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Co-Directors Scott
Wheller and Davey Jones stop by the chat bout there new film
Journey to the Centre
of the Earth.
B MOVIE NEWS: What got you interested in Visual Effects and Film
Making?
DAVEY JONES:
I think the
story is pretty much the same for just about everyone my age in the
film business. It was Xanadu. When I saw it, it was like something
inside me just flipped and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with
my life. I'm just kidding of course. It's the same old story: Star
Wars.
SCOTT WHELLER:
I think like
most people in my age group that moved into the movie business, Star
Wars, was probably the tipping point where I knew I had to work on
FX and movies in general. The advent of the personal computer
brought me to computer visual FX. I wrote a bunch of line drawing
programs in high school and college that we filmed with a super 8
camera and later portable video cameras.
BMN: How did you get involved with The Asylum?
SW: Dave does these amazing fine art pieces where he combines
real painting techniques with computer generated images. A local
band wanted him to do a cover for them and the lead singer's
boyfriend was a director at the Asylum. Since up until then the
Asylum had been having trouble with getting their FX done we got the
intro to the Asylum and signed on to do FX for "The Apocalypse".
Since then we have done about 12 movies with them.
BMN: What's your feeling about mockbusters in general?
DJ:
As a filmmaker, the "mockbuster" concept is interesting in that it
gives you a general framework for the movie right off the bat. Once
you get past the name, the actual stories (for the most part) are
original concepts that that writers/directors/producers tweak to fit
inside that framework. The original concept for Journey was
something that Scott pretty much thought up on the spot. I have to
admit that I've never read the book, but I'm familiar with the
story. As far as I can tell, the Asylum's telling of the tale is a
complete rethinking of the concept.
SW:
Just about every movie is a variation of another film. Nobody seems
to make a stink when a big budget movie makes a variation of a low
budget film. Frankly I think its marketing genius. It’s the film
equivalent of drafting in NASCAR, you slide in behind the other film
and let him block the wind for you. The big budget film uses their
tremendous marketing machine to pitch the big budget movie and the
low budget one tags along for the ride.Hell, you think its a
'Coincidence' that you get "Dantes Peak"/"Volcano", or "Mission to
Mars"/"Red Planet" or "Armageddon"/"Deep Impact". The studios have
been at this for years.
BMN: How did you get involved in JTTCOTE?
DJ:
We've been working with the Asylum for going on two years now. They
asked us to pitch ideas for upcoming movies that they had on their
slate (Journey being one of them). I guess they liked the concept
we had enough to say yes and the rest is history.
SW:
We were sitting in the producers office looking over the FX schedule
for the year and they asked us to pitch some ideas. On the spot we
pitched them the rough premise of a team stranded after a
teleportation accident. The original story was much darker as the
stranded team dealt with the local primitive humanoid inhabitants.
But, it was off the top of our heads in 30 seconds and "The Core" of
the story remained the same all the way through to the end.
BMN: I noticed that there a less lesbian undertones in Jules
Verne's original novel? What liberties did you take with the source
material and why?
DJ:
We never thought "let's try to stay true to the original" or
anything like that. I might go so far as saying that other than the
fact that they get stuck somewhere underneath the surface of the
Earth and there are dinosaurs there, that anything else you can find
that resembles the book is purely a coincidence.
SW:
Our story really has nothing to do with the original story, there is
a center of the Earth, and there are creatures there, that's about
it. Originally the team was 3 women and 3 men and we killed off 2 of
the guys at the very beginning so it was 3 women and 1 man. Dave and
I had different views as to how many women/men there should be.
Finally he said "If you are gonna do that you might as well make
them all women"... done. We changed the story to all women and left
the romance sections/implications in. I figured we would just
explain to the girls what had happened and we would not be playing
those scenes that way. But, Sara showed up day one and asked "Where
is my girlfriend?" so we left it in.
BMN: The film invert a lot of popular action film cliques was that a
conscious decision on your behalf or did evolve naturally from the
characters and the course of making the film?
DJ: Scott had pretty much fleshed out the overall concept by
the time I came on board to help with the writing. I believe that
most of the overall film cliques and references were already in
there. In the course of developing the characters, they begin to
take on distinct personalities of their own, and you do start seeing
the certain similarities in them to characters in other films. Then
finally, when you get down to the nitty gritty of it and your
standing out there in the hot sun listening to someone trying to
cough out a line that worked so well on paper, another evolution of
the story takes places as the everyone reworks it on the spot and so
you have everyone pooling from their collective memories of
characters and motivations. And so you can't help but sub
consciously put attributes on them that other characters you liked
in the past had.
SW:
I've always enjoyed movies that have strong female characters. Most
action movies are centered around Rock Hardstone saving the hapless
Polly Purepanties from some dastardly evil doer. It's not that
that's a bad thing, it has made for a lot of good movies. I just
like women to be able to fend for themselves and be every bit as
competent as their male counterparts.
BMN: I think JTTCOTE is one of the best movies Asylum movies I've
seen. What was the production like? What was it like co-directing.
And what did you learn as a director.
DJ:
Why, thankyou. The films are generally shot in around eleven days.
With such a short time frame to work with, production faces a number
of extra challenges due to time constraints. For example, the park
where we shot the exterior portions of the movie was supposed to be
much more flexible when it came to where we could and couldn't
shoot. When we went to location scout the area in advance, we asked
about specific parts of the park and then wrote scenes around being
able to utilize those. One of those areas being the huge open field
where the girls originally beam in. We had planned to shoot the
ending of movie there as well, and in fact had written an ending
where a horde of the smaller man-sized spiders were going to be
chasing down the girls... Right when you think they are about to get
killed by the spider horde, a whole pack of T-Rex's swoop in and
begin feeding on the spiders. Once we shoot the opening scenes in
the big field the park ranger flipped out because some grass got
trampled. (Seriously I'm not kidding here.) So from that point on we
couldn't shoot in that area. When we got to the end of the movie,
we had to move to another park and find a new location. So the big
red pen came out and we pretty much rewrote the finale' right there
on the spot based on what we had in front of us. The hordes of T-Rex
and Spiders became a single big giant mama spider, which worked out
well for us since we also own and operate the f/x company that does
the digital effects for the Asylum's movies. Given the time
constraints we're working with in the post side of things as well,
the horde's would have probably become a single giant spider in the
end anyway. So you have to stay open to new ideas and be able to
change everything on the spot.
Co-Directing with Scott worked out well. He and I have been working
together for the better part of 15 years. When it comes to v/fx and
post production, we have a system that we use that works pretty well
and that same basic workflow carried over to production. We tried to
use it to our advantage as much as possible whenever we could. For
example sometimes we both worked on a scene, other times, Scott
would shoot a scene while I was busy prepping for the next one. When
he was done, I would shoot that scene while he figured out what he
was going to do next. It also allowed us to get a little bit more
sleep, which we desperately needed towards the end of the
production. Sometimes, I would come in and shoot the scenes in the
morning/early afternoon and he would pick up in the afternoon and
run through to the end of the day while I went home and tried to get
some sleep.
I think one of the most important things that I learned was that you
have to just let go of some of your original ideas and just let
things happen. Be prepared to wing it! I remember for the first
couple of days I was going home and drawing little story boards at
night. Of course when the next day rolls around, about half the
time, the place where we thought we were going to be shooting
changed or we found something better, or whatever. So then I would
end up sort of playing catch up to my own storyboards. On the flip
side Scott just had a list on paper that with little one line notes:
two shot of Kristin and Gretchen discussing the crystal. Coverage of
Gretchen taking the crystal, etc. In the end I think on a production
of this nature that works so much better. You just have to go with
the flow and find the opportunities where you can and the thing that
matters the most is figuring out how to best exploit them for the
good of the movie.
SW:
The production was a ton of fun. I've been on set doing the FX
Supervision for about 10 films with the Asylum, but, the
directing/writing side was very enjoyable, I can't wait to do it
again. Dave and I had scenes and sequences that we wanted to do a
specific way, so we split the movie out that way while maintaining a
close eye on keeping things flowing together. I learned a lot about
what you need to keep in mind to help actors get the most out of
their characters. We were fortunate to have a group of really
talented girls for Journey. They all had specific ideas of how their
characters would act and inter relate. I had to learn to be flexible
with the story and the dialog to help bring out the best in each
performance. It's easy to just dictate what words will be spoken,
but, if you let the process be semi-organic then everyones ideas
come out and the performances flow naturally. also learned a lot
from working with Dedee Pfeiffer and Greg Evigan. They are both
smart as hell and great actors, so, if you don't bring your A-Game,
and you are willing to listen, they will help you.
BMN: How much creative control did you have over the film? Did the
Asylum have many demands e.g. there needed to be monsters ever ten
minutes? As a co-director are your satisfied with it?
DJ: I for one have to say that I was really pleasantly
surprised at just how few demands the producers made on us when it
came to the production. Of course there were notes and things they
wanted to change for one reason or another, but for the most part
what you see up on the screen is what we intended.
Overall, I'd say that I'm very satisfied with the movie. We had a
great crew, including Director of Photography Mark Atkins who has
been working with the guy's at the Asylum for quite a while. He has
such a great sense for what will and will not work when it comes to
this style of movie-making, and it saved our necks on more than one
occasion. lso we had a fantastic score done by a composer named
Chris Ride. He quite literally turned an entire orginal score
around in less than a week. I think that's the fun thing about
these kinds of movies. Your always challenging yourself to come up
with something without the luxuary of time on your side.
SW:
We had a fair amount of creative control over the film, but, the
bottom line is it's not our film, it's The Asylums and they have
things they need to happen in the movie to sell it and make their
money back. On balance I am very happy with how it came out as a
first film.
BMN: I just have to ask this question for all the HARD CORE Asylum
fans. I noticed that Michael Tower played a small character called
Marty. Michael also plays Dr Alextzavitch in Transmorphers. As
Transmorphers is set 300 years in the future is there any chance
that Marty is Dr Alextzavitch's great, great, great, great,
grandfather?
DJ: Man, that's way above my head. Your going to have to ask
Scott... or Latt.
SW:
Yes. Journey is actually the beginning of a 9 part story arc that
ends with Transmorphers. Marty and Doris will be back for story 3
where they open a portal to and alternate universe making the robot
invaders aware we exist.
BMN: In your film there is an amazingly HOT, nerdy scientist called
Grethen Lake. I know she's a fictitious character but is there any
chance you could pass on my number to her?
DJ:
After the whole ordeal, Gretchen went on to become a grade school
teacher, and I believe is happily married to Marty. Although who
knows. You might be able to take him in a fight.
SW:
Gretchen is mostly reached by Sat Comm ID# N566LW. Caroline Attwood,
the amazing actress that plays Gretchen, can be reached at
310-217-7638.
BMN:
Let's be honest a lot of people aren't going to watch it and still
criticize it on imdb.com for the very fact it's a mockbuster. What's
your feelings about this? How do your prepare yourself for that?
DJ:
Yeah, I've noticed that trend on IMDB. Everybodies a critic these
days. I can't speak for Scott, but I'm not going to waste my time
trying to defend what we've done. It would seem to me that these
guys could find more constructive uses for their time. Like maybe
they should send their pitches into the Asylum and get out there and
see what they can do within the framework of one of these
productions. If they can make a better movie, then more power to
them.
SW:
I find it all very amusing. Some guy with a Yoda T-Shirt in his
mom's basement will always engage in a keyboard Rambo flame war
while eating cheese doodles and orange soda. Let him go for it. I
enjoy reading the commentary. Every now and then a good idea comes
out and I can use that in the future. If they take offense cause
it's a mockbuster I would say "grow up", it's marketing 101, find a
product that is working and emulate it.
[EDITORS NOTE: While I was formatting this interview I logged on
imdb and chekced the “JOURNEY” message board and found this. I
though it was amusing enough to add. To get the full impact you
might have to know that Leigh Scott/Slawner was a popular Asylum
Director
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by
DirectorLeighHater
(Wed Jul 16 2008 21:05:06)
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is the
Assylum [sic} really doing what I think it's doing? It's
making a ripoff [sic] of a crappy children's version of a
movie that's been done and redone approximately seventy
billion times that's based on a book that isn't even that
good to begin with? Seriously, that's not rock bottom low,
that's Center of the Earth low.
”Leigh Slawner only happened because Chuck Norris was taking
a nap.”]
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BMN: Any chance of a sequel? Maybe Earth vs. the Spider?
DJ:
How about: Giant Spider Vs. T-Rex: A modern prehistoric love story.?
SW:
Only if Journey 3D has a sequel.
BMN: What's next for you?
SW + DJ:
We start work on the next movie "Merlin and the War of the Dragons"
in Wales in 2 days.
BMN:
And to end with, I'll give one more chance to sell your film! Why
should we
rent JTTOCOTE and what should we expect.
SW:
Cause its got hot babes and they are wet for most of the movie.
DJ: Ditto.
BMN:
Thanks for you time. Read our review of
JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH.
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