Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Top Ten Films of 2019


1.,  PARASITE


2,  PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE



3, U.S.


4., 1917


5.,  ATLANTICS


6., LITTLE WOMEN


7., HER SMELL       



8.; TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID



9., MARRIAGE STORY

                                                       


10.,  THE IRISHMAN










Thursday, December 5, 2019

B.I.T.S. '19 Feature Film Interview - She Never Died

B.I. T.S. '19  Feature Film -She Never Died - Interview with director Audrey Cummings and Actor Noah Dalton Danby who plays Terrance in the film

Flick Hunter: How did this project come abut and ow did you firs hear about it?

Audrey Cummings: The team had started with He Never Died  three years ago and Henry Rollins was in the lead role and they really underestimated the guys fan base. The film became cult status. Everybody loved it everybody loved Henry. And then from there they decided they were going to do He Never Died Two so they started working towards that then Henry got swept up by a television series and wished away so they decided to pivot when Henry was busy and introduce a second character and turned it into She Never Died then they brought me on because of the success of my two previous films.

F.H:So Noah, Lets start with all the rings?

Noah Dalton Danby: It was a lot of fun. It was in the script. I think I even came to you Audrey and said Do you want me to wear all of these rings and you said Yes every one of them, every finger. I was like Oh My God that'such a pain in the ass. I had to go out and buy a few because my hands are quite large. I take a size thirteen ring myself. It was like the first layer of the character. I wore them around for a while getting used to picking up things and what not. It was a lot of fun. That scene where I take them off was not in the script. I did it because you can't hit somebody with rings on. It would actually hurt. when you hit someone with a ring on it actually hurts you hand more than the person you're hitting. Not that I would know.

Audrey: That was cool because to me that was terrifying

F.H: Lets go right into it. Talk about Terrence's relationship with his sister Meredith played by Michele Nolden

N.D.D: It's a little off kilter, a little playful. They have a twisted set of morals but there is also a genuine love and appreciation for each other. He can swear at her and tell her to call mom to be comfortable enough to say that then for her to check him and he to feel back about some of his comments to her. It's a brother sister relationship that goes a little beyond the boundaries of what you and I would say is normal but at the same time there is a genuine love that they have for one another.

F.H: There's a wonderful scene as well when Terence leaves the room and Meredith is on her computer and kind of does the middle finger to the temple.

N.D.D: Yea of course She is so good. so stoic so cold as ice its twisted but you see there's a good relationship.

A.C: I love what the relationship brought out of you. You're like the muscle, the thug, into the snuff but then your sister comes in and you become like a puppy dog. She's the Boss.

F.H: So listen, talk about Lacy, Olunike , She was in Darken as well, I remember chatting to  you when Darken was out and you said you were going to work with her again.

A.C: Honestly, as soon as I read the script there was nobody else for that role. So it all came together really quickly when they pivoted to She Never Died. I called Olunike and said "What are you doing in three weeks" She was like "I'm on a beach in Jamaica baby" I was like in three weeks I need you in cold Northern Canada, North Bay, to shoot my next movie. You have to come. It's only you. This is your role. She was like "O.K." and that as it.

N.D.D. When I got the role of Terrence I watched the first one He Never Died all the way through which is hard these days with all of the distractions. Henry Rollins really through himself into the role. I wondered who they were going to get to play the female counterpart to that role. They would have to be so strong and then you go her which was so smart and so luck. It was fate and Kismet wait a go hats off to Audrey for that!

A.C: Aw Thank You

N.D.D. I don't think nobody could have done it better than she did.

A.C: She has this ability like you do (Noah) The two of them have this ability of being like naive and innocent and pure and you feel something for them but they can also turn into these vicious animals that your terrified of them. That's such an ability I don't know how you guys do it.

F.H: And Kiana Madeira who plays Suzzie, You mentioned puppy dog before, She was the puppy dog. She is rescued by mistake. So she is now following Lacy around ad Lacy is trying to get rid of her but I guess I have to deal with you. Talk a bit about how the relationship came about between those two characters

A.C: Well it's a funny thing. We went a bit different that the scrip with her. In the script she was more of a strung out kind of street kid.  But when I saw Kiana she just had this energy and enthusiasm I kind of just naturally saw that she was the comedic relief in the film. I thing she is going to bring in some of the heart ans so we kind of veered a little bit from that and let her bring in more of what I was naturally feeling that was coming from her and it was the right thing to do.

Can you speak a bit about Peter MacNeill as Godfrey. I feel he kind of grounds the film.Speak a bit of how he came on board.

A.H: So I fell in love with Peter immediately as soon as I saw him and some of his acting for that reason. He just has this... There is something gruff and calmness to hi, He was so perfect. Each one of my actors the were the one. If I hand't got the ones that I wanted. I don't know what I would have done. Because I know exactly who the perfect characters were for each role. He is so loving, warm, so tortured. He's a thinker to when he acts. He will ask a lot of questions and is really trying to figure everything out before.

N.D.D. (Audrey) How is that for you on set, when you have a million things to thing about ( and an actor is asking a lot of questions)

A.H: I think it's great. I like it. I want to support the actors. Like that scene when you had the laptop ad your feet up on the desk ans asked me for help. You can rehearse before and talk about a scene but when you are there on set there are always a million questions. That's what I'm there for.

N.D.D. COOL

F.H: Back to you Noah, maybe the scene that was the easiest for you to do, one that was harder, one you feel that you nailed and got right.

Noah: The hardest scene was to catch the ting in my mouth ( Laughs)

A.C: He kept missing (Laughs)

N.D.D: I would never say anything was easy. If I made it look easy then fantastic. But there is so much thought, so much prep, so much thinking, and collaborating that goes into every little detail for me i obsess about it because I enjoy obsessing about it. I would say always the hardest scene is the very first scene and that was me swinging the baseball bat. Just just don't know what you're walking into which kind of played into that scene because there was this sort of nervousness I guess maybe happening and that worked out. Always the very first day of shooting is like Ack!!!

F.H: So, was this all shot at once, or did you have to go back and pick things up,? I know from Noah's answer that it was shot out of order.

A.C: Ya, so we shoot out over over, based on O.K. we are in this location so scene five, scene twenty and scene thirty five take place here. But we had such a tight schedule, we only had fifteen days that you get what you get and that's it.

N.D.D. (To Audrey) The cafe scenes were so beautiful. You only shot them in one day?

A.C: Ya, we were waiting for the sun to go down and then the sun was coming up again and we ere trying to rush to finish. The sun is your worst enemy when you are shooting always. It's always coming up and always going down. It's frustrating.

F.H: Noah was it hard to keep our character straight then if your shooting all the warehouse stuff but different parts of the move to know what you emotion was at this time , that you were happy before or meaner after to keep that all straight?

N.D.D. Ya , Norm but that's the gig though right, you get a script and you work with your director and everybody else on that. Down to the people doing your make up. You have notes in your script and you try to create a dynamic for your character and if you're through you'll know that I can't go that high here because I have to leave room to go higher late on in the script.

F.H: One last one here. On you front when you watch it back what do you think worked the best might want to have another shot at event though you can't?

A.H: You know what's funny. This is the first movie that I have made that I sit in in all of my screenings. Historically I will just go have a coffee while its screening and I'll come back after. But this one I don't know what it is I just always want to sit in and watch it. I think it's because I worked really hard trying to get the humor right . Because you have to build your scares, release the humor, its an art form that I feel I really nailed on this film and I still laugh at the jokes and I still enjoy watching it.

F.H: Now do people laugh where you expect them t laugh or are there any unexpected?

A.C: There is some unexpected stuff, Ya there's a ... when Godfrey brings Lacy into the apartment he's about to shut the door then decides not to. That's an expected one but when he goes to shake her hand but pulls it back people love that moment I thought it was humorous but I didn't expect it to be a laugh. That's the fun of it seeing people laugh in different places.

N.D.D. That's Peter's natural ability. It's laughable because you see that he actually .. it wasn't him trying to be comical. It was him playing he moment.

F.H: Well Thank you both very much.

A.C. Thanks Norm, Nice to see you again




















Wednesday, December 4, 2019

B.I.T.S. '19 Feature Film Interview - M.A.J.I.C.

B.I.T.S. '19  Feature Film - M.A.J.I.C. Interview with Director Erin Berry and lead Actor Paula Brancati Nov 23, 2019.

Flick Hunter: How did the idea come about?

Erin Berry: It started as a pilot 10 years ago with co-writer David Pulscauskas. Mad Men meet X-Files. Not about Burnwood. Instead about Richard Fitzpatrick as a young ma in the '60s getting recruited to M.A.J.I.C.

F.H: Paula, speaking of X- files I thought your character was a cross between Mulder and Scully.

Paula Brancati: I had never done Sci- FI really. So when Erin brought this to me the role was written for a middle-aged man.We talked about turning it into a young woman and that was the seed that really excited me. We talked a lot about characters, of course, we referenced the X-files and talked about Claire Danes in Season 1 of Homeland when things start unraveling. It's super challenging to play and I like things that make me a little nervous and give me butterflies so that is part of why I said yes.

F.H: So tell me about the Space Pen?

Erin: I always wanted one as a kid I was obsessed with the idea that this was a pen that writes upside down. Of course, debunk the whole myth how it costs N.A.S.A. millions of dollars which isn't really true. It didn't cost that much and the Astronauts didn't even use it. They used pencils just like the Russians. Then it evolved into a MacGuffn device whose significance is not known until the very end.

F.H: Can you talk a bit about the two main sets, Burnwood's Apartment and Anderson's cottage?

Erin: It's a friend of mine's production company. He was shutting it down. I convinced him to come in for a week to shoot my film. We transformed his office into Burnwood's loft/living space.

Erin: The cottage is David (The co-writers) cottage. So that was a free location. We shot in March,there was a motel that was not even open. We came and said hey we have ten people coming can you open early? So they were like ya sure 50 bucks a night. Dave is very happy because his childhood cottage is immortalized in the film.

F.H: What's with all the fishing?

Erin: You know Old Men like to fish. Again, that was also a scene because it was so cold we could not shoot in March. It ended up being a re-shoot at Cherry Beach (Toronto) month later in May.

Paula: It was the crack of dawn: it was actually warmer near the long weekend. Those layers (of clothing) you really felt them.

Erin: We also didn't realize that they going to come out and practice rowing, so we were waiting for them to clear and stop screaming over the bull horns.

F.H: The shots I really like were the driving shots up to the cottage. Were those shot by drone?

Erin: Yes, they were months later, with a really small drone, we were north around Orangeville, Ontario. You notice you don't see any snow in the drone shots. But we were like those are early on before we really get up North.

F.H: The other thing I wanted talk about is the recruiting film and did all of the test pilots have to be Republican?

Erin: The man orbiting library was real, the whole idea that the Air Force was going to use Gemini to spy on the Russians. The test film was inspired by the second season of Lost when they go into the bunker and he meets Desmond for the first time and Desmond explains to Locke using a 16 millimeter projector. Plus my fetish for old technology that Burnwood also has. Using microfiche and her little Blackberry.

Paula: I did look up microfiche but Blackberries were a big part of my life. I was one of the last Blackberry users I know. It was a real treat to get back on it. That video works so well because of our friend Paulino Nunes (as Specter) did such an excellent job. It's not an easy thing to sell. Paulino
brought that charm to it that in other hands might not have worked.

Erin: I normally line produce and used to getting the script so last minute but for this, I was able to give everyone the script three months in advance.

Paula: We did a lot of prep before we got to start. I'd be doing all of my nerdy notes and cheat sheets to get the procedural dialogue right. I felt like I was back in High School with all of my notes.

F.H: Paula, one for you, What was your hardest day, the hardest part of the shot and the easiest that flowed naturally for you?

Paula: I would say the easiest was the stuff that just had me bantering with the other actors.with Deb, and Richard and Mike, Paulino. I had worked with many embers of the cast before and if not I was a big fan of their work. That back and forth dialogue I found organic. The most challenging stuff was the stuff we shot early on because you are still kind of finding your footing. We shot her big unraveling clip (early). That was the hardest for me and the scariest and it was on the first or second day of shooting. I remember  being so nervous and those things can be cool though when you can add your natural nerves naturally into what is going on. I felt a huge adrenaline rush when we were doing it.

Erin: I think it was a real challenge to you as we shot out of order out of necessity. You finding the emotional arc so it makes sense getting the right level of freak out that will make sense later on.

F.H: One last one for you Erin. When you watch it, what parts make you think "I nailed that.That looks really good".

Erin: This is my third feature film at this point. At this point, I watch it and I see all of the things I would have done differently. Some parts I really like but it's a natural process to want to do things differently. It's like a draft when you put it aside for a few months then read it again. Oh no, I got a better idea. At this point the movie is locked. I can't go back and redo it. It doesn't get a Redux. But it's fun seeing it with an audience. I'm not watching the film. I'm watching the audience. I'm always amazed how some things get a reaction and some things don't.

F.H: What's next for the movie?

Erin: Berlin Sci-Fi film festival his week. It will also film in New York in mid-March as part of the Phillip k Dick film festival at the Museum of the Moving Image.

F.H: Paula, What's next for you?

Paula: I have an Italian co-production that i produced and got to star in with Joe Pantoliano. That's doing a festival run as well and we're going to be doing a theatrical  next year. I'm very excited and proud of it. I'm Italian-Canadian. It's a very sweet story that is a love letter to Italy.

F.H: Well Thank You. Than you both very much.