Interview with Christopher DiNunzio about his upcoming film, "A Life Not To Follow"

Tell us about your film, what’s it all about?

It's called "A Life Not To Follow", A trilogy of Neo-Noir films: Eric is a dead man and he knows it. Death is imminent and he must make amends for his past sins, by killing those who wronged him, no matter the price: A wiseguy willing to do anything to move up in the world must now make the ultimate sacrifice. He must kill his best friend or in turn be killed: An F.B.I.agent turned P.I. is on the trail of a missing girl. In his long search for her he comes face to face with a host of unsavory characters who will lead him to perdition or salvation.

If you don’t mind us asking, what was the budget for the film and how did you secure financing?

Don't know yet, I'm still adding up the receipts and we have one last part that still needs to be filmed. 

As of right now, what are your goals for the film and what kinds of things are you doing to make sure you reach your goals?

We want to play at the bigger named film festivals and get distribution with a studio who can really help us get our film in front of people. Me and our fantastic Producer/Actress Amy DePaola are gong to go over everything after the final cut is done and work to make it happen. But for now we are still putting the film together so that needs to get done before we can even begin acting on any goals we have for the film. 

What about film festivals? Are you going to enter your film? If you have, how did it do? Tell us about your feelings around the indie film fest circuit.

When the film is done absolutely! I help run The Massachusetts Independent Film Festival so I love film festivals!!!(Sept 25,26,28th 2012) They are a great place to get your film and name out there. It's a hard road getting into festivals, a lot of good films don't play at places they should. You just never really know what people are thinking when they see your film. For us at Mass Indie we try to find the best films we can. We don't judge it on how long it is or genre. We want great films! And we want them to be Independent films. Bottom line is when you get into a festival it's a great feeling but you just need to find the right festivals for you. 

Talk about distribution. Have you secured distribution? If so, how did you go about doing that? If not, what’s your plan?

Not yet. I have already talked to a few people. We'll see what happens but my goal is to screen it and see who's interested. I want a lot from my distribution at this point in my career. I know that could be asking for too much but I believe in this film and I can't forget that. 

Where can people find out more about the film and/or get their hands on a copy?

On IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179734/ and FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/ALifeNotToFollow Please like both! It would be a great help to us.

Talk about the production. How did it go? Tell us one good or funny story that demonstrates the trials and tribulations of being an indie filmmaker.

Well there was a lot of joking around. Nothing I should share. LOL. But it's been hard but really fun! We have had to get to a bar at 5am to shoot with a time limit and battled weather (Not easy to do in Boston) and I've had extras drop out last minute but in the end we still stand tall! The locations we got are places I would have picked out if we had a ton of money and the acting has been amazing. The look we are getting is just beautiful! It's the best looking film I've done to date. That is thanks to Nolan , he's a great DP. Also 1st AC Alex Huang has helped with that as well. I try to find not only talented people but good people, the kind that know how to act like a professional. You need both! I have no room on my set for divas. That's just not acceptable at all. I've felt really honored to be able to have the cast & crew I have. They have put in so much effort while keeping a positive attitude and it's paying off. The evidence is in how great the film is coming out. I can't thank them enough. Filmmaking isn't easy. When you work on an Indie film everyone who has a credit did something to earn it. So Thank you cast & crew! Michael Capozzi, John Martellucci, Molly Kay, Fiore Leo, William DeCoff, Erica Derrickson, Johnny Cammarata, Jaimie Tucker, William Bloomfield, Vincent Di Nunzio, Leighsa Burgin, Geno Mirabella, Amy DePaola, Keith Bennett, Justin Thibault, Nick Apostolides, Angel Garcia, Madeleine McKenzie, Mark Mandracchia, Michael Caggiano,  Pedro Alvarado, Jason Miller, Nolan Yee, Alex Huang, Laura Grose, Mike Shea, Jessica-Lee Van Winkle, Scott Reardon, Roy Bosell, Steven Panetta, Shawn Contois, James L. Leite. And the best for last Melanie Kotoch! There's more to thank but If I don't stop this interview we'll be one long thank you letter. LOL. One thing and I can't stress enough is find good people to work with and treat them right. Something good will always come out of it. 

What about you? Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into indie horror.

For me it was Dario Argento. He made me see how Horror can be art. I love dark things. I'm just attracted to them. So being young horror drew me in. As far as getting into crime films. That's from growing up hearing all the stories from my family and friends in the North End in Boston,MA. Now the North End is just a tourist spot but man the things that went on there. 

Talk about the indie horror scene. Where do you think it is now and where do you see it going?

I'm at a loss with it. I'm not sure how I feel about it right now. I'll have to get back to you on that one. LOL. A far as where it's going it will never die. Horror has a great fan base who make it fun to like horror. 

Do you have any more projects in the works? What’s next for you?

A few things but nothing that I'm able to talk about at the moment. It's just not at that stage yet and it's partly because A Life Not To Follow is all I can think about right now. 

As always thank you so much for the interview! 

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Christopher Di Nunzio  writer/director/producer
www.creepykidproductions.com
http://www.facebook.com/CreepyKidProductions
http://twitter.com/Creepykid