With the second season of In
Fear of to launch in only a few weeks, do bring us up to speed on
the concept of the series!
Well… it’s been exhausting but we are nearly done with the 14
episodes of the new season. We started in December 2012 and we just
finished the last day of shooting the season, the reason why was because
of the brutal winter we just experienced. With the first season being only
six episodes, we more than doubled the episode count. The episodes are
longer, more structured, and feature fully drawn out stories. The shortest
episode this season is 7 minutes while the longest is 25, with the average
length being 12 minutes. Overall, if you were to play them all in order
you’re looking at over 3 hours of content for the new season, which is
amazing considering the first season is only 40 minutes total. As of now,
we have 9 completed, with 7 about to be launched to the public.
You have directed no less than five episodes of In
Fear of's season 2 - so what made you pick exactly the phobias you
did cover in your episodes?
I had originally intended on
directing three, but wound up writing and directing five, Dementontophobia
and Autophobia were not meant to be part of the season as two other
episodes were slotted instead, but some unfortunate things happened where
those had to be removed and when I had people interested in being a part
of the series, those were the phobias they were interested in being a part
of. So in the case of Autophobia and Dementontophobia, that’s what I did
and it was a terrific challenge. I would like you to talk
about all of your episodes for a bit, about your approach to the
respective subject, about your cast, about the actual shoot and the like
... Gerontophobia? A
fun episode to do and was written specifically for Suzi Lorraine [Suzi
Lorraine interview - click here], having
worked with her on Thantaophobia: Fear
Of Death. Suzi has a gift for
comedy and I wrote the part of Annabelle, a woman who doesn’t age, for
her. She’s not immortal and she’s not a vampire, and it was fun to see
Suzi give such life to that role. Suzi worked with Doc Dougherty on
Captured Hearts, a fine actor, and recommended him for the role of Sean, a
guy who just refuses to grow up. It was eerie when I met him because he is
full of life, a free spirit, funny as hell, and gave a hell of a
performance. If anything, I feel this episode has a Tales From The
Crypt vibe and now that it’s complete, am very happy with it. I
decided to go against a traditional score and got all public domain tunes
from the 1930s. It really fits in with the quirky atmosphere.
Dysmorphophobia? Written
as a stand alone project 4 years ago, I tried to make it into a film right
before I decided to launch In
Fear of, and the script stuck with me. I
looked at what fear it could be represented with and upon checking the
list found that it was Dysmorphophobia, or a Fear Of Deformity. What I
admire about it is that it’s the closest from concept to screen of any
project I’ve worked on in terms of visual style and looks, and Steven-Mark Glassner
[Steven-Mark Glassner
interview - click here] did a magnificent job capturing the tone on screen.
Ekaterina Sknarina was cast when I first tried to get it made and was
happy when she was still interested and available to do the episode. She
brings a great balance as a contortionist and worked well with Heather
Drew, who did a lot to convey her emotions without words. It was also
great to work with Chris Alexander, who provided such a dark, brooding
score to the film that it gives it an added layer as a character onto its
own. Dementophobia?
I
don’t think an episode was easier to put together than Dementophobia,
and I mean that in a good way. As I stated before, when I had to remove
two episodes, Suzi Lorraine [Suzi
Lorraine interview - click here] came to me and recommended her good friend
Rachael Robbins [Rachael
Robbins interview - click here] for an episode. After an initial phone conversation we
talked about phobias and the one that interested her the most was
Dementophobia: Fear Of Insanity. When Rachael told me about her background
as a Playboy model, her comedic background, and her sex appeal in general,
the idea for the episode was simple to put together and probably the only
pure comedic episode of the series. I had spent 4 years as an interviewer
and have been to many press events, so I know how it gets when you are
asked the same stupid question over and over and over again. Add in some
innuendo and it was a very funny episode to do. Rachael has impeccable
timing and even taught me a few things about timing while making it,
coming up with brilliant ideas and improvising some really funny lines.
I’m happy that those who have seen it laugh out loud and have a good
time with it.
Autophobia |
Autophobia? This episode
I will always cherish making it for many reasons. It came about upon
meeting Larry Wade Carrell [Larry
Wade Carrell interview - click here] at the Macabre Faire Film Festival last year.
We met again at Monster Mania where we were putting the new season
together. Without hesitation, he wanted in after seeing the first season
and wanted to do Autophobia: Fear Of Abandonment. Larry is a brilliant
actor but also a fantastic writer and director, so I knew that I had to
write a good script with it in mind. The one thing he told me is that the
city of Beaumont, Texas was mainly deserted and we could film there
without any problem. That and talking about lost loves in both of our
lives we came up with the story idea of this lost soul who is waiting for
the love of his life to return that he doesn’t see everything crumbling
around him. I went down to Texas for three days to shoot the episode with
Larry, Mayra Leal (from Robert Rodriguez’s Machete), Matthew Carter, and
Nick Nicholson, who just landed a role in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. It
was an eye-opening experience, and one I’ll never forget. Everyone
brought their “A” game for Steve and I when we went down there and
came back to NY with a new appreciation for film in general. Merinthophobia?
Merinthophobia |
This
was initially written for Season 1 in a different format and a phobia that
has intrigued me because there’s so much you can do with it plus it’s
not a well-known fear. However, the premise of being absolutely helpless
while watching someone you love get murdered in front of you frightens me.
I’m glad I waited until this season because the story became much better
and was somewhat based on a real life experience. I dated a fetish model a
long time ago and one time when I called her right after a stalker showed
up unexpectedly at her house. I stayed on the line with her until police
came and he was eventually caught, but I wondered what would of happened
if I wasn’t on the phone. I’ve also wanted to work with Kaylee
Williams [Kaylee Williams
interview - click here] for a long time since I saw her in Slices Of
Life, plus Debbie
Rochon [Debbie Rochon
interview - click here] had glowing praises of Kaylee from working with her on
Model Hunger. Kaylee was a real trooper. A great actress, a sweet person, and I
basically tied her up for two days and tormented her. To contrast, Adam
Ginsberg, who I met when In
Fear of played at his Macabre Faire Film Festival, is a terrific actor in his own right, and brought a level of
creepiness in his two roles as Kaylee’s creepy photographer and her
abductor, a style he created all his own. When he showed me the mask and
character he created, it scared me and I don’t scare easily. Overall the
episode has a certain uneasy feeling to it and it was good to do a
straight up horror film with no strings attached for a change.
Merinthophobia |
Your
episodes range from mood-piece to outright horror to twisted comedy - so
how did you choose your approach to each subject, and which do you feel
you work best in? I never attempt to make the same
film twice. I try to do something different each time. While my earlier
works were mood-pieces, I felt that the story was varied enough to try
different areas. I think that all changed with Monophobia, because it
really showed that I do have a sense of humor and I am willing to go wild
with it. I get bored with filmmakers who make the same film over and over
because I see a willingness to be content with where they are or a fear to
gain success over where they are at. I definitely see it in some
filmmakers who spend too much time trying to emulate their filmmaking
heroes. My favorite director is Martin Scorsese. He’s mainly known for
the gangster film, but if you look at his filmography he does something
different each time. David Lynch is another that filmmakers try to emulate
and while he has the same themes in his films, he takes a different
approach each time. I feel I have to be at my best in all because it’s
all about delivering the best story possible on film, whether it be done
in a serious way, a horrific way, or in a comedic way. As far
as I know, you've also been quite actively involved in quite a few of the
episodes of In
Fear of's season 2 you have not directed - so do tell us about your
involvement in those for a bit!
Disposophobia |
One of the main goals in
doing In
Fear of was to bring a collective group of filmmakers to showcase
their talents and work with a great team to create a phobia-based episode
within the confines of the series. In order for an anthology series to
work, it has to show how wide the genre can stretch, and each filmmaker
and actor can bring their own unique flavor to an episode. With that said,
the remaining episodes I served as producer for many of them, edited a
few, but there were two episodes I didn’t produce: Hydrophobia: Fear Of
Water, which was an episode that Steven-Mark Glassner
[Steven-Mark Glassner
interview - click here] wanted to create and
he took over producing reigns on that one. In addition, Anne Bobby [Anne
Bobby interview - click here], who we
hired for Robert L. Brodmerkel’s [Robert
L. Brodmerkel interview - click here] Agoraphobia: Fear Of Leaving
Home,
loved the concept so much she wrote and produced her own episode,
Disposophobia: Fear Of Throwing Things Away, and got Barbara Rosenblat
from Orange Is The New Black to co-star. What impressed me most, in
addition to Anne’s script, was that Anne chose In
Fear of alum as part
of her crew. Steve Glassner was cinematographer, Lauren Slattery, who
AD’d Agoraphobia, served the same job, and Keith Chernin, who did sound
design on Scotomaphobia: Fear Of
Blindness, did the sound. I really enjoy
producing because it’s fun to put many elements together and oversee the
production, and seeing the results work wonders on set makes it all
worthwhile. How did you find the
writers/directors for the episodes you haven't whelmed in the first place,
and what was your collaboration like?
Toxiphobia |
All the collaborations were fun in different ways. I touched upon this
more in the last interview, but at that time, many of the episodes
haven’t been filmed yet. Now that we are in post-production on all, with
9 completed as of April 2014, it is nice to look back at each shoot and
like them for different reasons.
I liked the energy that Thomas Norman [Thomas
Norman interview - click here] brought to Toxiphobia: Fear Of Being Poisoned and his reason of doing the
episode based on a friend with that fear.
Agraphobia: Fear Of Sexual
Harassment was fun not just to play Arnold, but being a child of the
1980s, thought it was fun to do an homage to the early 1980s schlock
horror films of the time.
Taphaphobia: Fear Of Being Buried Alive was
written by my writing partner and friend PJ McIlvaine, and brought in
Stolis Hadjicharalambous, a terrific director, to helm the episode.
Technically, that was the most difficult and it took longer than we
originally planned but it was well worth it because everything worked well
and we took the time to prepare for it.
Glossophobia |
One episode, Glossophobia: Fear Of Speaking In Public, I co-directed
with Debbie Rochon [Debbie Rochon
interview - click here], and was a huge undertaking. For one, I always wanted
to do a zombie movie. Two, it was such an honor to work with Debbie as a
director and we bounced ideas off of each other. It was a two day shoot
and the first day was mainly my directing day, and the second day, with
the zombies, was all Debbie. After Monophobia, it was such a thrill
working with her again and the first thing I said was “Monophobia was
the first, we’re now filming the 19th episode!” The extras
brought in as zombies were great and the location we secured was like we
built a Hollywood set. It was an awesome time.
The $64-question
of course, when and where will In
Fear of - season 2 drop? We’re still working on
distribution deals in some international countries. We landed one in Italy
and are in negotiations for it to air on a prominent VOD channel. For
America, the UK, and parts of Europe (including Austria), we are launching
In
Fear of on many outlets, beginning with Vimeo On Demand, beginning
Friday, June 13th with
Gerontophobia: Fear Of Aging, and adding
an additional episode every Friday for seven weeks. We will give an option
to buy one episode or a “movie version” at a discounted price. We
return September 19th for another seven week run with the
season finale premiering Halloween night.
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Should there ever be one, what are your plans for
In
Fear of's season 3 - and any other future projects you'd like to
talk about? There are plans for a third season of
In
Fear of but I am not ready to talk about that yet. I am working on a
stand-alone short film which I am excited about, it’s a dark drama art
film called Once, When I Was Dead, a joint production from Slick
Devil Entertainment and Javelina 98 Productions, headed by Tony
DeBenedetto and Tim Powell, the first of many projects we are slated to
collaborate on. Starring in the film will be Gabrielle Stone, a rising
name in Hollywood and the daughter of E.T.’s Dee Wallace, Tiffany
Shepis [Tiffany Shepis
interview - click here], who I am excited to be working with, Kiva
Dawson, a veteran of
stage and film, and happy to be working with Kaylee Williams [Kaylee Williams
interview - click here] again. Any
artist with feelings of self-doubt or failure must see this film. Your/your series website, Facebook, whatever
else?
Official website: http://www.infearoftheseries.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InFearOf
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/infearofwebseries
Personal Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scottwperry1977
In
Fear of Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/InFearOfSeries
Once, When I Was Dead
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnceWhenIWasDead
Anything else you are dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? You can view the first season in
its entirety for free at https://www.youtube.com/user/InFearOfWebSeries/ Thanks for the interview!
Thank you again. I appreciate your interest and support in the
series and I hope everyone enjoys what we have all put together.
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