Lee Isserow

An interview with Lee Isserow

• Hello Lee, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

No problem

• What's your background and how did you get involved with filmmaking?

I’ve been working on films in various capacities for over 6 years now, mostly for other people; both low & high budgets.

I found that pretty much everyone’s friends and family seems to know people making films – so I initially got involved with vicarious connections. Shootingpeople.org, which has

filmmakers across the UK helping each other out, also got me a lot of early work.

I got a lucky break, and at 18 I found myself doing camera work for XFM.co.uk (the videos are still up in the multimedia section I believe) and Sky One, filming live bands. All this time I was writing screenplays… since then I’ve learnt how to animate a bit and so I get by doing bits of animation as well as rewrites for filmmakers, and the odd bit of freelance camera/dop work.

• Your first feature; 16 days 'til the rest of your life is out on DVD now. Can you give us some background on it and your feelings about the film now it's finished?

I got myself involved with Shaun of the Dead as a Zombie, and met a bunch of useful people there while I was gearing up for 16 Days. I also approached Simon Pegg, the League of Gentlemen & others for cameos and they seemed really keen, but we couldn’t work out schedules… which was a shame.

I’m not sure how I feel about the film now… I’m glad we got it done – it taught me a hell of a lot about film making, and made me want to learn more about camera work & lighting (there were only 4 lit + story boarded shots in the whole film, and you can really tell which ones they are…) so I guess it was an experiment for me really. I also learnt a lot about writing… there was a lot of junk in 16 Days that didn’t need to be there… the original cut was 2.5 hours long, and the final version is 85 mins, I must have wasted days of actor’s time on stuff that we cut out (although, we only shot for 18 days, so it wasn’t that long a shoot... but still, it’s silly to waste peoples time) I restored over 30 mins of footage for the DVD, so there’s the 85 minute cut and a 2 hr long version too, for both the actors, and any filmmakers who wanted to see how much junk we had to cut out to make a semi-decent film.

• Some of the cast from Shaun of the Dead are in 16 days, What's your connection with that film?

I think about 5 or 6 of us were involved with SOTD. I came on pretty late in the shooting of Shaun – the others had been there for a week or three more than me, and are featured a lot more in the film. You can see me at the bar burn near the end of the film (hope I haven’t spoiled it for anyone…) I’m by the far left. Tom, Cathy, Preacher, Red, our PA Jack are all in it in various points... you’ll have to check the DVD to catch ‘em.

• I see a lot of independent films from the US, but what's it like here in the UK for an independent filmmaker at the moment?

It’s horrible…

… well it’s not that bad, but it’s hard to get productions rolling. We’re in preproduction on 8 or 9 films at the same time (3 of which I’m involved with at the moment) because if we get obsessed with one film that needs cash, the others fall behind, and you can never tell what people feel like financing.. so I’m working on a drama, a horror and an action/comedy all at the same time. Most people probably don’t do that…

When films don’t need money, they’re definitly easier to put together, for example, 16 Days had a week or so of preprod, if that, then one rehearsal, and we shot it. It’s not going to sell as many copies as a film that’s got cash behind it – but we need to see less to recoup our costs (read as: please buy our films)

The next film we’re making needs £200,000 (about $300,00) so that’s a lot more work… although we do seem to have investors interested – there are suddenly a thousand new things you need to prepare for. I think it’s good to get experience on bigger films - even if you’re just a PA or an extra – just so you can see how things are structured when you have cash to burn.

I’ve strayed from the question a bit… so to sum up; the technology these days allows anyone to make a film, which is fantastic, but what you do with it afterwards is the difficult

part. Distribution isn’t the easiest thing to find. That’s why we’ve started our own distribution wing of Opiate of the People Films; Opiate Films, which is currently accepting submissions. We’ve only had about 3 or 4 films sent to us so far, and they weren’t bad, but they were barebones DVDs… and I don’t know about you, but we all love DVD extras… commentaries, featurettes – anything that gives you an insight into the way films are made… so we’ve asked the filmmakers to make us some features + give us a call when they have a feature-packed disc to sell.

The internet has also made it easier for filmmakers – Blair Witch showed the world the net can be used to whore a film off; we put low-quality versions of our films online for free so people can try before they buy, and it definitely works, we’ve sold more films since we started doing that. Obviously we’re not making films for the cash, or else we’d make something commercial, but it’s nice to know that people are interested in seeing low-budget films

Strayed from the question again… sorry I’ll try not to do that again.

• The animated sections in 16 days add some nice original touches. What's your background with animation and do you intend to work with the medium in your future films?

I love animation, I can’t understand anyone who doesn’t… I’ve never given stop-motion a go, I faked a bit of it in 16 days… it’s something I’m going to try at some point. I started playing with animation when my dad brought home a computer someone had given him, it had Autodesk Animator on it, this was back in the late 80’s / early 90’s so it was really basic, it was like MS Paint, but you could move things around. I played with it non-stop and borrowed a version of Flash in the late 90s; I still don’t know how to use flash for anything too complicated, but It taught me the basics of movement etc. Toon Boom studio, which is what I use now for 2d animation is easier in som respect, it’s like flash, but purely for animation, and it’s cheaper too. I started with 3D a year or two ago and decided to chuck some of that into 16 Days for a dream sequence because I thought it was cool, just showcasing whatever vague abilities I had.

We’re about to embark on a no-budget feature animation ‘Reginald and Meredith Travel Through Time’ (OK, I lied; I’m working on 4 projects at the same time) I’ve never seen a feature animation that wasn’t done by a studio... other than one I saw in flash ages ago; The Meaty McMeat Show, and that was fun… but soon became annoying, it didn’t really have a narrative… which is a shame, because it was good in parts.

• What are some of your favourite films and are there any film makers that you admire/have influenced you?

God, I think there are so many…

Think I’m a bit of a cliché when it comes to favourite

filmmakers/films…Obviously Evil Dead 1-3, in fact anything by Sam Raimi – and anything with Bruce Campbell gets my vote, same with Peter Jackson, I wasn’t a huge LOTR fan, but I’m looking forward to King Kong, and his early films are fantastic. Early John Carpenter , anything by David Lynch & David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, George Romero, John Waters has a great quasi-Troma sensibility, and obviously I’m a fan of Lloyd Kaufman. I’m catching up on a lot of old horror that I missed in the 80s, Slumber Party Massacre 2 is fantastic, it’s a horror film that turns into a musical, and they have great prosthetics & gore, and includes the always welcome nudity and pillow fights… Eli Roth is very cool too, he’s so damn passionate about horror, I’m looking forward to Hostel, oh and Richard Kelly; Donnie Darko was a masterpiece.

Who else… hmm…

Lars von Trier always has something interesting on the go, Takashi Miike is incredible; making 3 or 4 fantastically fucked up films a year, Richard Linkletter is pushing the bar for films with his rotoscoped animation; I can’t wait for A Scanner Darkly, Kevin Smith is another huge influence, the man has set up an empire around his 2 stoner characters, and has amassed an army of fans. Warren Ellis has done a similar thing.. he’s not a film maker, but he’s a fantastic writer and has an army of 10,000 willing slaves to do his evil bidding. J Michael Straczynski created the most fantastic universe in Babylon 5… I can’t say I’ve seen every episode, but the epic scale of it and the fact he managed to get all 5 seasons he plotted out made is incredible; it’s a shame that Manny Coto didn’t get to do the same thing with Odyssey 5, that was the most addictive show on TV, and one of the first shows to shoot on HD – but he seems to be keeping the future plot lines a secret, so maybe it’s going to make a come back... I know I’d fund it if any of our films made some major cash.

Jesus, I almost forgot Joss Whedon, god of television… oh, god, there’s more; Robert Rodriguez, Bryan Fuller, creator of Wonderfalls & Dead Like Me, Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick (and all it’s TV incarnations), J. J. Abrams, Alex Proyas, Victor Salva, Jean-Pierre Jeneut, Daniel Knauf, Luc Besson, Don Mancini has made Chucky so awesome with the Bride & Seed, Sam Mendes, Peyton Reed, Frank Darabont, the Sperig Brother, Neil Marshall, Danny Boyle, Terry Gilliam, … You’ve got me started now…

There are so many influences, so many fantastic filmmakers around… it’s a shame that there are so many shit films in the cinemas these days… Everyone’s blaming piracy for low box office numbers... it’s been said time and time again, but if you check out the films available… it’s mostly sequels, adaptations, remakes and they’re all mediocre… I can only think of 7 or 8 films I’ve seen this year that I’ve actually liked… that’s out of maybe 30 odd trips to the cinema and hundreds of DVD rentals (praise be unto the free trials that blockbuster + screenselect offer).

• I see from your web site you have some diverse projects in the pipeline. What are you plans for the near future?

Near future… hmm. We’ve got a no-budget drama we’re shooting in the new year which will hopefully be in the can in time for Cannes.

There’s an action comedy that’s vaguely troma-ish about a samurai priest that we’re working on with Darklight Films that needs about £200,000 that we’ll hopefully get next year. I’m going on a road trip location scouting in Eastern Europe in Summer 2006 to find places we can shoot a really fun horror film in for free, and we’ve got the animated feature that I’m writing at the moment… oh, and I’m also working out one third of a horror anthology that I’m putting together with some other production companies.

There’s the new distribution thing we’ve set up; we only sell DVDs for £3 - £5, so nobody’s going to get rich off of them, but it’s about getting the film to an audience, not making cash… other filmmakers are welcome to contact us about that.

We’re also going to start a campaign, leaving DVDs in public places with the cover asking people to review them online + then do the same thing; leave them in public places and so on. I read about someone doing it with a book; leaving 20 or 50 copies and the book was reviewed by thousands of people; it seems like a great way to get people to see your work.

• Well Lee, I'm looking forward to seeing your next work, good luck and thanks for your time.

Thanks, you’re doing a great thing telling people about indie filmmakers; if only there were more sites dedicated to them maybe we’d get more great low budget filmmakers like Peter Jackson & Sam Raimi, I can only think of 4 or 5 young filmmakers in the last 5 years that have made anything close to that…. S.J.T.