Owen: Hello Kevin. I've read you
began making films at the tender age of 8 with an
8 mm film camera. Do you see anything about your
sort of instinctive filmmaking at that age which
has carried over into your filmmaking process
today?
Kevin:
Well, yeah. But most of that ability of
filmmaking comes from watching a lot of
television, seeing a lot of movies, being exposed
to the medium.
Owen:
As a writer/director do you like having
control over the external creation of that
internal vision? Does it help you keep the
production focussed?
Kevin: I do like
having control as producer over the movie(s),
especially if I wrote the script to begin with.
First, it makes it much easier to complete, as
theres less people who have a
vision and Im usually a
workhorse on these things. Also, I like to match
that movie in my mind, which is the
script I wrotetrying to make it a reality.
Sure, there are lots of things that can
interfere, like bad weather, sudden change in
location, an effect that didnt turn out
quite how you expected, but for the most part,
the ones Ive done turn out 75-95% of how I
want them to.
Owen: As the head
of Brimstone Productions where do you see the
company headed in the future?
Kevin: I think
youll start seeing more of these movies on
the Internet to watch and hopefully some bigger
budget movies. With all this cheap, new
technology and cameras that look as good as
anything shot on television, there are a lot more
low/no-budget movies being made, to such an
extent that theres a huge glut in the
market right now. Years ago I used to
self-distribute some of my own stuff and also
other filmmakers, but got out of that at
the beginning of this century (too frustrating,
too much work). Sure, there are companies that
distribute these movies but the profit for the
filmmakers are so low its almost not worth
all the effort in making the movie. Now in this
business, the distributors make all the money,
the filmmakers dont. If theres anyone
out there who is thinking of going with a certain
distributor they should shoot me an email (brimstonemedia@aol.com) and I can let them know
if theyre bad news or not. I have a
sizeable list.
Owen: I am rather
amazed by the quality product you put out on such
a tight budget. 'Rage of the Werewolf'
starred Debbie Rochon and Joe Zaso cost
"only" $12,000. In your experience as a
filmmaker how have you managed to pare your
budget down so successfully?
Kevin: Costs are
kept down primarily by writing the script with
the locations we have available and also by doing
half a dozen jobs. With RAGE, I
was co-producer, director, co-writer, editor,
camera, gaffer, sound, publicist, et cetera. The
house we had shot at was at a friends in
Brooklyn and the city shots (like Coney Island),
were done early in the morning, before there were
too many people outside, to make it look so
deserted. And, of course, I dont make any
money until the movie starts being sold. So the
Budget, as it were, is for the real
costs (special effects, food,
transportation
.).
Owen: Tying back
to guiding that artistic vision. You also edit
your films. Is it exciting to sort of piece
together that creative puzzle? After over a dozen
genre films do you have a pretty good sense of
what you need when you shoot or is it still
really tough to trim footage and such?
Kevin: The pre-production and actual shooting of the
movies is the hard part. The easy, fun part is
the editing, as you can quickly see it all come
together. Yeah, I do have a good sense of what I
need. For example, Ill just shoot an
establishing shot for a scene (wide shot) and
then shoot just the close-ups as I know Ill
never need that wide shot again. I sort of edit
the movie while Im shooting. Lately
Ive been co-producing/co-directing
documentaries (a few of which are on PBS) and
thats the complete opposite of doing these
genre movies. With the documentary its
shoot as much footage as possible, from as many
different angles, so that Id end up with
30-40 hours of footage for what will ultimately
be an hour-long video. Thats a huge
shooting ratio. The shooting ratio on a movie
will be 3 to 5 for 90 minutes.
Owen: You and
Brimstone Media Productions, LLC tend to be
involved with a lot of film series --- the 3 'Alien
Agenda' films, the 3 'Addicted
to Murder' films, the 2 'Creaturealm'
pictures, and the Alien Conspiracy
movies. Is that done primarily for name
recognition, are you eager as an artist to
further explore the possibilities of the
material...
Kevin: I did those
series, particularly the ALIEN AGENDA and
ALIEN CONSPIRACY because I
thought it a unique way to come up with a series
of movies using the talents of many different
filmmakers. And I was also able to tackle a much
bigger project. Id shoot the wraparound
story and then have two or three other directors,
in different parts of the country, do a twenty to
thirty minute short that would fit in with the
context of the rest of the movie. Id come
up with the idea, the individual filmmakers would
write and direct. As the Exec. Producer Id
have to make sure they were all consistent in
terms of story line and also have to coordinate
any props that were used in two or more segments
(like an alien weapon). Also, this was a way to
make more movies in a shorter amount of time.
Instead of just one or two movies a year I could
have three more. So it worked out both
wayssatisfying a creative urge with these
mini-epics and also getting more
product out there. After doing almost
a dozen of these disguised anthology
movies, most recently MONSTERSDOTCOM and a few werewolf movies, Im going to
concentrate on just doing my own features.
Owen:
Which do you consider to be your finest films and
what about them makes those films stand out above
the rest?
Kevin: I think the
best films are the first and second ADDICTED
TO MURDER movies and RAGE OF THE
WEREWOLF. With ADDICTED
I wanted to make a dark, nightmarish vampire
movie. With the sequel (which is also sort of a
prequel to the events of the first), I wanted a
completely different tone and approached it from
a different angle. Part 2: TAINTED BLOOD is much more sarcastic and focuses more on the
vampire society rather than the
serial killer, Joel Winter. RAGE OF THE
WEREWOLF, which I co-wrote/co-produced
with Santo Marotta (who also starred as
Jake) was a million dollar movie idea
done with an extremely low budget. But it was a
lot of fun to work on and I think its very
entertaining. The only thing that irks me about
that production was the stupid werewolf costumes.
The special effects guy I had making them shipped
them to us a few days before we were going to use
themand they came unfinished. There was no
hair on the masks and they all needed to be
painted, eyes put in, et cetera. They also looked
like big teddy bears when they were on the
actors. I kind of rolled with it though, when we
were shooting. In the scenes where the two
werewolf brothers are fighting I kept on thinking
WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS
and Japanese Kaiju movies. So, with that in mind,
the scenes work.
Owen: When it
comes to tone and mood...what is essential for
the filmmaker to keep in mind when making horror?
At what point do you see horror as crossing the
line into camp or silliness and how do you steer
the film to that point but not beyond it?
Kevin: The tone
and mood you want to get across from the movie
has to be established from the onset. If you want
to make a serious, grim horror movie then stick
with that. For example, I think ADDICTED
TO MURDER 2: TAINTED BLOOD is hilarious
in parts (particularly the scene with Joel Winter
encountering that vampire man at the house), but
its not a campy movie. To me
campy means that the filmmaker took
the easy way outyou know, if a serious
scene he was shooting didnt turn out he
could just say its supposed to be campy.
Owen: What is your
stand on on-set effects vs. computer generated?
Do you have strong feelings either way?
Kevin: It totally
depends on the project and what effects are
needed. With the ATM movies its all blood
and makeup effects. With the ALIEN AGENDA
and ALIEN CONSPIRACY movies there is much more computer animation,
such as with the saucers hovering over New York
City. The effects were what was needed for the
scene. As far as Hollywood moviesthey use
far too many computer effects in the horror and
sci-fi movies. I think VAN HELSING was the worst movie Ive ever seenand
that was 90% special effects. If you tune in the
Sci-Fi Channel on cable theres always some
giant snake or animal movie onwhich is done
via computer effectsand looks stupid.
Owen: I am so
excited! I read somewhere you plan to resurrect a
seemingly long ignored horror icon and have
written a screenplay called 'The Mummy
from Mars'. Any further word on progress
with that project?
Kevin: Id
love to do that movie but its been on the
backburner for the past few years, as it needs a
larger budget than what Ive been working
with. I came up with the plot outline and
screenwriter Todd French wrote the script.
Owen: So you have
done vampires, werewolves, aliens, (hopefully)
and mummies...are there zombies in your future?
Kevin:
Actually, I did do a zombie short (30 minutes)
for this anthology movie called GOREGOYLES (dist. By Brain Damage Films)and the
zombies in that turned out decent, sort of like
that zombie in the first CREEPSHOW movie, all dirt and moss covered. Theres
one scene where an actor (Matt Busch (www.mattbusch.com) is tied to a tree and
hes torn apart by zombies
and then
later he comes back and is eating his own
intestines. But that project, in my opinion, went
horribly awry. The Exec. Producer edited the
pieceand it was okaybut when he
mailed me back the footage he failed to insure it
and it was lost in the mail. Over $1,500 down the
drain. My intention was to expand it into a
feature, with all the extra effects and zombies I
hadbut now it was impossible to do that. I
shot it during the middle of summer in terrible
heat, got stung by wasps and half the crew and
cast got poison oak. A bad experience overall.
Owen: In doing
interviews with horror filmmakers many of the
real horror stories I hear them discuss is about
the financing and marketing end of the business.
Do you have anything to say in that regard?
Kevin:
Making the movie is the easy part if
youre financing it yourself. But actually
selling and marketing the project is another
thing entirely. As I mentioned earlier, these
distributors give the filmmaker very little or no
moneyyet they make a fortune off the work.
Therefore, its an absolute must to get
money up-front and not agree to a
percentagebecause youll never get
that percentage. Also, try to check up on the
distributor, even ask them for references. If
they wont give them to you then something
is up.
Owen: Speaking
of...Congrats on having several of your movies ('Addicted
to Murder', 'Vampires and Other
Stereotypes', and the three 'Alien
Agenda') carried by Blockbuster, I know that
opens up the sales enormously. I am so curious,
do you send a screener to them and they decide?
Is there some checklist sheet they have where
they won't carry a movie if it has A, B, C &
D. What exactly is the process a filmmaker goes
through in getting a product carried by that
Gorgon of video markets?
Kevin:
Basically, I just mailed Blockbuster a VHS copy
of ADDICTED TO MURDER and they
called me back about five months later saying
they were interested in carrying the movie in
their storesand also asked if I had any box
art. So they accepted it before I even had that
video cover (the guy who did the box for me
thinks it got in because of his box). Then, it
was just a matter of several months to get
everything goingI think it was four
thousand copies or something like that. They
funneled me through a third company, which shall
remain nameless, and they handled getting the
tapes to the individual stores. They were also
the ones who paid me, not Blockbuster, and
Im sure they made quite a bit of money by
marking the price up. But thats how
its usually doneyou have to go
through a middleman of some kind. The other
movies got in through other companies I sold
tapes to, which was a slightly different route. I
think now (ten years later), they have this whole
committee the movies have to be screened
byand if you notice the name of the
distributors for sci-fi and horrorthey are
from three or four distributors they work with.
So I think BB and these distributors work out
some kind of deal that's mutually beneficial to
them.
Owen: What are you
working on currently and what projects do you
have lined up in the future?
Kevin:
After working on MONSTERSDOTCOM and
BITES Ive taken a break for a few years,
mostly trying to get financing to do the other
movies like MUMMY FROM MARS. In
the meantime, Ive been working on the other
end of the movie spectrum, making documentaries
and getting them shown on PBS. Check out www.geyerlindenmuth.com for more info on that. I
will get back to the horror soonmost likely
with a movie called DAHMERS
DAUGHTER. Footage is already shot with a
few actors, such as Joe Zaso and Debbie Rochon.
And Ill finish the story of ADDICTED
TO MURDER in RED WORK
and THE LAST VAMPIRE.
Owen: What scares
you in real life?
George W. Bush
Owen: Hes very scary. |