I was lucky enough to meet up with first-time feature filmmakers Chris DiNunzio, Melanie Kotoch, and Jason Miller in Boston this summer after reviewing their horror film, “Livestock”.  After a marathon three-hour interview session, I came away impressed at not only their film making abilities but just how nice these three writer/director/producers are.  We talked about “Livestock” as well as their future projects, which include a drama as well as a documentary filmed in Boston’s Little Italy.

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CC:  Tell us a little about your background.  How did you become interested in making films?

CD:  My dad had an old projector, so I grew up watching films like “Creature from the Black Lagoon”.  Then I discovered Dario Argento in high school and it was the first time I discovered that horror films didn’t have to be cheap productions; they could be very artistic.  I also love the Hammer films with all the bright colors that are used in those movies.  Later on I took some classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as well as the Massachusetts College of Arts also here in Boston.  Jason (Miller) also exposed me many other Italian films, especially those of (Michaelangelo) Antonioni.

MK:  I started at the Massachusetts College of Arts to study drawing, but I ended up a film major.  I spent a lot of time making Super 8 and 16 MM experimental shorts.  I did it all:  acting, directing, editing, and so forth.  Initially I wasn’t very interested in narrative film making; but after learning post-production techniques and meeting Chris, who introduced me to both Italian and Asian horror films, narrative films became more interesting to me.  I have now graduated from the Massachusetts College of Arts.

JM:  I’ve been a movie fanatic since I was very young.  At the age of 11 or 12, I started watching classic 60’s films like “The Graduate” and “Midnight Cowboy”, which opened up my mind to the idea of film as art.  I went to film school and took some classes, but never graduated.  After working on “Livestock”, I’m now working on a new film.

CC:  What films and/or filmmakers have influenced you?

CD:  Definitely (Dario) Argento and (Mario) Bava.  Italian films in general.  (Federico) Fellini and (Michaelangelo) Antonioni, major films like “8 ½”, “Blowup”, and “Suspiria”.  Of course, Sergio Leone, also (Roman) Polanski and “Rosemary’s Baby”.

MK:  The slasher films of the 80’s had a big influence on me.  The film that inspired me the most was “Witchboard”.  It was the first film that scared me to death, but I was so drawn to it and to all the slasher films. 

JM:  (Stanley) Kubrick was a big turning point for me when I was about 13.  Polanski, Hal Ashby, Francis Ford Coppola, Ingmar Bergman were all big influences as well.  (Martin) Scorsese is my favorite living film director.

CC:  Why a horror film for your first feature?

CD:  I feel very comfortable with the genre and I feel like I know the genre and I love horror movies, so it was a natural choice.  I felt like the horror genre would allow me to be a bit more bizarre and creative.  Also, at the time we were getting this project off the ground, I saw myself as strictly a horror director.  However, after finishing this project I’ve realized that I can do more than just horror, so there are other genres I’d like to explore as well.

CC:  With this being your first full-length feature film, I’m curious about your budget.  Did you have a strict budget for this film, or did you just work as money became available?

CD:  I’m a bit reluctant to give a dollar amount, but I will say that we spent pennies on this film.  Jason (Miller) has a really nice HD camera, so we didn’t have to rent one.  Since we’ve been filming a good deal of experimental stuff, we really had all the rest of the equipment, too, so we didn’t have any rental fees at all.  Also, we really begged, borrowed, and stole on this film…well, I take that back—we didn’t steal, but we did beg and borrow (laughing).  It was very much like the Robert Rodriguez school of filmmaking.  We also had lots of sources so every set was free.

MK:  I know there were some areas of the film where money certainly would have helped, but for what we spent, I think we pulled it off.

CD:  Yeah, I’m really happy with the way it all came together.

CC:  So, no money for any set, huh?  I was wondering about that.  For example, the scene set in the mechanic’s garage.  I assume that was maybe family-owned?

CD:  Yeah, it’s my uncle’s garage! (laughing)  And when you film in the streets as we did, since those are public areas, legally there isn’t an expectation of privacy, so we can film anybody and anything we want, so we made sure we used public areas for several of the scenes.  Also, we had a friend that worked at a local club, so we were able to use that connection for a free set for the “feast” scene.

JM:  The best thing about working with this type of budget is that all you have to worry about is yourself.  You have more creative freedom.

CD:  It makes the film more pure.

JM:  Less money, more creative freedom—more money, less freedom.

MK:  It’s definitely a double-edged sword.

CD:  I agree with Melanie, but I have to say I’m really happy with the overall quality of the film.  If I had to work with that type of budget again, I’d be okay with that.  At the end of the day, as long as people buy into the story, that’s what really counts.

CC:  In the film, the character of Annabel is a horror movie fanatic with a large collection of horror films.  Is this character at all autobiographical?

CD:  Well...not the character so much, but that line about the horror films, yeah, it was a little bit of a statement there.

CC:  Where did you find the quote at the beginning of the film?  Does it have any special meaning to you?

CD:  It’s from an ancient Indian poem.  Hopefully we don’t get sued, but it’s several hundred years old, so I don’t think we’re in too much trouble.  I did so much research on Indian gods, and the speech during the feast near the end of the movie was three pages long, but we really had to cut it all down.  We based the story on these ancient Indian legends, but we made a lot of the things up as well.

MK:  Any complaints, we just say “loosely based on actual events”.  (laughing)

CC:  Talk about some of the challenges you faced in filming “Livestock”.

CD:  One thing I take extreme pride in is setting up production very well.  I get it done.  If I say we are going to shoot for twelve days, then we shoot for twelve days.

MK:  The outside scene in the park had to be reshot because the lighting didn’t work.

CD:  We really didn’t understand the camera and how it worked, so we had to do two takes there.  Also we had some skateboard kids—they actually made it into the film—that gave us some trouble.  They were really nice, but we asked them to leave , and they would, but they kept coming back every ten minutes! 

CC:  There’s that double-edged sword you mentioned…

JM:  Yes.  On the one hand, we could film them without permission, but on the other hand, they didn’t have to leave.

CD:  They weren’t out to cause trouble, they just didn’t understand that we needed more than just a few minutes at the park without them.  Also, one thing I do is if I schedule a 15-day shoot, I tell everyone 18 days, so if we need an extra day it’s no trouble.

MK:  Most of the problems were with sound.  For instance, in the garage scene, the set was so wide open it was difficult to pick up sound.  Also, moving from a wide shot to a closeup caused us problems.  Another shot that didn’t work well the first time was the scene with the hooker in the apartment.  In postproduction we realized that we had some issues with lighting continuity from shot-to-shot, so some shots in the scene had to be scrapped.  We resisted re-shooting the scene because we were happy with the acting.

CD:  But everyone really brought their “A game”—the actors, the crew.  One thing I did was rehearse with the actors so that when it came time to film, they could hit the zone and we could just film and not worry about all the little things.

CC:  You are from the Boston area, and I assume the film was shot in and around Boston.  Did you go through the proper legal channels to get filming permits, or was this more of a “guerilla” film project?

CD:  When you shoot on public spots you don’t have any problem.

MK:  The only problem with that is the park with the skateboarders, plus the scene on the sidewalk where Anthony was picking up the hooker because people kept shouting or honking horns.

CD:  Yeah, one guy called out to the actress and I turned around and said, “Are you talking to me?”  He got really mad--man he was pissed! (laughing)  We definitely were guerilla filmmakers.  Scenes on the sidewalk and in public were actually done in public.  I just threw the actors on the sidewalk and filmed.  I do try to pull the actors aside and talk with them before we do a scene in public just to prepare them, because anything can happen.

MK:  Our setup and crew was small enough, if anyone hassled us we could have just told them it was a student film and been fine.

CD:  Yeah, that’s a great point.  We could just say we are students and the film would be shown only in class and people would either leave us alone or just kick us off the property since they didn’t care about the film being distributed.  We also used connections, like the garage scene being filmed in my uncle’s garage

MK:  Chris’ aunt’s fiancé was a member of the club we filmed the feast scene in, so he was able to get permission for us to film there.  That was our last shooting day so we had our wrap party there, too.

CC:  What aspect of the film are you most happy with?

MK:  I liked the way the cellar scene came out.  I was unsure about how it would come off, but it turned out fine.  We’re also happy with the way the final dinner scene came out.

CD:  Yeah, that went well.

JM:  I liked the way Chris dealt with the story and how he was able to make it come out differently than what the audience may have expected.

CD:  Just the way the entire film came out.  You know you never know when you are ready to jump from shorts to a full-length film, but I’m very proud of it all.

MK:  Also the special effects, especially the heads—they came out very well.

CD:  I give Hannah Sanders (special effects) a lot of credit.  She was in school and doing this film.  She was very creative.  The scene where the girl uses the thumbnail to puncture the other girl’s neck looked fantastic!

CC:  Speaking of special effects, did you use real entrails for the cannibalism and dismemberment scenes?

CD:  Yeah, we used real pig guts and pig parts.  I love that animal—both tasty and useful!

MK:  The cannibalism scene was a one-shot scene.  Everyone was crowded around that little room because everyone wanted to see it.

CC:  It seems that both of you, Chris and Melanie, took a great deal of time with the intricacies of the story.  For instance, the painting that is used during the opening credit sequence seems to be a part of the “mythology” you created for your cult and there is the whole back story that the character Edgar relates during the climactic dinner scene.  Talk a little about the process you went through in developing and writing the story.

CD:  We started with your typical kidnap story and the girl was going to be tortured in the back room, but I didn’t want to do that because it was so clichéd.  So then I decided to use vampires.  My brother did all the artwork in the film, and Melanie then came up with the final feast.

MK:  And the first part was based on big Italian families with kind of a “Godfather” feel in the opening scenes.

CD:  And I love watching all those shows about Greek and Roman gods and I tried to throw all that in.  I’m also a selfish filmmaker—I want to make films that I want to see.

MK:  The film was made with a “part A, part B” feel, but too much so, so we went back to tweak the story to limit some of that feel.

CD:  And Fiore is such a strong actor, we wanted to give him more to do

MK:  And we used the character of Tina to connect the stories together and intermingle the characters to give a more connected feel to the movie.

CD:  I also like Clive Barker—and you see this in Hammer films as well—where the beginning of the story is a slow build up and more character driven and then everything happens in the end.  That’s what we tried to do.

CC:  Jason and Melanie, some producers tend to keep a project at arm’s distance while others are so hands-on it can interfere with the picture.  Talk about your roles as producers and what kind of philosophy about producing you bring with you.

MK:  Mostly my producing was in planning preproduction and organizing.  We were all three there for casting.  The only time my opinion really came into play was in casting.  I helped plan shooting days almost like a production manager more than a producer.  I think the term producer is used loosely on this film.

CD:  As director, my job was to take everyone’s opinion and then make a decision, but both Melanie and Jason were there from the beginning.

JM:  Yeah, my opinion is that a film is collaborative and as a director as well, I just really appreciate it when everyone jumps in to help make the film.

CC:  What’s up next?  Is there another project on the horizon?

CD:  (laughing) A lot of things—Jason and I are going to be filming a documentary about Saint Agrippina.  To me, this project is about tradition and family more than about religion.  It’s a chance to give back to my family.  We’re excited about doing a film in a different style.  Jason is finishing up his new film, plus we’ll probably line up some music videos, some promotional stuff.  I’ve got a couple of scripts sitting around and we’re looking at doing an anthology film, three horror shorts.

MK:  I’ll be working on editing the next couple of films, but my work has kept me busy lately so I don’t have the chance to be as involved as the others.

Jason:  I’m finishing editing my next film, “The Loudest Sound”.  It’s going to run around two hours, but I shot 60 hours, so I’ve got to really get it down.

CC:  Tell me a little bit about “The Loudest Sound,” Jason.

JM:  I would say it’s more of a character drama about a couple that’s been together for two years.  The girl has to go to rehab and while she’s away, the film portrays the man’s life as he waits for the girl to come out of rehab.  We’ve taken our time to make sure each scene is emotionally correct.  It comes up laughable otherwise.  It’s a different beast than a horror film.  The music will have a definite jazz feel.  I have a composer who was a fairly big name in the 50’s and 60’s that is going to do some work for me. His name is Ran Blake and he’s a jazz pianist.  Mike Reardon and Johanna Gorton from “Livestock” are the leads and I hope to have the film completed by the end of 2009 or early 2010.

CC:  Is this your first time directing? 

JM:  I’ve done a few little things, but I consider this my first directing job.  For a while I was obsessing about directing a film, but I thought it would be on 35 mm.  Then I met Chris and he showed me the possibilities of other media.  So it’s one of those things where it was better to go ahead and do it instead of waiting for something that might not ever happen.

CC:  How do you feel about digital video now? 

JM:  Well, obviously 35 MM is what I want to use, but digital is a tool that can be used to tell my story.  And really, I think digital is the way things are going now, and 35 MM isn’t used as much anymore.

CC:  Anyone else being used from Livestock? 

JM:  Yes, Nolan Yee, our DP has done a great job.  He’s done some great lighting effects on this film.  I’ve also done some basic storyboarding, not really storyboarding with pictures, but just making notes, like where I want a two-shot during a conversation, so I’ve tried to lay out the picture and organize it as best I can.

CC:  Why choose a character drama after a horror film?

JM:  I’ve actually had this script in mind for a while and I wanted something I could do with a limited budget.  Also, it’s a very personal story for me and I really wanted to get it off my chest.  Finding the right story is like falling in love—you know it when it happens.  I want to direct in a lot of different genres, not just one.

CC:  Well, thanks so much for sitting down with me and being so patient during this monster three hour interview.  I really appreciate it, and good luck to all of you on your future productions!