Ethan: Owen, how are you?
Owen: Hi Ethan, 'Sin-Jin Smyth'
is your first feature film.
What has been the
main stressor for you when
it comes to directing?
Ethan: Stress is cut to a minimum when
you take command of the planning.
Once you re-draft the script into
the best shape possible, every
line, on every page, needs to be
mapped out from a creative and
logistical standpoint, so your
production team can maximize your
resources and put every element
on screen for your
audience----and that means
everything!
Owen: What was the main thing you
wanted to keep in mind when it
comes to filming horror?
Ethan: To stay true to what
its about
to transmit
fear into the audience
but
also build it into a ride that
movie fans today would respect!
Owen: Can I just say THANK YOU
for saying, "I refused
to start production until we had
the best possible
script".
Ethan: You wouldnt pay for
anything but our best possible
effort, right? And that starts
with the script. These days, the
hip industry move is to dumb
things down for the audience, to
treat them like theyre a
pack of 15 year old kids, stuck
in some
mental time warp! I
wont disrespect the
audience like that
the fans,
in general and of this genre are
too smart for that stunt and they
deserve better, thats why
when this (the SIN-JIN
SMYTH production team)
unit gets to work---love it or
hate it---you get our best
possible effort!
Owen: But I can't believe how often the
writing is relegated to a
"lesser part" of
horror. Did the fact of
writing the screenplay make
you want to take on the directing
chores to make sure your
script wasn't
"Hollywoodized"?
Ethan: I have had some projects
dismantled in the past, there
have been times when my work has
been optioned and then the
producer does a complete lobotomy
on it, without my involvement
like, Im good enough to
come up with the original idea
but not good enough to consult in
regards to any possible
re-write
and the end result
is a script developed by
committee, a pack of writers all
trying to win favor for the next
job and the film suffers. I
dont like to operate like
that
either Im IN, for
the right creative reasons, or
Im OUT! Im not IN
just to get the next studio
job
Im in to make the
best film possible! You put me on
a film and
youll get
the best Ive got! Once we
started to shop SIN-JIN
SMYTH (There were
several offers on the property)
and different execs put forward
their ideas, based on other
movies they has seen, like The
Exorcist or The
Omen---two movies
already available for you at your
local video store---it was clear
that they didnt want to get
revolutionary and make something
new. They wanted to make Sin-jin
Smyth more like last weeks
hit. Thats when we decided
to bite the bullet and maintain
our independence
You see,
this Hollywood machine is
sometimes---not always---but,
sometimes top heavy in bullshit!
From a producing angle, and I
have one of the best as a
partner, Lota Hadley, we saw this
as a chance to get back some of
the genre---because were
fans---not marketing execs trying
to rape your wallet and we were
personally offended by films like Battlefield Earth, Exorcist: The Beginning, Cat Woman, I
mean I almost started a riot when
I saw a screening of House
of Wax, Vincent Price
must have been trying to scratch
through his coffin when that hit
the theatres! I remember Lota,
half way through a screening of Boogeyman,
she spiked her pop corn on the
floor and stormed out of the
theatre stopping only to close in
on certain people (That worked on
the picture) to say that they
should be ashamed of
themselves!
Owen: The casting of 'Sin-Jin
Smyth' is very solid
with established actors
and strong personalities
(Richard Tyson, Jason
Hildebrandt, Lewis Smith,
Jacqueline Moore, Jonathan
Davies, Reggie Bannister, Lee
Ving, Greg Travis) rather than
bland beautiful people. Was
having the word in
casting essential for you in
order to make the film you wanted
to make?
Ethan: We wanted survivors. Real rough
players, I didnt want to
get stuck in the countryside
making a film with some yuppie
punk! I needed people who could
mix it up, jump in the trenches
and get it done. Once you start
with a solid script, then you
need solid, unselfish talent.
Talent that wants to make the
best film possible, not change
the script to fit their
image
people that put their
talent to work and morph into
character and give you an
absolute real
performance
that is what
makes a film memorable!
Owen: But the studio-
Ethan: The studio wanted some high
profile personnel but I
cant authorize a
multi-million dollar payday for
someone off the cover of People
Magazine if that money comes out
of the mechanics of the
films budget and hurts
production. Id rather make
a better movie with less than
listen to someone with a
star mentality bitch!
Owen: I also deeply admire you
for wanting to keep so much of
the film a secret aside from the
basic plot synopsis -
"...Set against a Halloween
legend that warns of a midnight
appearance of the Devil in a
quiet Kansas cemetery follows two
Federal Marshals as they report
to the small town of Shin Bone,
Kansas (moments after a tornado
warning) for the midnight
prisoner transfer of a man with
no past and no identity. He is
known only as SIN-JIN
SMYTH!". Was
it hard to deal with the studio
when it came to making a
trailer? Did they want you
to "reveal your hand"
when it comes to plot?
Ethan: We did lock up in a fire-fight
over promotional techniques,
potential partners wanted an
extensive press kit with
everything mapped out, cast,
story, ending, trivia, pictures
of SIN-JIN SMYTH,
too much
I mean do you want
to see the movie or read the
movie---hopefully you want to see
it, right? I mean, that is if I
did my job right. And they also
wanted some extensive trailer
that you could use to navigate
through the film with. I wanted
to show almost nothing! Once the
ride starts and youre in
the dark, youre stuck there
with no trailer points to guide
you --- (laughs) good luck.
Owen: Something that I enjoy about
the project is the legendary
horror aspect, which I find so
much creepier than a
"mere" maniac. Do
you think that sort of
"destined terror" adds
to the sense of human
powerlessness in the face of
overwhelming horror?
Ethan: Inventing new ways to kill people
has its place I guess. But this
film is not about the body count;
this film is a trip into a dark
place! It follows tough
characters---not sorority girls
who run off to fuck somebody in a
dark corner of some barn and pay
for it with a machete chop to the
neck---SIN-JIN SMYTH brings you the threat of the
unknown, not knowing what? When?
Or where? Evil will strike! The
masters of this art specialized
in bringing an audience member to
the edge of their seat and
leaving them there without the
opportunity to relax---When we
walk through a dark cornfield as
the moon rolls behind the clouds,
taking away any source of light,
with a wicked silhouette that
starts to close in on you! That,
to me, is much better than a
machete splitting the collarbone.
Once that (the chopping) starts,
you can relax
because
youre at the point where
the build up was suppose to take
you but, what if you dont
get attacked? What if, when you
turn around, the silhouette is
gone---somewhere in the cornfield
with you!?! What if, he hides in
the fog between you and the local
farmhouse just
waiting? If I
was on a Halloween film, I would write it in a real
fashion which would be
Im
leaving
Ill call the
National Guard---If theyre
not all in Iraq---and let them
fight it out with this guy! Bye!
But SIN-JIN SMYTH takes advantage of the fact that
most people have been conditioned
to fear the devil to begin with
and now
hes coming for
you!
Owen: Did the studio have problems with
that approach?
Ethan: Its popular to take a
studio paycheck and
shazamyoure
somebodys bitch! But what
will people remember
the
work! The work is what people
will remember about you, this is
how we---for better or
worse---make history
nobody
remembers the charity work of
Boris Karloff, they remember his
presence on screen, same for Ed
Wood, that is what lives with us
forever and that is something
more film makers need to remember
when they take on a film job.
Its what I do for the
audience that makes me a
filmmaker, not what I was paid. I
can work within the Hollywood
system and would be happy to do
it under the right circumstances
like a genuine artistic
collaboration but, me, Im
not gonna have some Harvard punk
tell me he knows about art
because he can read a studio
marketing manual
Id
rather make a film with the
change in my pocket than be
drafted into a production
situation where Im forced
to transmit someones
instructions to the screen
Owen: Were the pending tornado
conditions, also present in the
film, meant to reflect the scope
of this malice? Again,
man's smallness in the face
of bigger forces?
Ethan: You like that element? I do too
but the idea to use weather,
almost as a weapon, comes from
the effort to maximize each
frame, to texture each shot with
something more that just the
talent and the landscape. And
with the theme of the film being
what it was, I wanted the weather
to slowly close in!
Owen: I also like the fact of the
effects being there, on the
set. In my humble
opinion CGI's have been
so overdone, sometimes just
dwarf the story and everything
else about a film. What can
you say about the FX in 'Sin-Jin
Smyth'?
Ethan: If we cant blow it sky high
on the set, it doesnt go
up. Real is real I dont
want to have some animator coming
in to cartoon the effects (most
of which can be way over the top
anyway) When somebody gets cut
down by gunfire or an explosion
on our set, it has a real
impact to it!
Owen: On another somewhat technical
note I have read that the film is
going to be one of the first 7.1
surround sound features, as
opposed to the usual 5.1
sound. Was that an
important consideration for you
or was it merely icing on the
production cake?
Ethan: I want to rip the roof of this
fker! And punch you through
the back of the theatre and into
the parking lot and the best tool
for that is well designed sound
package that is unlike anything
youve ever heard
I
feel sorry for the people in the
theatre next to ya
(laughs).
Owen: You have been quoted as saying
"We started our
pre-production work with the idea
of striving to revolutionize the
way a film transmits fear to an
audience...I wanted to build
something new." How
does one go about doing something
like that?
Ethan: Im impressed Owen,
youve done your homework.
It starts with hiring an
inventive production team. Me, I
have my limitations, and I am
nothing more than just a part of
a unit but, with the right people
on board, you build the movie out
brick by brick and strive to
re-invent
Owen: As someone eager to do that with
the genre what are your favorite
horror films...or rather what
horror films in the past do you
think have achieved that same
thing?
Ethan:
For its time, the work of
Lon Chaney, James Whale, M,
Psycho-
Owen: The original?
Ethan: (Shakes his head no, direct tone)
Theres only one! Im
not sure what that stunt was a
few years back but it wasnt
Hitchcock.
Owen: What others?
Ethan: The Exorcist. The
Omen, Alien, Carpenters The
Thing, Hoopers
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
also
the original Haunting, Them, The
Watcher in the Woods has
some good moments in it.
Owen: Without revealing too much, is
there a clause in your contract
for the possibility of a 'Sin--Jin
Smyth 2'? Would
that be possible?
Ethan: There are no plans for SIN-JIN
SMYTH 2 or SIN-JIN
SMYTH 3 or a SIN-JIN
SMYTH CHRISTMAS but, I
have said that if we are
fortunate enough to do well with
this film then we wont turn
our backs on the people who put
us there and if the fans who make SIN-JIN SMYTH a
success want it---we give it to
them---no questions asked. That
being said, a franchise in my
opinion, is only worth doing if
you break away from what people
expect, get very creative and add
different dimensions to it that
make a sequel less of a sequel
and more of a new movie with a
dark and sinister
past.
Owen: Do you have plans for more horror
features in the future?
Ethan: Ive been getting some
serious offers to make this a
full time job but right now I
want to make SIN-JIN
SMYTH the best film
possible and then wait and see
what feels right
Owen: What scares you in real life?
Ethan: Harm coming to my family.
Im afraid of
that---and---what Ill do to
the individual whos dumb
enough to inflict it! Thank you
Owen for your time
Owen: Thanks Ethan. |