Your new movie Revelator
- in a few words, what is it about?
Revelator
is about a man that sees the dead, who has to solve the murder of a
wealthy
family’s last heir.
What were your
sources of inspiration when writing Revelator?
As
far as writing, I’m sure I ended up stealing a lot from Eric Roth.
There’s an
understated
quality to his screenwriting, especially when characters have to
choose
their words carefully.
Do
talk about your movie's approach to horror!
I
have to admit I’m not generally a huge fan of the genre as an audience
member.
From the beginning, I was always concerned with what actually
qualified
(to me) as scary, and how a lot of those common tropes didn’t serve
us.
I think that ended up pushing our film closer to what they’d call a
‘psychological horror’. It might be a consequence of my life experience, but
there’s
little scary to me about a roughly adult-sized person trying to injure me.
When
I stripped the story of Revelator
down to its core themes, the most
frightening
part to come from it was the question, “What if I’m wrong?” I think
that’s
fundamentally scary to everyone.
In Revelator,
you make good use of some awesome exterior locations - so do talk about
those for a bit, and what was it like filming there?
Revelator was absolutely shoe-string from the get-go. What I desperately
needed
to avoid was feeling boxed in, like so, so many other projects I’ve
worked
on under similar time/money constraints. By far the most time and
money
I spent was making sure that this story moved around, and took the
audience
along a journey. There’s something so tedious to me about single location
stories, or bottle episodes. I feel that if the audience gets the idea
that
the
whole thing is going to take place here, they already know at least some
part
of how it ends, and their attention is already half gone. I’ve lived in
Southern
California for years, and so had a little list of places not over-represented
in films, and made a great effort to shoot there, writing large
chunks
of the story centered around them as set pieces. Revelator
is
undeniably
a ‘California’ film, but I wanted to shoot parts we hadn’t seen
before.
Shooting
on location certainly brings its own set of headaches, but the free
reign
you get when a whole area is cordoned off just for you is fantastic. In
finding
locations, remember that you’re not just looking for what serves the
story,
and what works for production, you’re also essentially auditioning the
location
owners, who are going to have their own personalities and
requirements.
Keep your ears open and your guard up.
What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand?
I’d
say it’s almost entirely based on faith in the people I had working with
me.
I’ve
had the exceptional luck you be close with such talented people, that I
could
rely on them to perform exactly as I’d expected. There was very little
cajoling
or changing things up, really. Everyone got into the script and latched
on
to the atmosphere we had designed, and it just clicked. We got away with
very,
very few takes because of that. Going back to Eric Roth, the only prep I
requested
from everyone was to watch The Good Shepherd before coming on,
to
see the style I was aiming for. It’s very austere and oppressive. Really
it’s a
movie
about people watching other people, and that’s what we had on our
hands
with Revelator.
You also play the lead in Revelator
- so do talk about your character for a bit, and what did you draw upon to
bring him to life? And did you write him with yourself in mind from the
get-go?
I’ll
admit that I wanted to play the lead from the beginning, and definitely
wrote
to what I believed were to be my strengths, or at least the kind of mode
I
knew I could fit into for the duration. It didn’t require a lot of
‘stretching’
from
me, and that most definitely worked in everyone’s favor, ha! I tried to
play
the part as grounded as I could, not all too different than my usual
demeanor,
save for the fact that the character is absolutely terrified the entire
time,
and how that manifests in different ways. Sometimes you’ll freeze up, or
run,
sometimes your fight-or-flight tips the other way and anger comes out.
John
is a character who can’t trust any of the people around him. He can’t
even
trust
what he sees, ie. always asking himself if he’s wrong about everything.
His
guard is always up, and so I had to work to let little bits of his
vulnerability
poke
through as it starts to crack.
What can you tell us about the rest of your
cast, and why exactly these people?
Most
of the cast were people I had worked with previously in some capacity.
Again,
I’m so unbelievably fortunate to know them in the first place, and
convince
them somehow to be a part of the project. What auditions there
were
were very short, and mostly involved me explaining the project and the
process.
I worked a lot from people’s reels, felt them out in a short interview
and
rolled from there. Everyone was so gracious about the hands-off approach,
and
understanding how much I had to handle on my end. No one needed hand
holding,
or felt lost on any part. It just seemed to click into place, and all the
credit
goes to them.
I
will say: The first and most critical decision was approaching Mindy Rae.
We’d
worked
together a number of times before, and since the relationship between
her
character and mine was so integral to the story, if Mindy had turned it
down, I
wholly believe I would have done a different script altogether.
A few words about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Honestly,
it wasn’t too strenuous (for anyone but me). I did my best to take on
absolutely
as much responsibility as possible, and make it as easy and painless
for
everyone else to come on board as I could. Even under the best
circumstances,
it’s no small thing to go and do someone else’s movie, so I
labored
to take away all the typical negative things I generally experience
working
as a crew member. I plotted out exactly how each day’s schedule
would
be spent, down to 15 minute increments, and we stuck to it nearly
verbatim.
With that much planning and organization, and a painfully myopic
director
like me in charge, it wasn’t hard to keep us on track. The downside to
it
was that I wasn’t as personally available to each person as I would have
liked.
Maybe it’s the Midwestern part of me, but I’m forever chronically
frightened
that the people working with me aren’t content.
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You've
also composed the score for Revelator
- so do talk about the music in your film for a bit, and your musical
influences?
I’ve
been recording music for a number of years, though I hadn’t scored
anything
previous. I had a definite idea in mind for a kind of dissonant, sparse
soundscape
using a lot of atypical instruments. Luckily I live in Los Angeles, and
anything
can be rented! I did a lot of experimentation with foreign string
instruments,
and modulating them while holding notes. Like every piece of the
production,
I just desperately wanted it to be different that what an audience
walking
into an “independent horror film” would expect.
Anything you can tell us about audience and
critical reception of your movie yet?
The
only audience I’ve seen it with was at the premiere in Beverly Hills.
That’s
a
half-truth, as I spent the duration of the movie chainsmoking just out the
door.
But afterwards, it was extraordinarily positive, beyond the usual
backpatting
you
might expect. My goal from the beginning was to make something
that
lived up to the standards of the people making it, and I definitely got
that
impression
that night.
After
the full digital release, I’ve kept a close eye on the reviews and
ratings. At
this
point with the project, I’m not a creative lead, I’m a manager for a
small
business,
and so it’s my full time job now to keep tabs on its reception and
performance.
What I’m seeing in general is an extremely happy audience, and a
very
encouraging critical response. Even reviews that take issue with the film
(I
certainly
have my own) seem to judge it on the merits of being a real, actual
movie.
That’s such a strange context for me to see people judge it in. For me
it’s
been
this little personal project that’s sat on my laptop forever, and I’m
continually
amazed when it’s spoken about by objective viewers in the same way they
talk about any other film they saw in the theater.
Any future
projects you'd like to share?
I’d
love to! Just as soon as I figure out what they’ll be. I have a lot of
material
developed
that I’d love to produce, so now it’s just down to finding who wants
to
work together.
What got you into the
filmworld to begin with, and did you receive any formal training on the
subject?
It’s
what I’ve wanted to do for about as long as I considered having a
grown-up
job.
I received my degrees in both film and theater from Columbia College
Chicago.
When it comes to filmmaking you have worked in
numerous positions in front of as well as behind the camera - why is that,
and what did you enjoy the most, what could you do without?
There
are a lot of parts of this process I enjoy a great deal, and I’m always
looking
for whichever opportunities present themselves. They’re each their
own
kind of fun. I’d say I’m best at being a cinematographer, as that’s
where
I’ve
spent the majority of my career. I did dolly grip for a number of years
though,
and I think that’s quite enough of that.
What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Revelator,
in whatever position?
As
mentioned, the majority of my work is as a cinematographer. That was my
concentration
in college, and it’s how I keep the bills paid. I really wish I’d kept
a
better list of everything I’d worked on, as it’s been such a long and
varied
path
so far (and IMDb doesn’t even cover a quarter of it).
Filmmakers, actors, writers,
musicians, whoever else who inspire you?
Directors
like Amir Shervan, James Nguyen, Neil Breen, and Francis Coleman I
keep
coming back to. Of course I have to give a lot of credit to Mark
Borchardt.
Your favourite
movies?
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Currently?
I’ve been revisiting The Witch, or some Nicholas Winding Refn
stuff.
... and of course, films you really deplore?
Movies
that let whatever it is they want to say get in the way of actually
telling
a
story. I recently walked out of a film for the second time in my life. As
it
stretched
past its second hour, it had yet to bother to tell a story, and I knew
damn
well where it was going to end up, all in service of making a painfully
obvious
point that I don’t think needed a movie to be made.
Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
Everything
about it you can find at RevelationMachine.com
Thanks
for the interview!
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