When I first saw this film on my way down to San Diego Comic-Con this year I was blown away by the movie. It's a one of a kind with some serious Holy Shit moments in the film.
The film tells the story of "two guys who build flamethrowers and other weapons in the hope that a global apocalypse will occur and clear the way for their imaginary gang," called Mother Medusa (also the name of their flamethrowing car). It turns into a violent, apocalyptic love story.
1. Where did the idea for Bellflower come from?
I went through a relationship in my early twenties that was both extremely exciting and also impossible for me to deal with emotionally when it ended. The idea for the movie came to me suddenly shortly after recovering from the hardest part of the breakup.
2. Why Medusa? Any specific meaning for you?
This is an interesting question. The name for the gang "Mother Medusa" is a long running joke with my best friend growing up. He said if the apocalypse ever happens and we start a post-apocalypse road gang, we should name it Mother Medusa, because it was the most obvious and absurd/stupid name for that type of gang. People would know what we were all about immediately. We had a lot of joke gang names when i was growing up, initially it just popped into my head while i was writing and felt perfect. Then after years of working on the movie and then promoting it and talking to people i've found the name is even more suiting than i could have ever imagined. Medusa was a beautiful virginal goddess, she was raped and instead of punishing the man, the gods took away her beauty and made her so hideous that anyone who saw her turned to stone. So depending on which part of the story you look at, she was once a woman of extreme desire and all the power that comes with that. Then a woman who had her feminine power stolen from her. Then a creature of extreme destructive power. I am not judging the story, just noting that the main characters in a movie that heavily deals with men learning how to live with women, it seems very suitable that their gang name includes many of the same themes. I have found that many things that come to you when you create something that just seem "right", if you explore them often have an incredible amount of meaning behind them.
3. Can you explain to the fans about the one-of-a-kind camera that you designed and built for the film.
Yes, there are actually three custom cameras that i built for Bellflower. The most significant one that we named the Coatwolf Model II, it actually shoots on a large format 4" X 5" film plane using large format lenses and specialty optics not meant for photography. It is a substantially larger film plane than an IMAX camera. From what i know it is the only time anyone has ever seen a moving still photography large format image. That particular camera is the only one that was built specifically for Bellflower, the other two are older camera that were already built. It is a hobby i have had for a long time.
4. The tattoo scene in the film. Holy shit. Where did the idea for that come from?
Haha, there is a somewhat different answer to this question than any other you could ask about the film. I woke up from a dead sleep about 9 years ago and i was screaming. I don't remember dreaming, but i had an entire script for a short film in my head, the idea came in completely finished with dialogue and everything. I wrote it down in a matter of minutes and shot it the next day. It was basically what you see in the movie, a guy wakes up with chops tattoo'd on his face and rushes to his girlfriends house to confront her about why she did it.
A lot of the idea's in the climax section of Bellflower were stolen from insane short films i made a long time ago. I was working out the issues in the relationship i was going through on camera (the one that ended badly and eventually caused me to write Bellflower). I didn't realize what i was doing at the time, i thought i was just making insane short films about nothing. All those shorts ended up being a goldmine for ideas about the insanity that can go on in a young man's head when his heart and ego are broken.
5. Which is harder directing yourself or acting?
I would say that they are almost equally as hard. But directing yourself is a bit more difficult because you can't watch yourself objectively. In order to pick my takes during editing, I often had to trust my friends and the other people that worked on the film for their opinions.
6. If you could star in a super hero film what character would you want to play and why?
I can't think of a good answer for this. So i would say that i would like to star as Lord Humungus in a movie about his life story. Even though i am not huge and don't think i would be an ideal casting choice.
7. What are you working on now? Will you go more in the direction of acting or directing?
Writing and directing, filmmaking in general. I am finishing a script right now that i am very excited about and hopefully will be going into production next year.
Official Site: http://www.bellflower-themovie.com/home/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/bellflowermovie
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