Canada, the birthplace of talented filmmakers, we have had some of there here in ELDERFANFILMS and we must continue with the tradition, that's why today I have the honour to bring you this interesting chatting I had with JEREMY LUTTER, a talented and witty canadian filmmaker most exactly from Victoria BC. Showcases his feature film debut called THE HOLLOW CHILD a thrilling and enigmatic story based on changelings stories. JEREMY LUTTER talked to us about what he thinks of stories' creation and gave advice to newby filmmakers. I know you will like it.
EFF: I must to give you the thanks for take some time out and answer these questions, Ireally do. Where are you from and what was the moment when you figured out that filmmaking was your passion in life?
JL: I grew up in Victoria BC Canada, which is on an island called Vancouver
Island - near the city Vancouver BC Canada.
I have always wanted to be a filmmaker and I was a huge fan of the
cinema since being a small child. Star Wars and Indiana Jones and those
sort of films had a big impact on me when I was young. I started making
videos when I was 13 in high school. There was a course at school
called Multi-Media where they had a bunch of professional video gear at the
time it was very rare for a school to own such things. It was run by a
teacher (and later City Councillor) Vic Derman, that had everything
to do with me learning out to make films.
EFF: What does
filmmaking mean to you?
JL: Filmmaking is a just a technical method of
storytelling. I could consider myself a storyteller. It's our
version of sitting around the fire and telling stories. Stories are
important because they create culture and help form an identity both as a group
and as individuals. A good story also starts a conversation about
important topics. There's a possibility to inspire and make the world a
better place, by telling stories we can form bridges between groups
and understand each other.
Jeremy Lutter
EFF: You have a bunch of
short films upon your shoulders, but none of those are horror ones, why did you
decide to shoot your first feature film on Horror genre?
JL: I make films with strong stories that have all have
a fantasy element. Stories of robots and monsters. I don't
view The Hollow Child as any different from my previous films. The
film is just darker in terms of tone, which seemed appropriate to the
story.
EFF: Let's talk about "THE HOLLOW
CHILD" your feature debut, as it was told it It’s a horror film, Tell us
briefly what is this film about, the plot?
JL: The Hollow Child is about Samantha is a troubled
teenage orphan who is trying to fit into her foster family - when her foster
sister goes missing and when she reappears - there's something wrong with
Olivia. It's a story about evil
changelings.
EFF: This film was written by Ben
Rollo, an old friend of yours, this question i should to ask to him, but the
conception of the film what is based on? No only the folklore tale but further things?
JL: The film is not based on anything. The story was
inspired by reading about the real history of changelings and by that, I
mean people have used this idea of changelings to explain things in the
past. Most likely mental illness. This idea of people not
being themselves. Look it up people even got off on murder charges by
saying that his wife was a changeling. Ben Rollo wanted to make a
film with a monster that was not over used., so he wanted to write about
changelings.
EFF: I looked for and found that this film
was made through a Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch Funding Program for first
time feature directors, am I right? But I also found an indiegogo campaign with
a very funny promotional video. Tell us how all that process was, from submit
your film until you knew you had won and why you decided to start an indiegogo
campaign and how it was the result of it?
JL: Canada is an amazing place to be a
filmmaker because the government supports storytelling. They have a
special fund for first time directors. It's a hard application process -
you need to be selected by a film school or film society in Canada at the time
they were only allow to submit one project to Telefilm and Telefilm then picked
from those selected projects which ones got the funding (less than half)
they pick from projects across Canada. We were selected by the NSI
(National Screen Institute) of Canada to be put forward. I had done a
directing course there. We then got selected by Telefilm.
Why did I do an indiegogo campaign? I
had done two campaigns from my short films - one to build a robot, another to
build a raft and this just made sense - this one was to help us make the film
scary. I like these sorts of campaigns because they engage people and get
them involved in the project, but it was my last indiegogo campaign. They
are a lot of work, I think I could have earned more money by just working
at a job then running that campaign. It was good at engaging an
audience.
EFF: Locations
represents a tricky part in every film even on bigger movies economically
speaking, now I can imagine on films with limited budgets and something that
intrigued me was the cave was a real cave? I saw the video where you and your
crew went into a cave.
JL: The cave in the film was not real, in our indiegogo
campaign we location scouted a cave - check out the video https://vimeo.com/119517422.
The real cave was far too dangerous - a cave has no
natural light and no flat surfaces, we made the cave as a set. Our production
designer Moe Curtin did an amazing job at building this cave from
scratch.
EFF: I really liked the atmosphere of the film, the color and the fact that the forest was all the time in the movie, the forest represent an inmesus and intimidant subject, we saw it in the "Witch" for example, I liked you gave us the forest as the principal character of the film. What movies inspired you at the moment to choose that visual aspect you wanted for the film?
JL: 'The Witch' was a good visual reference for us. 'The Village' by M. Night Shyamalan also showed the contrast of society vs the wild forest - we went for a similar idea of setting up the forest as the other place.
EFF: What challenges did you
face in during the shooting?
JL: Shooting in the forest was the biggest challenge it
was dark and wet (it rained). It was a slow process to light such a
big area and it was tough.
EFF: Now you have watched your film done,
you let it how it is or you think something you thought to add it could had make it better than it is?
JL: Every project is a learning experience- I certainly
have things I will do next time. there's no reason to look back at the
past - it's happened. you can't change it. I am making
a new film right now called We Came From the Sea. We just made shot
a short film version which we are in post on but we have a feature film script
that is ready to go.
Stills from The Hollow Child
EFF: How do you like do films? I mean
your technique in the organization process, edit during filming or after,
things like that?
JL: I make films with blood, sweat, and tears, honestly, that's my process. I have never made a film
that didn't personally hurt at some point. My process is to tell
the best story I can, it's mostly about the script.
EFF: Are you a horror fan? What horror
films and directors you like most and why?
JL: I am a fan of David Cronenberg. I loved
Kubrick's 'The Shining' and my fav horror film is 'It Follows'.
EFF: What directors has
influenced on your career, directly and not directly?
I am a huge fan of all good cinema, Kubrick, David Lynch, David Fincher, Tim
Burton, the list goes on and on. I just recently added Kubrick to the list because
someone at a film festival recently asked me is Kubrick was an influence, which I had never considered before. But I did watch all of Kurbick's
films when I was starting out, after thinking about it, it most likely did have some effect on me. I leave that for
other people to notice the influences. because to me .. my filmmaking
style is very much mine.
EFF: What advice would you give for
those want-to-be filmmaker who are undecided in how to make their first film?
JL: Spend the most time writing. The script is the most important part. Find good writers, re write the story. If you want to know how to it join your local film society and/or volunteer on other people's sets and ask questions.
Benhind the scenes "The Hollow Child" - Jeremy Lutter
EFF: What equipments, camera, shots did
you use for the film, do you have a predilect angle or frame, tell us why?
JL: I am not a tech filmmaker, we shot on some version
of the Red Camera - whatever the latest version was at the time. We did
not have storyboards, I have used them in the past - depends on the project and
what you want it to look like. This film we discovered as we went along - our
cinematographers were a set of identical twins called the Talbot Twins. They
did a great job of finding frames - it's all about the locations and sometimes
on indie films you don't know your locations until close to shooting so it's
part of the process.
EFF: What is new in your career, what
people can expect from you forwards?
JL: I am working on a project called We Came From the
Sea - a script by Ryan Bright who I have made several projects with Reset
and Caw. We just set a short film version with the support of the
Director's Guild of Canada - BC Chapter. They had an award that I pitched
and won. We are trying to make a feature of this project as well. The
project is about addiction, it's an amazing script.
EFF: Do you see yourself making horror films always? Or you see shooting another genres?
JL: I will make other horror films, the genre is not as
important as the story, I will make any genre, if the script is good. But I
do love making the effects in horror films they are fun and more creative than
other genres.
EFF: If a rookie filmmaker with no
experience at all, goes to you and ask you for an advice about an cheap camera
or equipments he or she can uses to make his low budget film, what would you
recommend him or her?
JL: Again I am not a tech person. Use the best camera
you can find, don't use a cheap camera, in
Canada we have film society's where you can join an get access to great
gear. Cinevic Film Society in Victoria where I grew up is amazing
for that- I am not sure if other countries have these. Find an upcoming
camera person and pitch your story to them.
EFF: If a producer gave you
a chance to direct a remake of a horror film, what would it be and why?
JL: I am not a huge fan of remaking other people's
films. But if I could pick to remake any film ever made - I would remake
Cronenberg' s eXistenZ. I think it's a great story that is even more
relevant today, and with the latest special fxs - I think I could bring
something new to the film.
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