Your new movie Bubblegum
- in a few words, what is it
about?
Freedom.
At least for me, Bubblegum
had a very soap operatic feel
to it - was that at all intended, and your thoughts about the genre as
such, also in relation to your movie? My
last film Henrietta and Her Dismal Display of Affection
had a more intentional melodrama feel, what with the whole “family in crisis”
storyline. With Bubblegum, I had wanted to take a stab at crime films and
road comedies. Sort of like Fargo meets Paper Moon, but if the Coen
Brothers were beaten over the heads with hammers and became mentally
retarded. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing Bubblegum? 60’s
mondo lounge culture and late night TV. Do talk
about Bubblegum's brand of humour for a
bit! Absurdist
toilet humor. Bubblegum
also does have its fair share of gruesome bits - so what can you tell us
about those, and how were they achieved? Some
of that stuff was real, like the raccoon roadkill, cigarette burns and
Daphne taking a piss outside… but the other more gore-y effects were
done with corn syrup and food dye. You have chosen
a very retro, S.O.V. look for Bubblegum,
and to my information even shot it on VHS - so why is that then? I
wanted to shoot in a format that didn’t require a lot of strenuous
lighting set-ups, or waste hours/weeks/months on color correction. It was
to save time and a little bit of sanity. Plus I've always been a big
fan of the S.O.V. look, so I figured “why not?”
What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand?
I
think in regards to making these types of movies, my number one rule to
myself is to never make it boring. There’s nothing worse than a boring
comedy.
Do talk
about Bubblegum's key cast, and why exactly
these people?
I
shoot primarily with the townies of San Marcos, Texas - my hometown. 99% of
them aren’t professional actors, but have participated enough in my
projects to establish a comfortable working relationship
Two
of the actors (Tristan Smith, Steve Silverstein) are friends of mine from
Florida… so they flew down here and we shot in a gross, sketchy motel
for 12 hours. Good boys.
A few words about the shoot as such, and
the on-set atmosphere?
We
ran into a lot of problems on and off set. For starters, there was never a
script. I just wrote scenes the day of or night before. That approach has
its advantages, but I would suddenly have actors move across states or go
to jail… so I would have to quickly write myself out of a corner by
changing certain plot points and removing scenes I had already written.
Another
obstacle was the format itself. It was shot on old, used VHS tapes from
the 90s that had a bunch of movies and TV shows recorded on em… so when
it came time to convert the footage, a tape would disintegrate inside the
VCR… leaving us with no choice but to reshoot everything we did that day.
The $64 question of course, where
can Bubblegum be seen?
I
plan on releasing a limited run of VHS tapes for Bubblegum in the near
future… so make sure to get your hands on that as soon as it drops! Aside
from that, I am looking into offering the film as a digital download, but
I have yet to find a good outlet for that… maybe Vimeo?
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Bubblegum
yet? We
had one screening so far and everyone loved it. Nonstop laughs. We’ll
see about critical once it hits the festival circuit. Any
future projects you'd like to share? I’m
thinking of shooting my 3rd and 4th feature simultaneously, but I need to
get my shit together first. Movie making is ruining my life!
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Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else?
Website: jeffrey-garcia.com
Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @jayfreegarseeuh
Youtube: jeffysplayhouse
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Stay
classy, keep it sleazy. Cheers. Thanks
for the interview! Yeah
no problem thank you.
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