Director Interview:

This Guy Will Amaze: 14 Questions With Director Christopher Alan Broadstone

1) Okay, first off Christopher I think we should start the www.racksandrazors.com readers out with a visual and describe the room where you're answering these questions?

Lots of high tables with six chairs each, three per side; wall-length multi-paned windows; a glass-paneled garaged door with a patio beyond; a large L-shaped bar to my left; chips and salsa, the smell of Mexican food and margaritas. I'm sitting in the cantina at Chevy's restaurant in Burbank, passing time between seeing MISSION IMPOSSILE III and POSEIDON.

2) Let me just say I saw 'My Skin', 'Human No More', & 'Scream For Me' and LOVED THEM! It was all just fantastic work! I was absolutely amazed at the sheer horror you are able to generate in those shorts. As a man adept at directing, writing, and editing, what do you see as the most essential for you in creating fear?

Getting inside of the viewer by sucking them into the characters and action unfolding on screen. To accomplish that I use every available element I can: firstly, the writing and story, then the dialogue and acting, the camera and lighting, and the environment and action relative to character and story. There I make full circle, of course, and then it all comes down to three things for me: editing, color-correction, and audio. Rhythmic, well-timed editing can make a great performance a masterpiece and turn tension and action/violence into sheer poetry of movement and moment. The color-correction also serves to bolster the poetry and maintain the moment by further solidifying the environment. When I watch one of my films I want to be taken somewhere else and trapped there until the end credits roll; and even then, for me, the credits should polish out the entire film by proper rhythm of text played against music until the screen finally goes black. The audio/soundtrack, of course, is as important as everything that comes before it in creating and sustaining story, performance, environment, and action. From my perspective it really does take everything - from the first word of the script to the very last music/audio cue - to create an unnerving, tense, and/or terrifying moment on film.

3) Sound is also SUCH a huge part of your films. Care to comment?

I think I just did! Even so, audio has always been very important to me. I was a professional musician for quite a long time, first playing with my band ABOUT 9 TIMES and then THE JUDAS ENGINE. I'm no stranger to the studio environment, and I believe that experience has made all the difference in the quality of the audio for each of my films. But I can't take all the credit for the soundtracks of SCREAM FOR ME and MY SKIN, which were expertly assembled by Post Sound Supervisor Enzo Treppa, and wonderfully mixed by veteran re-recordist Marty Hutcherson. Also, I have to point out the great music of Ugly Mus-tard in SCREAM FOR ME and the potent score by Brian Sussman for MY SKIN. Brian also wrote and performed the music for HUMAN NO MORE, which I really love. The end credit track, however, is I AM A WALL, written and recorded previously by my band THE JUDAS ENGINE. As for all the other audio you hear in HUMAN NO MORE, I actually can take credit, because I did all the production recording, Foley recording, sound effects editing, and mixing myself.

4) A theme in all 3 of your shorts was that of "the crazed watcher" - that even in our secretive moments we're being observed by some fierce force. How do you think that plays into your overall themes and/or philosophy of life?

I'd say it plays strongly into most of my themes, which tend to be victim driven instead of hero driven. In many ways I feel like there's always something watching me or screwing with me, something beyond my power to control, but something that has the power to control or destroy me - all of which seems to find it's way into the minds of my characters or themes in general. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to fate and what usually appears to be the senseless suffering so many have to endure. Even so, whether it's fate or God or the absence of God or simply entropy, I do believe that most people create the bulk of their own problems. I know I create most of mine, in spite of my best intentions. But in this way others and myself are again victims. Victims victimized by their own selves. Not necessarily a good thing, but a reality nonetheless.

5) So tell me about how you got into directing...how did that pursuit come about?

About eleven 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 abruptly 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 as well. 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, 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 really bad luck for a first-time filmmaker.

6) Do you think people who knew you as a kid would be surprised or not shocked at all to discover you're directing and writing horror today?

I think even my parents are surprised, and they've known me my whole life. When I was young I never watched horror and what I did see scared me so much I could barely watch it with my hands over my eyes. But I came to realize something about myself; about the time I turned 21, that my brain is simply a very grim, cynical dark place. There's just something that fascinates me about the macabre underbelly of life - or maybe it's not as much of a fascination as a warped addiction to the how and why of it all. If it was up to me it would be thunder storming everyday, and I'd happily observe the wicked world from the highest tower of my castle before descending into my dungeon for a day's exploration of the deepest horrors humanity has devised - and try to understand them by living through them with writing and/or filmmaking. And having said that, I don't really consider my films horror films - at least not by typical genre standards. I don't even find my films scary, nor do I try to make them scary. I'm usually trying to get at a dark truth, theme, or philosophy inside of me and externalize it through writing a novel, screenplay, or directing a film. If some people are scared or unnerved by what oozes from my morbid imagination, well...what can I say? Cool! In all truth though, I think if Edgar Allan Poe was alive today, he'd be writing stories and making films like mine. Poe stories don't scare me, but they put me on edge - get under my skin and infuse my subconscious - while at the same time being poetic and dark as hell.

7) When you sit down to begin penning a screenplay what usually lies at the core of your creative spark - is it the character, the plot, a vision, the theme, the mood, does it vary or is there something else entirely?

It's really all of the above, but in no particular order. What I usually do is begin with a title I like, or a bit of writing, or notes on a possible scene or character portrayal that inspires me. Then I use that as nourishment to feed the beliefs and concepts I find within myself, or sometimes it works best visa versa - I use my personal philosophies to nurture the story and/or characters. But whatever the case, it's these elements that ultimately become the seeds of my stories. If I'm lucky, these seeds will take root and demand I grow them into a fully fleshed-out character, script, film, or novel. Now having said all that, a large part of my creative process is ultimately an attempt to not only entertain myself, but to seduce a viewer or reader onto the roller coaster ride of thought, sentience (be it laughter, tears, or terror), and catharsis.

8) I also want to hear about your debut novel (horror naturally) 'Puzzleman'. Can you give the readers at www.racksandrazors.com a teaser that will make the book irresistible and follow it up with some info about where they can purchase 'Puzzleman' ?

PUZZLEMAN is certainly the most difficult, tedious, and endless project I've ever worked on. Many, many years in the making. It started out to be merely a 100-page novella, but once I started writing, it exploded into what became nearly a 1000 page manuscript. The historical section was also twice as long. Over the years of rewriting, I was able to better develop and tighten the story, eventually trimming those 1000 pages of madness down to what I hope is a solid, well focused 400 pages. The writing of this book definitely required a lot of nurturing and evolution over time. Also, one of my original concepts for PUZZLEMAN was to tell a story that started very small, with simply the dialogue of a couple faceless characters catalyzing the events to come, and then quickly expanding the story to include several more characters with different outlooks and pasts, and then to tie them all together in a tale that would grow to encompass mysteries, truths, and dangers that approached an almost universal scale. But at the same time I wanted all of that to be unfolding just below the surface of what all of us call everyday life. Kind of like a shark swimming with its fin just beneath the water. The surface appears normal and calm to our eyes, but just below, just out of sight, immense danger is lurking and could strike at any moment. I think most people don't realize just how precarious their life, lifestyles, and world are. But enough philosophizing! I really hope more and more people will read PUZZLEMAN. I think it's got a lot to say, but is very entertaining as well. To learn more about PUZZLEMAN and to buy the book, I recommend going directly to my site at the link below. It's the fastest cheapest way to get the book. http://blackcabproductions.com/WordsPuzzpage.html Or, if anyone would like to pay a couple dollars more and get a money back guarantee go to Shocklines.com at http://store.yahoo.com/shocklines/punobychalbr.html

9) I am so excited that you're finally going to be directing the feature 'Retard' from your own award-winning screenplay. Are you intent on maintaining as much control over the project as possible?

I certainly hope to maintain as much hands-on as I can, otherwise people aren't going to get what they're already expecting from me. RETARD is with Christopher Webster (Exec. Prod. HELLRAISER I & II, Prod. SEVERED TIES, CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT) and he has no qualms about me directing and controlling the final edit. That's a great compliment and shows a great confidence in my abilities. But he's also seen my development, and success, over three short films and now knows I have a vision that is better nurtured than tampered with.

10) What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from directing shorts that is going to come in handy when it comes to making the feature film leap?

Steal as much time as you can for pre-production, production, and post-production. Also, if you don't have time to shoot a shot exactly the way you planned, shoot it anyway you can with whatever you can.

11) And what do you foresee as the greatest challenge after previously doing only shorts?

12) Do you have any other upcoming projects you would care to tell the www.racksandrazors.com readers about?

Besides shooting RETARD (hopefully sooner than later), I'm currently putting together elements and loads of extras for a triple feature DVD containing all three of my films, to be titled 3 DEAD GIRLS. I hope to have the project completed and available by October. I'm also about 300 manuscript pages into writing another 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 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. There are a couple children's stories I'd like write too. And the project list goes on. There's lot's and lot's to do before I drop dead.

13) Okay - we're pulling the car into the Christopher Alan Broadstone Drive In - what three horror movies are going to be featured on the triple bill tonight and what goodies are they going to be serving up at the concession stand?

My short HUMAN NO MORE with FRANKENSTEIN (1931), MY SKIN! with THE CORPSE BRIDE, and SCREAM FOR ME opening for SEVEN. The concession stand will be serving Red Baron Four Cheese and Classic Supreme pizza; and the drinks served will be Skyy vodka martinis with a side of water and fresh lemon. Cheers!

14) What makes you go psycho in real life?

When someone talks down to me or gets in my face. Also, when I tell someone to leave me alone and they just keep on coming. That's a real quick way to find out what a real psycho I am - if you push the right button, my evil side will instantly consume me and you'll find yourself staring into the eyes of the Devil himself. And you really don't want to screw with the Devil.

15) What scares you in real life?

Real life.