Interview: Venita Graham
This week FDTC contributor Jay Kay had a chance to interview filmmaker Venita Graham. Her film Used Body Parts recently played at Days of the Dead: Louisville as part of the Etheria block.
Jay Kay - How was the ETHERIA FILM NIGHT? What is the importance of this event to not only women in film but the overall landscape? How has it been having USED BODY PARTS as part of the ETHERIA road show?
Venita Graham - ETHERIA blew my mind. I had no idea of the great the relevance of this group, or their dedication to promoting women in film until I saw it in action. They live, eat and breath promoting women in film. It's with dedication like theirs that we're finally getting noticed and getting to meet each other! Writing and directing is a lonely business...just you and your demons and then you and a cast and crew racing against time to finish a project. Through ETHERIA, I have met and become friends with some of the most talented females in the world! (Toy Lei and Izzy Lee pop into mind). ETHERIA is raising the awareness of women talented in action and horror to the industry and world at large. Having USED BODY PARTS as part of their venue has made me feel like part of a bigger picture. I thought I was the only psycho female horror film maker out there. Ha! Boy, was I wrong!
JK - Talk about your origins into television as a second director, assistant director and producer before you decided to branch out onto your own and creating the short film USED BODY PARTS and your feature BLACK WIDOWS? What was that moment like Venita when you finally decided it was time to take on the whole process?
VG - I was a film major at PRATT in New York and moved to Hollywood when I graduated, ready to make my mark in the film business. I got into the Directors Guild Training Program and after two years of training at every studio and on hit TV series and features, I was an official DGA member. The next several decades were a whirlwind of working non-stop on some of the biggest movies and TV shows in Hollywood. I made my way up to First Assistant Director and Associate Producer on the biggest of the big shows. But I felt like a cog in a machine...making TV and movies in Hollywood is much like a factory. It's so corporate that much of the joy has been sucked out of it. I was missing the excitement of taking chances and being daring like I'd been in film school. And I was missing writing and making my own films.
JK - What has the experience of working in television brought to your filmmaking process? How has television evolved for fans in the decades that you've been working behind the scenes on some of the biggest shows like VERONICA MARS, THE SOPRANOS, THE SHIELD, CSI among others?
VG - Boy, has it changed...and continues to change! When I started there was only network television. You were either on a well-known TV show or you weren't. With the advent of cable, things exploded. Soon there were cable TV shows. Next interactive TV shows. Reality shows. There's so much new product out there now that it's hard to keep up with all the choices. Working in television taught me how to get the best product you can with a shorter schedule and less money than on features. You learn the tricks. This has served me extremely well in the indie world since both time and money are at a premium.
JK - USED BODY PARTS is a throwback to great isolation horror like a REST STOP, WOLF CREEK, MOTEL HELL, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE & HOSTEL. What is it about the Open countryside in a micro location that creates a sense tension and terror?
VG - Funny, my husband worked on REST STOP. Very low budget but came out great. USED BODY PARTS was born from a real experience I had driving up the 5 Freeway in California overnight. We stopped at an out of the way gas station at 2 AM. While in the ladies room, I heard what sounded like a womans voice moaning in the air vents. The guy I was driving with said he heard it too. Hence my overactive imagination started writing this horror story...what if you stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere...
JK - For me, the inside of the "Gas Man's" layer is almost like a canvas with shadow and light blended into a world of inanimate hell. How challenging was lightening the inside of the garage and gas station for not only the visibility but also the shock factor to really punctuate the short film?
VG - My very gifted Production Designer friend Pipo Wintter suggested I create layers to film through to build the tension as we approach Gas Man's lair. I spent a couple weeks in my garage, attaching massive sheets of floor to ceiling visqueen from the ceiling so I could spray paint and splash (red and brown) paint artistically all over them...it was very beautiful. And horrific when the audience realizes it's blood. We attached them in a square around the killing chain fence, giving gas man the ability to dismember without making too big a mess.
JK - What is it about actor Tim Dezarn that fit the sadistic and imposing overall character of the "Gas Man" Was there one particular role that really solidified him because I know that you work with him on ALIEN NATION among other projects?
VG - I've been aware of Tim Dezarn for a long time. He's one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood. The last time I saw him before I called him and asked him to do this, was CABIN IN THE WOODS. By coincidence, he played the gas station attendant in that movie as well. I said, "Tim, would you mind being a gas station owner again? Don't want to get you type cast." He read the script and happily, played it perfectly. he has a quiet, serious, imposing demeanor about him that just worked.
JK - Talk about the crew and producers that were a part of production and your relationship to them after so many years in the business?
VG - The first person I asked to sign on was my daughter, the very talented Brigitte Graham. She agreed to be the associate producer as well as star as Jenny. With her by my side, I began the process of lining up Brian Tanke and Cindy Potthast, super experienced producers. And from there it just took shape day by day. The big coup was getting Virgil Harper to sign on as the Director of photography. He's a super gifted old school DP (he shot Tremors 2) and brought his guys with him. And the anchor to it all was Jonathan Epstein. He's one of Hollywood's top stunt coordinators who brought his gang with him to help do everything. To be truthful, I was surrounded with a treasure trove of some of Hollywood’s top talent when I directed this little short.
JK - What was challenge in dealing with the sound recording and edit on USED BODY PARTS?
VG - On set sound ran smoothly. Our editor, David Strohmaier another Hollywood pro) made editing a joy. He's so gifted. Guided me through my first editing process smoothly.
JK - How much fun was the practical FX and makeup? Any homages or motivation given to DeZarn and the crew for that visual as well as the movements of the "Gas Man"?
VG - It's always said that film is a collaborative art and boy are they right. Tim came up with so many ideas on the set that just enhanced his character and the whole movie. It was really him wielding the real saw in the dismemberment scene. Kind of dangerous but he was up for it. The cast are also gifted writers and came up with some of the best lines in the movie there on the spot. I was just smart enough to use them. The biggest honorarium of the movie should be given to Mathew Mungle and his team (Koji Ohmura on set) for creating a body we could literally saw though on set and reveal bone and tissue and blood vessels inside that reacted to the sawing in real time. Mathew created a body double for our victim as well as the very life like leg you see in the bloody tray. Best of all was the visual effect Craig Weiss from CBS Visual Effects helped us with. We spent 2 weeks in his department with several of his artists helping us figure out how much and how fast blood would spurt out of a newly dismembered body. Truthfully, I've never seen that before nor had they so we had to create it from scratch and it took many, many variations before we came upon the most realistic looking version. That's what won us the Crimmy award for Best Makeup Special Effects at the CRIMSON SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL.
(Images from Google)
Interview Completed by Jay Kay @JayKayHorror
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