Your new movie Blood Soaked
- in a few words, what is it about?
Lesbians
vs Nazis vs Zombies in an all out war! It’s
a love story set against an attempt at bringing about a Fourth Reich
commandeered by an army of zombies. Like Schindler’s List meets Dawn of the Dead set on the deck of the
Titanic.
What were your inspirations when writing Blood
Soaked - and given the rather wild topics the film tackles, was
there ever a point where you thought you might have gone too far?
I think we didn’t go far enough, honestly.
I look back on it now and think about all the botched opportunities
for nudity, kills, etc. But
that’s what learning from experience is all about.
I was inspired by very bad films about rednecks killing people in
the desert, and wanted to stir that pot a bit. Your
film features quite a few violent bits - so what can you tell us about
those, and was there ever a line you refused to cross?
To completely contradict the above question, I
didn’t want to get too exploitative with the lesbian couple.
In the end, if you want the audience to care about your cast, you
really can’t treat your characters like sex toys.
Just real people. What
can you tell us about your directorial approach to your subject at hand?
It was chaotic on set, every day.
We shot about 15 pages each 10 hour day for six days, so a lot of
it was trying to harness the manic paranoia of trying to get so much done
in such little time and force that energy onto the screen.
All the while making sure everyone is happy, drinking enough water,
etc. Do
talk about your key cast for a bit, and why exactly these people?
They’re all easy on the eyes and can act.
In addition, they showed up every day for very little money and
agreed to go through immense amounts of mental and physical abuse all for
a little exploitation movie. All
of them still talk to me and are proud of their work.
They’re the best, most patient cast a micro-budget film cold ask
for. In it for the movie and
the people. Quite
a bit of your film was filmed in what appears like the middle of nowhere -
so what can you tell us about your locations, what was it like to film
there, and the challenges during the shoot? Most
was shot in our “locations manager” Frank Rolla’s backyard.
He owns a good bit of empty desert land off a secluded highway and
agreed to let us shoot there for cases of beer.
Good thing about private land is there are no permits required and
cops leave you alone. The bad
thing is there’s no shelter and if you want the light to stay the same
you have to shoot in the hot as hell sun.
Do talk
about the shoot as such for a bit, and the on-set atmosphere!
It was crazy, we had a crew of four people.
Tyler King [Tyler King interview
- click here] on camera, myself on special effects, a sound guy/girl
and an abusable assistant. We
kept it cheap and fast, juggled many balls, and came out tired as hell.
I tried to keep the atmosphere so fast paced that no one would ever
have downtime or a break to reconsider being involved in our film, or
notice they were slowly being eaten alive by desert red ants. A
few words about audience and critical reception of Blood
Soaked? It's been overwhelmingly awesome.
Out of 30+ reviews, we’ve only had two that are negative.
Its been written up on some of my favorite sites. We had a great
festival run and actually won a couple awards.
We were picked up by my favorite company, Wild Eye Releasing.
They were our first query letter for distribution and they’re
putting it out on physical DVD. You
can’t ask for more, really.
Peter on set with Rachel Corona and Heather
Wilder |
Since the undead rarely stay down - will
there ever be a sequel to Blood
Soaked, and/or other future projects you'd like to share? Nothing
in the works for a Blood
Soaked sequel, but I just wrapped up writing our
next film. A hallucinogenic
spin on the home invasion movie. Whatever
money Blood
Soaked makes will go straight to the next one. What
got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal
education on the subject? I
started making films in middle school as a way to meet girls.
It worked so well I never stopped.
I met everyone I work with today in film school.
What can you tell us about
your filmwork prior to Blood
Soaked? I
bought coffee for assholes on million dollar film sets, decided I was
wasting my life and becoming a fat selfish Californian and quit in order to make my
own films. How would you describe yourself as a
director? Confused,
lost, and hopeful. Praying the
crap I put on the page comes out as I want it to when put in other
people’s hands. Filmmakers who inspire you? The
ones who can make a movie and not go to prison or kill anyone in the
process. Your
favourite movies?
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I
really enjoy films that ruin your day.
Russian war movies, American exploitation, Italian neo-realism.
Harsh, angry, honest films. ... and of course, films you really
deplore? Anything
without passion, care, or a vision. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else? You
can connect with Blood
Soaked through or Facebook page @BloodSoakedFilm or
our distributor Wild Eye’s page @wild.eye.releasing.
And of course, you can buy it through Amazon, Best Buy, Hastings, FYE,
etc… Anything else you are dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? You run one of the coolest and weirdest sites on the
goddamn planet. It's an honor.
Movies like ours can only exist because of people like you. Thanks for the interview!
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