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Where are you from?
I was born in Oklahoma City, then moved to Dallas when I was eight years old. I lived there most of my life, until moving to Los Angeles with my band the JUDAS ENGINE. Quite sadly, however, TJE was brutally murdered by circumstances not long after we arrived in L.A. That was ten years ago now.

What was your childhood like? Are you from a big family?
My childhood was pretty abnormal from what I’ve come to learn by talking with others. I rarely got into trouble and actually got along with my parents, who took very good care of me. They’ve always supported me in my creative endeavors, be it music, writing, or filmmaking. Most people seem to be from dysfunctional families that have done little or nothing to support them. It’s funny, though; people that see my films and read my stories think I’m the one that must’ve had the really screwed up childhood. Of course, it probably was my comfortable, insular family life that made me overly sensitive to the evils of the outside world -- made it hard for me to live in the wilds of society, so to speak. I do know that that sensitivity has always fed my dark view of people and the world and, consequently, my twisted stories and films.

What does your family think of your films?
My family supports me immensely in my filmmaking, but they don’t always approve of my content. They respect how hard I work on my projects and appreciate the professionalism I always strive to achieve.

How did you get your start as a filmmaker?
I’ve had the filmmaking bug in me for quite a while. I was a big film buff as a kid and loved studying filmmaking on my own, just because the process fascinated me. I read books and magazines and even had a subscription to AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER for a while. A lot of the content in that trade was over my head at the time, but I still couldn’t get enough of it. I also ordered camera info and manuals out of the back of the magazine. My earliest memory of learning about filmmaking, however, is when I was seven or eight. I conned my parents and grandmother into buying me these two big books on the making of KING KONG (1933). I still have them to this day. I loved looking at the behind-the-scenes photos and reading about a movie I hadn’t even seen yet. Not long after that, I was given a large hardback on horror films that I also still cherish. At that point, oddly enough, I sort of shied away from horror for a very long time and began reading a lot about the early comedians, like Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields, etc. I really got into their films too, but it wasn’t until I was older (out of high school) that I started watching movies repeatedly, just to try and figure out how they were shot and edited together -- films like BLADE RUNNER, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, STAR WARS, and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Funny thing is, over all that time I still never entertained the reality of making a film myself. I lived in Dallas, Texas, and there just wasn’t much moviemaking going on there. Even the reason I moved to L.A. wasn’t cinema driven. I came here in efforts to further the career of my band, THE JUDAS ENGINE. Sadly, we were brutally murdered by circumstances less than a year after we arrived, which made me really wonder what my higher purpose was in uprooting myself from family and friends just to come to this godforsaken urban wasteland called Hollywood. Fortunately, I’d met two producers, Rodney Montague and Christopher Webster (executive producer of Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER and HELLRAISER II). Both liked my unpublished novel PUZZLEMAN, so I got to work adapting it into a screenplay. A couple years and seven drafts later, however, I finally gave up on trying to please two producers of different minds, as well as myself the writer. Following that disappointment I wrote another script called LOVE ME, based loosely on one of my short stories and which in no way garnered the response I was hoping for. I fell into a deep depression, but soon realized I was just going to have to make a film on my own. And for two reasons: one, to prove to myself I could or couldn’t do it; and two, to prove to the rest of the world I could or couldn’t do it. After all, if I was going to try and make a movie, what a better place to do it then the filmmaking capital of the world. So, almost seven years and three short films later I can now finally say, “Yes, I can write and direct a film.” And with all the awards and recognition my first two shorts have brought, no one seems to be battling me on that front anymore.

What was your first film?
My first real attempt at filmmaking was my short SCREAM FOR ME, which was based on a short story I wrote quite a long time ago.

How much did it cost to produce?
Because I wasn’t a film student, I was at a great disadvantage. I couldn’t get any access to free equipment or rental insurance. Thus, what should’ve cost me about $12,000 ended up costing me almost $27,000. I’m still paying off SFM today and will be for quite some time to come.

What was the shoot like?
Fortunately, as with all of my films, I did a considerable amount of preproduction. That preliminary work, which included extensive shot lists, rehearsals for character, blocking, and fight choreography, made for a fairly pleasant shoot in all those respects. What was a nightmare was trying to cram a 16mm camera, lighting, film crew, and actors into a 10’x12’ sealed room for four very long days. It must’ve been close to 100 degrees in that room, while outside it was a very pleasant 80 degrees. I also had trouble with two very flaky makeup girls that I had to fire early on the second day of shooting. Fortunately, my actors were talented enough to do their own makeup. Everyone really pulled together after that crisis, and I think it made the film even better.

How do you go about casting for your films?
SFM was the only one of my films for which I did a casting call. I placed an ad in BACKSATGE WEST, a local industry paper, and a week later I had over three hundred headshots at my front door. It was a real headache sorting through all of those pictures and resumes, but I finally narrowed them down to 30 actors for each part. Over a couple of weekends, my DP (Stewart Eastham) and I suffered through many bad auditions. That turned out to be a blessing though, because for each character only one actor stood out boldly as the obvious choice. I would certainly work with Gabriel Sigal (Garrott) and Lora Cunningham (Irene) again, but to date I’ve only worked with Tony Simmons who played Madman. He was also my first choice for the character of Death in MY SKIN and Detective Nemo in HUMAN NO MORE. The other parts in these films were played by friends. Casting is very hard work, and try to avoid big open calls at all costs.

Could you tell us about My Skin and Human No More?
MY SKIN, like SCREAM FOR ME, was inspired by one of my earlier literary works, although this time it was a lyric I had written while still playing with my band THE JUDAS ENGINE. It was simply titled “Skin”, and the chorus read “Skin my skin, my skin is your game.” That, of course, was the germ for the name of the film, as well as the concept of ownership of another person at all costs. The body of the original lyric is what Death adds in amendment to George’s love poem, which in itself was based on some amorous prose I’d concocted way back in high school. The second part of my inspiration came from the bird mask that was used in production. I had seen it in a little shop up in Hollywood and couldn’t get it out of my mind -- I kept thinking it would look great hanging on my wall, or at best make a wonderful prop for a film. As it turned out I was itching to do another movie and further utilize the talents of actor Tony Simmons, so I put my head into it and sought to script those three elements -- lyric, mask, Tony -- into a single concept. The result was “My Skin”. Unfortunately the mask wasn’t exploited in the film as much as I now wish, but it was a visual that fuelled me all the way through post-production.

HUMAN NO MORE grew out of a very deep depression I’d fallen into after my girlfriend of four years suddenly up and left me a mere week after the premiere of my second film, MY SKIN (August 2002). Over the next year, my depression and self-doubt joined forces with my already cynical view of mankind (especially after 9/11), raging from my head and onto the pages of my journal in mad storms of hurt, hate, and anger. A lot of what we hear coming from the interrogation tape in HNM -- the dialogue of the remorseless Mr. Blight -- is straight from my journal. What can I say; those were very dark times for me. As well, much of Detective Nemo’s monologue is from my journal too. If Blight’s and Nemo’s words are compared, it’s eerie how similar their perspectives are -- psychopath and everyman are only a hair’s breadth away from being the same. What they do in the end is all that truly separates them. They are really two sides of the same coin, and that coin was me: disillusioned yet driven by the relentless misery of losing a girl I loved more than anything in the world.

What’s it like working with Tony Simmons?
Tony is absolutely great to work with, which is why I’ve used him in all three of my films. Although he can be quite terrifying on screen, he’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He’s also an amazingly consistent actor and takes direction with ease. I’ve never seen his ego get in the way of getting at a great performance. The only problem sometimes is keeping my own steadfast vision from crippling what he does best: become the character.

You are also a novelist? What have you written?
PUZZLEMAN is my first published novel. Essentially it’s the story of a woman’s search for the truth about the mysterious death of her infant son, but in doing so, she traverses the fringe of her sanity and discovers a world of madness more grisly and horrifying than she could have ever imagined.

I’m about 300 manuscript pages into a second novel called HEATHER’S TREEHOUSE. It isn’t nearly as complex of a story as PUZZLEMAN, but it’s definitely as visceral and graphic. It’s also less angry and philosophically gloomy. It should be a fun read, if I can ever get the time to finish it. Speaking of which, I’m also about 60 pages into a shorter novel I plan to call M, which is a very personal story and is written in first person with a stream of conscious feel to it -- definitely very different from PUZZLEMAN or HEATHER’S TREEHOUSE.

What has the response been for your films?
Festival audiences seem to be responding very well to my films, as well as the festivals themselves. SCREAM FOR ME has been in 15 festivals and received 4 awards, including Best Short Film at the NYC Horror Film Festival 2003 and Best Actor for Tony Simmons at Horror Fiesta 2004 in Poland. MY SKIN has been in 15 fests and has garnered 7 awards, which include several Best Film wins and Best Actor wins for Tony Simmons. HUMAN NO MORE has already been in 8 festivals and has won Best Horror Short at this year’s The Indie Gathering festival in Cleveland, Ohio. What’s exciting now is that many festivals are opting to screen a combination of two, or all three, of my films. Tromafling (Edinburgh, Scotland) just recently showed all three, and this September A.K.A Shriekfest (Los Angeles) will be screening SFM and HNM, and Frankly Film Fest (Ohio) will be screening SFM, MS, and HNM. Also, MS is online at AtomFilms.com and is airing this month and next on ManiaTV.com’s “Too Short For Hollywood” show. All three films are currently playing on SerialThriller.com’s Channel 187 (http://www.serialthriller.com/channel187.html). All that’s not too bad, considering I couldn’t even get my first film, SFM, accepted to any festival for 3 years after completion.

What is your next project?
I’m currently working with producer Christopher Webster (HELLRAISER I & II, HEATHERS, etc.) to get a feature made titled RETARD. I wrote the script with actor John Franklin (Isaac in CHILDRN OF THE CORN and CHILDREN OF THE CORN 666: ISAAC’S RETURN), and it won Best Horror Feature Screenplay at A.K.A Shriekfest 2004. I’m attached as director, John is attached as lead actor, and Webster is attached as producer. We’re actively seeking investors, so any interested parties please drop us a line.

Who are your heroes?
Clive Barker ranks at the top of my favorite writers list. Topping my filmmaker list is Hitchcock, David Fincher, James Whale, John Huston, Tim Burton, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, and Tony Scott.

What films are you looking forward to seeing?
At the moment I’m looking forward to Tim Burton’s CORPSE BRIDE, in hopes of washing the bad taste of his CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY out of my mind. Other than that I’m looking forward to seeing RETARD made.

Where do you see your self in 5 years?
Hopefully with one or two feature films under my belt, a second novel, and a loyal and growing fan base. That would be a dream come true.