That is the only things that would
have been nice. The special
effects was just enough for this film and we didn't want to make it
overboard. There was one special effect that was re-written in the script
and that was the pier jump. Little secret for you…
Your film's star Brandon
Slagle [Brandon Slagle interview -
click here] was also the writer of 15
Till Midnight. How would you describe your collaboration, and did
he have any influence on the look of the film?
It all started with
talking on AIM everyday while I was day caring my grandmother. So Brandon
basically told me he had a story that he wanted to make when he moves back
to New York, and he said to me it would be just a no budget flick, we shoot it
on spare time and that's where it begun. After he sent me the first draft
of what he had, the whole idea went another way. I told him we
are shooting on Red One and then he did rewrites and got the adjustments
on the last few drafts of the writing. Brandon was a huge help to me to
understand each person and what their involvement in the story was. So
just by talking on AIM every day and speaking of ideas about the script
helped get it to the point we were super happy with. Brandon's writing on
this is very intelligent which I like. So being able to work on discussing
this everyday helped us understand where this whole thing was going.
You and
Brandon have collaborated in one form or another on quite a few projects
before 15 Till
Midnight and since. How did you first hook up, and how would you
describe your professional relationship?
Well it has to be
about 5 years ago when I first started to talk to Brandon. We both acted
in a film called Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 but never met on the
set during the making of the film. During the time of that film
being made I was shooting my first directorial film The Gate of Fallen
Angels and Brandon emailed me and asked me about the film, and we both knew
we were in Blitzkrieg, so we just started chatting by email and AIM. The
first time I met him in person is when I asked him to play a part in The
Black Facade.
We
have a good relationship and can relate to what we have to do every day to
work in film. There is really no big answer on the second part of the
question, the only thing I can say is we both committed to film for
richer or for poorer and it is just something that works, working together
or just being friends and talking about anything.
A few words
about the rest of your cast and crew?
I have to say I'm
proud of the actors who took this film serious and came and did the work
that was required on a tight and intense shoot. My crew was myself, my DP
Daniel Lipski, the AC Jason, and Adam Vargas … It was tough but we
manage to do so much with so little crew, and I personally am used to
working like a machine. The DP can relate to my vision and that is a real
strong bond we have when we work on films together .
Is there anything
you can tell us about the 15
Till Midnight-sequel 15 Past Midnight yet, and will you
direct again?
My plans are to direct
the second film cause there is something that will make the people that
loved the first film crave the second one 50 times more. The second film
is in the works of being written ... when we can find some good free time to
work on it since we both have been really busy lately. The only thing I
can say is we designed so much more for part 2 and know exactly where we
want to go with it from making the first film. The first film - let's just
say is a tease from what part 2 will show and explain. I don't want to
give away too much, but let's just say you had Star Wars, then you had
Empire Strikes Back - if you get my drift on that then you understand what
I'm saying.
|
Brandon Slagle, Devanny Pinn in
Song of the Shattered |
To my information, the 15
Till Midnight-shoot was followed by the pretty much spontaneous
production of a second film, Song of the Shattered. A few words
about that movie?
The
Song of the Shattered has a long story behind it. That's why it's called
that. For my story, I was asked by Brandon, Devanny Pinn [Devanny
Pinn interview - click here], and Tara
Cardinal [Tara Cardinal
interview - click here] if I would come on and direct it since they would all act in this
story they had. It was like a few days before we had to leave to the
Poconos to the location where we would live and shoot all day and night
for almost 2 weeks. The film is pretty intense on some of the subject
matter which you can read about on reviews, the fan page on Facebook,
or just watching it. Let's just say it was a great experience in filmmaking and also meeting the many others who came and put time into the
project. The best thing I have to say is the film got done and was not a
shelf sitter or a uncompleted film, so that is one thing I'm proud of. I
do like how the lighting came out, and it was another learning lesson in filmmaking. The film itself has been in a lot of festivals and just has a
great fan base for which most of the promotion was done by Brandon Slagle and
Devanny Pinn. Joe Hollow was the Executive Producer [Joe
Hollow interview - click here]. If anyone is looking
to watch it, I know May it is being released on DVD.
Joe Hollow and Wolfgang Meyer on the prison set
of Cut |
You have also recently shared
direction- and production-credits on Cut with Joe Hollow [Joe
Hollow interview - click here]. What can you tell us about that
movie, your co-director/producer Joe Hollow, and how did the collaboration
work out?
Cut is a feature film
that has many twists and involves a town that conducts some filmmaking of
their own. I don't want to give away too much cause it should be out soon
and I would like the viewer to enjoy the film without knowing so much. Joe
Hollow asked me about coming on board with this new script he was writing
and wanted me to read. So Joe explained to me about helping him direct a
film on high end camera like
Red One and in a professional studio type level of film making. Joe wanted
to step up with a bigger vision for his project and take it another level.
I agreed to come on board and brought my DP Daniel Lipski on board, since
Joe wanted me to control the visuals for the film. My job in production
was dealing with all the business with camera and lighting from the rental
house that I deal with on all the films I shoo,t and just minor things we
needed for the film during shooting. I basically worked on getting the
visuals and sets set up everyday and using my skills of designing shots,
while Joe would work with the actors on dialogs to keep the story in order,
Joe also had to deal with the everyday business and also be a main actor
in the film. The film was another great challenge for me and I got to
work with so many different and amazing talents from all areas of the film
industry. I'm proud about being a part of the film and that I got to use
some of my visions and talents to help Joe Hollow make his vision and
story that he had wrote. That is hard for any director to do, visually making
a story someone else wrote. So that is what makes it
exciting about the challenge of directing. I do look forward to seeing
what the response will be when the film shows. I basically came on board
did the work that I agreed to do and now it's in Joe's hands to show the
finished product since he is the editor, but let's just say he is very
close or might even be done with the 90 minute cut of the film. It was a
great adventure for me also, I was working on the project for 2 months away
from my home and got to meet so many amazing people and see different
places which we filmed in upstate NY and West Virginia. There is a new
trailer on Youtube.com. The best story about this film I have is I went
to make a film and experienced something that you can't ever forget, and
the time I spent filming at the West Virginia Penitentiary is a story I'll
never forget.
Let's go back to your beginnings: What made
you go into the film business, and how did you initially get involved?
I
used to do commercial model work in New York when I was 18 for extra money,
and I made some good money doing it. I wanted to do anything in a movie
back then, and my agent just kept sending me to model jobs and high fashion
which I hated doing cause I'm not really a great model. We didn't have the
great internet that makes things faster like today in this business. I had
to walk everywhere from a piece of paper handed to me by the agent. So I
left the whole pursuit with that and travelled and worked all types of
jobs to the point one day I said I'm going to quit the regular day job I
had to become a actor. So my old agent had a assistant who became a
player in the agent world and she sent me to a well known celebrity
photographer in New York to do some headshots, and she started sending me
on acting and model auditions where I was getting work, and I just got more
and more aggressive going to all these auditions and managed to score some
jobs in film with lines and that helped me see that this is what I want to
do forever. Then there were also some personal things that have made me fully
inspired to succeed in this business. I loved film from when I was young.
Its was 6 years ago that I decided to quit my day job and commit to this
business, so I haven't stopped yet. Then about 1 year into my career of
acting I started working with producers that had me doing jobs like
casting, locations, and pre-production work which started me
to learn more about the process from no budget to high budget film
making, and it also helped me develop a lot of resources and connections to
benefit my producer work.
According
to my information, you started out as an actor. What can you tell us about
Wolfgang Meyer, the actor, and a few of your movies?
Yes,
that is correct I started as a actor. I basically got the jump-start
when I came back to taking film serious. I have done about 25 or
more films as a actor with lines. Most of my roles in films that you can
watch are small parts to leads. I have to say it's very hard for me also
with being an actor cause I work behind the camera a lot and as each year
goes by I don't act as much as I did when I first started. For me, I'm
serious about acting the part the best I can, also cause nobody wants to
look bad on film. It's something that takes a lot of commitment, to
really sell the role you're playing. I'm still searching for perfection to
better myself as an actor cause I prefer to play a different person and
have a different look every single film I act in. The thing I use as a
goal is each acting job I do makes me gain more experience and helps me go
to the next one challenging myself to see how far I can go. I like
playing the creepy villains in films but then I could play a suit-and-tie
guy in a drama. I do like acting and would like to do more of it again
since directing has taken that away from me. The last few films I acted
in are cathARTic, Cut, and whatever is on my IMDB for the last 2 years, which
has been small parts. I'm looking to get back into acting more, but it's an
everyday assault you got to do to keep submitting to jobs, and finding
parts in films.
As
far as I know, your first producing job was The Black Facade - a
few words about that one?
It's a comedy film that
my writing partner Adam Vargas made for his first directorial film. I was
helping him produce it and got cast as Kato a supporting role last
minute. The film is complete and out on the market . The version that is
for sale now will be gone soon cause its being released under new artwork
and updated new edited version. The film is like underground slapstick
comedy about this guy Jackson Blackman who has no luck until his roommate
convinces him to act like Jack Black the actor in a town to get everything
for free, but instead it all backfires. It was a learning experience and
also has its stories you keep.
Your directorial debut was The
Gate of Fallen Angels, right? What can you tell us about that movie?
Let's just say I have
never really spoken about this film in interviews, and this will be the
first. I started shooting the film 5 years ago with one partner for about
4 months. Then I got cast to be a lead actor in a serious Bollywood thriller. So I had stopped shooting
Gate and went to do this film and met
Adam Vargas cause he was the production designer. We talked all night
about The Gate film and The Black Facade. After I finished with
Vaikoont
we made The Black Facade and rewrote the The Gate of Fallen Angels script and
I started to recast and started to shoot the film entirely over. So we did
that for a year and a half weekend warrior style.
Maledictus |
The script and story
of this series is very complex and ambitious and we never reached certain
goals with the effects we had planned and written in the script. So the
news is I completely re-edited the film and I'm naming it Maledictus which
means The Curse in the book of Lucifer. The film will just be a serious
fantasy thriller with new
title and packaging art. The Gate of Fallen Angels-stories which there is
three will be saved for the future to be made with proper budget and high end
camera. So I'm announcing the film I shot has been re-edited to be
Maledictus . The film will be one hour 30 minutes. There is so much more
to explain about why this film has been sitting for the past few years, but
I just managed to fix the issues and looking to move ahead and just
release it.
Kato |
During
my research, I stumbled upon the title Kato quite a few times,
without learning anything definitive about it. Please enlighten us!
Kato
is my new baby that has been in the works for 2 years with writing
partner Adam Vargas. I wrote the first story of the idea and now we
have been writing the feature film script which I would act as Kato and we
are going to have someone else direct. I will not be directing this one
and I'm basically more serious about acting and designing the film. The
first thing I have coming out will be the comic book. The comic book will
be a version of the feature film script. There is also 25 one hour
episodes written in design that would continue after the feature film with
some of the main characters. This project is one of my favorites and I'm
sure people are going to like it . I'm not going to spoil or give any info
right now, but just keep your eye out for the comic book. The only hints
I'll give, Ninja, Girls, Guns, Yakuza,
Serious, Suspense Action.
Any
other movies you were involved with you want to talk about, any future
projects?
The
only future projects that are on my next-list is a film called Brooklynees.
I'm on the project as director and producer and it's a drama story about a
young gangster in Brooklyn, NY. More info will be posted soon. We have
some name talent interested and are close for the budget we need and are
getting close to moping up the pre-production work.
Disciples
is a new film that is going to be shot on Red One which I'm directing with
Joe Hollow and with Linnea Quigley starring and also producing. Press
release will go out soon about the film.
I
also been writing my next film that is Dark Comic and French Noir style
which will be shot in Los Angeles and France. The team I'm working with is
two French filmmakers that are VFX
editors that are amazing at what they do in post production. They have made
films on Red One. We are working on the script and they were super excited
cause it was exactly what they been waiting to do for their next film
project. Basically I'm going to direct and act
a part as they are going to handle all the VFX , back up directing
when I'm actin,g and post production. The film has talent from America and
France teaming up on this. This is a project that I'm super excited about
cause it has so much design that I've been waiting to use as a director.
I'm keeping this one under tight wraps, but you're the first to know about
it.
Then any other future stuff is too early to speak of now, this is mostly
what I will be working on coming up this year.
Actors
and directors who inspire you?
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Directors
that inspire me are Mario Bava [Mario
Bava bio - click here], Sam Peckinpah, Wolfgang Peterson, John
Boorman, Christopher Nolan, Tinto Brass, Takashi Miike, Peter Weir,
Dario Argento - these are some of my top ones, but there is a list of many that
I'm inspired by. Also many Asian, Italian, French, and
American directors from the 1930's to the 1970's that I can sit here and type
away.
I'm into all levels of actors. My biggest study is old films and
foreign films.
Your
favourite movies?
Geez,
don't know where to begin on this. Let's say I have a huge interest in
films that are really good and unique. I like films from the early
years of the 1900's till today's time. There are so many films that are
amazing. I have an open mind to all types of films.
... and of course, films you really
deplored?
I
don't really dwell on not liking films, but I'm not a fan of remakes …
If the film bores me I won't watch it again.
Your website, Facebook, whatever else?
Website
is down and being rebuilt, but basically you can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=632789586
- and also my films' fan pages on there. The only other place I would say to see my work
is IMDB.
Thanks
for the interview!
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