Your new movie Night
- in a few words, what is it about?
Night (2019) is about a young girl is kidnapped by a strange man, who
forces her to be the star of his sick and twisted livestream. With Night
being about snuff moviemaking (or webcasting, to be more precise), did you
do any actual research on the subject? And what made you choose this topic
in the first place?
Well,
the idea came from me trying to write something that I never quite seen
before, something similar to other things but not too much to the point
where it is a complete carbon copy. Also yes, I did actually do a lot of
research beforehand, by watching YouTubers on the internet reacting to
their fans on their live stream and also twitch streamers as well. Other sources of inspiration when
thinking up Night?
Oddly enough the movie that inspired me the most to make Night was
Halloween (2018), I saw the film as soon as it came out in
theaters and I remember loving it so much that it inspired me to make my
own film. But storywise movies like Hostel (2005) and
Cam
(2018) inspired me in that regard. Do
talk about Night's
approach to horror for a bit!
The approach to horror in this film I would say is as straight forward
as The Evil Dead (1981), I love that movie and the franchise that
came from it. The thing I love most about the original is that it is a
straight forward horror film, but there are moments where you can tell
that what you are watching is a movie (because of their budget) and I
love that, things like that made me want to be a filmmaker. Night
is pretty much entirely shot from the perspective of Adam's webcam - so
what were the challenges there to keep things interesting? And what can
you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand?
The challenges were that I had to create interesting enough characters
to pull the whole film along for 60 minutes, I just wanted to let the
camera roll and let the audience see what kind of sick people are out
there on Adam's livestream. You
also play the lead in Night
- so what did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and have you
written him with yourself in mind from the get-go? And quite honestly, how
much Nicholas Michael Jacobs can we find in Adam?
Let me just say that there is probably not even a little bit of an ounce
of me in Adam, I wrote him with me in mind though because I knew that
with the budget and schedule we had to work with it wouldn't really be
possible to get anyone else. What
can you tell us about your co-star Gianna Jacobs (a relation of yours by
any chance?), and what made her right for the job?
Yes, Gianna Jacobs is my sister, I've made some short films with her
over the years and I knew that she would be down to take on the role of
Judy. I did write the part for her because I felt as though she was so
innocent that you wouldn't really need that much of a backstory to care
about her.
Do
talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere!
The shoot was extremely stressful because of the schedule that we had
and the budget we were given (which was basically nothing), we filmed
everything in my room (minus a few scenes) and it was really hot in
there. But we pulled through and I think we played a good game with the
cards that we were handed. The
$64 question of course, where can Night
be seen?
You can watch Night on Amazon
and POV Horror right now!
Anything you can tell us about audience and
critical reception of Night?
It appears to be a very polarizing film, some people love it, some
people hate it. I knew that I would get that with a film like this one
before we started production I thought to myself "people are really
going to hate this movie." But I chose to go forward with this
project because I knew that people would like this movie as well, none
of that really matter though because I made this movie for me. It has
been a goal of mine for so long to actually make a movie and I can now
officially say that I accomplished my goal with Night. Any
future projects you'd like to share?
Hmm, I have some ideas, nothing set in stone yet, but I think I want to
do something a little less serious in my next film. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject?
Ever since I was a little kid I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, I used
to make short horror fan films using my webcam and windows movie maker.
In high school, I took film classes, I never went to college because
when I met Bruce Campbell I asked him if I should, he told me "Fuck
college!"
What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to Night?
I made a few short films, some went to festivals and won some awards,
some I made just for YouTube. Night is not only my
first feature film, but it is also my first straight forward horror
film, all of the rest of my work had a lot of comedic moments. How
would you describe yourself as a director?
Yeah, among many other things, but that would be the first thing that I
would use to label myself. Filmmakers
who inspire you?
Sam Raimi, Wes Craven, Don Coscarelli, John Carpenter, the list goes on
and on. Your favourite movies?
Army Of Darkness (1992), Halloween (1978), A Nightmare
On Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988), Phantasm (1979),
that list can go on and on too. ...
and of course, films you really deplore?
There are honestly no films that I can think of that I deplore, I think
every film has some good qualities about it. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
You can follow @nightofficialmovie on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Adam's last name is actually Michael Myers' middle name, there are a lot
of hints to some of my favorite horror films in Night, I'm
not going to give anything else away here, because I want to see if
people can spot the references. Thanks
for the interview!
|