It's October, and as the leaves start to crisp and curl and blow in chilly gusts along the streets, it's time to revel in all that sets our hair on end.
Please join me for the first in my second annual Spooky Stories Author Series, running all month on Thursdays here at A Piece of My Mind.
Or in this case, Spooky Stories Screenwriter Series. Please welcome my cousin-in-law, Stephen MacLean, shown above with his wife Julianne and daughter (and their dog, curled up) during one of our classic musical Christmas Eves.
1 – How long
have you been a fan of spooky movies? What sorts of scary films are your
favorites?
I love scary movies, been a fan since I was a kid. Some of my favourites
are the Night of the Living Dead, Amityville Horror, The Shining (I often use
the quote “all work and no play make jack a dull boy”). Sam Raimi was brilliant, loved Bruce Campbell
and the Evil Dead, loved Darkman. Poltergeist was one of my first vivid
memories of movies that really freaked me out. I went with three other friends, and at the
end when they dropped my brother and I are off at our house. Ken (my bro)
talked to the guys, while I snuck into the house and got a creepy ape mask. I crept
up next to the passenger window and screamed a banshee cry. They were TERRIFIED,
then REALLY upset and threatened me with serious bodily harm. I ran away :-)
The
Exorcist is one that still gives me the creeps to this day, one that has stood
the test of time. Watched it again a couple of years ago with my daughter… she
thought it was really scary too.
For
our film Wisp, which is a so-called “found footage” thriller, the original Blair
Witch (Blair Witch 2 was bad) and the Paranormal Activity films are definite
influences. Met Jason Blum, producer of Paranormal franchise at a talk he did a
couple of years ago in LA. He was very inspiring.
2 – What was
the original spark for Wisp? Did it come to you as a story idea to Writer
Steve, or as a great project concept to Producer Steve?
The story came to writer
Steve at first of course, it always starts with story and characters, much like
in books.
My
business partner Ben Stevens and I were in Los Angeles in June of last year,
and were inspired by being in Hollywood, the world Mecca of filmmaking. We were
meeting with potential co-producers and a story editor for one of our Telefilm
supported projects (called ENDGAME, a vigilante/revenge thriller).
Raising
money for larger budget films can be a slow process at times, so we decided we
wanted to get back on set. We had a short window of opportunity in the summer. Ben
came up with the Wisp idea (based on folklore related to the Will-o’-the-Wisp
legend, where lights in the forest guide unsuspecting travelers deeper into the
woods where they meet their doom).
We wanted to play with the legend, and focus
it around a group of inexperienced students (fish out of water) who set out
into the woods to figure out if the Wisps were real and what causes them. That
was our setup.
We had a marathon session over a few drinks and hammered out a
very rough outline, with a teaser, inciting incident, important beats, act
enders, midpoint, and knew what our climactic scene was going to be. Ben took
the reins and took the first kick at the screenplay, and had a rough draft
within a short period of time. We bounced it back and forth over a few weeks
and to our surprise, had a decent workable shooting script. It was hectic and
stressful, and we still had to do writing in prep and even tweaks during
production.
Pre-production,
casting, location scouting, insurance, negotiating with unions had to be all
done very quickly. Ben’s family graciously allowed us to shoot around their
family home in Canning, Nova Scotia. They are surrounded by some 100 acres of
woodland, so we had no shortage of forest to shoot in!!
We
were yelling “QUIET ON SET” and “ACTION” within two months of having the nugget
of the idea in Hollywood.
3 – Once you
began writing the script, were you thinking in terms of story only, or were you
keeping the upcoming film shoot and distribution possibilities in mind?
We had a few parameters
we had to follow. We knew our location. We knew we’d only have our leads for
10-12 days maximum.
I personally love the found footage genre. It also allows
for more forgiveness in quality of sound and footage, and doesn’t allow having
dozens of camera angles. Jump cuts for instance, normally not used in most of
our projects, work and are expected for the genre. So in some ways, it is
easier to shoot logistically (but in no way easy!!).
Otherwise, we definitely concentrated on the
story, character development, and reworking dialogue. We also had to do a fair
amount of research on the legend, which helped give the story a more believable
feel (I think).
4 – While you and
co-writer/director Benjamin Stevens were in California, where were you on Wisp at that point?
Before our trip to LA, Wisp wasn’t on our radar at all… funny how things just fall into place.
How hard is it to juggle
your focus during the different aspects of
pre-production/production/post-production?
Producer
Steve was (briefly) complaining we didn’t have enough time to get everything
done. But when you’re on a time crunch, you have to put your head down and just
do it (to quote Nike).
We only had time and money for a ten day shoot, NOT a
long time for a feature. We had to plan very carefully, with little room for
error. Post production took a number of months. The CGI scenes were very time
consuming… (thanks Ben!).
5 – What was
the most difficult shooting day on Wisp? What was the easiest or the most fun?
Easy for worst day: Day 2 (of 10 days on set). We were rained
out and didn’t get part of our day. There was that sinking feeling in my gut
when we tried to wait it out, only to realize it the torrential downpour that
wasn’t going to slow down.
We were drenched, cold and demoralized (temporarily). I was very worried, as we didn’t have a lot
of extra shoot time. We decided there were a few pivotal and crucial scenes
that had to be redone. We had to call one of the actors back for an extra day
and thankfully managed to squeeze it in (the dead cow scene).
-Best
time also an easy call: when we yelled out “we are wrapped!” That was a huge
relief.
-Most
fun: easily the “birthing scene”. We were on the muddy shores and in the middle
of a shallow though swampy lake. Our lead actors were head to toe in muck.
There was blood, there was ear piercing screaming, there were flies trying to
sneak into any orifice they could find. It was a blast.
LOL!
We only had one take,
so it was also terrifying. If we didn’t get it, we were in trouble. It would
take hours to reset and it was pitch black late at night and would have had to
go overtime. The one take with three iPhones and our main camera, and we got it
(phew).
Our
actors were forewarned of our plans, thankfully they LOVED it and bonded through
the entire experience.
6 – How did
it feel to premiere the film during the Atlantic Film Festival? Take us through that day for you
as a filmmaker.
Also
terrifying. I bought industrial strength antiperspirant… didn’t work :-)
Ben
is normally one of the calmest and coolest guys I know. He was as nervous as me
(though he didn’t show it).
We had tried to pre-screen the film on the big
screen prior to showing it to an audience, which didn’t happen, so we were
worried about possible technical glitches. Ben was able to do a sound check
about 20 minutes before we screened, so that allayed our fears a wee bit only.
Thankfully, it all went very smoothly. It was a relief, like a massive weight
had been lifted when the end credits rolled. I was spent.
7 – Well, you both looked and sounded like everything was under control, and that's all that counts. If you
had to name your top three supernatural creatures, what would they be?
1-I
love zombies, they’re my number one. Love the Walking Dead series. Though I
only like the slow “walker” zombies, not crazy about the World War Z zombies
who seem to be using steroids and/or crack.
2-vampires
(I have to admit thanks to the influence of my daughter, that I’m a Twilight
fan. Read two of the books, watched all the films). I’ve written a spec script
on a vampire series that hasn’t gone anywhere. Interview with a Vampire
(adapted from Anne Rice’s novel) was the first time I saw Brad Pitt and Kirsten
Dunst. I hear they’ve both done very well since then.
3-The
monster under my bed as a kid…
8 – Have you
explored these character types in your scripts so far?
Yes.
I spent 12 years of my life in University on route to my MD degree. It was an
important part of my world, so I’ve written other spec scripts about university
and medical students. I also like stories where likable normal people end up
being thrust into abnormal situations, and exploring how they react when their
regular, everyday lives spiral beyond their control. There’s always huge
potential for conflict, and lots of potential for story arcs. The knucklehead
jock who becomes noble and even sacrifices himself for his friends at the end,
the timid bookworm who ends up growing as a character to become a leader that
people listen to and respect. Lord of the Flies and Orwell’s Animal Farm had a
huge influence on how I look at these types of stories. ALIVE, a film about a rugby team that ends up
in a plane crash and stranded for several weeks in the Andes in 1972. The fact
that it was based on a true story made it even more disturbing. It was thought
provoking with intense moral dilemmas that they were forced to face head on
(i.e. cannibalism). What would I have done in their situation when faced with
certain death otherwise? I don’t know, and I hope I never have to find out.
9 – Are
there some earthbound, everyday aspects of life that you find scary?
In
the odd time when my family is away, when I’m alone on my house in the dark,
when things start creaking and cracking when the weather is very cold outside.
I know it’s nothing, but still…
10 – Where
is the spookiest place you’ve ever been? What made it so scary?
The
monster I thought was under my bed when I was a young boy… what made it scary
was I didn’t have the maturity to know that there wasn’t one there.
More
recently, I was lost for a couple of hours in the woods while mountain biking
(alone) a couple of years ago. My phone was dying, the sun was setting.
I
wasn’t afraid of ghosts etc, more afraid of not being found and not surviving…
I called my wife and said: “I don’t want to worry you, but I think I’m lost.” I
said if I didn’t call her back within an hour, to send the police out to where
I went into the woods. I finally made my way out. In real life, happy endings
are good :-)
11 – If you
could be a fly-on-the-wall visitor in a setting from a spooky book, TV show or
film, where would you go?
Watch
Sigourney Weaver kick butt in the original Alien… just as long as I didn’t have
to face the creature myself.
12 -- Why do
you think people like to be scared?
My
theory is it’s a contrast thing, a balance of the Yin and Yang if you will. If
we eat our most favourite food in the world for every meal without any variety,
we’d get tired of it.
Our
lives, thankfully, aren’t like the movies for the most part, and that’s a good
thing. Movies and books look at character development and explore character
flaws that aren’t always appealing in real life. Would anyone really want to
hang out with Dexter, or Walter White, the lead character from Breaking
Bad?? Probably not, but millions of
people still tuned in weekly to find out what happened to these very complex
and fascinating characters.
Certain
character responses are purposely exaggerated in film to make them more
engaging. In real life, I might say: “Julia, let’s go out for a coffee and have
a chat” and you would say: “Sure Steve, that sounds great.” In movies, you have
to up the stakes and add conflict. Your answer becomes (screaming as you break
a beer bottle and hold the sharp shards up to my now bleeding neck): “Why the
hell would I do that, you’ll just make me pay for the lousy coffee, just like
last time!!!”
Example number 1 is what we expect in a civil society and it’s
safe and comfortable, but alas, is kinda boring on camera.
Example number 2,
well… not so much!
LOL!
Contrast…
it makes us appreciate the positives in our own lives, because we’ve watched
others scratch and claw and suffer their way to a happy ending (or not) in a
film or book. It makes us appreciate that maybe our lives aren’t so bad. It
gives us a feeling of comfort knowing that well, yes I do have to drag my butt
out of bed and to go to work today, but at least I didn’t get my brains eaten
out by some lame zombie like characters in the Walking Dead. What a great day!
13 – Could
you provide a link to a trailer for Wisp or an upcoming project?
Sure,
here it is on the AFF website:
Here’s
our website with some of our other projects:
Thanks for dropping by!
Thanks
Julia!
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