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Your new movie Bloodhound
- in a few words, what is it about?
Bloodhound is about a private detective named Abel Walker who is on the hunt for a
missing woman, but he finds himself caught up in a dangerous game that
could end in murder.
With Bloodhound
being a thriller of the hardboiled detective variety - is that a genre at
all dear to you, and some of your genre favourites? And what do you think
makes your film stand out of the crowd? I’m
a fan of all genres but I’ve always been fascinated with the thriller
genre, especially crime thrillers. 8mm and Nightcrawler were big
influences on Bloodhound. (Other) sources
of inspiration when writing Bloodhound?
The
main inspiration for a Bloodhound
was the character of Abel Walker. He’s
this weird but seemingly normal man and underneath the surface there’s
something more to him. You’re not sure if you should buy into his
persona or not.
Once
I came up with that character I took inspiration from Los Angeles at night
to craft the story. While I was writing the script I would drive around
the streets of downtown LA late at night for inspiration, and there’s so
much activity that goes on in the streets of LA at night it’s inspiring
and scary at the same time.
You
shot Bloodhound
found footage-style - to put it bluntly, why? And what are the advantages
and challenges filming that way, both narratively and technically?
I
don’t consider Bloodhound
to be a found footage movie. I chose to film
it in a documentary style because I felt that it was the best way for me
to tell the story within the budget that I had. Also the documentary style
plays a key role in the story.
On
the technical side, shooting documentary style allowed me to film in
places that I would normally need a permit, but because we were a two or
three man crew, we were able to shoot in places that make the film bigger
in scope than it would be if we had a big crew and were shooting a
traditional narrative.
What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand? On
my first movie Unidentified, my directing approach was more on the
technical side because my actors were all improv actors and it was a
comedy so there wasn’t a lot of story direction that had to take place
once the actors knew who their characters were. I just let them go for it.
That was the style of the that film, but for Bloodhound, I
knew that the storytelling and acting specifically needed my direction to
keep the story flowing consistently throughout. There’s a tension in Bloodhound
that has to be kept up through the whole movie. Do talk about Bloodhound's
key cast, and why exactly these people?
There
are three key roles that I knew I needed to cast, number one was Abel Walker, and for that character I chose Ed Ackerman. He’s an actor I was
very familiar with and a friend, and I always thought he would make a great
leading man if given the opportunity so I decided to give him the
opportunity and I am really happy with the performance that he provided.
The
next key role was the character of Jim, the cameraman. I chose Dave Foy,
another friend of mine, and an actor that I felt could carry the movie with
Ed Ackerman. They were also friends with each other so that helps their
chemistry too.
And
finally I had to cast Maria who is the woman that Abel Walker is looking
for throughout the movie. Her role was a small role but it’s the most
important role. And without giving anything away, her character has to go
through a wide range of emotions in a very small period of time. I had
worked with Silvia Moore on a movie I produced called Chillerama, and her
performance was so amazing that it always stuck in my head and I knew I
needed to work with her at some point.
A few words
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Shooting
this movie was very difficult because we had 12 days and because the
nature of the documentary style we could
only shoot for maybe eight hours at the most per day based on the
locations we were at. So that made for a very fast-paced shoot, which can
get stressful at times. The most difficult part of this film though was
having the actors memorize 10 to 15 pages of dialogue per day. It’s very
hard on the actors, and then you throw in something like having them drive
a car while they’re acting, that kind of adds to the difficulty of the
scene. I think if I wasn’t already friends with these actors
before we shot it would have been a lot more difficult to get the
performances and the dedication needed to finish the film. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Bloodhound?
Well
the movie just released on January 7, but so far the critics seem to
really like the film, which I’m very happy to see because I put a lot of
effort into finishing this film as the writer, director, producer, editor,
and composer.
Any
future projects you'd like to share?
I’m
in post production on my 3rd feature right now. It’s a sci-fi story
staring Brea Grant and Parry Shen. I can’t wait for everyone to see it,
hopefully later this year!
What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? I
went to school in Boston for graphic design but I took a film class and
after that I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker. So as soon as I could I
moved to Los Angeles and started editing and producing. When it comes to making movies, you've worn
many hats over the years - so what are your favourite jobs when making a
movie, what could you do without? I
definitely prefer directing over everything else, but I really enjoy editing and I really enjoy creating
visual effects. What can you tell us
about your filmwork prior to Bloodhound,
in whatever position? Well
for the first six years I lived in Los Angeles I worked for a production
company called Ariescope Pictures and I produced several feature films
including the Hatchet movies, Frozen, and Chillerama. And right
now I’m working on visual effects for a movie called Jiu Jitsu which
stars Nicolas Cage so that’s been a blast!
How would you describe yourself as
a director?
I
don’t know if I can answer that question because
as a director you have to change the way you work on a minute by minute
basis depending on the project, so if anything I would say I am adaptive.
Filmmakers who inspire you? Ridley
Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Denis Villeneuve, Guillermo Del
Toro, Neil Blomkamp. those are the directors and visionaries that I look
at for inspiration. Your
favourite movies? Alien,
Star Wars, Back to the
Future, ET, Nightcrawler, Jaws,
Big Trouble in
Little China, and I could probably name 100 more movies that are my
favorite! ... and of course, films you really
deplore? I
don’t hate movies. I think all art is subjective and even the worst
movie was worked on by a lot of people that did their best, it just might
not have come together in the end.
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If
you’d like to support Bloodhound please buy
or rent the film legally.
Indie movies like Bloodhound are made from blood sweat and tears! Support
us so we can make more movies!
You
can check out Bloodhound on iTunes right here -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/blood-hound/id1490059529
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? I’ll
always mention my Mom, Patty Gundersen, if given the opportunity. LOL! Thanks for the interview!
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