Things will go wrong on an indie film set. As a producer, or anyone in a leadership role, the key to solving problems is: Don't Panic! This was pivotal for me as a new producer on the set of "Tar Pit" (2015). Potential disasters came at me a mile a minute, but recalling this simple rule allowed me to move (most of) them swiftly aside—even on that day in June of 2014 when we shot "Tar Pit"'s last gun battle at an absolutely revolting pig farm and slaughtering field deep in the country of northern New York state. Hot, dusty air carried the stink of rotting pig carcasses over junked trailers, over putrid milk feeding troughs, over masses of hogs, living and dead. It was a location that director and seasoned indie filmmaker, the brilliant J. Christian Ingvordsen, had arranged for our crime drama. Our gifted Dp and screenwriter Matthew Howe was unfazed.
- 1/19/2015
- by Roz Foster
- Indiewire
We had a few cool, organic locations in and around Bovina, New York (way upstate), where the dauntless and masterfully innovative indie filmmaking pair, director J. Christian Ingvordsen and Dp/screenwriter Matthew Howe (along with myself, the newbie producer), filmed our rural crime drama "Tar Pit." There in the northern Catskills, we knew of a trailer-park-esque pig farm and slaughtering field that couldn't have been art directed with more genius than by the blood-spattered pig farmer/butcher who owned the place. We also had access to a gorgeous, Adirondack camp-style mansion, which cost a wonderfully small fee to rent for the day. Its sumptuous interior served as the lavish home of our country drug king pin. In terms of aesthetics and versatility, one of our best locations was a crumbling, abandoned, colonial Georgian mansion built in 1912. That old stone mansion worked perfectly for a drug lab, a mechanic's workshop and for one of our gunfights.
- 1/14/2015
- by Roz Foster
- Indiewire
Anyone anxious to jump into the low-budget movie scene will find a cautionary tale in Matthew Howe’s new book Film Is Hell, coming next month from Laurelton Media. In its pages, Howe (writer and director with Howard S. Berger of the ’90s underground shocker Original Sins) recalls his post-film-school years working for Sultan Film Productions, a purveyor of action and horror cheapies (its fright credits include The Bog Creatures, Fort Doom and Blood Relic).
“My association with Sultan began as a dream—a chance to make my living making independent movies—but quickly turned nightmarish,” Howe tells Fango. “I got on board just as the bottom dropped out of the international film market. I worked harder than I ever have in my life for Sultan, but all in vain. Not only did I not manage to make much money during those years, but the movies we produced during that period redefined horrible.
“My association with Sultan began as a dream—a chance to make my living making independent movies—but quickly turned nightmarish,” Howe tells Fango. “I got on board just as the bottom dropped out of the international film market. I worked harder than I ever have in my life for Sultan, but all in vain. Not only did I not manage to make much money during those years, but the movies we produced during that period redefined horrible.
- 6/19/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
- Fangoria
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