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Your new movie For the
Boss - in a few words, what's it about?
For the
Boss is a dark / absurdist comedy about a guy named Lance who gets
abducted by a group of not-so-sharp criminals. As the film progresses, the
criminals’ intentions are revealed and Lance is forced to use deadly
force to make his escape. With For
the Boss being a gangster movie, is that a genre at all dear to
you, and some of your genre favourites? And what can you tell us about
your approach to gangster cinema? I’m
not sure I would necessarily categorize the film as a gangster movie,
although the film does revolve around a group of criminals and I tried to
incorporate some general gang lingo in the dialogue. Having said that, I
am great fan of gangster movies, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed
(pretty much anything Scorsese touches) are some of my favourites. For this film I
was really honing in on organized crime’s fixation with their
hierarchical structure, specifically with the adoration “for the boss”. I always found it interesting how much respect / loyalty the boss
of a crime family garners wherein most other line of work the boss is
usually disliked and heavily criticized. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing For
the Boss? I didn’t really have any direct influences for the plot but I did gain
influence from this show called Big Time in Hollywood FL for telling a
dramatic / action thriller styled story with goofy humour at the
forefront. To what extent could you identify with
the character Lance in your movie, and to what extent with Michael - and
wioth any of the other characters to that end? I
incorporated a bit of myself into each character in a way. I think Lance
and Michael are really two sides of the same coin. They both have good
intentions and ultimately want to do good but their methods of achieving
it end up causing more problems than if they had just not gotten
involved. I think I can definitely identify with that to a certain extent.
As for the other characters, Phil and the Boss’ feeling of isolation are
a fairly universal sentiment and Sal and Maria are essentially just my
sense of humour personified.
What can you tell us about For the
Boss's brand of humour? If
I had to define the brand of humour I’d probably label it as a mix of absurd /
raunchy / slapstick. I also often strive for what I call "earnest stupidity", where every actor plays the part as serious as can be,
displaying a utmost conviction, but often the dialogue / situations are
completely ridiculous. A few words about your
overall directorial approach to your story at hand? For
the comedic portions I focused on a more loose / improv direction, just to
allow the actors to give a bit of their own flavour to the dialogue. As
for the dramatic portions I was really focused on ensuring that the actors
were able to get to a mindspace to deliver on the emotions. I was a little
bit more rigid with the script on that end. Do
talk about For the Boss's
cast, and why exactly these people? I
cast everyone pretty much solely on how good of actors they were. I
didn’t have specific looks for anyone, only that I wanted Michael and
Lance to appear like they could go toe to toe in a fight. I had worked
with Darius Rathe (Sal), Cole Munden (Michael), Daniel Christian
Jones (Boss) and Shelby Handley (Maria) on other projects and I knew they were all incredibly talented so they
were all offered roles from the get-go. As for Daniel-Paul Sampson (Lance) and Sam
Biskey (Phil), they were suggested by Cole and Darius, respectively, and after
talking with them and seeing their demos, I knew they would fit the cast
and also make a great set as they were already friendly with each other.
What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? It
was a fun set to be on, we had a lot of laughs. It was a bit difficult in
the beginning because we shot this back in 2021/2022 when the lockdowns
were just starting to loosen upc, so we had to ensure to maintain
distance / wear masks. The other hardship was the location we were
shooting in did not have heating so it did get pretty cold. Other than the
long hours though, the cast and crew were all super kind and friendly. A
lot of us still collaborate on projects to this day. The
$64-question of course, where can For
the Boss be seen? We’ve submitted to festivals, a lot of them screening in the fall so hopefully
we’ll have a good run around Canada / US around that time. After that
the plan is to submit the film to a streaming network. Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of your movie? We
haven’t publicly screened the film so we’re still waiting to see what
the reaciton will be. I imagine it might he somewhat divisive as comedy
often is, but hopefully people will have some laughs and enjoy the story.
Any future projects you'd like to share? I
have a comedic short film, Daddy’s Final Sail, which I directed that
should be doing a festival run around the same time. I also have a few
upcoming projects which I’m producing with Friendly Fire Productions
that should be shooting later on this year. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? I’ve been making videos since I was 12 years old, just shooting with a
camcorder. Just always thought it was fun, and when it came time to pick a
post-secondary field, I decided to go into Television Broadcasting and
Advanced Filmmaking at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. I’ve
continued to make random sketch comedy videos for YouTube under the Friendly Fire
channel. This film was also supposed to be another video but
evolved as the runtime got closer to feature length. What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to For the Boss? So
as mentioned, I’ve done a lot of comedy videos for YouTube. Other than
that, I’ve produced a few commercials in Toronto and I directed a
dramatic short film called Lapse which screened at a couple festivals a few years ago.
How would you describe yourself as a director? I
think I’m a pretty easy-going director. I try to make sure everyone is
having fun. I tend to pay the most attention to performance as I think
that’s usually what sticks out most to me whenever I’m watching a
film. There’s sometimes a specific moment that I have perfectly
visualized in my mind but most times I like to see what can materialize from improvising. Filmmakers
who inspire you? Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, David
Fincher, Richard Linklater. Your favourite movies? Changes
from day to day but usually in the rotation - Goodfellas, One Flew Over
the Cuckoos Nest, Memento, Taxi
Driver. I saw Better Man recently which is
probably my favourite film of the last 10 years. ...
and of course, films you really deplore?
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Not sure there are many I deplore persay, haha, but I did find Emilia Perez and
Bohemian Rhapsody to be grossly overrated films. Your/your
movie's website, social media. whatever else?
https://friendlyfireproductions.com/
https://www.instagram.com/hifriendlyfire
https://youtube.com/@friendly_fire_productions
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? No,
thanks a lot for the interview. Me and the rest of the Friendly
guys
appreciate it! Thanks for the interview!
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