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Your new movie The
Wheel of Heaven - in a few words, what's it about?
A multi-layered story about predatory relationships over multiple lifetimes.
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing The
Wheel of Heaven?
Lots of other movies, of course, such as: John
Paizs' Crime Wave, Jane
B. by Agnes V., Unedited
Footage of a Bear, Living in Oblivion, JesusShows You the Way to the Highway, Mr
Mike's Mondo Video, Kentucky Fried Movie, Beyond the Valley
of the Dolls, Twilight Zone, Annette, A
Man Called Rainbo, Inland Empire, Quentin
Dupieux's Reality.
What can you tell us about your
co-writer Jason Kruppa, and what was your collaboration like? Jason
has mainly helped in the past with the editing process. I would send him
the rough draft and sometimes I get notes, sometimes I get some rewrites.
Then I'll go back and do the final draft. Your
storytelling techniques on The
Wheel of Heaven are not exactly, erm, traditional - so what can
you tell us about your narrative approach, and how hard (or easy) was it
to not literally lose your plot telling your story that way?
It'skind of just the way my brain works. I feel MUCH more at home with
non-traditional storytelling techniques. If I tried to just tell a
traditional story, it would be terrible.But
I mainly write all my stories as poetic mysteries that the audience must
decipher. But
the question that the audience is trying to answer is not: "Who done
it?" but instead the question is: "What is the story?"
So (because of this) my film is 50% truth and 50% percent "red
herrings" (or nonsense essentially) and it's up to the audience to
decipher between the truth and the nonsense BECAUSE that is exactly how
life is! Life is a mystery with nonsense and truth inter-twined. The problem is, most
artists are scared of adding nonsense to their stories when nonsense is
what makes life entertaining. The truth is what makes life meaningful. And
when meaningfulness and meaninglessness can dance together then
that's a beautiful thing.
Also,
it's not hard to keep a plot together in the midst of chaos. It's just a
matter of always keeping the main narrative story outline in front of you
(and constantly referring back to it).
A
few words about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
During production, I try to let the actors and cinematographers be as much
themselves as possible. Once we get to production, I've already created
storyboards, concept art, set designs, costume designs, etc... Also, I
have given lists of movies for everyone to watch and screenshots from
various films that I would like to emulate visually.
So by the time I yell action, I am pretty much letting all the cast and
crew interpret everything I've given them and regurgitate it back to me
through their own creative lens. I am very much into collaboration. I believe that if I can get 50% of my
vision on the screen then the other 50% goes to my actors, DP, editor,
etc... That may sound like 50% is giving too much away but honestly: Filmmaking is a
collaborative art form and that should be held sacred.
Do
talk about The Wheel of
Heaven's key cast, and why exactly these people?
I have worked with Kali Russell before and damn, can she act! So I wrote the
roles of Marge, Margaret, Purity and Kali as herself just for her (because
I knew exactly what she could do).
With Jeff Pearson, I needed an agile actor that could also, like Kali, play
multiple roles believably. Also, I needed him to nail the Mr. Universe
persona (as that character is inspired by the Z-Man from Beyond the Valley
of the Dolls). And Jeff just blew it out of the water! I could not have asked for a more
perfect protagonist. And Jeff was and is beyond enthusiastic. He's a real
gem and a wonderful human being!
What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
I think it was like 20 days of shooting. It was wild chaos honestly. It was
the most ambitious project that I had done so far. But the atmosphere was
great! We had a TON of fun on set. LOTS
of laughing and goofiness. I really try to keep everything fun and fluffy,
even in serious scenes. Half the time, I'm making stupid faces off camera
trying to make the actors break during performances. I'm an idiot!
The
$64-question of course, where can The
Wheel of Heaven be seen?
It
should be streaming somewhere by the end of 2024! BUT
until then, it's playing film festivals (both physically and virtually)!
Here's some upcoming festivals that it's playing at:
Nov. 30th at Stuff Film Festival in Texas - www.stuftx.org/
Dec. 1st at Sin City Horror Film Fest in Las Vegas - www.sincityhorrorfest.com/
Dec. 8th at Bizarroland in Florida - bizarrolandfilm.com/schedule/
Dec. 8th at Phenomena Fest in Brazil - www.phenomenafestival.com/programao2023
... and virtually Dec. 1-25 at Another Hole in the Head in California - www.ahith.com/ Anything you can tell
us about audience and critical reception of The
Wheel of Heaven? So
far, people either love it or hate it! I mean, that's really what you
want! Strong emotions! If people don't react strongly (good or bad) then it means that maybe I'm
not being true to myself enough. Any future projects you'd like
to share? I've got a few that I'm writing, but going forward, I'll need a real producer
to find me real money or I'll just go back to painting for a living. For
real, I am not about to rub any more elbows or kiss any more butts just to
be told that my shit's too weird. I HATE playing the Hollywood game. So,
if a REAL producer wants to find me, my contact info is very easy to find
online.
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Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else?
joebadon.com
www.facebook.com/joebadon/
www.instagram.com/joebadonart/
www.facebook.com/thewheelofheaven/
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Not
really! I really appreciate you taking the time to talk! Thanks for the interview!
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