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Your new movie Rawhead
- in a few words, what is it about?
Rawhead
is your classic "monster in the closet"
tale. Very loosely based off the UK urban legend of Rawhead and
Bloody Bones, this story pits our monster in a little girl's closet, where
it enjoys tormenting her before its plan to abduct her and take her to
"its dirty den". Of course the little girl's parents think
her imagination is just running away with her and they want to help her
through it but she's convinced he's real. Turns out she's right. What were your
inspirations when writing Rawhead?
And have you ever been afraid of the monster in your closet when you were
a child - or are you now for that matter ;) ? When I set
out to write the anthology, the goal was to write a series of 10 or so
minute shorts that could be shot in the same location with the same core
cast (man, woman, little girl). The main purpose behind it was to
two fold, to showcase the talents of our team across a plethora of genres
and storytelling styles as well as produce quality content that could be
adapted into feature films for investors and distribution outlets. The
first two stories, Revelations and The
Jones, had more cerebral horror as
opposed to violence or gore, the horror was more psychological in nature. Rawhead, on the other hand, is just a good old fashioned in your
face monster movie. We up the tempo, don't write too much hidden
meaning, just fun and excitement. I think every child lets their
imagination run away with them. I don't fear the closet anymore,
that is unless I've been watching scary movies alone all night in the
dark. LOL Do talk
about your movie's monster, the Rawhead, for a bit, and how was it created
and achieved, effects-wise?
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Robert Johnson |
Rawhead's look is the brainchild of our amazing effects guru, Kristal White. I actually hand
picked Kristal for the special practical effects for the anthology because
of her stunning work in the field of monster creation. Her work is
rather incredible. She worked with the actor who would play the
monster and made a mold of his head and then literally created the
exterior from her own imagination. Then she body painted the rest of
his body and made his wardrobe. She created him from scratch!
Remarkable! A few words about your
directorial approach to your story at hand? The directorial
approach to this film, unlike the first two films in the series, was to
recognize the limitations we had shooting with just the one camera with a
fight sequence, and factor in the action sequence which would restrict my
ability to be in the room all the time during the action, so I asked my
co-producer and DP Aaron Sparks to co-direct Rawhead
and the upcoming The Origin of Species
with me because as he runs the camera he can better see
what is happening during the fight and it made it much simpler to provide
the actors and crew feedback to get what we needed. That and Aaron
has an amazing eye and some of the shots we got were his vision that made
it into the film, so co-directing this film was just a smart idea all
around. It made the film better, and makes us all look better in the
process.
April Hartman |
What can you
tell us about your co-director Aaron Sparks, and what was your
collaboration like? Aaron has a great deal of experience in
photography and film making and has an amazing eye on multiple levels
including lighting, creative angles and setting tone and tempo. We
met a few years ago talking about a project we actually never did, but
when my wife and I made our weight loss documentary we finally had a
chance to work together, and have become close friends. I really
love working with him because I have complete trust that we will always
get great cinematography and he has the most amazing ideas about how to
improve a project. I am so grateful because having someone like that
you can trust to make your vision look fantastic is crucial to success. Do talk about your cast, and why
exactly these people? One of the goals of the anthology was
to find a cast that we could work with for the primary roles throughout.
As such, we began with the three principles in Revelations, and then
starting with The Jones there were 5 characters involved. We have
been so blessed by our cast, who are extremely talented and have been so
supportive of everything we've done. Gracie Whitton is an absolute
godsend. She's so talented I could just watch her work all day! Lance
Eakright is a lot of fun to work with and has done anything we've asked of
him and of course nails all of his own stunt work. April Hartman is
a fantastic actress that I would gladly work with anytime who always comes
prepared and nails her moments. Robert Johnson is awesome as well.
As soon as we put him on set for The
Jones, everyone knew we had
found our Rawhead, and he was fantastic in the role! They are all
true professionals.
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Lance Eakright, Gracie Whitton |
A few words about the shoot as
such, and the on-set atmosphere? We were actually forced to
shoot this film twice. Or at least part of it. The first time
around, a 24 hour sickness hit the set and required a shut down and
reschedule. I was very much concerned that having to come out again
when everyone had already worked so hard was going to be an issue. And I
could not blame them if they did. But instead, they were all very
supportive and the second shoot went off without a hitch. Everyone knew we
had a great film and we're all so excited to start getting the film into
the festivals and for folks to see it online. You wouldn't think we
shot it on a shoestring budget. Anything you can tell
us about audience and critical reception of Rawhead
yet? So far critical reception has been virtually positive
across the board. Given the professionals we have on our team with
Jeremy Mitchell as our production manager and script supervisor, Michael
Head our amazing sound mixer and visual effects expert, of course
Kristal's fantastic practical effects work, Trena Sparks amazing eye for
production design, Sheril Rodgers magic touch with wardrobe and even the
never tiring production assistants we've had including Wesley Trout,
Rachel Cook, Addison Mitchell and Michael Cruz as well as others who have
contributed to the film including 1st AD Clint Moody and our amazing
composer Ryo Utasato, we believe Rawhead
is so far the best film in the
anthology. So far public opinion seems to agree. The $64-question of course, where can the film be
seen? Rawhead
can be seen on YouTube using this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlPF4dabdXo
With any luck at all there should be festivals coming in the not too
distant future you can also see it at. If you keep an eye on social
media we will keep everyone apprised. Any future projects you'd like to share?
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We're
shooting the final installment of the anthology next weekend, called The Origin of Species. It is a vampire tale with another OMG ending like
the other films. One of the signatures of these films is their twist
endings you don't see coming, and that's my favorite part. Once the
anthology is completed, we are touring the festival circuit with them and
starting development of our thriller The Zombie Effect and will also be
shooting a few other short films to be announced later. I actually
have a ton of other projects in the pipeline and seemingly adding more all
the time. Check out my IMDb page for all the details on what's
coming - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1418787/
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
www.forceofnaturefilms.net
https://www.facebook.com/forcesofhorroranthologyseriesvolumeI
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rawhead/1464203113900432
https://twitter.com/forcesofhorror
Thanks
for the interview!
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