Your new movie God
Forgive Us - in a few words, what is it about?
God
Forgive Us
is a story of struggle between four characters who have
are constantly in a battle against their own personal issues.
How did the project fall together in the first place? Michael
and I have been working together since 2011, shooting various projects
together. When it came time to figure out what our next project would be,
I filed through Michael's collection of scripts and found God
Forgive Us
the most appealing. We self-funded the project instead of going the
fund-raising route. As far as I know, God
Forgive Us started existence as a short film - how come it was
extended into a feature during production? We shot God
Forgive Us
with the classic script rules '1 page = 1 minute on screen' - however the style in which the director told the story was at a much
slower pace. The style of direction caused the short film to more than
double on screen. We had a 60 minute short film on our hands, and no film
festival is going to look at that.
What can you
tell us about the movie's director Michael Bachochin [Michael
Bachochin interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like? And how did you two first meet even? Michael and I
met at Columbia College Chicago back in 2011, we were roommates at the
time. I was in school to produce music and film score, he was in for
directing. I began doing location audio on his projects and merged into
aiding him in production. Turned out I really had a knack for it. Michael
and I mesh very well creatively, we carry a lot of the same visual
inspiration in our projects and have a love for the dark and gritty
projects with a spice of social commentary added in.
To what
extent were you involved with the more creative aspects of making God
Forgive Us, e.g. casting and the like? I
had a large part in casting, along with Michael and his mother Regina.
Michael and I were debating the style from the beginning up to principal
production, but for the most part we were on the same page. He knew what he
wanted from the beginning and I was willing to trust him with everything
he wanted with creativity.
What were
the main challenges on the production side of God
Forgive Us?
We had many challenges, but weather was
by far the largest. We shot from November to March in Wisconsin. Mid-West
winters are the worst, and you see every inch of it on screen (see: Cop
Car Scene). Every day a record broke for the freezing temperatures, we
were outside filming. Most likely late at night. Our cast + crew stuck
with us to the end and I can't thank them enough for it. It still amazes
me to this day that God
Forgive Us
was even finished. We also had an
incident where our power surge wiped every inch of information off of our
hard drive, but we were lucky enough to have a company fish out the
information for us over a few weeks. That drove me crazy. What can you tell us about the shoot
as such, and the on-set atmosphere? A lot of our cast +
crew were people we'd previously worked with, so on day 1 there wasn't an
awkward shake of hands around the entire set. We showed up and got to
work. Over the next few months a lot of relationships grew and showing up
on set became just another day of hanging out, which helps to ease the
stress that comes with making an independent feature film.
Any future projects
you'd like to share? We (at this time) don't have anything
to announce, but we are currently negotiating our next feature with a few
studios and preparing to shoot a music video that I'm extremely excited to
put together. What got you into producing to
begin with, and did you receive any formal training on the subject? I
received no formal training. Michael talked me into trying to help him out
on his short films. Not long after I began to test the waters I was
reading numerous books and studying films attempting to put together
everything a producer does. I was intrigued by the job, and it's the
perfect balance between creativity and business for me. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to God
Forgive Us? I've produced numerous short films and
music videos, but God
Forgive Us
was my debut feature film and I'm glad it
is. A
few words about your production company
Kingdom Entertainment Chicago,
and how was it conceived? Michael and I wanted to put our
projects under a company name to build a resume. At the time we were also
shooting commercials and music videos to helps raise funds for our main
goal (feature films). We used this name to represent us as a business
entity, but now it's become our feature film production house. Filmmakers who inspire you?
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Quentin
Tarantino, Nicolas Winding Refn, David Fincher. Your
favourite movies? Drive, Fight Club, Gran
Torino, Prisoners. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
Off the top of my head I can't say one specific
film. However I have grown tired of the 'typical war films' I've been
seeing the last few years. I mostly blame the perfection of Saving
Private Ryan on it. No war movie has garnered my attention since
I saw that film, most war films to me contain the same drama and have a
predictable ending. Not my cup of tea. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
GodForgiveUsFilm.com
Facebook.com/GodForgiveUsFilm
Anything else you are dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Nope! Thanks again! Thanks for the interview!
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