It all started sometime last year, I got a copy of Maniac On The Loose in my inbox and sat to watch it. I was truly impressed! Here was an indie, low budget movie that not only took the time to put together a great story, but managed to put good actors in the part and have a plot that left you with your jaw hanging open at the end! This was from the geniuses at Big Biting Pig Productions. Steve Hudgins and PJ Woodside have put together a cool little production company in Western Kentucky that’s plan is to put out one feature film per year, and so far, they’ve not only managed to keep up that pace, but the movies are amazing! So, I had to hunt Steve down to find out about his background, the movies he makes and what the heck is a big biting pig!
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BM – Steve, thanks for taking the time.
SH – Thank you.
BM - How did you get started making films?
SH - I've been acting regularly for quite awhile, and I've been writing since I was young. I met up with a fellow actor, Adam Gilliam. He was in a theatre production I was in and had a film making background. And another actor, Tom Dolan, who was in the same production, between the 3 of us, we had some film making experience, Adam through Schooling and Tom & I via acting on movie sets, so we decided we'd try our hand at film making. I adapted a novel I wrote when I was young entitled "The 3rd Floor" into screenplay form and we made that a feature length movie. From there, I decided that I wanted to continue making feature length films regularly and created Big Biting Pig Productions. That's exactly what my movie making partner, PJ Woodside, and I do now. We make at least 1 feature length film per year under the Big Biting Pig Productions banner.
BM – I have to ask, why Big Biting Pig?
SH - I wanted a name that would stick in people's minds once they heard it. I find that a lot of production company names bland and I personally can never remember most of them. So I started thinking of some ideas and came up with Big Pig and was kicking around a lot of different adjectives to slide in between there and PJ Woodside suggested "Biting" and I thought that had a nice ring to it.
BM - Your movies tend to have a twist ending, is that always the plan? And is it always going to be something you try to do in your movies?
SH - It's not so much about having twists just for the sake of having twists. When I watch movies, I like to be surprised. I absolutely hate predictability in a movie. So, one of the things we always try to do with our films is to be fresh or surprising in some capacity, whether it's twists and turns within the plot of the movie or some other form of originality or fresh perspectives that I feel are lacking in a lot of movies today.
BM - What are some of the challenges in making movies in Western Kentucky...as opposed to Chicago?
SH - There's absolutely no additional challenges to film making in smaller areas as opposed to a metropolis like my home town of Chicago that I am aware of. If anything it's easier. It's not as expensive and communities tend to take more interest and be more cooperative than you might see elsewhere.
BM - You have a theatrical background, do you think that makes it easier or more difficult working in films?
SH - Easier. There is no substitute for hands on experience and while theatre and movies are very different, the bottom line is that in either venue, you are doing some form of acting or directing. That type of experience is invaluable and can only be helpful when you cross over into that other realm whether it's theatre to movies or movies to theatre. Don't get me wrong, you have to make adjustments either way you go, but, still, you're bringing some form of acting or directing experience to the table and that is a good thing.
BM - You work with mostly the same cast in your movies. Is that a comfort thing?
SH - Not at all. We hold open auditions for the majority of the roles in our films and we simply cast whoever we think is best for each respective role. It's really as simple as that. We don't play favorites. We won't penalize someone because they've been in some of our other productions and at the same time we won't penalize someone for not being in some of our other productions. If someone auditions and we think they're the best choice for one of our roles, we cast them in it. We have new faces in all of our productions, and some recognizable faces in all of our productions. This is actually quite common though. Pick any film maker, watch several of their movies and you're likely to see a trend in some of the casting. That's usually a result of an actor enjoying working with that particular film maker and the film maker being happy with that actor's previous work and feeling like they have another role that happens to be a good fit for them.
BM - I'm seeing that you're in production of Hell Is Full. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
SH - Hell is Full is zombie genre horror film that is unlike any zombie movie made before, due to the perspective we chose to take. It seems to me that over 90 percent of zombie type movies today are comedies. And of those many of them are out and out slapstick farces. That’s all fine, but I wanted to get back to the origin of zombie movies, which were meant to be taken seriously and to scare people. I wanted to be true to the original general zombie idea, of the flesh eating undead who can only be killed by destroying the brain. However, what I didn't want to do is follow the stereo typical zombie formula that has been done a million times before, which is an army of zombies having a small group of surviving humans trapped somewhere. How many times have you seen that? I mean, it's a good formula, but it's been done to death, pardon the pun. So what we've done with HELL IS FULL is taken the original zombie idea and given it an entire fresh spin. I don't want to get to specific about how, but what I'll tell you is that we focus more on the individual zombies in this movie. It really is quite different. It's interesting, we've had so many people approach us saying "Hey, can I be a zombie extra in your movie?" and we always have to tell them, "It's not that kind of zombie movie." There are no zombies in this movie that are merely extras.
BM - If you had an unlimited budget and unlimited time, what kind of movie would you want to make, and who would you cast?
SH - Boy, I think given those circumstances I might tackle an epic type movie. I always thought it would be very interesting to make a movie dealing with the Civil War from the perspective of black confederate soldiers. I think a movie like that would be historically important, not only as a bit of a tribute to these men who most people today aren't aware existed, but to show a more historically accurate portrayal about what the American Civil War was truly about. That's the type of movie that would take a pretty big budget to pull off correctly. As far as casting goes, I wouldn't go into it with anyone in mind. We'd just have to see.
BM - What advice would you give someone who was thinking of making their own movie?
SH - Procrastination and film making do no mix. If you honestly want to do it, forget the million reasons why you shouldn't do it and just do it.
BM - After Hell Is Full, what's on the agenda?
SH - Hell is Full will be released in Summer of 2010. In the 2nd half of 2010 we’ll begin production on “Madame Hands” a movie that will be written & directed by PJ Woodside. The movie revolves around a psychic and is a thriller. BM – Thanks again for slowing down long enough to chat with me.
SH – Thank you.
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Steve is a great guy and an amazing filmmaker (so is PJ by the way!), and I can’t wait for both Hell Is Full and Madame Hands. To find out more about this dynamic duo, just head over to the Big Biting Pig Productions web page, you won’t be disappointed, I promise. We here at Rogue Cinema wish Steve and PJ…and they’re whole crew…all the best and look forward to seeing their work in the future.