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1. Tell us a little about your
background, where are you from and when did you decide that you wanted to
become a filmmaker?
CAB: I was born in Oklahoma City and
raised in Dallas, Texas. About ten years ago I moved to L.A. with my
band, THE JUDAS ENGINE. Although TJE had a CD under its belt, was
playing gigs regularly, and had a new demo recorded, it was brutally
murdered by circumstances about eight months after our arrival in
California. I was suddenly a lost soul and too burned out to pursue
music anymore. My only opportunity lay in some good luck I’d had in
meeting two professional film producers. They read the unpublished
manuscript of my novel, PUZZLEMAN, liked the story, and wanted to get it
into script form ASAP. I took the challenge and launched into an
endless screenplay writing exercise that eventually went nowhere. I
could never please two producers of different minds and myself too.
I also wrote a second feature, LOVE ME, based on an old short story I’d
written many years before, but was nearly thrashed to death on that with
the first draft. It was then that I realized the only way anyone was
ever going to take my cinematic visions seriously, or even understand
them, was if I took control and made a film myself. My first choice
was SCREAM FOR ME, based on another of my short stories –– a little tale
that people either loved or absolutely hated. I had quite a bit to
prove to the world, as well as to myself, so I wanted to shoot a movie
that broke rules. In the case of SFM, that meant dealing with
controversial subject matter, male nudity, sexual violence, excessive
language, back-to-back monologues, a one-room location, and a lead
character that constantly wore reflective mirror sunglasses. Most
all of those challenges are considered bad luck for a first-time
filmmaker.
2. Who inspired you to become a
filmmaker?
CAB: I would say that circumstances inspired me
to be a filmmaker more than anything –– the simple desire to see my vision
through from the written word to the moving picture. I guess I’m a
bit of a control freak in that respect. But I just can’t imagine
going to all the trouble it takes to write a good script and then letting
some outside producer or director completely deform it into something it
was never meant to be. That said, many directors and films have
inspired me over the years: anything Hitchcock, FRANKENSTEIN (1931), KING
KONG (1933), STAR WARS, CE3K, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC, BLADE RUNNER,
ALTERED STATES, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, TWELVE MONKEYS, ALIEN 3, SEVEN, and
FIGHT CLUB, to name a few.
3. Tell us about your latest
short film "Human No More" starring Tony Simmons. Give us some
behind the scenes stories.
CAB: HUMAN NO MORE was a film I felt
I had to make –– one, to exorcise some personal demons, and two, to make a
comment about the current state of the world. Especially after
9/11. More than ever I was sick of people wearing their religious
beliefs on their sleeve and blowing their pious trumpet in everyone else’s
face. In my opinion, people should shut up, get to work, and keep
their nose out of other people’s business. Whatever your personal,
religious (or political) beliefs, I say keep them to yourself –– in your
heart –– and leave me and the rest of the world the hell out of it.
That said, HNM also grew out of a very deep
depression I’d fallen into after an unexpected breakup with my girlfriend
of many years. Over the next twelve months, my depression and
self-doubt joined forces with my already cynical view of mankind, 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 HUMAN NO MORE –– 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 forward by the
relentless misery of losing a girl I loved more than anything in the
world.
As far as behind-the-scenes stories, some odd
things did occur during pre-production. In my search for props, I
found an old typewriter at a thrift store near where I live. The
machine was in a hard-shell case, and upon opening the case to examine the
condition of the typewriter, I discovered a ragged piece of paper.
Typed on the paper, on different lines, was this message:
tony
hi
[some strange gibberish]
fuck!
Tony Simmon’s, of course, is the name of the actor
who plays Det. Nemo in the film. Now that’s weird, I thought.
Next, in my search for Nemo’s suitcase, I finally spotted the perfect one
at thrift store that was hell and gone from where we were shooting.
Hand-painted near the handle were the initials “D.C.B.”, my father’s
initials. Again, I thought, this prop hunt is getting weirder and
weirder. After that, I set my sights on finding a small,
reel-to-reel tape recorder that plays a prominent part in the film.
I knew the one I wanted –– one I couldn’t get out of my mind, one that my
father had had when I was a kid, and one that I knew would be impossible
to find. I went to a strip of antique and junk stores located on
Sunset Blvd. (in the Silver Lake/Echo Park area of Los Angeles),
eventually winding up at a shop that didn’t look very promising. The
moment I stepped through the front door, the exact recorder I swore I’d
never find was sitting prominently on a shelf below the front sales
desk. I couldn’t believe it. I think I paid $5 for he the
thing, and it still worked too!
4. Tony Simmons has a starring
role in all of your films, how did you two meet?
CAB: I met
Tony by the sheer luck of fate. I’d put out a casting call for my
first film, SCREAM FOR ME, in “Backstage West”, a trade mag here in
L.A. When I submitted the ad info I stated firmly that there was “no
pay” for the actors. When the ad was printed, however, it said I was
offering “some pay”. What an embarrassment. To my surprise,
however, everyone I called (about 30 people for each of the three roles)
accepted the chance to audition anyway, including a very mean and scary
looking guy named Tony Simmons. I’d fallen in love with his
headshot, but was terrified that because he so looked the part of Madman,
he probably couldn’t act. Fortunately my fears were unfounded, and
Tony’s audition blew me away. No other actor even came close.
The following week I offered Tony the part, and he accepted
immediately. A couple years later, when we were shooting MY SKIN, he
confessed that he never answered ads that stated “no pay”. So,
that’s why I say that the sheer luck of fate brought us together. If
“Backstage West” hadn’t arbitrarily changed my ad info to “some pay”, Tony
never would’ve sent me his headshot, and we probably never would’ve met.
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5. Tell us about your upcoming
feature "Retard".
CAB: RETARD is a film I wrote with actor
John Franklin, who’s known for playing the role of Isaac, the leader of
the children, in CHILDREN OF THE CORN. He’ll also be playing the
mentally handicapped lead, Scotus Duns, in RETARD. In the film,
Scotus possesses supernatural insight into the workings of the
universe. As a series of gruesome murders erupt, he’s faced with the
horror that someone has stolen his knowledge and is misusing it in effort
to achieve eternal life. Christopher Webster (Exec. Prod. HELLRAISER
I & II, HEATHERS) will produce, and is currently putting financing
together to make the film with me attached as director. I also plan
to use Tony Simmons in the film, and I’d really like to use actor Lee
Perkins (KATIEBIRD) as well.
6.
From your experience, what do you think is the most important thing for a
Director to bring to a set?
CAB: The most important thing to
bring to a set is vision. If a director is focused and knows what he
wants, then actors and crew will follow his lead. The hard part, of
course, is maintaining a focus through the exhaustion and insanity of
production. But no matter what, a director has to stick to his guns
and forge ahead, because at the end of the day, if the movie sucks, no one
will blame anyone but him for the film’s failure.
7. Any other future projects in
the works? Give us the scoop!
CAB: Yes, there’s lots of
stuff going on. SCREAM FOR ME will be included as one of three films
on director Terry M. West’s (FLESH FOR THE BEAST) anthology, currently
titled DEMONS OF FLESH. Also, I’m in the process of releasing all
three of my films on one DVD, with loads of extras; the disk will be
titled 3 DEAD GIRLS and should be available by late summer. On the
writing front, I have two more novels to finish and another screenplay to
develop.
8. What do you think makes a
scary movie scary?
CAB: That’s hard to say, because
different things scare different people, based on their up-bringing,
personality, and core beliefs. I don’t really consider my films
scary, although many people find them disturbing and even creepy. I,
myself, see them as thought provoking entertainment. What scares me
the most in any film, however, is a sense of not knowing what to expect
next –– what’s around the corner, or in the shadows, or just on the other
side of the door. It’s the great unknown that frightens me and
causes my imagination to wreak havoc on my senses. Because of that,
supernatural films usually spook me the most: THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN, THE
SHINING, THE GRUDGE, etc.
9. Do you have any advice to
aspiring filmmakers?
CAB: My advice is to always exploit
your limitations. One way to do this is to find a location for
principle production that can be completely controlled, for as long as you
need it. I’ve done that for each of my films and it’s paid off every
time. Having that kind of power allowed me to adjust story,
blocking, lighting, and camera to best utilize the location and
actors. Also, it’s wise to remember that only two of three options
can be had when making a film, those being GOOD, FAST, and CHEAP. As
an indie filmmaker I know I’m always forced to take CHEAP as one option,
which means if I go for CHEAP and FAST my film won’t be GOOD. Thus,
I prefer CHEAP and GOOD, which means making my films won’t be FAST.
But that’s OK, because nobody really cares about what goes into making a
movie, they only care about what comes out.
10. When all is said and done,
what 3 things would you like for people to remember about
you?
CAB: I’d like people to remember my films, books, and
music.
11. Here's where we give you a word or phrase and
you give us the first thoughts that pop into your mind.
Hollywood:
Hell.
Toxic Shock TV: Must get
this interview finished.
Favorite Genre:
Movies.
Biggest Regrets: My
stupidity and chronic laziness.
Biggest Prick:
Humanity.
The funniest thing that has
ever happened to you on a set: Dropping the last replacement bulb
for a movie light, thus causing a major delay in the first day of
production in order to drive into Hollywood to buy another
bulb.
Your biggest "break-thru"
moment: SCREAM FOR ME winning Best Short Film at the New York City
Horror Film Festival 2003.
You can only watch three movies
for the rest of your life, which three: FRANKENSTEIN (1931), TWELVE
MONKEYS, FIGHT CLUB.
You can only listen to three
ALBUMS for the rest of your life, which three: My self-made film
score compilation, BEYOND BLUE SKY NOTHING (About Nine Times), THE JUDAS
ENGINE. |
