SOUTHBOUND: Interview with Director Roxanne Benjamin

Director, actor and producer Roxanne Benjamin has two films at Midnight Madness this year. She's a director in the horror anthology Southbound and a producer on The Devil's Candy. In fact, Roxanne Benjamin is probably responsible now for about 30% of the Madness at Midnight Madness, you might remember a little film series she co-produced, V/H/S.

Benjamin took time to answer some questions in advance of the Southbound premiere last night. (The internet passes through Hell itself, and so, you know, the answers got a little delayed in transmission. Demons always think that's funny, that and 404's...).


How did you come to be involved with Southbound and The Devil's Candy?

Brad Miska and I produced the first two V/H/S films together. With those films, we wanted to take found footage, something that felt beat to death as a trope at that point, and find a way to make it interesting and new. With Southbound, we wanted to do the same thing with the actual structure of a multi-director narrative-we wanted to make one world-one mythology with a connected, interweaving story. Brad had been in touch with the Radio Silence boys about it, and I reached out to David Bruckner, and then we had a V/H/S reunion of sorts on our hands.

With Devil’s Candy, I was working under producers Keith and Jess Calder at the time, co-producing some of their film slate over at Snoot Entertainment and basically trying to soak up as much filmmaking knowledge from them as possible. Devil’s Candy was one of the first projects of theirs that I read, and being a huge fan of The Loved Ones (which I learned about from Midnight Madness, of course) I was beyond excited to get to work on Sean Byrne’s film.

You've been involved in many aspects of filmmaking (and tv-making) from the art department to producing and now screenwriting and directing. How did come to directing? And, is there anything you learned in the other ares of filmmaking that you've been involved in that you brought with you to directing?

Yeah. Drink a lot of water. Really though, every day on set in any capacity teaches you something new.  My route to directing isn’t the most traditional, I’ve had a little experience in a lot of different roles, which hopefully informs me as a filmmaker and producer. I think directing was the obvious transition for me after working in the anthology format for so many years now, which is so creatively collaborative by design, and you’re way more involved in shaping the overall vision of the film than in traditional features. Also, working with people better than you makes you better at what you do, it forces you to raise your game.  So I surround myself with as many talented people as possible. I’m also lucky to have some really rad director friends like Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun) and Dave Bruckner (The Signal) and Evan Katz (Cheap Thrills) that I can learn from, who have all definitely pushed me at various times to get behind the camera myself. It was definitely such an ‘Oh, THIS is what I’m supposed to be doing’ moment the first day on set in that capacity.

You've produced a bunch of anthology movies including the V/H/S series and now Southbound. What's some of the appeal of working in an anthology format for you?

Working with friends, always first and foremost. And you get to collaborate in a way that is not totally available to you with straight features. A feature is really a two to three-year process from development to the release of the film. And there’s so many great filmmakers in genre today. With these types of projects I get to work with a whole gang of talented filmmakers that I respect in that same window. Sixteen, actually, between the V/H/S movies and Southbound, which is pretty crazy. Watching the whole come together as greater than the sum of its parts--these separate visions that we’re helping to bring to screen to make one cohesive narrative--is one of my favorite things about the process. I’d also say I’ve made as many multi-director/multi-writer films as I have because of a love for the writer’s room working in TV, and the entire process of TV production. Particularly with Southbound, we were all coming up with this world together and structured production more like a TV series than a feature. We’d be in my living room once a week breaking story and talking themes, leading up to production. Same thing on set and once we got into the editing process. We’ve probably watched this film no less than 50 times through as a group since the rough cut.

What are some of your favorite horror movies, anthology or otherwise?

Creepshow 2 and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, particularly the Michael McDowell segment, "Lover’s Vow." That messed me up as a kid. In the Mouth of Madness is also at the top of the ‘probably fucked up my psyche at a formative age’ list.  I probably have way less horror film background than one would expect given my filmography, ha. I was always more of a reader—I grew up on EC Comics, Stephen King, USA Up All Night, and pulp novels.  I remember biking into town to the corner drugstore to get the latest Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror issues (I swear this was the '90s, not the '50s). But I tend to be more obsessed with anything that evokes a sense of creeping dread when it comes to movies, like The Sentinel or Repulsion or Picnic at Hanging Rock. I’m also fascinated by the dynamics of female relationships--there’s so much fodder there to mine-which I don’t think is explored enough in modern horror. I guess you can see that obsession in my part of Southbound.

Exploring the dynamics of female relationships---with DANGER!

What can the Midnight Madness audience expect from Southbound and The Devil's Candy?

Complete pandemonium, hopefully? I’m actually really excited to see both of these films with the Ryerson crowd. 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Roxanne Benjamin!
 
SOUTHBOUND Screening Times: Fri, Sept 18, 12:45 PM SCOTIABANK Fri, Sept 18, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK Sun, Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK


THE DEVIL'S CANDY Final Screening:
Sat, Sept 19, 1:15 PM SCOTIABANK

THE MIND'S EYE Larry Fessenden: A Horror Genre Renaissance Man

Larry Fessenden is truly a horror genre renaissance man. A director, writer, producer, actor. Appearing as Mike Connors in The Mind's Eye directed by Joe Begos will mark Mr. Fessenden's fourth time acting in a film that has premiered at the Midnight Madness program. Larry is always a joy to watch in a film, a talented and fearless actor who puts everything into his performance.

Larry started making short films with a Super 8 camera in high school and took that passion to NYU film school. As he has said, "I was born to make movies." He was naturally drawn to tell stories in the horror genre. "I have a slightly, paranoid nature, I just see the world filled with a sense of the potential for things to go wrong. So, I kind of live in a genre reality."

His second film Habit found an audience and was critically well received. Here is a snippet of what  Roger Ebert said about the film, "Fessenden, who wrote, directed, acted, and edited this film, is a talent to watch. That he is able to see himself with such objectivity is almost frightening; there is not a shred of ego in his performance."

Some of Fessenden's other films as a writer director include Wendigo, Beneath and The Last Winter. Not content to just make a movie for the sake of making a movie his films usually have a subtext, such as, addiction in the vampire film Habit or the perilous state of the natural world and environment which propels the undercurrent of The Last Winter.

In 1985 he founded his production company Glass Eye Pix. The name was derived from a decorative glass eye a friend gave him and said, "Here's to your vision," as well as paying homage to the Jimmy Cagney film Yankee Doodle Dandy where a Variety headline appears "Sticks Nix Hick Pix." Glass Eye Pix is still going strong having been one of the companies that has produced every single film Larry has directed as well as producing many other films most notably, I Sell The Dead and Stake Land. Recently he has become a curator and producer of Tales From Beyond The Pale. Tales is billed as "Radio Plays For The Digital Age".  

It was Larry's love of acting that initially drew him into film making so it was only logical that he would continue to perform in front of the camera -- in his own films -- but also appear in films made by Martin Scorsese Bringing Out The Dead, Jim Jarmusch Broken Flowers. Holding true to his roots and passion for the horror genre Larry has supported and acted in a lot of genre films. Larry has the distinction of having appeared in three previous films that have screened at the Midnight Madness program. Vanishing on 7th Street, You're Next and the 2010 People's Choice winner Stake Land which he also produced.

You can read an interview where Mr. Fessenden talks about producing the Jim Mickle film here. Larry's fourth time acting in a Midnight Madness premiere coincides with the 4th dimension in the The Mind's Eye a film about telekinesis. Coincidence? Then the very next night Larry will appear in Southbound which will also have it's world premiere.

Here is a video interview I conducted with Larry Fessenden in 2008.



THE MIND'S EYE screens:
Tue, Sept 15, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Wed, Sept 16, 12:00 PM SCOTIABANK
Thu, Sept 17, 12:15 PM SCOTIABANK
Thu, Sept 17, 3:30 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS
Sat, Sept 19, 7:00 PM SCOTIABANK

SOUTHBOUND screens:
Wed, Sept 16, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Fri, Sept 18, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK
Sun, Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK
 

AFTERSHOCK: Covered In Blood! Eli Roth Exclusive Interview.

Eli Roth is no stranger to the Midnight Madness programme of the Toronto International Film Festival. His first film as a writer and director Cabin Fever received its World Premiere in 2002 and instantly became a genre favorite. He would return to Midnight Madness in 2005 leading a new direction in American horror films with the extremely intense, visceral film Hostel. 2012 marks the return of Eli Roth to Toronto’s midnight showcase as the lead actor and producer in Nicolás López’ AFTERSHOCK. I recently had the opportunity to ask Eli some questions on his latest film project.

                            Exclusive Photo of Eli Roth on set with Director Nicolás López

How did you meet Nicolas Lopez? What did you see in his previous films that made you want to collaborate with him?

In 2004 I was invited to the Los Angeles Film Festival to be on a filmmaker panel, and after the event I was about to leave when the programmer Rich Raddon said "Don't go! There's a movie you HAVE to see. The director loves Cabin Fever - he told me to find you, he's this hilarious 21 year old Chilean kid, he made a crazy teen comedy, you can't miss it." That was Promedio Rojo. I remember Nicolas' introduction was so funny he had the whole audience rolling before the credits even started. 90 minutes later I was a huge Nicolas Lopez fan. We hung out that night and turned out we had a lot more in common than we realized. Specifically, we had made out with the same girl from this one particular film festival in Europe. (Different years of course.) After that we were pretty much bonded for life. The more I got to know Nicolas, the more I realized what a genius he was. At the age of 16 he produced Jorge Olguin's horror film Angel Negro, and then wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own MTV show called Piloto MTV," where he's a director who every week he had to do come up with a new show for MTV. It's totally nuts, and if you speak Spanish I recommend tracking it down on youtube. Piloto was a massive hit in Latin America and aired on MTV after Jackass. Nicolas had accomplished all of this by the age of 17, and by that time had a regular column called Promedio Rojo in the major newspaper of Santiago, where he wrote about what was going on in his high school. This wasn't like writing for the school paper, he was writing for the equivalent of the Los Angeles Times about his high school and exposing all kinds of things, which Que Pena Tu Vida they threw him out for. Nicolas wanted to make Hollywood style movies from the get-go, which was the antithesis of most of the artier festival type government funded films being made in Chile. I was amazed at what he had accomplished by 21, I didn't make my first film until I was 29. And over the years I've seen him grow into an incredible filmmaker. After Promedio Nicolas was the hot shot new director in Hollywood for a minute and everyone was throwing projects at him, but he went off and made this wild VFX comic book-style movie called Santos . It was a complete disaster, it totally tanked in Spain and Chile, and for the first time in his life he felt he had failed. He felt washed up at 23, and then just buckled down and wrote Fuck My Life, a romantic comedy about how difficult it is to break up when everyone is so connected and we're reminded of our exes every time we use twitter or facebook or instagram. He shot Que Pena in 11 days for $100,000 on a 7D and it out-grossed The Social Network in Chile, which was a massive hit there. It was box office smash, taking in fifteen times its budget. We talked about doing a film together, something high octane, in English, something scary and violent. I went down and visited him in Chile and we just started writing and scouting locations. It all came together very fast, but really sprung from our friendship and mutual admiration of each others' work.

You have produced several films before. What unique obstacles did you and the production team face on AFTERSHOCK? How did you overcome them?

I wanted to do AFTERSHOCK in the same way that Nicolas had made his Que Pena Films, which is down and dirty and fast, shooting all in Chile, with a Chilean crew. I had just spent several months in China shooting Man With the Iron Fists, and had nearly an entirely Chinese crew, so I was used to working with foreign crews, especially after the "Hostel" films which I shot in Prague and Iceland with local crews. I love going into another country and figuring it out. It's exciting to me, and with each system you can take something you learned onto the next one with you. I even had that experience on Basterds with the German crew shooting Nation's Pride. One of the major unique obstacles was getting a completion bond, which financiers require. It had never been done before in Chile. AFTERSHOCK is the first bonded film shot in Chile. It took a lot of education and trust and showing them that the team down there knew what they were doing, and the bond company was great and we came in a day ahead of schedule and under budget. I had to put up half my salary as collateral, which I got eventually, but it took me bonding the bond company, if that makes sense. The biggest obstacle was adjusting to the Chilean style of making movies, which I actually prefer in some ways. For example, there are no trailers - you just share a room to change if you need to. There's one make up artist for everyone, not a big makeup trailer with lots of chairs. It's just how it is. Things moved so fast it reminded me of what it was like to make a movie with your friends when you're a kid. There's no unions, so everyone's just picking up helping out. Nicolas and his producing partner Miguel Asensio have assembled a great team there. I also produced it with Brian Oliver and Mac Cappucino and Jim Holt, whose company Vertebra films were financing. We were all there, on the ground, bridging the U.S. system with the bond and the exchange rate and all that kind of stuff, plus I was acting in the film which took up most all my time. I had to go from writer to producer to actor, and then back to producer. It was a lot, but it was so much fun. It felt like we were breaking new ground, kind of re-learning everything we knew at the same time. It was a combination of adjusting the Hollywood culture and the Chile culture to create a new style that accommodates both.

How difficult is it to act as well as produce in the same film? Are there moments when you are in a scene and CUT is called and a phone is handed to you in regards to a producing concern? How do you stay in character?

Yes. It's very difficult, way more so than I anticipated. I want to do every job at the best of my abilities, so I tend to go all in and completely immerse myself no matter what it is, if it's writing directing, producing, or acting. I want to give in a great performance, and that takes intense concentration and preparation. But the way I can produce at the same time is to produce the film with good partners who can take over those duties while you're acting. They knew what my acting in the film meant, and we were prepared for it. Miguel, Mac, Jim and Brian were handling producing duties when I was acting, and if something needed to get done we just dealt with it. It's never an ideal situation and they don't want to bother me when they don't have to, but more often than not I was taking phone calls and signing contracts and solving problems completely drenched in fake blood, dust and sweat. It's also hard to shut your brain off, so after a while you just kind of give up on sleep until you wrap. It was like this on Basterds when I was acting and shooting Nation's Pride at the same time, it was really hard and just took all my focus at all times. After we wrapped photography we all got sick - it's like our bodies were fighting it and once we knew we were allowed to shut down we spent a week in bed not moving.

Can you describe what the process was like to write the screenplay with Mr. Lopez and Guillermo Amodeo?

We wrote the script over skype, and a lot of it was like a volleyball game, where we'd just bat it around back and forth. Guillermo had worked closely with Nicolas on his other scripts, and he's great with story and structure. I'll come up with a ton of ideas of ways to kill, as does Nicolas, and Guillermo can help wrangle them into an escalation of events. But really it started with Nicolas describing the earthquake to me and what he went through. He just took me through the events of the night, and the stories that happened to people he knew, and it was all there. It was horrific - the total collapse of society. The whole country shook violently for 3 and a half minutes, it was a notch under the Tokyo earthquake. It hit at 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday on the last weekend of their summer, so most of the young people were out at bars partying, dancing. Thousands of people drunk, girls in heels and tiny dresses, suddenly getting hands chopped off or having pieces of ceiling collapse on them. One of our leads Lorenza Izzo was in a club when it hit, and said when we were shooting the earthquake it was exactly what happened to her. In the very club we filmed at people were killed when the speakers fell on them. One kid lost both his hands and had his friends looking for them, but they couldn't find them and had to leave because the structure was collapsing. The prisons broke up, violent criminals got out, there was looting - and nobody could communicate. No police, no fire - it was chaos. A lot of the country is still destroyed from the earthquake, so we used real locations. The Santiago cemetery let us film in a wing that was too damaged from the earthquake to be usable, so while we were shooting we suddenly realized we were surrounded by broken open tombs with bones falling out. We didn't have to set dress it, I was lying on the ground and all around me were dust and bones that were rattled in the earthquake. It was crazy.

As well as your directing and acting you have been quite prolific as a producer, what do you look for in a story before jumping onboard as a producer?

I generally don't look for something, something grabs me, if that makes sense. It usually sparks from conversations with other filmmakers, or sometimes an idea just pops in your head and you know you have to make it. I hear a story, often based in fact, and then I say "we have to do that!" But one thing in common is I like to put a fresh spin on genres or types of films that people haven't done in a long time. Cabin Fever was my love of 80's horror, really gory R rated kids in the woods horror which had all but evaporated by the 90's, and was way too sanitized and politically correct for my taste. With Hostel  I wanted to bring the unflinching brutality I had seen coming out South Korea and Japan to American cinemas. I wanted to push the R rating as far as anyone had ever done. I wanted to make the movie people were afraid to see. With Man with the Iron Fists I just loved RZA's story, his whole conception of how to modernize and do an updated version of the films we loved watching on Saturday Kung Fu theater, and with AFTERSHOCK I realized there hadn't been a good realistic, violent earthquake disaster thriller since the 70's. We wanted something that was real, but a high octane, roller coaster thriller, something that when it hits just doesn't let up. So many disaster films are done with CG, which is fine, but we had the opportunity to do something that was modern and do it real by actually destroying things. Most everything you see we really did. A lot of the takes I closed my eyes because I was terrified someone would get crushed. Thankfully no one got hurt, but the film was made with that kind of energy. Nicolas would look at me after a take and just shake his head and say "Someone's watching over this movie." And you feel it when you see it. There's no substitute for the real thing.

AFTERSHOCK was shot in Chile, what were some of the unique aspects to making a film there as opposed to Los Angeles?

In Los Angeles, everything is union. It's much more expensive, and the departments are segregated into very specific jobs, and no one crosses over and does the other person's job. In Chile, it's non-union so everyone just pitches in and does everything. Also there's no agents, no managers, none of that. None of the Chilean actors are in SAG, so you're not dealing with overtime and turnaround issues, which is after an actor wraps you can't bring them in the next day until 12 hours later. People just do it for a flat weekly rate and that's it. It was really like a family, but that comes from Nicolas and Miguel Asensio his producing partner. They've all made so many movies together they're all friends and everyone gets along great. I was lucky to be able to just plug into their system, that was always the idea. And they are fantastic, we're planning to shoot a bunch of movies now. We call them Chilewood movies.

Why should folks check out AFTERSHOCK at Midnight Madness?

Nicolas Lopez is one of the most exciting talents out there, mostly unknown to English speaking audiences. His movies are very, very fun, I think people are going to be shocked and thrilled by what we did. There's nothing like AFTERSHOCK. You're discovering a new talent for the first time, and after I think people will track down his Spanish movies on Netflix. He's going to be a major force in genre cinema, and you can be there to be part of that moment when he crosses over and help support him. He deserves it. Also if you're a fan of my acting, you see me covered in blood for a lot of the movie. This is the first film I've starred in, and I wouldn't just do that with any director. I was offered lead roles in movies after Basterds and turned them all down because none of the projects excited me. Nicolas is one of the few directors I really trust as an actor, and I hope people will be surprised by what they see me do on screen. Plus the other cast members are superb - Ariel Levy, Lorenza Izzo, Andrea Osvart, Nicolas Martinez, Natasha Yarovenko - they're incredible. The audience who sees this will really be discovering exciting new talent.
 

                                                   Robert A. Mitchell interviewing Eli Roth


Midnight Madness and the Festival have marked crucial points in your career having launched the world premieres of both CABIN FEVER and HOSTEL. Can you talk about your relationship to the Festival and Toronto?

Toronto is the place where I was officially born as a director. I had a made a movie but somehow it wasn't official until I saw it in a theater with a paying audience. That first premiere at the Uptown 1 is one of the greatest memories of my life. When the doors opened it was like being at the center at the buffalo stampede from Dances with Wolves except with rabid horror geeks. My whole life I had dreamed of that moment and for the first time I really felt like everything I had envisioned since I was 8 years old was coming true. I had heard so many stories about being the hot film at the festival, I had always wanted that to happen. And the fans were so receptive, they went crazy, and the bidding war ensued and the rest is history. I feel like Cabin Fever helped buyers realize what a goldmine Midnight Madness is. There were many great films at the festival, but when Cabin Fever played a lot of buyers would leave halfway through the festival. After Cabin Fever sold and Lionsgate's biggest hit of the year for them, people got fired for not bidding on movies at midnight madness. The whole psychology shifted - especially when Saw played the next year. And now it's where people look to find the next big thing in horror or genre. Colin Geddes has such great taste in selecting an exciting, diverse program that give attention to films that really need it and deserve it. So my career is forever tied to Toronto, and I love that, that's why I wanted to bring Hostel there. Even when I shot Hemlock Grove in Toronto I moved into the TIFF Lightbox building because it felt like home for me. The Toronto fans welcomed me before they had seen a frame of my film - they gave me a chance and welcomed me with open arms. Many film festivals the audience is somewhat hostile, they want you to impress them, but the Toronto fans are genuinely appreciative you brought the movie there and they want to see it in the theater with a wild crowd, which is why we make them in the first place. And that's why it was important to premiere AFTERSHOCK here as well. I want Nicolas to feel the same reception I felt. I can't wait to show this to the Toronto Midnight Madness audience. It's one of the best audiences you can show a movie to.

AFTERSHOCK
Tue., Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Thurs., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 3
Sun., Sept. 16th, 3:30 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 9

Midnight Producers Part 4: Jason Blum and Steven Schneider - INSIDIOUS

This the forth in the ongoing series, Meeting the Producers of Midnight Madness 2010.

When the news broke that the producing team behind the hugely successful Paranormal Activity and the writing and directing team of hugely influential genre film Saw were teaming up to work on Insidious there was obvious excitement from the horror community. These heavyweights of genre cinema decided their partnership together would be best suited outside of the studio system in order to best help James Wan bring his vision to the big screen.

Let me introduce you to Jason Blum and Steven Schneider, part of the producing team behind Insidious.

Jason Blum opened Blumhouse Productions in the fall of 2000. Throughout his career, he has cultivated a reputation as a tireless advocate of independent film, and as a skilled producer adept at securing compelling new material and cutting-edge talent and forging deep relationships with studio executives, agents, writers, directors and actors. Since opening his own company, Blum has produced six feature films that demonstrate his unique taste and creative sensibilities. With keen business savvy, and a sharp eye for art house fare, he is constantly striving to expand the Blumhouse Productions slate of films.

Could you talk about how and why you formed your production company Blumhouse Productions?

Jason Blum WHY -I loved making movies and one of my dreams in life was always to have a single purpose company that does just that. HOW- I spent the first ten years of my career working for people who were very successful and I used that time to learn as much as I could always keeping in mind that eventually I wanted to work for myself.

Looking at your filmography you have recently become a producer in the past couple of years, how did you become a producer? What attracted you to the job?

Steven Schneider I grew up in New York City reading comic books and watching horror movies. After ten years (!) of grad school working on various degrees in philosophy and film theory, I found myself missing pop culture more and more. So I started writing and editing books on genre cinema - in particular horror movies from around the world. But to that point I'd still never thought about transitioning into film production once. Then, in 2002, Roy Lee (producer of The Ring, The Grudge, The Departed, etc.) reached out to me because he'd seen some of my books and wanted to know if I had any ideas for horror remakes. After this initial phone call, things immediately started clicking into place. My long-term girlfriend had already begun a successful acting career, and I just wasn't feeling excited about my dissertation work anymore. So later that year, Katheryn and I made the move to Hollywood, and I've been producing full-time ever since.

I've read that you are a strong advocate for independent film. What draws you to producing projects outside of the studio system?

Jason Blum I like making movies for studios and independently equally as much but the two jobs are entirely different. Making studio movies the Producer for the most part answers to the studio first and goes from there. Independent movies allow the producer only to help the director realize his vision without any other factors. Both are fun complicated jobs.

What attracted you to producing Insidious? How difficult was the financing of the project?

Steven Schneider On the heels of Paranormal Activity's success last year, my partners on that movie (Jason Blum and Oren Peli) and I entered into a slate deal with Alliance Films. (The head of Alliance, Charles Layton, had previously worked with Jason at Miramax for years, so they already had a good relationship.) The basic idea of the Alliance "Haunted Movies" slate is to make a number of very scary horror movies on very low budgets; and to work with amazing filmmakers who are excited to trade bells & whistles for creative freedom. As for Insidious, James Wan and I sat down after Paranormal came out, and as soon as he pitched me the idea, I was in. Loved the concept, loved James' vision for it, and couldn't wait to get started. Fortunately Jason and Oren agreed, and Alliance was totally supportive. Insidious is the first Haunted Movies production, and the Paranormal Activity-Saw combination is lethal!

What for you are some of the keys to making a package to present to investors and/studio executives?

Jason Blum There are only 4: Script Director Cast Budget If your budget is low enough and you script, cast, actors are compelling even now there is money out there to make your movies.

What unique challenges did you face in bringing Insidious to the screen?

Steven Schneider I think everyone involved would agree that the biggest challenge with Insidious was just making sure we could help enable James and Leigh (Whannell) achieve their amazing, ambitious vision for the movie given the relatively miniscule (by Hollywood standards) budget. But with the help of an incredible, passionate crew of true professionals - including Albert Cho, Aaron Sims, John Leonetti, Jeanette Brill, Rick Osako, Annie McCarthy, Jennifer and Tom Spence, Kristin Burke, and all of our wonderful actors (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye and many others) - we were fortunately able to achieve it. At least we think we have - you tell us after the premiere!

Insidious screens:

Tuesday September 14th. 11:59 PM RYERSON

Thursday September 16th 3:00 PM AMC 9

You can buy tickets from the official TIFF website

Midnight Producers Part 2: Ted Hope - SUPER

This is the second in an ongoing series, Meet The Producers Of Midnight Madness 2010.

Let me introduce you to Ted Hope. He is a producer that has many years of experience in the film industry and he is very generous with the vast knowledge he has acquired through his experiences.

In the late 1980s, American independent film burst on the scene with the promise of new visions, new stories, and new approaches. Ted Hope was among the first producers to emerge from the pack and one of the few today consistently delivering vital and exciting new work. With partner Anne Carey, Hope is the co-founder of New York production company This is That. In six years, This is That has produced seventeen features. A survey of Hope’s work, numbering over fifty films, includes many highlights and breakthroughs of the last two decades. Ted’s films have received numerous awards, including three Academy Award Best Screenplay nominations.

1) You recently wrote that there are two determining factors on how your films are made: superior quality of the material, and the willingness of the collaborators to make great sacrifices. In regards to Super, could you talk about some of the sacrifices you and your team made to realize the film?

Super was a wonderful example of team work. We communicated our limitations to everyone before they signed on, and with only one exception, everyone recognizes that we were in it together. Indie filmmaking is a demonstration on the interconnectedness of all things. If you go over on the wardrobe budget, it means you can't license the music you want at the end of the day. The cast and crew got this. No one had anything beyond the essentials. We were lean and mean, a rapid Super shooting machine. It was always about the movie and not the perks. The crew had the best housing -- and Miranda, James, and I had the worst.

This isn't the kind of movie that gets made every day and every one indicated that they knew it was a privilege to be part of it. Yet, you can't ask people to do their best work and truly give their all, if such an example of commitment wasn't embraced from the top down. James Gunn's enthusiasm, passion, and preparedness was infectious. He was first to arrive and knew what he wanted. He made his process transparent and was the first to enforce the necessity to move fast. The team organized so well around him that we never had to sacrifice quality.

2) We have seen most of the studio "independents" fall by the wayside recently. It seems to me the film business is becoming huge studio productions and small DIY films. What is your take on the current state of the film-making business? Do you foresee anyone stepping in to replace medium budgeted productions?

It's true that the middle ground has vanished. I feel fortunate to have been able to work at a time and at a pace that I have been able to establish a track record of quality films produced at limited budgets that deliver profitable results. It is going to be really difficult to create challenging work unless it embraces minimal budgets or utilizes audience appealing genres. It is really surprising to me that there are not more companies committed to the space that once was occupied by the likes of New Line & Dimension. With the polarities of content and budget prominent in the industry today, actors are struggling to find roles that allow them to truly create unique characters in unique situations. It is the best time to cast challenging material that I have ever experienced. Good actors need good work. I have been really impressed with the quality of actor-centric genre films from all over the globe this past year, from MOON to HOUSE OF THE DEVIL to THE SQUARE to THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED to THE PROPHET to ANIMAL KINGDOM. These are awesome films with real audience appeal, albeit not at the largest numbers but at defined, easy to reach, internationally appealing strands. There is good business to be done, and new technologies to deliver it. Once folks on all sides realize where we really are right now, audiences are going to experience a golden age of great work.

3) You have also written that "being a film producer requires abandoning the concept that you work for a living." Could you elaborate on this?

I was very fortunate to start producing when I did in the late '80s. The business had changed and the mainstream infrastructure failed to acknowledge it for almost a decade. I benefited for fifteen years by that oversight. The film business has changed again, but our methods, models, and work still is based on practices of many years ago. We are not living and working in the present. Our work currently is not able to extract it's full value from utilizing the current practices and platforms. Because film is currently a capital intensive growth-focused industry, we will forever be experiencing boom and bust cycles, and the tragedies that come with it. Those that have the capital generally establish footholds and gates that allow to maximize earnings from the labor and art of others -- they take the risk and reap the benefits as a result, or at least that's the structure of the world we work in. Creators and artists are first concerned with getting their work made; this desire makes them vulnerable and they are exploited. Early on, I was asked whether I was a filmmaker or a businessman. I thought I could be both, but when you care first and foremost about your film, you are willing to make great sacrifices to get your movie made. I work to get my movies made -- and still can earn a living doing that. IMHO, movies are too hard to make well to make anything other than what you care about. Once you reveal you care, you are open to being exploited, even by your partners. Even if I am not being fairly compensated, I am still happy to be able to support myself and all the others I employ, by working at creating movies I am passionate about. I would shoot myself if I had to create the crap that is generally passed off as entertainment these days, but you can earn a living producing it! At least, I still have that choice!

SUPER screens:
Friday, Sept. 10 11:59pm Ryerson
Monday, Sept. 13 9:30am Varsity 8
Saturday, Sept. 18 6:00pm Scotiabank Theatre 4

You can buy tickets from the official TIFF website

Midnight Producers Part 1: Peter Block - JOHN CARPENTER'S THE WARD

This is the first in an ongoing series, Meeting The Producers Of Midnight Madness 2010.

Don't let the big name talent fool you, the ten films that make up this year's Midnight Madness programme have all been made outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system. These ten independent features have all faced their own challenges and the standard ones of not enough time and not enough money. I recently had the opportunity to pose questions to the producers of the films so please follow me as we Meet the Producers of Midnight Madness 2010. Let me introduce you to Peter Block.

Mr. Block, formerly was President of acquistions and co-productions of Lionsgate. In 2008 he formed A Bigger Boat productions in order to produce and distribute genre films and television.

1) What did you learn from being the President of Acquistions & Co-Productions at Lionsgate that informed your decision to form your own production company A Bigger Boat in 2008?

What I had learned in my time at Lionsgate, and as far back as the early '90s when I found that a company could actually exist on a slate of straight to video horror titles, and sometimes you discovered fantastic new directors, such as Guillermo del Toro, "Cronos" and Peter Jackson "Dead Alive". I also learned that the horror audience was vibrant, dedicated and social. Whether the films were good or bad, was often not nearly as important as whether there was a great death scene, or even a really bad line-reading. The audience showed up again and again and shared their experiences with one another.

By 2008, I had spent the better part of a decade at Lionsgate, and had been able to chart its course into the genre world from the arthouse circuit; I can still recall the great conversation when we were able to convince Chairman Jon Feltheimer that (a) "House Of 1000 Corpses" really was an arthouse movie (perhaps one for an outhouse crowd), and (b) that he should never watch it. So began a great trajectory beginning with "Cabin Fever", right here at TIFF, which allowed us to not only play in the genre sandbox, but to dig deep for hidden gems that other studios wouldn't touch, like "Devil's Rejects", "Hard Candy" and "The Descent". After spending time finding and producing commercial (Saw, Crank, Open Water) and critical (Crash, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Fido) successes for the company, I had a chance to fully delve into the indie producing world, while at the same time further exploring some of my genre sensibilities. There were stories I was still interested in telling, and directors (like genre-fave Adam Green, new-comers like Mark Tonderai and the legendary John Carpenter) that I wanted to work with. Plus, in A Bigger Boat, I already had a great company name picked out and, with the help of my pal Tim Williams, a fun animated logo...

2) The Ward was made outside of the studio system, what were some of the unique challenges this presented?

The Ward was made outside of the studio system for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we (my partners at Echo Lake Productions, and I) wanted to entice John Carpenter to direct the movie, and we knew John was partial to his independence (we found out later that that sentiment extended to "from producers" as well!). Secondly, the industry was changing. Studios were less interested in lower budgeted genre fare, in favor of tent-pole releases with name stars to drive ticket sales, and with it corporate earnings and stock prices. Along those same lines, most studios are more interested in keeping cost commitments as low as possible, preferring to explore co-production ventures, off-balance sheet financing, and pursuing post-production acquisitions over pre-production financial commitments.

So, while no studio came aboard before we made The Ward, it did open up some possibilities elsewhere. Many foreign territories have distributors with output deals with different Hollywood studios, and their offerings reflect largely what the studio feeds them. So your film doesn't always end up with the right distributor overseas, but rather the one with whom the studio has a pre-existing relationship. We got to approach each territory separately, and our foreign sales partner --- Glen Basner's FilmNation --- did a masterful job setting us up with enough pre-sales overseas --- to distributors excited at the prospect of a new John Carpenter film --- that we were able to finance the movie, albeit with less than John or we hoped. And so began the search for where to shoot, a decision complicated by the ever-changing exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar. So initial explorations of Toronto and Winnipeg eventually gave way to a terrific team in Spokane Washington, which had an unknown production team but a great tax rebate program. But in then end, it all comes down to not the elements you don't have, but the quality of the ones you do, and we have a great story, a camera-friendly and talented cast, and a director who knows a thing or two about the art of the scare. I'd say we're doing ok.

3) I recently spoke with David Cronenberg and he said that in today's climate your past track record does not matter anymore. Each film has to be tackled as though it was your first project. You yourself have an impression track record, how are you finding the business of raising money for a project?

I think David's right in some regards, but let's not forget: he's David Cronenberg, and he's done some of his most outstanding work lately with "Eastern Promises" and "History Of Violence". So I could disagree and say his body of work makes him ever-relevant, and at the same time his recent work is so strong that anyone would love to have the opportunity to be involved with a new project. But overall he's correct and it's as much a function of the "what have you done for me lately?" mentality as it is a matter that studio needs (and studio personnel) are ever-changing, coupled with the collapsing of industry windows and revenue streams.

Moreover, movie years are like dog years: by the time your movie gets made, released and finds it's way to a studio (non)profit statement, another 600 films have come and gone through theaters, to say nothing of those that bypass theatrical altogether. By the time you want to make a follow-up to your movie, the first one has been released and critiqued, amortized and analyzed, and most likely already replicated enough times so that's it's either deemed a classic or already forgotten. And all of that is further enhanced by the fact that everyone's always looking for a reason to say "no"; rarely does anyone get fired for not green-lighting a project, but the corollary isn't always true. So you've got to make sure your successes are recent enough to stay relevant in an ever-changing marketplace, and you've got to have a package that demands a "yes" when both economics and job preservation dictate otherwise. In other words, I'm no longer the guy responsible for "Saw" or "Open Water" or "The Descent"; I'm just the guy who this year made "Frozen" and The Ward and released "The Disappearance Of Alice Creed". And I'm hoping I can still get the director of "Scanners" on the phone.

John Carpenter's The Ward screens:

Monday, Sept. 13. 11:59pm Ryerson

Sunday, Sept 19. 12:15pm Scotiabank Theatre 1

You can buy tickets from the official TIFF website