Did you do anything different to make it a horror movie, anything more effecty, more producing? ^ Um, it was interesting cause the entire thing was scripted, there was no improvisation, and, the way it was shot was a little different, yeah, it’s hard to … it was more structured and more controlled than my stuff usually is.
Why did you do it that way? ^ Just for to try it out. Cause I’ve always wanted to make a scary movie, and I wanted to try doing it that way.
And so what do you think? ^ I think it’s a very interesting movie, it’s a very strange, bizarre movie. And I like it. I wasn’t really sure when I finished it, I was like, what is this, but when I saw it projected I really liked it.
What’s up with Vancouver? I notice in “Up Against A Star” there’s a million little scenes and moments in Vancouver? ^ It’s cause we went to the Vancouver Film Festival, and that was in the middle of oh, let’s make a documentary about all this stuff, and you know so we filmed a bunch of stuff there.
Anything special about Vancouver for you? ^ I like Vancouver a lot. I think it’s a really interesting city, and flying over the mountains and getting to this big city is really interesting. I love the Blinding Light, it’s a great theatre, great space. And the people are really nice, and they’re open to a lot of different things.
How did you find out about the B/L? Was it through he VIFF? ^ I don’t really remember. I think Alex just contacted me a while ago about screening the movies and I think “Little Shots…” played there and uh, then, the VIFF when I went, they showed A Sudden Loss of Gravity. I think that was the first year that the Blinding Light was affiliated with the VIFF.
It was gone for a couple of years. ^ I think it was just a matter of Alex seeing something about us on the internet and contacting us.
Are there other microcinemas where your stuff gets shown, I was actually wondering where they all are? ^ I’m trying to find them all. There’s some good places. There’s a place in Minneapolis that has a bowling alley, a bar, a cinema, and a restaurant. And in New York there’s a couple. Um, you’re right, they’re hard to find. But that’s a good thing in a way, they’re kind of underground, you go to a city and find them and you go check out some cool movies.
Alex was telling me he was happy every time there was a Blinding Light screening he never tells you about it but then you end up putting it on your web site. ^ Yeah, we find out. We have our people out there.
What possessed you to make a doc about yourself? ^ I think it was because we started shooting movies on digital video, trying to do stuff on our own, and then all of a sudden, this whole digital filmmaking thing started getting all this attention. Which I didn’t really anticipate and wasn’t really expecting. We’re getting all these calls and people asking questions about how we make movies and stuff, and at a certain point we were just like, ‘okay, we need to make a documentary about this so the next time people ask us questions we can just give them a tape!’ (Laughs) Cause there seemed to be a lot of interest, and the way we make movies is a lot different than most people. There are no rules and you can go out there and make it any way you want, and that’s an important message that wasn’t really getting across. And that’s why we decided to make the documentary. This guy John Holser was making a documentary, but it was taking him forever, so we were just like, ‘can we use the footage and we’ll make our own?’ And he said sure. And a lot of the stuff in he documentary was done by him.
He just couldn’t move as fast as you. So it’s more of an instructional video, you think? ^ It’s an inspirational video… inspirational / instructional. You learn how to use a bidet in it, so that’s instructional.
Did it work? Are people asking you less questions or more? ^ I think it worked. I mean people still are asking a lot of questions. It was good for us, because we needed to step back and look at ourselves. You know, sort of move on. I dunno. In a way. It’s always good to step back and see ‘what are we doing, and who are we?’ It’s good to do that, and I’m ready to make new stuff.
Get the rest of the interview in the next part of TODD VEROW: ONCE AND FUTURE KING OF DV>>>
