and we wanted
to make this film together. The crew were largely friends of mine and made
for such an incredible and rewarding experience. I’ll be paying it
forward to everyone who helped in our vision for the rest of my life. Do
talk about Goodbye Honey's cast, and as co-writer and producer, how deeply were you involved in
the casting process?
Max and I, worked in tandem together with a lot of the decision making for
the film. We auditioned everyone together and even held one in my
apartment that we staged to look like a production office so we could save
on renting a space for the day. The process could not have been easier.
Max and I, really knew these characters in and out and choosing the cast
could not have been an easier process. We both agreed on every role, and
looking back on the project as a whole I feel we nailed it. What can you tell us about your
collaboration with Goodbye
Honey's director Max Strand [Max
Strand interview - click here] during the shoot?
As a writer/producer/cinematographer for the film I was very attached to Goodbye
Honey. We always talked everything through and made sure we were
both pleased and on the same page during the decision making of the film.
It was a very intimate collaboration and democratic, which I am very
thankful for. When we watch the film, I feel we both are pleased that our
visions are represented on the screen. Writing a film and handing it off
to someone else could feel as if your vision may not be represented on
screen, but working with Max, he was so conducive to collaborating with
myself, looking back at the finished product I don’t think I would change a
thing. We made the movie we set out to make.
A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
We
wrote a film that took place in the middle of nowhere, so we shot in the
middle of nowhere in upstate Pennsylvania at a sleepaway camp during the
freezing cold winter. It was around fifteen days of overnights with
multiple bear sightings, rain, sleet and snow almost every day. Our daily
schedule was starting at sunset and wrapping as sun rise. To have a cast
& crew come out every night braving the cold and dark bringing their
A-game was such an incredible gift I’ll never forget. It actually snowed
so hard in the middle of one of the exterior scenes that we had to pause
filming. Our continuity was ruined with fresh snow on the ground. Our
producer Josh Michaels ran out and brought back a car full of dirt to
cover the snow so we could continue shooting. Max, Josh and I began
distributing the dirt when suddenly cast and crew began helping us cover
the entire field so we could proceed filming. This was such a labor of
love. What amazing people we had at our sides.
The
$64-question of course, where can Goodbye
Honey be seen? May
11th on DirecTV, Dish Network, Sling TV, iN DEMAND, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu,
Xbox, Google Play, YouTube Movies, FandangoNOW, Hoopla, and DVDs will be
available via Amazon.com,
Bestbuy.com, Walmart.com, and//Walmart.com" target="_blank">Walmart.com, and
Barnesandnoble.com. Please pre-order on iTunes if you’d like to support
our film! Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of Goodbye
Honey?
The reception has been overwhelming so far. I feel like the reviews I’m
hearing are exactly what we wanted to hear. We’ve been told it's edge-of-your-seat, lots of twists and turns, pressure cooker, and a fun indie
thriller for all. Couldn’t be happier.
Any future projects you'd like to share?
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I’m very excited to announce I just completed a new comedy fantasy
feature screenplay with the working title Solar Transparency. It’s about
a man named Wes who lives in a town without sunlight when one day his
estranged father Gus is forced to move in with him against Wes’s will.
Gus is now restricted to a life-saving machine that depends on electricity
to keep him alive. It also leaves him immobile, bitter and unbearable to
be around. Wes decides to install solar panels on his house in a
convoluted attempt to kill his father though the whole small tight-knit
town is aware of his intentions. Wes’s story also coincides with his
mother Cindy who is involved in a bizarre religion based off of rainbows.
I tried to write this time with no restrictions at all. I wanted to
conceive something that I truly wanted to see on screen. Having said that,
I think I have a very producible film that will interest some serious name
talent. Also, looking forward to shooting Max’s upcoming film Emo, which
is currently in the very early stages of pre-production. What
got you into the filmworld in the first place, and did you receive any
formal training on the subject?
I was brought into this world with a father who had a closet filled to the
brim with VHS tapes. Somewhere around a thousand films or more. Every
movie my dad ever rented from Blockbuster or seen on TV was copied to tape
and we had quite the family collection. I saw all the classics with him
and saw all the R-rated stuff no child should ever see the moment I was
left to my own devices. I did study film/video at Drexel University, where
I met Max early on freshman year. We were making movies together
practically the moment we first met. Never stopped. Going through your
filmography, one can't help but notice that you've filled many diverse positions
behind the camera - so what do you enjoy the most, what could you do
without? I
got my start in film working as a costume intern, production assistant,
assistant cameraman, loader, grip, gaffer, camera operator etc. It was all
a way for me to get my foot through the door and make my way through the
ranks. I was trying to learn as much as I could from the people I was
working with, absorbing everything like a sponge. I started working for
free, stipends, favors, whatever got me on a set. Wouldn’t change a
thing that got me to where I am now. So happy to have met all the amazing
people along the way. Some of which even worked on Goodbye
Honey. Now
I’m mostly doing cinematography, producing and directing on the projects
I’m attached to. I absolutely love what I do and have never worked a day
in my life because of it. Having said that, I have no interest in being an
assistant cameraman anymore, haha.
What can you tell us about your filmwork prior
to Goodbye Honey,
in whatever position? Before Goodbye
Honey, I’ve been trying to make as many short films as possible,
which helped me feel comfortable enough to take on this feature. Check out
Natural Habitat at
ToddRawiszer.com/ shortfilms.
It’s one of my
favorite projects I’ve had the pleasure of making. Be warned it’s a
weird one! Writers, filmmakers, whoever else
who inspire you? Besides
the previously mentioned influences in regards to Goodbye
Honey, I’m
personally heavily influenced by Charlie Kaufman, Stanley Kubrick, Coen
Brothers, Yorgos Lathimos, Tim Burton and the heavy metal musician
Buckethead. Your favourite movies? Being
John Malkovich, Adaptation, No Country for Old
Men, A Serious Man, The
Fisher King, The Game, Place Beyond the Pines, Once Upon a Time in
America, Silence of the
Lambs, Jacob’s Ladder, Mystic River, A Clockwork
Orange, Peewee’s Big Adventure, Edward
Scissorhands,
The Neverending Story, The Lobster, People Under the
Stairs, Taxi Driver,
Heathers, American Beauty, Nocturnal Animals and Reservoir
Dogs. I have so
many more but I know this list is too long already. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? Oh
boy. I will say, I LOVE to see creativity and originality in films. So if
a filmmaker is not striving for that then odds are I won’t be enjoying
their films.
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Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
www.UnisonProductions.com
www.ToddRawiszer.com
Follow
me on Instagram @Todd.Raw and @UnisonProductions
Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? If
someone could get me in touch with Charlie Kauffman, I’d love to show
him my new script. I think he’d dig it. If anyone knows how to get me in
touch with Buckethead, having him make a score for one of my films would
be the dream of a life time. Thanks
for the interview!
Thanks
for having me!
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