A Chat with Matthew Solomon by Dale Pierce

Matthew is a promising filmmaker in which he just has a new horror flick riding in festivals and awaiting distribution titled 'Chatter' which is not a found footage flick but showing people talking on skype and their homes being haunted in which seems to have similar elements in the 'Paranormal Activity' legacy.
It's a total trip out flick and very well made in which he can really go places with it and got a great cast to be in it too. Plus this is his first horror flick and hopes to make more of them and I can assure you that this one is a nice stepping stone for sure.
He worked on other genre's such as an award winning short flick 'Kung-Fu Man' in which he wrote and co-starred in as well.
He's in the middle of developing the webseries 'Happy Clam'.
Before he became a filmmaker he was a musician and played guitar and bass in many local bands plus did some composing for other shows.
Then he moved to acting by appearing in many music videos for Alanis Morrisette, The Crystal Method and more.
Afterwards landed roles on TV shows such as 'Las Vegas', 'The Shield' and several episodes of NBC's 'American Dreams'.
He gained success due to this as a semi-reg
ular on 'The Zoo' as well as appearing in serveral viral videos for 'Funny Or Die'
He is happy to enter the horror world on the directors chair and won Best Experimental Feature for this flick at the L.A. Thriller FIlm Festival as well as a possible sequel seeing the light of day.
To find out more on him go to www.kungfumanfilms.com or the movie in general at www.followthechatter.com


 

 

 
1. You recently were involved with the production for a new film, 'Chatter'. tell people about this.



'Chatter' is highly suspenseful techno-thriller in which most of the action takes place on Skype.  This is one of the first films in this new genre of filmmaking.  "Chatter" follows David and Laura Cole, who are married and temporarily living in different parts of the world. Skype is how they stay connected to each other.  Over the course of several weeks, they begin to discover that the house David is in, is haunted by the ghost of a little girl.  And she uses the internet to "cross over" and do...bad things to people.  This is all seen through the eyes of a NSA agent who is monitoring internet traffic.

2. For an independent film, you had a fairly impressive cast, no?


I would say.  While most of the cast are extremely talented up-and-comers, I had the pleasure to work with Richard Hatch ('Battlestar Galactica'), who is one of my childhood heroes and Alison Haislip ('Attack of the Show'), who I have been a fan of for a long time.  

In addition to them, our leads are Brady Smith, who has been in a ton of commercials and tv,  Sarena Khan, who is an amazing actress, and Tohoru Masamune, fromTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The supporting cast are all very talented as well.

3. What was it like for you as director of this project?


It was really amazing.  I also wrote "Chatter."  So to see this grow from an idea to a short film, and then develop into a full length feature, shoot it, finish it and start playing festivals and win awards?  It has been, and continues to be an amazing journey.


4. What are your own film experiences prior to this?


Most of my film experience has been watching movies--haha.  Actually, I have been an actor for many years and I was in music before that.  Growing up in Los Angeles, I have kind of always been around production in one form or another.  I had been acting and then starting writing.  I had a couple short films that did well and "Chatter" is my first feature.

5. Do you have a webpage for yourself or the company that people may go to?


For 'Chatter', the best place right now is our facebook page:

Website is:

and my Writer/Director site is:
www.KungFuManFilms.com

6. Can the film be ordered here?


"Chatter" is not currently available to the public, other than at festival screenings.  We are in negotiations with several distributors right now. So, the best thing is to "like" the facebook page and/or leave your email on our website, so that we can let you know as soon as "Chatter" is out.


7. Your film is going to be seen at Shriekfest?


Yes!!  Very excited!! And, I just found out we were nominated for a Best Film award!  We are headlining night #1 on October 2nd.  You can get tickets at http://www.shriekfest.com/entries/2015/chatter/

8. You also presented the film recently at one of the fests in Los Angeles?


We were at LA Thriller Film Fest back in April and won the award for Best Experimental Feature.

9. Are there other showings and festivals in the works?


We have a few more potentials on the horizon.  The notification dates have not happened yet, but we are very excited to see where else we get to play.

10. What about future films? Anything planned?


Yeah!  I am always working on something.  I have Chatter 2 in the works, a "monster in the forest" script in my back pocket, and I am also developing a social drama--which would be a very large-scale production.

11. Do you have any interesting background or behind the scenes from 'Chatter'?


Oh wow.  Yes, there is so much!  First of all, everything was shot using Skype or iChat.  The actors were in different locations and used those apps to act off of each other in real time.  To see what was going on, I had to crouch down next to one of the actors so that I could see their performances and NOT be seen by the camera.  We had a lot of fun with this.

The other amusing thing is that my refrigerator broke the first day of filming.  We were based out of my apartment and I had bought a ton of food to feed everyone.  We needed a lot of ice that week.

12. Do you ever plan to go from shorts to full length features on a regular basis?


I love doing both.  The shorts I do are usually more comedic and intended for the web.  If there is a cool story and good script, I am down to shoot.  I love working with talented actors and crew.  So any opportunity I have to do that is great!


13. Aside from the film festivals and with the horror collectors have you found much of a demand for short films? One would think most people want features.


You know, off the top of my head, I would say I don't know much about that.  However, now that I think about it, I hear about platforms all the time who like and want short form content.  In fact, I think the VOD on my cable has some shorts.  I think in the coming years, we will see more of this-- website, on airplanes, etc.  And life has become so fast-paced that we may be moving in a direction where people would want to watch something and not invest 2 hours. 

14. What would you say sets 'Chatter' apart from other films?


Well, the look of it...the Skype-thing, is brand new.  It looks unlike any other film and at the same time is so much a part of our every day technological experience.  The acting is amazing, which is not always the case in other films.  We also delve into the NSA/spying thing in this movie, which adds a socio-political twist as well.

15. Closing comments?


Thanks so much!  I really appreciate the opportunity to share about "Chatter."   A lot of people put a lot of time, energy and hard work into this.  So I am very glad to see this out in the world.