Chronicles Of An Indie Filmmaker
Interview by: Roy Hayes
We at Living Dead Reviews have a deep respect for those who have the courage, talent and tenacity to make a film. Throughout our association with the horror genre and our interviews with independent filmmakers, they all tell a tale of sacrifice both personal and professional. LDR is proud to present a new feature that chronicles a film through all stages of development from pre-production to public showing and distribution. We want to show everyone exactly what it takes to bring us the terror we crave and to show why these people need our respect and support.
“Skeletons in the Closet” is the brainchild of Chloe Finch. Chloe started with an idea and a desire to see it through. Join us on the ride to see Ms. Finch’s dream of giving us nightmares can come to fruition.
Chloe Finch – Indie Filmmaking Part 1
LDR: Give those who might not have read our original interview a little background on you and your film “Skeletons in The Closet”.
Chloe: I have been a screenwriter for about eight years. I had to grow so much as a screenwriter before SITC was even at the point where it was at the status to be brought to life on screen. When I was living in Sydney, Australia was when I came across the first revision of SITC. That was two years ago. I first thought of all the previous screenplays I had done. My first script was about a female Vampire who lived in Hollywood in the 1920’s. It was at best sixty pages long and I thought I had written a script. Yes, perhaps for a short film! But, I thought this was a full feature film solid script. I remember it being past on to agents and they thought I was crazy. I can laugh at it now and it taught me how much I needed to learn about being a screenwriter. I didn’t go to film school or take any classes. I just sat down one day in my Sydney, Australia apartment and read my first attempt I had made on SITC. I read it and thought how immature it was and it was going to take a lot of work to bring it up to the level to gain interest. As I revised the script many times over it manifested into a completely different screenplay. The characters changed and so much of the story line changed. The female lead became a character that even took me by surprise. I reminisced about my earlier screenplays and remembered how immature I was. Believe it or not, that first one about the female vampire in the 1920’s was going to be made on a micro budget. But, I ended up moving to London and Los Angeles was a long way away. Honestly I wasn’t ready. I was far from ready. I needed to experience film production. So, over many years I worked on film production. I started of as a production assistant and then worked my way up to the director’s team. I realized my passion was to build a story and to direct the film of my story. After three years of living in Australia I was ready to come back to Los Angeles and bring SITC to life. Now, I have a huge casting call in Los Angeles to do and it is all so exciting! To write the story of SITC and to grow so close to the characters, especially the lead is a process. But, now to hand these characters over to actors to bring to life for me is just amazing.
LDR: Talk about the difficulty in obtaining funding. Give a little insight into the process.
Chloe: Funding in my opinion is the hardest thing you will have to do to get your budget. People go about it in all different type of ways. I believe you should raise the money literally dollar by dollar. It’s as if you are building a wall brick by brick. No one can take that out from under you. If you use investors especially with the state of the film industry let along the economy, chances are your funding will be ripped out from under you or the percentage they will be asking for will be ridiculous. It may seem like the easy way to get your movie made, but it is the most dangerous way as well I think. It’s simple; you need to know how to raise money. The huge problem is now in the state of the economy people do not really have money to give away to a film. What I think you need to do depending on how much your production will coast is to get your budget base. You can do anything from fundraisers to getting really creative with networking to put together a function that brings in a lot of people. Once you have some of your budget that is your sidewalk of your production so to speak. You can tell people you have funding and then go after more reputable investors.
LDR: How is casting going? Do you have a certain type in mind for each character or are you open to alternatives. Are you looking for seasoned actors, new faces, or a mixture of both? Who would be some of your fantasy cast members?
Chloe: The casting has become bigger then I ever imagined. We are yet to have the weekend auditions on March 20th and 21st of 2010. When I started off about who would be cast I only had one character in my mind that I envisioned. That was, ‘Alexandra Rowen’ the female lead. At first I saw her with dark hair and then I saw her with Blonde hair. Then, it just became a mesh of all different types. I knew the moment I saw the actresses to play her I would know and now I am overwhelmed with so many and I am so excited to see who takes her on. At first I didn’t care how impressive an actors resume was. So long as they can be the best one when we do the auditions. But, thousands actually submitted to be called in. We have amazing actors coming in that I feel very honored to have; actors that has done impressive work and has been in brilliant productions. We have a high caliber of actors coming in and I feel very fortunate. My fantasy cast members for the female lead would be Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Sienna Miller, Naomi Watts and of course Angelina Jolie. As far as the male leads, everyone from Edward Norton to Josh Brolin I thought of. I am always fantasizing. I’m a screenwriter and director. Your mind is always going.
LDR: Tell us about other aspects of pre-production; location, scouting, wardrobe, set design, etc.
Chloe: SITC is being filmed in up state Michigan. Great tax incentives for filmmakers at 40% now. The story takes place in New England, so it will be gorgeous in the fall when we start shooting. We are location scouting in Michigan soon to lock in everything. We have our locations; we just need to go through the legalities of it all. I can tell you the locations are gorgeous. We have a brilliant costume designer from Australia who has worked on such films as Narnia, the Matrix’s, Moulin Rouge and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. We are fortunate to get her first and put the rest of crewing up on hold until closer in pre production. We will next be going into set design etc.
LDR: How do balance your personal life and your work? Is their any separation?
Chloe: When you are in pre production you really have no personal life. It is important to separate the two so you don’t loose track of living in society. I spend time with friends and family when I can. But, It is just such a whirlwind now and it is just going to get harder. I don’t see me having much of a personal life anytime soon. That’s what you give up when you are making films. I did go to the grocery store last night though!
Good luck with your film. I just directed a low-budget movie and it's the only way to learn.