I had a chance to speak, very briefly, with Michael Praed when he was filming the thriller Dangerous Obsession (aka Darkness Falls) on the Isle of Man in 1997.
How did you get this role?
"I worked with [director] Gerry Lively on Son of Darkness, when I was a vampire with the teeth and everything, so Gerry wanted me in this. I'm also quite good mates with Oliver Tobias and Ray Winstone. My character is called Blue Eyes, which is kind of intriguing as I have hazel eyes. I appear briefly at the start and the end, so I'm only working on the film for a couple of days. This is the first time I've done a cameo role like this.”
What else have you made recently?
"I've just done a film called This Town in America. I suppose I will always be Robin Hood to some people. My first big break was The Pirates of Penzance, which was exciting for a whole range of reasons.”
I heard you’re learning to fly.
"Yes, I was terrified of flying, so to conquer it I'm learning to fly. I'm training for my Private Pilot's License."
What was the story behind Nightflyers?
"Nightflyers? Oh Christ! That's an interesting story for all the wrong reasons. I liked the script, but the week before shooting, the director gave us a completely revised script. It bore no relation at all to the original! Instead of bailing out, we stuck with it. In the end, he took his name off the film - he shouldn't be allowed to get away with that.”
Do you prefer film or TV work?
"I don't mind whether I do film or TV or theatre, in Britain or America. I'll go where the work is. Acting's a tough game."
website: www.michael-praed.com
Interview originally posted 30th June 2005
Thursday, 12 May 2016
interview: Dan Richardson
Actor Dan Richardson came to my attention for his terrific performance in The Harsh Light of Day. He very kindly answered some questions by e-mail in April 2012.
What attracted you to The Harsh Light of Day?
“From the first time I read through it, I was so impressed with the script. I really liked the way the story flowed and, more particularly, I loved the dialogue. Even while I was reading the script for the first time, I was struck by how much I liked the lines for my character and I remember getting really excited at the prospect of auditioning because the words immediately captured my imagination and inspired lots of ideas for different ways it could be delivered. When that happens right off the bat, you know you're onto a good thing and that you're a good fit for the character (at least in your own mind!). I just really wanted to get stuck in!
“I met the director, Ollie Milburn, and the producer, Emma Biggins, at my first audition and it was obvious right away that they were lovely people who were seriously driven to make a good movie. I knew I'd have a great experience working with them and between that, the script being so impressive, and the fact that it was my first lead role in a feature film, I had never been more excited at the prospect of landing a part!”
There have been so many cinematic vampires over the years: what aspects of the archetype did you try to capture or avoid in your performance?
“I was really lucky in the sense that Ollie had written a character which brought something of a new dynamic to the vampire genre; a reluctant vampire. It becomes obvious in the film that Ollie wanted to do away with some of the vampire cliches, and the way it's written definitely played a large part in determining how far, or not, I would go with the vampire element.
“Given the choice, I'd always aim to do something a little different, find something as unique as possible and try to keep away from traditional stereotypes while serving the expected and logical archetypes. Fortunately for me, the way Ollie had written and envisioned my character was more or less a perfect fit for how I'd have wanted to play it if I was left to my own devices.
“There were some golden rules which had to be adhered to, rightly so, such as the daylight issue that the movie title alludes to, but what I personally was aiming for was something much more human than what would be expected from a vampire. At it's core, The Harsh Light of Day is a deeply human story and I felt the best way I could serve that story was to remain as human as possible, despite becoming something non-human. Hopefully that makes the film itself, and my character, something audiences can relate to more readily and therefore something which they will be more affected by.”
You also spend part of the film in a wheelchair: what difficulties/sensitivities are involved in an able-bodied actor playing a disabled character?
“That's a great question and it's something that Ollie and I took very seriously. We did some research into paraplegia and one thing we learned very early on is that it usually causes paralysis from the torso down, not from the waist down. So the full extent of paralysis is practically impossible to recreate authentically, especially when it comes to what's known as 'paraplegic transfer' - moving from a sofa to a wheelchair, for example. It's one thing not to move your legs, but it's something totally different to consciously stop using your midsection from the belly-button down, in fact I found it impossible.
“It's a significant and important element of the story and of my character's life though, so we took it very seriously and did the best we could. Ollie was also very kind to me in the sense that he would shoot around it where necessary and avoid making me look like a fraud! As far as my legs were concerned, I made a point of crumpling them over to one side while I was sitting in the wheelchair. Eagle-eyed viewers might spot that there's a point, before I regain the use of my legs and while I'm still wheelchair-bound, when my legs have changed position. That was a conscious choice I made for a very specific reason. I'm not even sure Ollie noticed that one, but he will now!”
What is your own background and how did you get into acting?
“This is all relatively new to me actually! In my previous life I was in IT sales, working with companies such as Compaq and Apple Computer. It was a great industry, I have lots of wonderful friends from my time there, and I always enjoyed the 15 years I spent in it. In 2006, while I was living and working in Vancouver, Canada and still working in a regular sales job, I found myself with a lot of spare time and decided to do something constructive with it. I thought about taking skiing or foreign language lessons but decided on acting classes. I can't even say it's something I'd always consciously wanted to do (I'd have done it much earlier in life if that was the case) but I had definitely always had a major passion for the magic of the movies.
“I found a wonderful acting school called School Creative in Vancouver and signed up for a Saturday afternoon class. I remember the first moments of the very first lesson I took there, with Kirsten Clarkson who owned and ran the school. She asked me to choose a cause of death (I'd be stabbed), pressed 'record' on her video camera and said, ‘Action!’. That was the first time I'd ever acted, apart from being a tree or a goat in the school play. Then she had me do it again, only this time it was my brother who stabbed me. Right at that moment, at the grand old age of 34, I realised I'd found my passion in life. I instantly fell in love with the craft of acting and decided right there and then that I was going to become an actor.
“For the next nine months I took lessons on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons with some truly amazing teachers - Elias Toufexis and Nathaniel De Vaeux and Trish Allen - and the following year I moved back to London to pursue acting professionally. I went full time in late 2008 and I've been living my dream ever since! I really have to say that anything I've achieved has only been made possible due to the incredible support of those teachers as well as the trust and generosity of the very talented directors, including Ollie, and fellow actors with whom I've had the extraordinary good fortune to work so far.”
You have recently made a giallo-style thriller for Vince D'Amato (director of Vampires vs Zombies): what can you tell me about that?
“I can tell you that it will be a very different and very stylish! Vince is an incredibly talented film-maker; a thought-leader. His mind works in such creative ways and watching him work during the shoot, you could almost sense his overall vision confirming itself in his mind as he saw it through the lens. Reversed is such a unique and ambitious concept, it has the potential to really capture the imagination.
“I was lucky enough to shoot some of my scenes in Milan, Italy, and I won't spoil any surprises by saying exactly where we shot it, but suffice to say it was one of the most surreal and unusual locations I've ever worked in! I'm so intrigued to see what Vince comes up with. I believe he is some way through the first edit so it probably won't be too long before we see what he's got in store for us.“
And what can we expect from Vamlet, the Undead Prince of Denmark?
“Hopefully a really good laugh! Vamlet is another creation from the brilliant mind of Terry Miles (writer and director) who I've had the great good fortune to work with several times now. Vamlet is the sequel to When Life Was Good which was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008. That was a comedy and a drama in equal measure. Vamlet takes the same characters, as well as a few new ones, and is an outright comedy.
“Terry has a wonderful sense of humour and he wrote some real comedy gems for this one. He's also one of those daring directors who allows his cast to improvise to a great extent, so while Terry provided the structure and a defined end-point that had to be reached in each individual scene, a lot of the dialogue is made up on the spot and that meant he often got something unexpectedly funnier out of us. It also makes for more organic, potentially funnier reactions from other people in the scene. Terry seems to know instinctively what will translate to 'funny' on screen.
“Some of the stuff we shot for Vamlet was so difficult to get through without laughing, but Terry almost insists upon that because he knows, within certain parameters, if it's painful for us to film it without laughing, that often translates to the audience in the cinema laughing as well. The cast of Vamlet includes some really wonderful and very funny actors who I'm totally in awe of - Casey Manderson, Kristine Cofsky, Priscilla Faia and Rob Carpenter to name a few. It's always such a pleasure and an honour to work with actors like that. They're so good at what they do that it makes your job a thousand times easier and can only ever make you look good too, so lucky me!”
Interview originally posted 20th May 2012
What attracted you to The Harsh Light of Day?
“From the first time I read through it, I was so impressed with the script. I really liked the way the story flowed and, more particularly, I loved the dialogue. Even while I was reading the script for the first time, I was struck by how much I liked the lines for my character and I remember getting really excited at the prospect of auditioning because the words immediately captured my imagination and inspired lots of ideas for different ways it could be delivered. When that happens right off the bat, you know you're onto a good thing and that you're a good fit for the character (at least in your own mind!). I just really wanted to get stuck in!
“I met the director, Ollie Milburn, and the producer, Emma Biggins, at my first audition and it was obvious right away that they were lovely people who were seriously driven to make a good movie. I knew I'd have a great experience working with them and between that, the script being so impressive, and the fact that it was my first lead role in a feature film, I had never been more excited at the prospect of landing a part!”
There have been so many cinematic vampires over the years: what aspects of the archetype did you try to capture or avoid in your performance?
“I was really lucky in the sense that Ollie had written a character which brought something of a new dynamic to the vampire genre; a reluctant vampire. It becomes obvious in the film that Ollie wanted to do away with some of the vampire cliches, and the way it's written definitely played a large part in determining how far, or not, I would go with the vampire element.
“Given the choice, I'd always aim to do something a little different, find something as unique as possible and try to keep away from traditional stereotypes while serving the expected and logical archetypes. Fortunately for me, the way Ollie had written and envisioned my character was more or less a perfect fit for how I'd have wanted to play it if I was left to my own devices.
“There were some golden rules which had to be adhered to, rightly so, such as the daylight issue that the movie title alludes to, but what I personally was aiming for was something much more human than what would be expected from a vampire. At it's core, The Harsh Light of Day is a deeply human story and I felt the best way I could serve that story was to remain as human as possible, despite becoming something non-human. Hopefully that makes the film itself, and my character, something audiences can relate to more readily and therefore something which they will be more affected by.”
You also spend part of the film in a wheelchair: what difficulties/sensitivities are involved in an able-bodied actor playing a disabled character?
“That's a great question and it's something that Ollie and I took very seriously. We did some research into paraplegia and one thing we learned very early on is that it usually causes paralysis from the torso down, not from the waist down. So the full extent of paralysis is practically impossible to recreate authentically, especially when it comes to what's known as 'paraplegic transfer' - moving from a sofa to a wheelchair, for example. It's one thing not to move your legs, but it's something totally different to consciously stop using your midsection from the belly-button down, in fact I found it impossible.
“It's a significant and important element of the story and of my character's life though, so we took it very seriously and did the best we could. Ollie was also very kind to me in the sense that he would shoot around it where necessary and avoid making me look like a fraud! As far as my legs were concerned, I made a point of crumpling them over to one side while I was sitting in the wheelchair. Eagle-eyed viewers might spot that there's a point, before I regain the use of my legs and while I'm still wheelchair-bound, when my legs have changed position. That was a conscious choice I made for a very specific reason. I'm not even sure Ollie noticed that one, but he will now!”
What is your own background and how did you get into acting?
“This is all relatively new to me actually! In my previous life I was in IT sales, working with companies such as Compaq and Apple Computer. It was a great industry, I have lots of wonderful friends from my time there, and I always enjoyed the 15 years I spent in it. In 2006, while I was living and working in Vancouver, Canada and still working in a regular sales job, I found myself with a lot of spare time and decided to do something constructive with it. I thought about taking skiing or foreign language lessons but decided on acting classes. I can't even say it's something I'd always consciously wanted to do (I'd have done it much earlier in life if that was the case) but I had definitely always had a major passion for the magic of the movies.
“I found a wonderful acting school called School Creative in Vancouver and signed up for a Saturday afternoon class. I remember the first moments of the very first lesson I took there, with Kirsten Clarkson who owned and ran the school. She asked me to choose a cause of death (I'd be stabbed), pressed 'record' on her video camera and said, ‘Action!’. That was the first time I'd ever acted, apart from being a tree or a goat in the school play. Then she had me do it again, only this time it was my brother who stabbed me. Right at that moment, at the grand old age of 34, I realised I'd found my passion in life. I instantly fell in love with the craft of acting and decided right there and then that I was going to become an actor.
“For the next nine months I took lessons on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons with some truly amazing teachers - Elias Toufexis and Nathaniel De Vaeux and Trish Allen - and the following year I moved back to London to pursue acting professionally. I went full time in late 2008 and I've been living my dream ever since! I really have to say that anything I've achieved has only been made possible due to the incredible support of those teachers as well as the trust and generosity of the very talented directors, including Ollie, and fellow actors with whom I've had the extraordinary good fortune to work so far.”
You have recently made a giallo-style thriller for Vince D'Amato (director of Vampires vs Zombies): what can you tell me about that?
“I can tell you that it will be a very different and very stylish! Vince is an incredibly talented film-maker; a thought-leader. His mind works in such creative ways and watching him work during the shoot, you could almost sense his overall vision confirming itself in his mind as he saw it through the lens. Reversed is such a unique and ambitious concept, it has the potential to really capture the imagination.
“I was lucky enough to shoot some of my scenes in Milan, Italy, and I won't spoil any surprises by saying exactly where we shot it, but suffice to say it was one of the most surreal and unusual locations I've ever worked in! I'm so intrigued to see what Vince comes up with. I believe he is some way through the first edit so it probably won't be too long before we see what he's got in store for us.“
And what can we expect from Vamlet, the Undead Prince of Denmark?
“Hopefully a really good laugh! Vamlet is another creation from the brilliant mind of Terry Miles (writer and director) who I've had the great good fortune to work with several times now. Vamlet is the sequel to When Life Was Good which was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008. That was a comedy and a drama in equal measure. Vamlet takes the same characters, as well as a few new ones, and is an outright comedy.
“Terry has a wonderful sense of humour and he wrote some real comedy gems for this one. He's also one of those daring directors who allows his cast to improvise to a great extent, so while Terry provided the structure and a defined end-point that had to be reached in each individual scene, a lot of the dialogue is made up on the spot and that meant he often got something unexpectedly funnier out of us. It also makes for more organic, potentially funnier reactions from other people in the scene. Terry seems to know instinctively what will translate to 'funny' on screen.
“Some of the stuff we shot for Vamlet was so difficult to get through without laughing, but Terry almost insists upon that because he knows, within certain parameters, if it's painful for us to film it without laughing, that often translates to the audience in the cinema laughing as well. The cast of Vamlet includes some really wonderful and very funny actors who I'm totally in awe of - Casey Manderson, Kristine Cofsky, Priscilla Faia and Rob Carpenter to name a few. It's always such a pleasure and an honour to work with actors like that. They're so good at what they do that it makes your job a thousand times easier and can only ever make you look good too, so lucky me!”
Interview originally posted 20th May 2012
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
interview: Alan Ronald
Alan Ronald, director of Jesus vs the Messiah, kindly submitted to an e-mail interview in April 2008.
How closely does the finished version of Jesus vs the Messiah resemble the film you set out to make?
“Obviously when working with such a low budget you have to take into consideration certain things which may not be possible. The interesting thing about the film is that at no point did I feel we were making compromises, at least not ones that were detrimental to the movie. Looking back over all of the various drafts it has certainly changed dramatically. The first draft was an over-the-top action movie which included, believe it or not, a fight in space! Obviously that particular tone was quickly scrapped but although the set pieces in the first draft were utterly ludicrous it did give me the chance to get into the workings of the characters themselves. Which in the end proved to be more interesting to me than the set pieces surrounding them.
“In the end it meant that the story presented itself quite organically, based on the locations available and the things we were capable of doing. I am always very open to ideas from actors and crew which means that things can change as filming goes on. My main concern is to ensure that with all this input that I remain focused on serving the initial idea. The core of the film remains exactly what I set out to do, but the finished film itself is representative of a lot of talented people bringing their own ideas and suggestions to the premise.“
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such a small cast and crew?
“Having a small group of people really gives you free reign creatively. There are not too many voices on set and you can work closely with everyone. The size of the crew was never an issue for us, at no point during the filming did we feel we didn't have enough hands on deck. in fact on some days it was quite the opposite and certain members of the crew would be left twiddling their thumbs while we shot a scene. Obviously not every movie can be made with quite as few people as we had, but in this case it was certainly a huge advantage. Plus it makes for a cheap round at the wrap party.”
What aspects of the film (apart from the hat) do you think categorise this as a western?
“I think a lot of the western iconography was a fairly subconscious thing. Certainly when I was writing the first few drafts it never occurred to me that it would be categorised as a western. Obviously the figure of 'The Messiah' is straight out of western imagery and there are lots of parallels both visually and tonally to the genre, but it was never a conscious decision. It wasn't until we were shooting that I started to feel that my direction was evocative of westerns, but I didn't really give it too much thought at the time. I simply shot things the way I thought best served the story and would make it most interesting to the viewer. I am a big fan of the films of Sergio Leone as I think are most filmmakers. I certainly watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly a fair few times when I was younger so perhaps it seeped into my subconscious.
“When the film was completed I showed it to my dad. I told him I was having trouble describing to people what sort of a film it was and he suggested that it was 'a Biblical western.' That was the point when I knew what kind of film I had made.”
Where has JvtM been shown and how has it been received?
“We previewed the film at the FilmLive! festival in Edinburgh. We had some really great responses to it. The majority of people I have spoken to seem to enjoy the film, and although in some cases it was not always what they expected, they seem to have gotten more out of it than they thought they would. The entire film hinges on whether or not you believe in the characters and people seem to have no trouble with that aspect of the film which, considering the subject matter and the leaps the audience are asked to make, is something I am very proud of. I think it is to the credit of the actors that the audience connects with characters as much as they do.
“The best thing about people's reactions is that they all come up with their own stories and theories on whether or not Jay and The Messiah are really who they say they are. The fact that after people have seen the movie they always seem compelled to discuss aspects of the characters is to me the greatest reaction you could hope for.”
How did you get involved with Pat Higgins and how has your work for him developed over the course of the four features you've worked on together?
“I first got involved with Pat when he was making TrashHouse and I came aboard as his director of photography. I sent him a sample of my work and he invited me to come to an industrial estate in Southend and spend two weeks shooting a zombie movie. How could you refuse an offer like that? To be honest I think when I worked on TrashHouse I was fairly inexperienced as a DoP. Pat's ideas were very ambitious and half the time I had absolutely no idea how to achieve the things he wanted on screen. As intimidating as that was at first I soon came to love that aspect of making movies with Pat. Pat has such an enthusiasm and genuine love for the process of making films that you can't help but do everything you can to try and give him what he wants.
“TrashHouse was something of a learning experience for all of us and there were certain elements of it that I was not happy with in terms of photography. When it came time to shoot KillerKiller and HellBride I leaped on it, both as a chance to put into practice the things I had learned since TrashHouse and also just to work with Pat again, which is always unpredictable and incredibly satisfying. After the low-walled sets and wobbly doors of TrashHouse, shooting in Warley Hospital for KillerKiller seemed like a gift from Pat. There was nowhere I could point that camera that didn't look fantastic. He made my job very easy on that one, which may be why he shot HellBride at the same time - didn't want us getting lazy!
“Recently I have helped Pat with The Devil's Music, which is fantastic. He was even brave enough to cast me as ZC the stoned drummer! Working with Pat was one of the catalysts to go out and shoot Jesus versus the Messiah. His productions really served as inspiration that if you are enthusiastic and dedicated enough there really isn't anything you can't achieve, regardless of budget. I always look forward to getting a new Pat Higgins script and as long as he wants me around I'll be there to accidentally record important scenes on to head-cleaning cassettes.“
What are you working on now or in the near future?
“There are a few things I am writing at the moment. Hopefully I will be going into production on something new at the end of the year. I don't want to say too much about it in case it doesn't work out but let's just say it may be a chance for me to satisfy my urge to make a zombie movie. I think every director has it and I want to get it out of my system!
“As well as that I am writing and performing with 'The Electric Head' a comedy act which involves myself and Cy Henty , who apparently played some roles in some movies at some point as well. He tells me was in KillerKiller, HellBride, TrashHouse and The Devil's Music but I certainly don't recognise him and I never forget a face. At the moment we are writing and recording our second series of podcasts which is available via iTunes.
“I also wrote Jack Says, a contemporary film noir starring the late Mike Reid, Rula Lenska, Eric Cantona and Jesus himself Simon Phillips which has just been shown at the London Independent Film Festival and is due for release later this year. I also hope to arrange more screenings and a DVD release for Jesus versus the Messiah so stay tuned!”
website: http://alanronald.wix.com/online
Interview originally posted 1st May 2008
How closely does the finished version of Jesus vs the Messiah resemble the film you set out to make?
“Obviously when working with such a low budget you have to take into consideration certain things which may not be possible. The interesting thing about the film is that at no point did I feel we were making compromises, at least not ones that were detrimental to the movie. Looking back over all of the various drafts it has certainly changed dramatically. The first draft was an over-the-top action movie which included, believe it or not, a fight in space! Obviously that particular tone was quickly scrapped but although the set pieces in the first draft were utterly ludicrous it did give me the chance to get into the workings of the characters themselves. Which in the end proved to be more interesting to me than the set pieces surrounding them.
“In the end it meant that the story presented itself quite organically, based on the locations available and the things we were capable of doing. I am always very open to ideas from actors and crew which means that things can change as filming goes on. My main concern is to ensure that with all this input that I remain focused on serving the initial idea. The core of the film remains exactly what I set out to do, but the finished film itself is representative of a lot of talented people bringing their own ideas and suggestions to the premise.“
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such a small cast and crew?
“Having a small group of people really gives you free reign creatively. There are not too many voices on set and you can work closely with everyone. The size of the crew was never an issue for us, at no point during the filming did we feel we didn't have enough hands on deck. in fact on some days it was quite the opposite and certain members of the crew would be left twiddling their thumbs while we shot a scene. Obviously not every movie can be made with quite as few people as we had, but in this case it was certainly a huge advantage. Plus it makes for a cheap round at the wrap party.”
What aspects of the film (apart from the hat) do you think categorise this as a western?“I think a lot of the western iconography was a fairly subconscious thing. Certainly when I was writing the first few drafts it never occurred to me that it would be categorised as a western. Obviously the figure of 'The Messiah' is straight out of western imagery and there are lots of parallels both visually and tonally to the genre, but it was never a conscious decision. It wasn't until we were shooting that I started to feel that my direction was evocative of westerns, but I didn't really give it too much thought at the time. I simply shot things the way I thought best served the story and would make it most interesting to the viewer. I am a big fan of the films of Sergio Leone as I think are most filmmakers. I certainly watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly a fair few times when I was younger so perhaps it seeped into my subconscious.
“When the film was completed I showed it to my dad. I told him I was having trouble describing to people what sort of a film it was and he suggested that it was 'a Biblical western.' That was the point when I knew what kind of film I had made.”
Where has JvtM been shown and how has it been received?
“We previewed the film at the FilmLive! festival in Edinburgh. We had some really great responses to it. The majority of people I have spoken to seem to enjoy the film, and although in some cases it was not always what they expected, they seem to have gotten more out of it than they thought they would. The entire film hinges on whether or not you believe in the characters and people seem to have no trouble with that aspect of the film which, considering the subject matter and the leaps the audience are asked to make, is something I am very proud of. I think it is to the credit of the actors that the audience connects with characters as much as they do.
“The best thing about people's reactions is that they all come up with their own stories and theories on whether or not Jay and The Messiah are really who they say they are. The fact that after people have seen the movie they always seem compelled to discuss aspects of the characters is to me the greatest reaction you could hope for.”
How did you get involved with Pat Higgins and how has your work for him developed over the course of the four features you've worked on together?
“I first got involved with Pat when he was making TrashHouse and I came aboard as his director of photography. I sent him a sample of my work and he invited me to come to an industrial estate in Southend and spend two weeks shooting a zombie movie. How could you refuse an offer like that? To be honest I think when I worked on TrashHouse I was fairly inexperienced as a DoP. Pat's ideas were very ambitious and half the time I had absolutely no idea how to achieve the things he wanted on screen. As intimidating as that was at first I soon came to love that aspect of making movies with Pat. Pat has such an enthusiasm and genuine love for the process of making films that you can't help but do everything you can to try and give him what he wants.
“TrashHouse was something of a learning experience for all of us and there were certain elements of it that I was not happy with in terms of photography. When it came time to shoot KillerKiller and HellBride I leaped on it, both as a chance to put into practice the things I had learned since TrashHouse and also just to work with Pat again, which is always unpredictable and incredibly satisfying. After the low-walled sets and wobbly doors of TrashHouse, shooting in Warley Hospital for KillerKiller seemed like a gift from Pat. There was nowhere I could point that camera that didn't look fantastic. He made my job very easy on that one, which may be why he shot HellBride at the same time - didn't want us getting lazy!
“Recently I have helped Pat with The Devil's Music, which is fantastic. He was even brave enough to cast me as ZC the stoned drummer! Working with Pat was one of the catalysts to go out and shoot Jesus versus the Messiah. His productions really served as inspiration that if you are enthusiastic and dedicated enough there really isn't anything you can't achieve, regardless of budget. I always look forward to getting a new Pat Higgins script and as long as he wants me around I'll be there to accidentally record important scenes on to head-cleaning cassettes.“
What are you working on now or in the near future?“There are a few things I am writing at the moment. Hopefully I will be going into production on something new at the end of the year. I don't want to say too much about it in case it doesn't work out but let's just say it may be a chance for me to satisfy my urge to make a zombie movie. I think every director has it and I want to get it out of my system!
“As well as that I am writing and performing with 'The Electric Head' a comedy act which involves myself and Cy Henty , who apparently played some roles in some movies at some point as well. He tells me was in KillerKiller, HellBride, TrashHouse and The Devil's Music but I certainly don't recognise him and I never forget a face. At the moment we are writing and recording our second series of podcasts which is available via iTunes.
“I also wrote Jack Says, a contemporary film noir starring the late Mike Reid, Rula Lenska, Eric Cantona and Jesus himself Simon Phillips which has just been shown at the London Independent Film Festival and is due for release later this year. I also hope to arrange more screenings and a DVD release for Jesus versus the Messiah so stay tuned!”
website: http://alanronald.wix.com/online
Interview originally posted 1st May 2008
interview: Chris Ruppenthal
Chris Ruppenthal was the Supervising Producer and writer on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I interviewed him by phone on 22nd February 1996 for SFX's big Lois and Clark feature.
When did you come on to the series?
"I came on in the middle of November last year. About the middle of season two."
As Supervising Producer, are you pretty much running the shop?
"Well it's pretty much clear. There's Executive Producers, Brad and Eugenie and Bob Singer, and then there are two Supervising Producers under them, me and John McNamara, and other people under us. But I'd say we're all pretty much equals in some ways, in how we write our scripts and deal with that. Then in the final moments is when the Executive Producers will have final say on script dialogue or casting or anything else like that."
When you're writing a script, do you have to pitch the idea?
"What we usually do is we all sit around in a room and try to determine where do we want the series to go for the entire year, and then in the shorter term, where do we want to go in the next three or four episodes, if we have a story arc. So then we say, 'Okay, I'll take the wedding episode, then we'll do one here where this happens, after the wedding' and there's a three- or four-part arc about Lois and Clark getting married and what happens afterwards. Then we will generally discuss: 'Okay, you're doing this episode. We need to set this part of the story up, or resolve this part of the story arc, or whatever.' Then we individually go away and write a short outline of what we'd like our own individual episode to be.
“Then we turn in the outline, everybody reads it, we all sit down again and give notes to each other on the outlines. We can say, 'Gee, I think the end of act two is sort of weak,' or 'Boy, I love this thing. Can we have more of Lois and Clark doing this?' Or simple questions like, 'Now why did they find the bent spoon outside the doorway?' and you go, 'Well, it's obvious isn't it? Because of this…' So we just go over it and, if we need to, we revise that outline and go over it again. That gets the final stamp of approval and then we go off and write a script."
Some of the things that are happening in the series are pretty major. Do you have to clear them with DC Comics?
"Every script we write, when we have an outline for an upcoming episode we send an outline to DC Comics. And the President of DC, he sends notes back to us with his comments on it. We take those into consideration but we are not slaves to them. It's not only DC but more how our own studio, Warner Brothers, and also how ABC Network feels about this thing. They had some concern about Lois finding out that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person, so we had to allay their fears and tell them, 'Don't worry, the series won't die once she finds out. There are plenty of good things we can do with her knowing about Superman.' So it's much more the network and the studio rather than DC. DC's been pretty supportive of what we do. Even if they don't agree on it – which they often don't – they still remain pretty supportive."
Do you think the series has a natural lifespan, or will it go on indefinitely?
"I can see it going on for quite some time. I certainly can see no difficulty in the series going three or four more years. Then we'll have been on the air for six years, and after six or seven years, I think almost any series gets a little tired. But I think certainly Lois and Clark could go on for a number of years and be quite entertaining, and just slowly and surely move forward in the progression of Lois and Clark and their relationship."
What did you do before Lois and Clark?
"I've done a lot of things. I worked as a consultant on two episodes of The X-Files. I worked on Quantum Leap for three years. I worked in London on a short-lived American series called Teddington Cross. It only aired one time – the pilot – in England but I had offices in downtown London and we shot out at Shepperton Studios. It was a sort of mediaeval family drama and it starred Nigel Terry, Cheri Lunghi, James Barker, among others. Jonathon Firth was in it. Then before that I worked on Moonlighting and I also worked on a comedy called Sledge Hammer. That was what I first started writing on in television."
Is there a difference between working on fantasy series and more realistic series?
"All the series I've worked on have all been character driven. As science fiction-y as Quantum Leap can be or even Lois and Clark can be at times, they're very much character driven and that's certainly what appeals to me. And usually male-female character driven, the romantic angle. It can be different. I find some shows just don't appeal to me. There's something about that man-woman battle of the sexes that I find very entertaining and enjoyable to write about and explore. I think that helps separate it from other series.
“As far as the science fiction attitude, we try not to view it ourselves as science fiction. We have a dual personality: one is the Lois and Clark relationship which is our main focus; and the second one is an entertaining villain that sometimes is just comical, sometimes a little serious. That appeals to me because it stretches your mind. What's fantastic that you can come up with that's not so unbelievable as to be a turn-off, but also is entertaining? It's trying to balance those two worlds – relationship along with fantastic action – that's fun and a challenge."
I get the impression from people that Lois and Clark is a fun series to be on.
"It is a fun series to be on, it really is. You have to take it with a grain of salt because we sit there in intense discussions, debates - if not arguments - about some aspect of a story. Then suddenly we'll all go, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! We're talking about a guy who wears tights! I guess I can believe that a mad scientist would do this.' We have an episode that's filming right now where there is a device in it called the 'vibro-whammy'. It's so ridiculous and wonderful-sounding, and then you have debates over this imaginary thing: 'Well, how does the vibro-whammy work?' 'Can it really do this? I don't think a vibro-whammy could do this to a person?' So then you make up rules about what a vibro-whammy can or cannot do. This was a script by David Simpkins and it's just a wonderful device. It's a perfect example of a wonderful thing you can do which will help the story along. You create this imaginary evil machine, and yet it helps the Lois and Clark relationship in a way. So that's one of the fun things about Lois and Clark."
What are the cast like to work with?
"They're very nice. Dean and Teri just have that magic chemistry. There is some special vibe that goes on between them that comes across on screen and makes it enjoyable to watch their relationship. You really want to invite them into your home and figure out what's going to happen to them this week. They pretty much will do anything you say as far as: 'Lois is thrown into a giant mud-vat and then is chased across the airport runway.' Teri Hatcher's game to do that."
It does seem that nearly every episode finds some way for Teri Hatcher to get into some interesting costume. It seems like people are going out of their way to say, 'What can we get Lois to dress up in this week?'
"I confess, we sometimes think about that. Also I think Teri is very proud of her looks, and rightfully so. So I don't think she's averse at all to doing that. She won't do anything too risque or too revealing but she's happy with the way she looks, and we're happy she is!"
You've got to be careful. It's a family show.
"Exactly."
What about the minor characters like Jimmy and Perry? Do you prefer to integrate them into the action or use them as comic relief?
"It varies from episode to episode. Sometimes there's only room for them as comic relief or to help explain story points or exposition or something like that. Other times, it's very interesting to have the emphasis on a story about them. Towards the end of Season Two of Lois and Clark we did a story called 'Target: Jimmy Olsen' which was obviously about Jimmy. And there's one in season three coming up called 'The Dad Who Came in from the Cold', which is about Jimmy's father appearing. Then we've given Perry White a little bit of a character arc this whole season, season three, which is: he breaks up with his wife Alice, who we've never really seen, and starts to enter into a divorce with her, and then will go through the trials and tribulations of starting to date. As an older, middle-aged man dating, he's a little leery about the whole thing.
“So we try to give all our characters a little bit of an arc so they aren't just totally comic relief or something else. It's difficult to juggle all these plotlines in every episode, so some episodes have more Jimmy and Perry in them than others. Or something will happen when we find a character that we like and it helps. There is a scientist, Dr Klein at Star Labs who first gets introduced I think, in 'The Dad Who Came in from the Cold'. We've just found out that we'd like to use Dr Klein. We like the actor. We'd like to go to Star Labs and have a little comic moment with him. He's fun. So sometimes there's just a fortuitous and happy discovery."
Interview originally posted 18th December 2005
When did you come on to the series?
"I came on in the middle of November last year. About the middle of season two."
As Supervising Producer, are you pretty much running the shop?
"Well it's pretty much clear. There's Executive Producers, Brad and Eugenie and Bob Singer, and then there are two Supervising Producers under them, me and John McNamara, and other people under us. But I'd say we're all pretty much equals in some ways, in how we write our scripts and deal with that. Then in the final moments is when the Executive Producers will have final say on script dialogue or casting or anything else like that."
When you're writing a script, do you have to pitch the idea?
"What we usually do is we all sit around in a room and try to determine where do we want the series to go for the entire year, and then in the shorter term, where do we want to go in the next three or four episodes, if we have a story arc. So then we say, 'Okay, I'll take the wedding episode, then we'll do one here where this happens, after the wedding' and there's a three- or four-part arc about Lois and Clark getting married and what happens afterwards. Then we will generally discuss: 'Okay, you're doing this episode. We need to set this part of the story up, or resolve this part of the story arc, or whatever.' Then we individually go away and write a short outline of what we'd like our own individual episode to be.
“Then we turn in the outline, everybody reads it, we all sit down again and give notes to each other on the outlines. We can say, 'Gee, I think the end of act two is sort of weak,' or 'Boy, I love this thing. Can we have more of Lois and Clark doing this?' Or simple questions like, 'Now why did they find the bent spoon outside the doorway?' and you go, 'Well, it's obvious isn't it? Because of this…' So we just go over it and, if we need to, we revise that outline and go over it again. That gets the final stamp of approval and then we go off and write a script."
Some of the things that are happening in the series are pretty major. Do you have to clear them with DC Comics?
"Every script we write, when we have an outline for an upcoming episode we send an outline to DC Comics. And the President of DC, he sends notes back to us with his comments on it. We take those into consideration but we are not slaves to them. It's not only DC but more how our own studio, Warner Brothers, and also how ABC Network feels about this thing. They had some concern about Lois finding out that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person, so we had to allay their fears and tell them, 'Don't worry, the series won't die once she finds out. There are plenty of good things we can do with her knowing about Superman.' So it's much more the network and the studio rather than DC. DC's been pretty supportive of what we do. Even if they don't agree on it – which they often don't – they still remain pretty supportive."
Do you think the series has a natural lifespan, or will it go on indefinitely?
"I can see it going on for quite some time. I certainly can see no difficulty in the series going three or four more years. Then we'll have been on the air for six years, and after six or seven years, I think almost any series gets a little tired. But I think certainly Lois and Clark could go on for a number of years and be quite entertaining, and just slowly and surely move forward in the progression of Lois and Clark and their relationship."
What did you do before Lois and Clark?
"I've done a lot of things. I worked as a consultant on two episodes of The X-Files. I worked on Quantum Leap for three years. I worked in London on a short-lived American series called Teddington Cross. It only aired one time – the pilot – in England but I had offices in downtown London and we shot out at Shepperton Studios. It was a sort of mediaeval family drama and it starred Nigel Terry, Cheri Lunghi, James Barker, among others. Jonathon Firth was in it. Then before that I worked on Moonlighting and I also worked on a comedy called Sledge Hammer. That was what I first started writing on in television."
"All the series I've worked on have all been character driven. As science fiction-y as Quantum Leap can be or even Lois and Clark can be at times, they're very much character driven and that's certainly what appeals to me. And usually male-female character driven, the romantic angle. It can be different. I find some shows just don't appeal to me. There's something about that man-woman battle of the sexes that I find very entertaining and enjoyable to write about and explore. I think that helps separate it from other series.
“As far as the science fiction attitude, we try not to view it ourselves as science fiction. We have a dual personality: one is the Lois and Clark relationship which is our main focus; and the second one is an entertaining villain that sometimes is just comical, sometimes a little serious. That appeals to me because it stretches your mind. What's fantastic that you can come up with that's not so unbelievable as to be a turn-off, but also is entertaining? It's trying to balance those two worlds – relationship along with fantastic action – that's fun and a challenge."
I get the impression from people that Lois and Clark is a fun series to be on.
"It is a fun series to be on, it really is. You have to take it with a grain of salt because we sit there in intense discussions, debates - if not arguments - about some aspect of a story. Then suddenly we'll all go, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! We're talking about a guy who wears tights! I guess I can believe that a mad scientist would do this.' We have an episode that's filming right now where there is a device in it called the 'vibro-whammy'. It's so ridiculous and wonderful-sounding, and then you have debates over this imaginary thing: 'Well, how does the vibro-whammy work?' 'Can it really do this? I don't think a vibro-whammy could do this to a person?' So then you make up rules about what a vibro-whammy can or cannot do. This was a script by David Simpkins and it's just a wonderful device. It's a perfect example of a wonderful thing you can do which will help the story along. You create this imaginary evil machine, and yet it helps the Lois and Clark relationship in a way. So that's one of the fun things about Lois and Clark."
What are the cast like to work with?
"They're very nice. Dean and Teri just have that magic chemistry. There is some special vibe that goes on between them that comes across on screen and makes it enjoyable to watch their relationship. You really want to invite them into your home and figure out what's going to happen to them this week. They pretty much will do anything you say as far as: 'Lois is thrown into a giant mud-vat and then is chased across the airport runway.' Teri Hatcher's game to do that."
It does seem that nearly every episode finds some way for Teri Hatcher to get into some interesting costume. It seems like people are going out of their way to say, 'What can we get Lois to dress up in this week?'
"I confess, we sometimes think about that. Also I think Teri is very proud of her looks, and rightfully so. So I don't think she's averse at all to doing that. She won't do anything too risque or too revealing but she's happy with the way she looks, and we're happy she is!"
You've got to be careful. It's a family show.
"Exactly."
What about the minor characters like Jimmy and Perry? Do you prefer to integrate them into the action or use them as comic relief?
"It varies from episode to episode. Sometimes there's only room for them as comic relief or to help explain story points or exposition or something like that. Other times, it's very interesting to have the emphasis on a story about them. Towards the end of Season Two of Lois and Clark we did a story called 'Target: Jimmy Olsen' which was obviously about Jimmy. And there's one in season three coming up called 'The Dad Who Came in from the Cold', which is about Jimmy's father appearing. Then we've given Perry White a little bit of a character arc this whole season, season three, which is: he breaks up with his wife Alice, who we've never really seen, and starts to enter into a divorce with her, and then will go through the trials and tribulations of starting to date. As an older, middle-aged man dating, he's a little leery about the whole thing.
“So we try to give all our characters a little bit of an arc so they aren't just totally comic relief or something else. It's difficult to juggle all these plotlines in every episode, so some episodes have more Jimmy and Perry in them than others. Or something will happen when we find a character that we like and it helps. There is a scientist, Dr Klein at Star Labs who first gets introduced I think, in 'The Dad Who Came in from the Cold'. We've just found out that we'd like to use Dr Klein. We like the actor. We'd like to go to Star Labs and have a little comic moment with him. He's fun. So sometimes there's just a fortuitous and happy discovery."
Interview originally posted 18th December 2005
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Devil Dog Shuck Returns
Writer: Paul TT Easter
Producer: Paul TT Easter
Cast: Paul TT Easter, Darren Luckin, Jim Ford
Country: UK
Year of release: 2016
Reviewed from: online screener
I have been familiar with the name and work of Paul TT Easter for some time. There are several of his films in my BHR masterlist. But this is the first one I have actually watched. And let me tell you, it’s bonkers
Not to put too fine a point on it, Devil Dog Shuck Returns is one of the most bizarre, distinctive, subversive, idiosyncratic, clinically insane slices of avant-garde cinema that has ever troubled my eyeballs. It really is like nothing that I have ever seen. Are all of Easter’s films like this? Jesus Christ!
For ninety minutes I wondered: “What the hell is this I’m watching?” But not in a bad way. This is an eye-opening film, not an eye-watering one. On the basis of this movie, I would venture to suggest that Paul TT Easter is one of those underground British auteurs, like Joe Wheeler or Tom Rutter, whose work will be rediscovered 20 or 30 years from now and hailed as pure cult cinema. Or, looked at another way, if Paul Easter had been making films like this back in the 1970s, there would be books about him by now and festival retrospectives of his career.
So what is Devil Dog Shuck Returns actually about? What’s it not about? It’s mostly shot POV, though I would hesitate to call it ‘found footage’ because there’s no sense of this being recovered film in the way that something like Exhibit A or The Dinosaur Project was (or indeed, Blair Witch or Cloverfield). There are references to the camera being used and indeed it’s often visible when we spot Easter’s shadow. But there are also more conventionally shot and edited scenes, as for example early on when Paul, playing himself, wants to buy a van off a bloke. Unable to reach a deal, the van driver departs and we see him in the cab talking with someone else on the phone.
Paul has – or has access to – a large area of overgrown land somewhere in the wilds of Norfolk were he and his mates can mess about with vehicles and junk. As indeed they do, the film turning into an East Anglian Jackass for a while as they skid cars, tow each other around the snowy ground on improvised sledges, and drive a car straight through the side of a large caravan, an unfaked stunt that some films would spend thousands on.
After some time, we watch Paul and one of his mates heading to a rave in the woods, except there’s no-one and nothing there. They do however find some clothes hanging on a tree along with an axe and a samurai sword.
None of this, I’ll grant you, sounds much like a horror movie. But the ‘plot’ as such has been set in motion by Paul receiving the startling news that he has a long-lost twin brother. And about half an hour in, we suddenly find Paul and his mate brutally slaughtered (off camera) by said twin.
Mr Easter spends the rest of the film, shirtless, playing his own retarded psycho twin brother who sets out to reclaim everything that was Paul’s, including his camcorder and his pooch, the eponymous and playful ‘Shuckie’. He enters Paul’s house, where Paul’s girlfriend is asleep on the bed, and gropes her in a scene which is the closest this movie ever gets to sex. But he also finds time to change his voice and do a spoof aftershave commercial when exploring a shed looking for a JVC camera charger. Probably oddest of all is that, while in his brother’s house, he puts on a DVD and watches scenes from earlier in the movie, including the incomplete van deal.
Being honest, Devil Dog Shuck Returns makes not a lick of narrative sense – but that is surely its strength. This is a trippy, unashamedly self-indulgent film, its very self-indulgence rendering it fascinatingly watchable as it offers an unadulterated view inside the mind of Paul TT Easter, an old-school auteur with a completely individualistic approach to cinema.
On an absolute scale, yes it’s complete rubbish and many people would turn it off after 20 minutes then head straight to the internet to register their disapproval. But cinematic appreciation is not absolute – that’s what keeps film critics in a job! Approached from the right direction this is a work of, not genius exactly, but certainly a work of maverick brilliance.
Devil Dog Shuck Returns was released online through Vimeo on Demand in February 2016. Paul Easter is now planning his own zombie epic which should be something to see…
MJS rating: B+
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