PART TWO, the interview wouldn't fit all on one page, so I divided it up. Here we go...
5. HARRY: Ok, you're standing outside a theater, this last Friday. You're
watching some people walking out of the film after 15 minutes mumbling
about,
"piece of shit, goddamn waste of money" and then you walk into the theater
to
hear people laughing their asses off and having a great time. What does
this
put you through? Watching people 'get it' and 'not get it'. Describe the
sick
feeling, and the
high feeling? And watching the two, what would you do differently or what
have
you learned about the film?
5. LANCE: I'm still trying to figure out just exactly what we've done in making Six String Samurai. At first, I constantly alternated between exteme highs and lows. The premiere was a high. I admit I ran out Friday morning and bought the L.A. Times. They were reviewing it and I knew how much that could affect us in L.A. I read Mr. Thomas's review, and that was a low. Then I went home and read complete opposite reviews that came out the same day in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and there was a high again. After awhile, you get numb to the good and the bad. You'd drive yourself insane if you think about it too much. Of course, being in my position, you wonder how wonderful reviews versus horrible ones are going to effect the film. For me, at this point, it's not about ego, it's about trying to ensure that my film gets seen. I don't care who I have to pay off, I just want that. Here! Take all my money!!! C'mon Harry, you know you want it!!! Oh, wait, I forgot, I don't have to pay you off, you already like me. Of course, I just moved into a new apartment, so I can't give you much anyway, in case anybody was seriously wondering. I guess, I'm just really curious about how we're going to be received ultimately. Well... ok, I'm lying. I'm actually arrogant enough to know that we'll be well received at the end of the day, as more and more people have seen the movie. You have to be a little arrogant to be a filmmaker and know people will want to see your work. Any filmmaker who tells you he or she isn't a little arrogant is bullshiting you.
I think I wrote you in my letter, that I drove down to the Sunset 5 to check out the sound because we've been having a problem with some theaters playing the sound too low. The film was maybe 15 minutes in when I got there, and these two couples where coming out of the theater saying, "What a piece of shit!" just as I walked by. I walked in the theater and there was a crowd of people laughing and having a great time. What the hell? What does that mean?
From the beginning I knew I was making a film that was pretty whacky and wouldn't appeal to everyone, so I kinda expect something, but not such a big rift. Since the festivals, it's gotten so I can sense the personality of an audience right away. Almost immediately you can tell if it's going to be a fun screening or not. I still enjoy watching the film with a good audience.
I wouldn't do a solitary thing differently. Don't expect a Director's cut, because we used every decent thing we had. The film is what it is. I'll always stand behind that. It's an experience I wouldn't change for the world.
6. HARRY: What is going on with the people that made Six String? From the Red Elvises to Brian Tyler to 'the kid' to Jeffery Falcon to you cinematographer, etc? Was there coattails on that torn up tux or what?
6. LANCE: Those are some damn big coattails, let me tell you. I can never quite figure out who's hanging onto who.
Kristian Bernier, my D.P., just got finished shooting Allison Anders's next film, and he's now fielding offers for other things. We're going to be shooting together again this winter, along with Jeff too. I've noticed recently he's taken to wearing an eyepatch... I don't know why.
Jeff Falcon has been meeting about some projects, after a period of being sorta in everybody elses' shadow(don't ask me why, his charisma makes me look good!) He's deciding in the next few days whether he's going to be taking on one project, (something totally out of character for him, an action/DRAMA...oy vey!) and there's one studio project that he's seriously being considered to have a supporting role in. It's another superhero thing. He's also opening up a chain of delis that specialize in charbroiled perigrine. It's called, "The Falcon's Nest."
I've lost count of how many things Brian Tyler has done since Six String. That dude is a workaholic. He did a T.V. movie, a couple of indie features, and he's working on a studio film now. In his spare time, he's penciling Buddy glasses onto Chris Tucker's face on every "Rush Hour" poster he sees.
James Frisa, the editor on Six String, has just finished another feature and while he looks for another one, he's helping Jeff and I sneak into parking lots and put Six String flyers on all the cars without the security guards seeing us. (I'm not kidding.)
Our "kid", Justin Macguire, has been in Teen Beat and alot of other press, and I think he's now only reachable through his personal assistant, Abdul. You have to refer to him as "The Artist formerly known as Justin," or he won't answer... Seriously, he just landed one of the best child agents around, and he's auditioning alot. He's done a few commercials.
The Red Elvises just played on Melrose Place. Their music video for "Boogie On The Beach," from the SSS soundtrack, and directed by Yours Truly, is in rotation on MTV2, and they just got back from a tour of Russia. Please feel free to call MTV and tell them to play the video on the main channel, because it's exceedingly cool. We dressed these little kids up like the Red Elvises, and we had Justin make an appearance dressed as Buddy... well, ya just gotta see it. The Red Elvises are now only referred to as, "The Comrades formerly known as the Red Elvises,"under penalty of having a Soviet firing squad pour vodka down your throat with a bong as you're forced to hum "Lara's Theme," from the soundtrack to Dr. Zhivago. Ouch.
As for me? Depending on who you talk to, I'm either directing Episode 2 of Star Wars, or seeking gainful employment outside the entertainment industry. Actually, I'll be filming a really whacky Christmas action movie this winter that Jeff and I wrote, about a plot to assasinate Santa. I'm also getting ready to steal Kristian's eye-patch, don't ask me why.
7. HARRY: I've heard your name mentioned with everything from a WestWorld remake to a mention you made of a TRON 2. Who is Lance Mungia, director/writer? And what are the types of films you want that name to mean?
7. LANCE: Harry Knowles, man of the world, seer of all things secret cinema. Y'know the movies you'd like to imagine making when you're sitting around with your friends going, "wouldn't it be cool if..."? Well, I do that with my friends alot, and now it seems I can get a few people on the phone, so we've actually had some meetings about a few of my dream projects, and that's a trip. It's kinda a reckless thing to do, however, because as you get involved in it, you find you're working on that, and it takes away from the time you should be developing your own stuff, like I said earlier. Let's just say the future looks bright, but, every now and again, I have to remind myself why we went out and started Six String ourselves in the first place.
I want to make films, not just in one genre, where people can go, "That's Lance's movie, I can tell." I'm still figuring out who I am, I guess. There's a small drama I'll probably do in the next year or two. Jeff and I have a couple of action things we'd like to do together. I'd hate to ever feel like I wasn't being creative and adding something to the mix, both globally and personally. Sometimes it bums me out when I hear somebody say that there's no original voice in Six String. Sure, I've got influences. Nobody works in a void. However, it's how you shape the things that've influenced you that gives you a unique signature, y'know? If that's not the case, why don't you have little mini Hitchcocks and Spielbergs' running around?
8. HARRY: I had to turn down your offer to sleep on your futon and fly out for the premiere of 6-String due to some family obligations, how did the premiere go, and what is that experience like?
9. LANCE: I was bummed you weren't able to make it. We're a pretty low budget operation still, so my futon was your only choice. My effects guy, Jason Dunn, was psyched about you coming out. He's half convinced you really don't exist. He was going ape when I told him you were coming. I really wanted to fly you out, because without a doubt, you've helped way raise the level of awareness about Six String in a more mainstream way. When I first read your review, I wasn't very familiar with your site. Then I started to realize just how many people read this thing when I started getting a ton of emails. (I'm ashamed to say I'd only been, "ONE OF US", online, for about three months at the time.)
As for the premiere, there was a moment there, when I thought, this is either the end of a pretty fuckin' cool adventure, or maybe just Chapter 2, but either way, it's been a blast. There was alot of people I love at that screening. It was my families' first inkling that I'd really just made a movie. Before that, they never really believed me, and kept saying, in their usual, supportive way, "well, if it doesn't work out, there'll always be a next time, because we know you can do it..." They didn't even know they were supposed to dress up, and they were plenty blown away by the whole thing. It was like having every element of my life all at the same place and time. The fact I had a fever and was losing my voice made it even more surreal.
I met someone at the premiere that came up and shook my hand. I later found out that guy drove in from Yosemite. I wish now I'd talked more to the dude. The gravity of something like that didn't really hit me right away. Geez... I hope he liked it. "I DROVE 600 MILES TO SEE YOUR MOVIE, AND YOU SUCK!!!" Oops. In reality, I think anybody that would drive out like that really likes this KIND of movie, and they're totally going to get it, so I'm not worried.
9. HARRY: After watching KNOCK OFF, I suddenly had a terrible vision that perhaps you would some day find yourself working with that terrible waste of celluloid actor Jean Claude Van Damme because he seems to take talented directors and prove that all the talent in the world could not make a good Van Damme film. Now, I'm going to ask a hypothetical here. Why? Cause I'm an evil bastard and I feel like it. But let's say the day comes, and I pray it never does, where you can't get a project off the ground, and the 'Muscles >From Brussels' comes to you and says, "Make a mubie wid me." and you are forced to say yes. How could you make a good one? Is it even possible? With a dead eye, zero charisma, overly muscled monstrosity... how could you bring him to life?
9. LANCE: I read something somewhere that says Woody Allen auditions his actors by doing stuff like going to the park with them, playing golf, or whatever. He doesn't make them read lines. I can dig that. Everyone I've worked with, comes down to a matter of personality. A lot of bad actors can give you a brilliant cold reading, that's a different skill than bringing life and personality to a character. I knew Jeff and even Justin would turn out great, because they have open personalities. Justin's still a kid, so it's different, but Jeff anyway, is willing to put his trust in a director and take chances. In my mind, both the actor and the director have to check their ego at the door if they're going to stumble across anything good together. Some actors, I'm sure you can just turn them on and let them go. I'm sure nobody tells Hoffman or DeNiro what to do. But still, you have to be able to communicate bluntly, in order to point them in the right direction. If the personality isn't there, if the actor and the director can't be objective, the film is going to suffer even with a brilliant actor, because that actor isn't always going to do what's best for the film.
There's a great book on acting, called "Heresy and Common Sense for the Working Actor," by David Mamet. I agree with alot of what he says. If you're always trying to actually get an actor to "believe" he or she is in a situation, you're doomed to fail. In my mind, you have to scratch, lie, cheat and steal your way to a good performance. If the Method works for you, Amen brother, but it's gotta be whatever it takes to get there, even if that means faking it. Trust me, if an actor has some kind of fire in his belly, nobody but the director and the actor will ever know. If you're lucky, you're blessed with someone that has natural charisma. Actors like Harrison Ford, can do very little, and make it enthralling, because they ooze personality. You can't teach that.
10. HARRY: I know you are a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa. I'm seeing RASHOMAN and THRONE OF BLOOD tomorrow night at a 'celebration of Kurosawa' at the same screen I saw SIX STRING. What did Akira do for you?
10. LANCE: Damn.... wish I was in the neighborhood.
I'd venture that Akira Kurosawa was a simple man, and that's why he was able to make such epic movies with so much heart and attention to detail and scope. Some people I guess called him "The Emperor," because he liked everything to be perfect. That shows in everything I've seen of him. He was the kind of director that would have a thousand soldiers waiting to stage a great battle, and he'd be sitting on a cushion atop a hill next to the camera overlooking it all, wearing his hat and glasses, patiently waiting for the sunset to dip in the sky just so, before he said action. "That's just the way it should be, why shoot it anyway else?" I'm sure he'd say at a time like that, and it'd be a sincere question too! I don't profess to be a true afficionado of Kurosawa, but his work certainly affected me.
I remember seeing the opening of "Yojimbo" the first time, with that music, camera on Toshiro's back, as he's walking and you see a hint of that blade. The World moved with him, it was so powerful. Perfect Cinema. I remember thinking they'd squeezed the opening just to make him look more like a giant. I was a kid, and only much later realized that they squeezed the opening to get all the titles on the videoscreen. (I wasn't fortunate enough to have a theater that would play RASHOMAN and THRONE OF BLOOD within a hundred miles of me.)
A thought like that crossed my mind when I decided to squeeze the opening title sequence of Six String, to make everything look more grand. It was nostalgic too, I guess.
Akira's humility is what made his stuff so accessible. I think he was often trying to deal with the human experience. His stuff was never just a simple slash-em-up and he did some very interesting dramas like IKURU, only some of which I've seen. He recognized how futile it is to try and escape who we are as human beings. We're flawed naturally, but nobility is a goal that should be strived for anyway. It's in the striving that we can find greatness. You know the saying? It's easy for a brave man to be a hero, but where's the drama in that? It's much more interesting when the coward can become the hero.
I remember watching Mr. Kurosawa on T.V. as he received his Lifetime Achievement Award from The Academy. He said something like, "I humbly accept this award, hoping that I've somehow managed to scratch the surface of the cinematic medium, and that I can someday make a greater contribution."
He said that at age 80! He'd already done it all! That attitude, of still continuing to strive for greatness, knowing that there's so much left undone almost to the point of quiet desperation, comes through in his work. Part of making a movie is knowing the possiblity of failure. I can only speak for myself, but that was always something I was aware of. I knew I was doing something special to me, which makes you even more paranoid about fucking it up. I said earlier that as a filmmaker you have to be arrogant... well, I think you have to be humble too. Kurosawa "The Emperor", gave us great epics. Akira "The man", gave us great characters.
He'll be missed, but we've still got him, haven't we?
Whew! Enough for one interview.
Thanks alot for giving me this opportunity to blab, Harry. I've gotta crash and then get back to calling some theaters. I'm currently still stressing over the sound in theaters where Six String is playing. It seems our sound optical on our prints may have been printed too low, so if theater projectionists don't check, they've been running my sound too low. Sound's very subjective, so it's kinda like my film's in the hands of projectionists that have no idea how loud it should be. AAHHH!!! Since sound is probably 80 percent of the film, I've been stressing BIGTIME, calling all the theaters or making appearances to make sure they turn the volume up to decent levels. If anybody out there notices the sound on my film seems low, don't hesitate to tell the manager to turn it the hell up, and keep it up for the rest of the screenings at that theater.
Thanks,
Lance Mungia
