THE EDITOR Red Carpet Interviews With Adam Brooks Matthew Kennedy Conor Sweeney Sheila Campbell

The Editor had it's world premiere last night. Robert A. Mitchell spoke with directors and co-writers Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy as well as actor and co-writer Conor Sweeney and actress Sheila Campbell.





THE EDITOR screening times:
Sat., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM, SCOTIABANK 4

THE EDITOR Premieres Tonight!

The Editor premieres tonight, so pull on your black leather gloves, don your featureless mask and hope that the film can somehow explain your dreams of blood or who that mysterious woman is who you seem to remember but have never met... or so your friends claim...

Does this little girl seem familiar? Is she a Murder Scout?

Is your home filled with mannequins?

Do you dream of strange creatures?

Only The Editor can help you now.


THE EDITOR screening times:
Thu. Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Fri. Sept. 12th, 9:15 AM, SCOTIABANK 3
Sat. Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM, SCOTIABANK 4

A Brief History of ASTRON-6

So who are Astron-6?  I like to compare them to the "Voltron" of Canadian genre filmmakers. While every member is multi-talented, they become a supreme galactic force with their powers combined!

Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, and Steve Kostanski - with your powers combined, you are ASTRON-6!*

It all started with the Winnipeg Film Massacre, a festival started by Jeremy Gillespie and his girlfriend. In the beginning, the future members were in competition with each other, and hated each other!

Astron-6 was the brainchild of Adam Brooks and Jeremy Gillespie. The intention had been to create a fake 80's video distributor to release their sketches under. They chose the name out of the love for Vestron - and were going to go with Astron Video - but that existed, so it became Astron-6.

But before Astron-6, there was first GOREBLADE - a web series.  Here is perhaps the earliest relic of Astron-6, the little known Goreblade website!  Goreblade can also be found on their shorts DVD, and the astron site, but the above website was basically never used. So after seeing Kostanki's effects in the shorts he had submitted to Winnipeg film massacre, Adam and Jeremy brought him in to make Goreblade. In return, Matthew Kennedy and Conor Sweeney brought in the others to help them make HIZ, an oldschool dubbed itallian style zombie flick.

HIZ was the first official Astron-6 short! Everything after HIZ was tagged with  the Astron-6 Logo.
Soon after that came Laser Ghost 2: The return to Laser Cove….  And the films kept coming!  At this point in time, all the members lived near each other, and the projects already started to grow in scope.

The action packed, ultra violent sci-fi comedy Manborg was their first feature, and was shot over the course of a year - largely a on green screen's in Steve's parent's garage - as well as pretty much anywhere else that a green screen could be set up.

As they wrapped that, their comedy horror film Father's Day came right after. During a film class workshop, shooting at Matthew's apartment, They were putting glasses on the actor who would become Chris Fuchman -when they said he looked like a rapist. Conor and Matthew started joking with him about only raping dads, and the plot was born in a matter of minutes! It began as a trailer, but after teaming up with Troma, the feature became a reality. A joke made up on the spot became a premise to build a feature upon!

A still from what just might be one of many hilarious dubbed conversations in The Editor

After this the members became scattered, with Jeremy and Steve moving to Toronto, and Conor and Steve moved to Vancouver (but have since returned), renuniting with Adam.  Today, the Astron-6 spirit endures, and the team all intend to keep up the collaborations; with The Editor being the most recent, and largest scale film they've done!

Source:  Matthew Kennedy

* what, how come there are 5 named members, but it's called Astron-6?   Google says:  You are the final member.

THE EDITOR screening times:

Thu., Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON 

Fri., Sept. 12th, 9:15 AM, SCOTIABANK 3 

Sat., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM, SCOTIABANK 4

Fan Art for THE EDITOR!

Midnight Maniacs Leigh Young & Davis Kro made fan art for The Editor--without even having seen the movie yet. Is there some sort of psychic connection between them and Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy? And how does the mysterious woman in the sunglasses and black leather gloves fit in?

Young's work is just above and below. It's followed by Davis Kro's pictures.

Find Leigh Young on Facebook and Twitter: www.facebook.com/pages/Leigh-Young-Illustration/886126148068269 & www.twitter.com/leighyoungart

And find Davis Kro at: www.twitter.com/Krooked_Glasses and www.krooked-glasses.tumblr.com

 

 

THE EDITOR screening times:
Thu. Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Fri. Sept. 12th, 9:15 AM, SCOTIABANK 3
Sat. Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM, SCOTIABANK 4

5 Questions with the Directors of THE EDITOR

Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy lead the charge in the new Astron-6 film The Editor.  The two of them impressively split the jobs of producer, director, directors of photography and writer (with Conor Sweeney)… as well as both acting in the film!  Just a few of the many hats they wore, actually!

We caught up with them for some insights on their brand new Giallo Comedy flick!

1. What's your favorite giallo movie? 

Matthew: I like Suspiria, Tenebre and the first giallo movie that I watched which was Bava's Bay of Blood or 'Twitch of the Death Nerve'. I bought it online because I heard that Friday the 13th 2 stole some deaths from it. I didn't even know it was a giallo at the time or what a giallo was... 

Adam: Don't Torture a Duckling 

Matthew Kennedy

2. What's your favorite comedy? 

Matthew: This is really hard for me to choose but I really like Wet Hot American Summer and most films by David Wain. I'm also a big fan of all of Woody Allen's comedies, particularly Play it Again, Sam. 

Adam: Yes such a hard question... Maybe Groundhog Day or Billy Madison or Wanderlust or The Big Lebowski... The 40 Year Old Virgin... This is the End?.... I dunno... Too hard. 

3. Giallo-comedy! Where'd that concept come from? 

Matthew: We love comedy, we love giallos. Everything we do has a touch of comedy and giallos already come with their own pre-exisiting dash of comedy, I'd say. 

Adam: We like to make each other laugh, so there's the comedy element. And as for the giallo element - I think we'd like to make every genre of movie, and now we can check giallo off that list. 

4. Can you talk about your experience with Indiegogo for this film? 

Matthew: Indiegogo served us well. We would not have been able to shoot the film in 4k without that campaign. We still have to deliver some prizes that we couldn't mail until the film was finished. We were still shooting as recently as June so we haven't had a moment to breathe. 

Adam Brooks

5. How has your filmmaking process adapted from the early days of Astron-6 to your work on The Editor? 

Matthew: It has only become harder and harder and harder. Every movie we shoot is more work than the last. The early days of Astron-6 were really the glory days. It was just getting together with your friends and making something that made you laugh. We laughed so much back then, and we still do, it just comes between all the awful pain, depression and exhaustion. 

Adam: Yea I think I see where you're going with this question and I want to tell you that it's a whole new world now and we sit in director chairs and have people get us coffee. But the truth is nothing has changed except the workload got bigger. We still have to phone the actors, drive them to set, pack all the gear, the props the costumes into our tiny cars, set everything up, buy people food, pay for parking, tear down, and drive people home. Then at home we work on props or set dec for the next shoot, and play around with some editing. So it's really no different. We still shoot mainly without permits and do our own stunts too.

THE EDITOR screening times:

Thu., Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON 

Fri., Sept. 12th, 9:15 AM, SCOTIABANK 3
Sat., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM, SCOTIABANK 4