Well, as a special treat to you, our readers, Mr. Dahl has agreed to be interviewed for the Blogatorium and he has much goodness to share. Some of it is of the technical film-geek variety, some is more about his philosophy of movie making, but all of it is generously offered and thoughtful. Check it out:
Jay Dahl, badassLB: On the technical side of things, what camera(s) and format(s) did you shoot "There Are Monsters" with, how long did principal photography take, and what did you edit on?
JAY: It was shot with the panasonic 900 ‑ which is a couple years old now but we got some great glass for it ‑ we used mostly long lenses for the doc feel. The format was DVCPRO50 shot at 24p.
It took two very big days to shoot ‑ maybe 14‑15 hours each day. I like my crews small so I think there were maybe 15 of us at the most. There were only two locations so it was possible to do it in two days ‑ it should have been three but we were pushing about 15,000 dollars for the whole film, so two days was all we could budget for.
We had no money for an editor so I cut it myself on my Avid Express Pro (though I just bought a Final Cut Pro system and love it). This was my last project on the Avid system.
The online edit and colour correct was done on a squillion‑dollar Avid Nitrous system in a post facility. Even the effects were done in the Nitrous (you can tell they're just simple in‑camera, jump‑cuts or liquefy filters on the Nitrous).
It was mastered as a 23.98 hd project ‑ so I could easily go to NTSC or PAL or even a film print.
LB: What can you tell us about your thinking behind how you shot the creepy "grocery store" scene? When you are shooting handheld with lots of little zoom moves, etc., how do you deal with focus?
JAY: We use a crew for the most part ‑ we're all from the film world so we're used to having the three to four man camera department. For this film there were just two in the camera dept ‑ a D.P. Kyle Cameron (who also operated) and a focus puller named Cam Erais. We really needed one more but I like small crews and those two guys are the best east of Montreal.
I really wanted a 'video camera feel' to give that documentary effect. I think realism heightens the fear, so I really liked when it got soft and even asked them to rack focus during the scenes and then used many soft moments in my final cut (which of course the camera guys hate even though it's a stylistic choice ‑ these guys are pros so being soft to them can be a career‑killer move.)
LB: The acting is freaking great, across the board. How did you find your cast, and what can you tell us about working with them?
JAY: They are really a killer bunch of actors, I'm glad you think so too. I've worked with many of them before, and some I've wanted to work with for years so finally we got the opportunity. Usually I do a long drawn out audition phase as casting is EVERYTHING ‑ but this time I knew who I wanted for each part.
Steve Arnold plays the main guy and he is BRILLIANT ‑ he really understands that film is all about UNDER‑ACTING ‑ for theatre you have to shout your emotions but for film you just need to THINK them. I was blown away by Steve - there wasn't one bad take. The same can be said, I think for everyone. Kristin Langille as the wife is fantastic. Kim Parkhill in the store was brilliant as well ‑ the interesting thing is that she is gorgeous in real life ‑ our stellar make‑up department really nicely and subtly 'monster‑ized' her just perfectly.
The acting style is REALISM and if you haven't tried it ‑ it's hard to do. There's another short on my site, BACKJUMPING, most people think it's a real documentary. I love realism when it's done well in film: guys like Paul Greengrass and Scorcese get unbelievable realism, I love it when I believe it!
We worked very hard on the scenes. If I am shooting video then I don't give a shit about stock and just turn the camera on and run the scene again and again. I have a rep for doing very long takes and rarely cutting. It's tough on everyone but you'll get realism if you can reduce the FILMMAKING part of the set and concentrate on the STORY AND PERFORMANCE. Many times in film it's the set and crew that is the star ‑ I think as directors its our job to make the story and performances the star of your film.
Like I said, it's very, very tough to get something that feels REAL. I think we had about 5 hours of burned stock for a 10 minute short ‑ most of that was actor performance, so yah, the shooting ratio goes out the window when you do realism, ha!
LB: Your short almost feels like it could be part of a larger piece. Are there any plans to make a feature-length version of "There Are Monsters"?
JAY: Yup. There is a feature being made right now. most of it was shot last summer and I'm cutting it now. It has the same title. We'll do pick‑up shots in August and then hopefully onlined, mixed and mastered by December.
The feature is considerably different than the short as I only raised 300,000 for 90 minutes, which is a laughable budget but fuck it, I did it. Let's hope it turns out! Because it's so low budget one big difference with the feature is that it is POV like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD. We just simply couldn't afford to light things as pretty as we did on the short, so we decided to make a mockumentary. Our package truck for the two day short actually had more grip and gaffer gear than our 20 day feature!
The feature is the story of a bunch of university film students who are out filming stuff for their school when they start to catch freaky stuff on their cameras. It all ends very badly.
LB: How did you come up with the idea?
JAY: Just out one day and walked past someone that had a funny look in their eye. And I thought, "What if that person was a monster?" Yup, it was as simple as that.
I'm also not a big fan of gore and torture porn. I miss 'good' horrors like THE EXORCIST and THE SHINING ‑ now everyone wants SAW and THE HILLS HAVE EYES ‑ so I wanted to make something that was really SCARY again, not gross, which I knew would be challenging. I also love the doppleganger myth and movies like that, so I knew I'd always do my version.
And finally I love utilizing the documentary style and had a theory that the more realistic I made something, the more people would empathize with what's happening and therefore the more then would get frightened when that world they thought they knew turned on them. I think I was correct on this theory. One of my favourite horror moments in history is in Ridley Scott's original ALIEN ‑ when the first chestbuster comes out during dinner: that scene is so realistic ‑ the acting is AMAZING ‑ the realism really heightens the shock of the scene. Still very, very effective, even 30 years later.
LB: You have made many comedies in the past and I'm wondering if doing something in the horror genre was kind of a lark, or something you'd been wanting to do for awhile?
JAY: Yup, this was a departure for me, there is no doubt. I think that I have been 'the comedy guy' for so long that people weren't too sure when I said, "Oh I'm making a horror". They even started laughing when the film began when I played it at our local film festival ‑ people again thought they were getting a Jay Dahl comedy. And then that little girl hit the window and I watched 500 people in the theatre literaly leave their seats - haha success! It was a great feeling.
My favourite filmmaker is Kubrick. I mean this is a guy that transcended simple visiual story‑telling to create CINEMATIC EXPERIENCES. But what I admire the most about Kubrick was his ability to jump from genre to genre. I mean he did war, comedy, sci‑fi, period, sports ‑ he could do anything. And when he approached a project he said to himself: "I'm going to make the scariest movie of all time, or the most important sci fi of all time," and then he'd go ahead and do just that. I sort of took a page from Kubrick's genre‑jumping when I started going down the horror avenue. I hope to do all sorts of films in the end: more comedies and horrors, but also definitely a WESTERN, and definitely SCI FI. It's like discovering the film medium all over again when you challenge yourself with a whole new genre.
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