Hubbell and Horton

An Interview with Shannon Hubbell and Jason Horton

• Rise of the Undead is a very ambitious project; can you tell us the basic storyline?

It's a siege picture set during the apocalypse. In the opening, we see a wall of fire destroying a city. Seven characters run into a nearby building to seek shelter and become trapped inside. Unfortunately for them, there's something else in the building, and it starts killing them off.

It's very minimalist really, and we don't explain a thing. Not the firestorm. Not the building. Not the entity that's hunting them. Explanations spoil the fun!

• What are your backgrounds regarding film making?

We've both watched a lot of movies. We also studied film production at the University of New Orleans. How's that for an impressive resumé?

• Sounds impressive to me! You've handled the CG and the sound design yourselves. Can you talk about the visual effects in the film?

For both CG and sound, post-production on RotU was an education. Until this project, Shannon had had some experience with two-dimensional animation in Adobe After Effects. This was mostly titling work, so he had to apply those techniques to "realistic" effects work. Whether he was successful in that is up to the audience. All the CG in the picture was created using 2D programs: Adobe After Effects and Discreet Combustion. A lot of the exterior firestorm shots were built around pictures found using the Google Image Search.

Sound production was a trial by fire, as well. Jason had to learn sound design from the ground up, using Bias Peak and Final Cut Pro. He found the bulk of the sound effects (axe hits, foot steps, etcetera) by searching for pre-existing audio files on file-sharing networks like Limewire. Post-production was a very long process in this case, and we were able to hammer out all of the kinks with time.

• Your distributor wasn't happy with the original title for Rise of the Undead, which was "Shelter: A Monster movie". Is it frustrating for you to have outside interference, or is this just part and parcel of the whole process?

We were surprised at first, although in retrospect maybe we shouldn't have been. We had worked on this project for so long, and we were so happy to have been picked up by a distributor, that we didn't have too big a problem with the change. In the scheme of things, a title change wasn't that big a deal. Some people are asked to re-edit their films. We count our lucky stars. We've both grown to like the title in all its b-movieishness, and it'll certainly sell better than it would have as "Shelter."

• What has been the biggest challenge, the actual filming or the post-production?

Post, by far. Once the shoot got going, it was going. RotU was shot in eleven consecutive nights, and it was more a ride than anything else. Post, on the other hand, was a long and arduous process which we weren't quite prepared for. Let's put it this way: production was

eleven days, but post-production took a year.

• A lot of movie fans are disillusioned with Hollywood's production line re-makes and lack of originality. What do you think of the mainstream film industry today, and are there any modern films you are impressed with?

Everyone always thinks they're living in the dark age of Hollywood. They said it in the '80s, the '90s, and they're saying it now. Hollywood has always been about the bottom line, but there have also always been interesting voices working within the system.

As far as modern filmmakers, we both enjoy Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez. Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros) is doing cool work as well. We've both always enjoyed what might be considered "mainstream" film, even if that takes away some of our cool points. We'd defend Spielberg any day of the week.

On the topic of remakes, we have mixed feelings. Remakes are fine as long as the remakers do something new and interesting with the material. Luckily, we've been seeing a lot of that lately: remakes that, while not necessarily better than the originals, go off and do their own thing. A fine example of that would be "Assault on Precinct 13." Another one would be "Dawn of the Dead." A lot of people gave that picture a hard time for "losing" the social commentary of the original. The original was a creature of its time, a satire of heavy commercialism. While commercialism is still the 800 lb gorilla these days, we've already seen tons of satires of it. Why redo it? We're living in dire, pre-apocalyptic times, and the remake reflects that.

• How important is your web site in the development and promotion of your work?

Our old "Shelter" site was a sales tool, aimed mostly at distributors. After the picture was already in the can, we put up publicity materials, photos, trailers and whatnot. Evidently it was successful, cause we sold it! We're just using that site to host our trailer, now.

We're working on a general production company site at the moment. It will be constantly updated as each new project comes along. It's more of an all-purpose site, aimed at investors, distributors, potential crew-members, and whomever else is interested.

We're aiming for it to actually be an organizational tool as well. Cast and crew will be able to log on and get schedules, re-writes, contact information and whatever else they need.

• You're already working on the next project; can you tell us anything about that?

It's a supernatural thriller, set in New Orleans, about God and the Devil teaming up to fight a third deity named Gracie who's bringing about the end of the world. Think "The Passion of the Christ" meets "Roadhouse." Or something like that. In case you couldn't tell, we have a bit of an apocalypse obsession.

The title is "Eschaton," and it's a much more ambitious project than "Rise of the Undead," creatively and monetarily. The distributor will probably want to change the title to "Godfight."

• Well thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us, good luck with Rise of the Undead and I wish you the very best of luck in your future projects.

Thank you very much! We'll keep you updated. And thanks for giving a couple of first-timers some much needed press!