Interview with Jason Horton, writer/director of "Monsters in the Woods"

We've now spoken with Jason Horton three times. Once for his awesome horror anthology, "Edges of Darkness", once for "Trap" and, now, for his upcoming film, "Monsters in the Woods". So, what can I say about Horton, aside from the fact that I've been overly impressed with everything of his that I've had the pleasure of watching? The guy knows how to make a little budget look like a lot of budget, he's extremely diverse and he knows how to tell a story. Long and short, he's one talented and dynamic independent filmmaker. Having said that, he's still going through a lot of the trials and tribulations that we all go through. Namely, how do you get paid to do this? All said, I'm very excited to check out his new flick, "Monsters in the Woods", and I hope it brings him piles of success, as it looks to be the best piece of work that he's done... which says a lot. We're very happy to have had the chance to discuss the film with him here and, as usual, he gives a great interview that every indie filmmaker should read.

This is your third film and this is the third time that we’ve talked with you. So, tell us about your latest film, “Monsters in the Woods”. What’s it all about?

Monsters will be my fourth movie, we'll get into that in the next question. It's about a micro-budget movie crew that treks into the wilderness to shoot horror scenes in order to convert their unsellable indie-drama into a horror flick. They soon find themselves besieged by real monsters.

Where did you get the idea for “Monsters in the Woods”?

Monsters in the Woods was born out of much personal and professional turmoil. Personally, I was going through an extremely hard break-up. A lot of that personal strife ended up in the movie in different ways. Then professionally, I had just finished Trap. Which was my best piece of work up to that point. Of course it was also my hardest to sell. Distributor after distributor said "I love it. It's great, but we just can't sell it." It was and indie DRAMA, with no name actors, gratuitous violence or nudity. One distributor talked to me about the project for over an hour. He loved the movie, but of course couldn't sell it. He suggested I cut horror scenes into it and turn it into a creature feature. I was desperate and considered it for a quick second, then came to my senses. However, the idea was so ridiculous, I thought it would make a movie. That was the genesis of Monsters in the Woods.

It looks like you mix “found footage” with live action. Talk a bit about your decision to use “found footage” and how you can effectively mix between that and regular live action footage. It has to be a bit tricky.

That was one of my major reasons for doing the movie. I didn't want to make another stale "found footage" movie and didn't want to make the kind of creature feature I was satirizing. So I decided to use the "found footage" in what I think it a fairly clever way. The movie, like most, is broken up into three acts. I start out in the "movie within a movie" then transition to the "found footage" stuff. It's all from the perspective of the Behind the Scenes camera. It remains found footage throughout the 1st act and then transitions to "real" footage for the 2nd and 3rd acts. The acts also come together in a pretty cool way, structurally speaking. Another main inspiration was the fact that I was shooting a horror movie in complete daylight. There are no night scenes. This is basically due to budget. We couldn't afford the lights to light a night shoot in the woods proper. So I needed a good, creative way to give the movie some visual levels, so that it didn't get stale (a common problem with indies.)

What stage are you at with the project right now and talk a bit about how you got to this stage.

I'm in post production. I've finished a few sales trailers and am starting the actual cut this week.

This has been the hardest production I've ever been a part of. There was On set and behind the scenes drama, money issues, set backs, reshoots, revolving cast, script changes during production. Definitely the roughest time I've had making a movie, but the end result is the best work I've done. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

What are your goals for “Monsters in the Woods”? What is the new benchmark for success for you?

I need for it to make some real money. I've sold all my other features, except Trap and made some money. However, I'm still scraping by, paycheck to paycheck, with my day job. I'm well over 30 now. The grind of making movies while still working another job is starting to take it's toll. I'm not sure how many more micros I have left in me.

Where can people find out more about “Monsters in the Woods” and is there a trailer that people can check out?

For now, folk can like us on Facebook.

I also update my blog with Monsters stuff and moviemaking antidotes almost daily, you can find that here.

and finally monstersinthewoods.com should be up before the end of the following week (Ted's note - it's up now).

Now, let’s go back a bit. Last time we spoke, you were working on “Trap”, your second film. What’s happened since then?

My Executive Producer on Monsters in the Woods asked me to pull Trap from it's languid self-distribution in order to sell it on the coat tails of Monsters in the Woods. It is after all the inspiration for Monsters and is even mentioned as the movie they are converting into a horror flick.

You’ve come a long way since your first film, “Edges of Darkness”. In your opinion, where have you evolved most as a filmmaker since then.

Thanks. I think the cool thing about my work, is that there is growth that you can plainly see between every movie. Like them or not, you can't dispute that the work gets better.

We’ve gotta ask, as it’s been about a year since we last asked… where do you think the indie horror scene is at now and where do you see it going?

I really don't know. I think that there will always be a market for horror and it seems to be thriving now. I just don't know how we're going to make any money doing it.

Are there any other projects in the works?

As always, I have a bunch of scripts. I've gotten a few more pitch meetings lately with big and small companies, but no deal yet. My plan now is to see what happens with Monsters in the Woods and go from there.

Interview With Jason Horton, Writer/Director of the upcoming "Trap"

It's Thursday and we haven't posted anything new since Monday... I apologize. Yesterday was a holiday and, well, I didn't even think about writing anything until it was too late. By too late, I mean, by late afternoon I was knee-deep in some serious PS3 gaming, after having watched a couple of horror flicks. The two horror flicks? "Dead Snow", which is great fun, fairly original and very gory and "Antichrist", which is, well... um. Yeah. I think Lars Von Trier may have been using the film as a way to air some grievances. Anyhow, I can say that we'll try to make it up to you with quality back to back posts, today and tomorrow. As for tomorrow's post, I read a very interesting article on how the success of "Paranormal Activity" could actually be detrimental to the indie horror scene... very interesting, especially after talking with Brad, who was at AFM over the weekend. For today, we've got a great follow up interview with Jason Horton, the guy who made one of my favorite indie horrors of last year, "Edges of Darkness".

If you haven't seen "Edges", I highly recommend it. We interviewed Jason a while ago, last April, to be exact, and he offered up a great interview about the horror anthology. If you're interested in checking that interview out, you can click here. Now, I usually try to keep in touch with most people, just so I can keep up, offer help, keep up on the scene, but it's gotten pretty tough lately... especially as we've been working on a bunch of projects, ourselves. Anyhow, Jason reached out and said that he was working on a new film called "Trap" and I thought it created a great opportunity to do a follow up interview to see what he's been up to and find out how "Edges" is doing.

Last time we talked, you were about to release “Edges of Darkness”. Fill us in, how’s it doing?

I think it's doing pretty well, especially considering the type of movie it is and the budget it was made for. It's the first movie I've done where I can walk into most stores and see copies on the shelves for rent and sell. I walked into a Hollywood Video in Burbank on the release day and saw that they had over 12 copies on the shelf for rent (ALL RENTED OUT). It was really cool. I haven't gotten a sales report yet from Shoreline or Anchor Bay, but I expect one before the end of the year. I think it's doing better than they expected though, because there' s been some unofficial talk of a follow-up to Edges at a larger budget.

So, now that “Edges” has been out there for a while, anything that you would’ve done differently? Any new lessons learned that you can pass on to our readers?

I think you learn so many things with every project you do. On the paperwork side, make sure you have your deliverables together before you start shopping you film. If the distributor wants the movie, they MAY help with SOME of the more expensive items like Errors and Omission insurance or the HD and Digi BETA Masters, but they will not do everything. Know before hand what is needed, make sure you understand what ALL the items are and how to prepare them properly. It'll save you tons of headaches later. Producers do your research.

On the creative side, Edges was a rushed production from the writing of the script all the way through production. It was a situation where the opportunity to make the movie presented itself and I feared if we didn't move ahead as quickly as possible the money would not be there. So, I rushed and let some things go, script-wise, production-wise, performance-wise that I normally wouldn't have. Out of fear, I made several conscious decisions to settle for less than my and others best work. On a micro-budget production (well I guess any production) you're always going to have to compromise things due to budget or time, but there's a line that each one of must drawl when it comes to the artistic integrity of our work. I feel there are a few times in Edges that I stepped a little too far over over mine. Don't get me wrong, I like Edges and am very proud of the work and everyone in it. I just wish I would have pushed a little harder on the script and the production.

You’re on to your next project now, a film called “Trap”. Tell us a bit about it.

Trap is a relatively "quiet" piece, especially compared to Edges. It follows an abduction that goes bad when a middle-aged kidnapper falls in love with his 15 year-old victim.

It's basically a 3 character thriller/drama. There are two kidnappers, the middle-aged Walter and the younger Franklin. They quickly come to odds at how to handle the situation. Plus there a few cool twists. Like Edges it's very character driven and plays with the conventions of it's genre. But, unlike Edges it takes place in the "real" world. I absolutely love horror and want to continue to work in it. But, I wanted to follow Edges with something different.

What’s the budget for this one and how do you secure financing? Did “Edges” open any doors for you here?

We're still in the process of contracts with the distributors, so I can't go into the budget specifics now, but trust me it was very low. People will surprised when they hear the real numbers.

Trap was developed before Edges US release, but it was through the production and post of Edges that I met the financier. Also, I had pitched three horror project to be shot at one time to a production company a few years back. I had the scripts, breakdowns, art-work, promotional trailers, a full business plan. They weren't interested. About a week after Edges release I get an email asking to resend the proposal.

Last time around, you shot on the Sony Z1U, in HDV Format, and said you wouldn’t recommend it… so, what did you shoot on this time?

This time I shot on "old faithful" a dvx. There's a lot of bad feelings right now about DV, but I still think when used properly the dvx gets a great image that's comparable to the better HD cams. I know this camera better and was able to shoot with multiple cameras without renting. On micros it's all about what you have access to. I did use a lense package and did plenty of advanced HD blow-up tests using compressor and instant hd. This way I can deliver a quality 1080P version of the movie if the distributor requires it (and many do these days). Overall I'm much happier with the look of this movie. Although, due to budget constraints, I had to DP the movie myself. So at times between the technical aspects and monitoring performances, I was stretched a little thin. But due to the small nature of this project, I think I handled it well.

What stage are you at right now and what kinds of hurdles are you facing?

I just locked the cut and finished sound design. I'm still doing some minor color-correction tweaks, but plan to wrap everything up this week. The major hurdle I'm facing with Trap is going to be in how well it sells. The really cool thing about micros is they don't have to sell well, compared to bigger budget movie. But of course you want everything you do to be better creatively and financially than your last. Trap is the 1st movie I've done where I can't really rely on the genre to sell the movie. Edges for how creative and different it was, got a lot of traction just because it was a zombie/horror flick. Zombie/horror flicks even big ones don't need "names" or anything like it to sell. Typically, in bigger budget productions, a movie like Trap would be sold on the basis of star power. I chose to do Trap because, as an artist, it was the story I wanted to tell. I also wanted to show that I can do different things. I'm anxious to see how it is received.

Are there any examples of things that you screwed up on or learned from when doing “Edges” that you applied while making “Trap”? If so, what?

I didn't rush it. I still wrote the script pretty fast, but at least this time it didn't get a total structural overhaul 3 weeks before production. We still had a very short shooting schedule. The movie was shot in 6 days with no room for pick-ups (except a few 2nd unit exteriors). But I took the time to get that one more take and push things just a bit further. One of the biggest differences in the movies, in my mind anyway, is sound. We looked a little longer this time and found a single mixer that stayed with us for the whole shoot. Then in post, I've grown a lot as a sound designer between Trap and Edges, so I really think the sound work in Trap is much better.

And this time I have my deliverables all prepared including a complete behind the scenes package. I lost a lot of BTS footage on Edges and Anchor Bay didn't want include what little I did have. On Trap I have four quality BTS documentaries, 2 feature commentaries, deleted scenes with commentaries and a 5.1 mix. In addition my producer was able to secure a couple of songs for our soundtrack from Chubby Checker.

What are your goals for “Trap”? Will you be doing the festival scene?

I've already been talking to distributors and if the price is right, we'll have a sell before the end of the year. It's not that I don't believe in the festival scene, but with movie at this level I feel you're better off to sell them quick and move on.

Where can people find out more about “Trap” and/or follow your progress?

There's an official site still under construction but up. agpla.com/trap.html
But our facebook page is the one I work on the most. Please become a fan. You'd be surprise at how much that kind of stuff matters to money people and distributors.
facebook.com/pages/Trap/99112199205

We're also on myspace. myspace.com/trap_movie
You can also follow me on twitter @jhorton2003

So, any idea of what’s next after “Trap”? Any ideas brewing?

So many things in the pipes. Like I mentioned before there is talk of a follow-up to Edges and I have a kick-ass script just about done. It's more of a singular story than Edges and stand alone, so you wouldn't have had to see Edges or even know it exists. If this comes together I really think it could be the one that really puts me on the map.

My producer is also really big on following up Trap. Not really a sequel but a movie that features a few of the minor character from Trap. It's a surreal action/comedy.
I have another dozen or so scripts circling around town, you never know when something's going stick. We'll see.

Interview with Jason Horton, co-writer/co-director of "Edges of Darkness"

Looking back at the history of horror and connecting the dots to where we are now, you have to turn to writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. If you look at their works, especially their early works, a lot of what they did were intertwined short stories, such as Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos". This style of grouping short stories and poems together led to horror being easily adapted to pulp fiction and, later, comics and graphic novels. As the horror genre grew and spread, horror delved into many different formats and mediums. However, as horror does lend itself well to that short story format, you still see a lot of projects that use it. Think of Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" or Stephen King's "Different Seasons". Further, that same style of writing was adopted into what is now known, in film, as the horror anthology.

As far as film and TV is concerned, the most significant horror anthology films may be 1962's "Tales of Terror" with Vincent Price, 1965's "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" and, of course, the TV show, "Twilight Zone". In fact, "Twilight Zone" may have been the show that took the horror anthology from camp to mainstream, but, in my opinion, it really took off for horror with "Creepshow" and "Tales From the Crypt". Since then, the idea of the horror anthology has been used over and over again and for various reasons. The first, and easy reason, as discussed above, is that horror lends itself well to the format. The other reason is, it's far easier to create an anthology when you're dealing with a low budget and limited time. Thus, there's been piles of low-budget horror films done in the anthology format.

Jason Horton and Blaine Cade's film, "Edges of Darkness", is one of those films. It uses the backdrop of a zombie breakout, but intertwines three intriguing stories and borrows from various different sub-genres of horror. For me, it was like watching a no-holds-barred "Tales From The Crypt". Really, it's a beautifully crafted anthology that will, not only keep you involved until the end, but will shine new light on some of those old sub-genres. The acting is great, the effects are beyond believable and there's plenty of good gore. As is, it's a massive achievement and a great film, but when you find out about the budget and time constraints, it's all that much more impressive and, because of that, I think it's easily one of the best low-budget horror films of the year, so far.

We talked with Jason Horton and he answers some questions for us, as well as offers some great insight into the making of the film...

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie filmmaking?

My tastes are all over the place, from splatter to more artsy fare.I was in high school when Reservoir Dogs came out. I guess you could say that was my gateway movie. I heard Tarantino talking about Walter Hill, John Woo, Brian Depalma, Peckinpaw and Goddard, just to name a few. While I had already seen many of those films, I hadn't really put one and one together and thought of them as a part of any one director's body of work. But I really think my movie "education" began there.

As far as horror goes, John Carpenter is big influence. He loves him a siege picture and so do I. My first 2 movies were both to different extents siege pictures. I also love Romero's intelligence and Raimi's energy. Early Peter Jackson stuff is great. Meet the Feebles is one of my favorite movies.

Film School: Yes or No?

I did go to film school and consider it valuable. But I learned way more actually working on and watching movies. Rise of the Undead was shot right after I came out of film school. Then, I worked a few years as an Editor and Dp on several features, then did Edges of Darkness. I think the difference shows.

Tell us a bit about “Edges of Darkness”, what’s it about and where did you get the idea?

Edges of Darkness at it's core is about groups of broken people trying to connect or reconnect (in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.)

At a base pragmatic level, I knew I had a very low budget, so I went about creating a movie that I could feasibly shoot. Of course, I always try to push my boundaries both creatively and financially. I'd rather take a risk and have it fall flat, then to just play it safe.

What was the approx budget and how did you secure financing?

This was obviously a microbudget production. We spent right around 10k on production. Then a bit more in post.

I was working as a camera op on a comedy documentary and met Stephen Kayo. He was producing that. We got to talking and he was interested in production another one of my scripts. It was larger budget and we felt we need an intermediate move. So I conceived Edges and he put the funds together.

What did you shoot on and how long was the shoot?

We shot on the Sony Z1U. While I'm happy with the end product, i wouldn't recommend the HDV FORMAT for feature work, especially with HD camera rentals as low as they are now. We had several delivery problems.

The shoot was 8 days of principle. Then we did 2 or three re shoot days a few months later.

The film was almost like a really well done “Tales From The Crypt”, it blended three stories over the common theme of a zombie outbreak. Talk about the screenwriting process and pre-production. How did you prepare to tackle a shoot like this?

My screenwriting process is fairly straight forward. I work out the story in outline form and do quite a bit of character research (creating back stories, ect..) Then I dive in. Edges was written fairly fast. I had a producer interested in the concept and I wanted to finish quickly before he lost interest (as often happens in the Indie world)

Originally the stories were written weren't meant to be intercut. They were written to be stand alone anthology pieces. It was intended to be much more of a Creepshow type movie.

It was during post, I began to discover strong thematic througlines running through all three stories and made the decision to inter cut them. Plus I had never seen an anthology cut together in this manner, so the though of doing something fresh was exciting too.

There were two things that pulled the whole movie together for me. The first was the actors. You did a great job on casting and they all gave very believable performances… talk about both the casting process and your directing style.

You hear this over and over from directors, but I was really lucky with the cast. It's rare to find actors with such charisma and strong work in micros.

To me the biggest thing that separates micro budget movies from large productions is the acting (well, acting and sound.) So I think that's really important to put the extra effort into finding proper actors and then working on those performances.

We did one large "cattle call" audition and then 1 round of call backs. In the cattle, I first just see what they're going to do with no input from me. Then after the 1st read, I give them an adjustment to see how they adapt. Then based on that, I make decisions for call backs.

In production, although I have definite opinions, I give the actors quite a bit of freedom in the choices that they make, as long as they jibe with the overall vision. But I am a bit of a stickler for sticking to the script. It's not that I'm against improv. But on a movie like this with a very limited schedule, there just isn't the time to explore that on set. We do a bit in rehearsal though.

The other thing was the effects… most of them were simple, yet effective. Who did them and tell us about how some of your favorite effects in the film were accomplished.

I worked with Tom Devlin's 1313 FX on some other stuff and just love his work. I think our zombies stand head and shoulders above other low budget zombie movies. That's my favorite aspect of the practical effects. I also, really like the bowling ball through the zombie's head. It was a little cheesy, but oh so fun. Tom simply attached a cut out foam piece on the back of the zombie's head. Then we use frame by frame photoshop to create the ball coming through the front of her mouth.

The whole film took place, essentially, in one apartment building. First off, was that on purpose? As in, did you purposefully write the script, knowing that you were going to film it all there? Talk about the issues of filming in one location…

That was totally 100% planned from the get. Before I even broke the character or story elements I knew I was going to write something in a single apartment complex. The main issue was sound. We scouted the warehouse where we built our apartment set during the week. And it was dead quiet. We got out there on the weekend to shoot and it was chaos. There was a car wash next door with a constant compressor and shooting water. Sometimes music.

Other than that, I have no complaints. Shooting all in one place frees you up to work more on the performances and camera. We able to move pretty seamlessly through set ups.

Tell us about some of the hurdles you overcame to get the film done. What advice can you pass on to other indie filmmakers who are just setting out to make a film?

If you want to make your own movies, start working on other people's money. Do whatever you can do. Be personable and nice to everyone you meet. You never know who's going to help you in future. We're all in it together. It's not a competition.

When you're doing a real independent the only real hurdle is money. But that can be overcome with a little thought and preparation. My advice is to write around what you have. I had a friend with access to a warehouse that we could use for a set. He was also a amateur carpenter, so I knew I could build minor sets. I had an fx artist that owed me a big favor, so I knew I could write some fairly complex make up stuff. But if I didn't have that, I would have tackled the script differently.

Do as many favors for other movie makers as you can. I worked for two years in LA on other people's stuff for little or no money. And I was able to call in those favors on Edges.

Did you enter “Edges of Darkness” into any festivals? If so, how did it do and is the festival circuit something that every indie horror filmmaker should consider doing?

I didn't. I had started doing press on Edges before it even wrapped. I sent preview clips and an early trailer to every horror site I could find. A few distributors stumbled upon this press and where asking me about the movie before it was even finished.

Talk about the process of finding distribution, what would you tell filmmakers who’ve recently finished a film and are looking for distribution?

1st and foremost you have to have something sellable. I'd like to just hide behind artistic integrity. But if you're film isn't sellable, no body's going to buy it. I won't mince words, I feel my 1st movie was pretty bad, but it was a sellable concept.

Also, from the beginning you need to think about how your going to sell your movie. What's the trailer? What's the one sheet going to look like? Are these things that make people want to see your movie?

I've been extremely lucky. With my 1st movie I just sent screener to a dozen or so distributors and got 3 offers. On Edges it was even easier.

Where can people find out more about “Edges of Darkness” or, better yet, buy a copy?

I keep our myspace page updated regularly. Myspace.com/edges_of_darkness
Shoreline Entertainment is making the market rounds now. Next up is Cannes. We've already been released in the UK. I expect a US DVD release date to follow Cannes.

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

Horror is the best genre for an indie filmmaker. You don't need a name or money. Just some ingenuity and a sellable concept. I expect that Internet and self distribution will become more prevalent in the future.

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

I got a bunch of scripts. The next one to go into production is TRAP. It's a kidnapping thriller about a middle aged man who falls in love with his 14 year old victim.

I'm also developing three horror movies. They're not related, but would all three be shot at the same time. Agpla.com/zapruter

Then there's Feud, which is a larger budget item. I'm still looking for the funding. Agpla.com/zapruterfeud

I just try to stay working.