Last Updated on July 26, 2021
The Indie horror flick
DEAD WOOD is now out
on DVD (get it here)
and we got first time
feature length director David Bryant (who made the film with Sebastian Smithand)
in the house to talk about how he got his baby off the ground to then bring it
home. Its nice to read about dudes who want to make a film and they don’t wait
for it to magically happen. They just pick up
their balls and their brews and make one – guerilla style yes – but without sacrificing
quality in the process. This drink is for yall! Cheers!
DAVID BRYANT INTERVIEW
What was
the creative seed, the initial spark, which got DEAD WOOD going?
We (Richard Stiles, Seb Smith
& I) just wanted to make a movie! We had another script but the budget was
pretty high for first timers and we didn’t want to piss around for 5 years
looking for bits of investment here or there. We wanted to shoot something NOW!
We were struggling by making music videos and corporate so we had a small kit
with 2 Canon XL-1 cameras and just thought fuck it, let’s just go shoot a movie.
You
co-wrote the film with two other writers (who were also your co-directors). How
did you go about it? Did you all lock yourself up in a room with a bottle of JD
or was the process more intricate and “cleaner”? : )
We spent a lot of time in the
pub! There is a space between being sober and pissed that you become very
creative, that’s when we did our best work. Then you get a bit too drunk and
your ideas get ridiculous. The three of us basically wrote out the structure and
had a list of ideas from these meetings, and then I locked myself away and wrote
the first draft in three days. Our initial idea was that the van crashed in the
opening and we had the Sixth Sense/ Dead End/ Reeker ending where we realize
they were dead all along, but we felt it had been done before… sometimes we
think we should have stuck with it.
The film
was made independently; how arduous and how long did it take to lock the
financing for the picture?
There was no financing. We
basically funded the film as we went along, just paying for what was necessary
which amounts to tapes, petrol, red bull and snickers.
Gorgeous Emily Juniper as Larri
Once in
production; how many shooting days did you guys have to play with?
As we had no financiers we had
nobody on our backs wanting to see the film finished. We had the freedom to
shoot as much as we wanted, and we shot a lot. We filmed so many scenes, even
re-filmed some that were cut out of the movie. It’s impossible to count the
amount of shoot days. There were bits here and there where we would grab an
actor and drag them out into the woods to shoot picks ups etc.
Was there
an obstacle at any point during the shoot that threw you off? If so, how did you
overcome it?
There was no great immovable
obstacle but the whole experience was daunting. There was just the three of us-
we were the whole crew, so there were times we’d be exhausted but had to keep
going. We were learning as we went along, learning what worked, but more often,
what didn’t.
What were
you going for tone wise and visually with this movie? Do you feel you succeeded?
First off, our aim was to make
a movie that looked and felt like a movie. Not like a no budget film made with
our friends. In visual terms that meant trying to keep the visuals interesting
and cinematic. This wasn’t necessarily a planned thing- most of the time it just
comes naturally when you think about visualizing a scene. In this respect I
think we were successful and are happy with the film. Tonally we started out,
inspired by the J horror trend, to shoot a very straight horror, to keep things
on edge and creepy. This kind of eased off as the cast filled their roles and we
realized there needed to be a bit of a sense of fun or you’ll just have four
dull friends.
Fergus March as Webb
Would you
say that directing a film with two other directors was a positive experience for
you? Would you do it again?
I think on Dead Wood three
directors worked out great. It was totally guerilla film making where we shared
all roles so if one of us had been sitting around talking to the actors and
giving orders the other two would’ve kicked his ass. It was a very collaborative
experience and as none of us had directed a feature before we all had equal
skeptism of each other. The down side is that it’s not “your” film, it takes
away some of the personal feeling toward it, though that can be a plus when you
read the IMDB boards! We plan to shoot another film together.
Once the
film was done with Post you hopped on the Festival run. What would say was your
highlight from that journey?
It’s great going to festivals,
though we couldn’t afford to fly to the US for the screenings. We went to the UK
screenings where the movie got a brilliant response and done some Q&As. My best
experience was Salento FearFest, a horror Festival in Southern Italy where the
film screened in the town square. It was like being in Cinema Paradiso, everyone
was very friendly, and I just wandered around in this other world eating pizza.
The film was watched by what seemed like the whole town, teenagers to very old
people and they all enjoyed it, they jumped in the right places and laughed in
the right places. The mayor seemed to enjoy it!
At the
distribution stage; did you get a sales agent to rep your film or did you push
it yourselves?
We were approached directly,
after links to our website
www.dead-wood.com appeared on horror movie sites like AITH- so much thanks
you all you boys! We sold to the US for a Lions Gate release first then met with
the sales agents who had contacted us at the Berlin Film Market. We then
deliberated on who would treat the film right and they sold the film for us. I
think without a sales agent you could get totally lost in the deals- it’s a very
specialized language, Seb & Rich started to pick up the basics of how to do it
but I’m still lost!
What do you
hope audiences’ will feel while they watch DEAD WOOD?
I hope they won’t feel ripped
off for buying it! I just want people to enjoy watching it, simple as that, to
feel like I feel when I watch a movie. Obviously some people will hate it… but
that’s the fun of movies, what one person loves passionately the next one will
fucking hate!
So what’s
next for you? Any other projects in the works? Will it be within the horror
genre?
We have a few projects but
know the one we really want to make- a military action thriller (with plenty of
horror) titled Hunting Ground. Beyond that I cannot tell- yet. It’s a very cool
non stop action screenplay by a horror author Paul Finch and will make an
awesome movie! It’s a leap in budget from Dead Wood but we hope to get to work
on that soon. I’m also writing and developing a 3D ghost movie, a low budget
slasher and a comedy. Basically keeping myself busy…
Will you
direct your next film by yourself?
Hunting Ground will be
co-directed again but we have other projects (like the comedy) that we would
direct separately.
What was the first drink that
you guzzled down at the DEAD WOOD wrap party?
Whatever
was closest! We never really had a wrap party, because we never really wrapped
until the screening! But as the credits rolled I was downing a bottle of beer,
followed swiftly by many more.
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