Troy Dennison's Blog, page 9

Tales From The Lounge # 46

Take me to Your Leader

Tales From The Lounge # 45

A Reindeers Lot

Don’t Get Bitten – Interview with actor Rayne Reeves

Following on from last week’s interview with Don’t Get Bitten Writer/Director Dominic Holmes we have the second in our short series.

Today Twilight’s Requiem is talking to Rayne Reeves (Lilly)

TR: Can you tell us a bit about your character?

RR: Lilly’s still kind of a rookie hunter. She’s been doing it long enough that she knows she can handle herself in a fight against a vampire and is confident in that part of the job, but she’s still new enough that she needs Trenson’s guidance with how the job works and how to handle it when her idealism and enthusiasm has taken a bashing. The job hasn’t quite worn her down yet so even though she knows logically that they can’t save everyone, she still takes it quite badly when they fail.

TR: What aspects of Lilly did you enjoy portraying most?

RR: I liked that she was someone willing to literally fight to the death to protect others, it’s always fun to portray something you wouldn’t do yourself. In the highly unlikely event I ever came across a group of vampires I’d run in the opposite direction screaming like a little girl.

Rayne Reeves as Lilly

TR: What sort of preparation did you have to do for this role?

RR: Honestly I didn’t do that much. I did try to teach myself how to twirl a stake around my hand because it always looks so cool when people do that, but after much frustration and almost taking my own eye out a couple of times I decided that Lilly’s fighting style should more about efficiency than flair anyway. It was a totally creative choice and had nothing to do with total lack of ability I swear.

TR: What was it like working with all the bloody effects?

RR: Brilliant. Honestly, the bloodier the better as far as being covered in fake blood is concerned. You could do me up like Carrie on prom night and I’d probably complain about the little bit of bloodless skin on my little toe. Having to drink it is another matter, it tastes awful. I’d definitely take a change of clothes if I did it again though, the staff in my local shop looked a bit nervous when I popped in to buy cigarettes on the way home.

TR:  What type of movie do you enjoy watching and why?

RR: I really love films with a fantasy element, especially if there’s plenty of action to go with it. The love of fantasy probably started when I was really little and was obsessed with Labyrinth and The Neverending Story and got gradually bloodier through my teens with films like Highlander and The Crow. I like the escapism of films like that; sometimes it’s nice to be able to lose yourself in a whole different world for a couple of hours. Some girls like to curl up and watch a rom-com to cheer them up, I curl up with 300 or Watchmen.

Rayne Reeves as Lilly and Troy Dennison as Trenson.

 

TR: What was the most challenging aspect of the production for you?

RR: Apart from finding the money to maintain the blonde and get my roots done on a regular basis? Probably trying to find a way to play Lilly that was just Lilly, there were a couple of times when I felt myself slipping into a Buffy mind-set with her and much as I do love Buffy it wasn’t something I really wanted to do.

Not doing myself or anyone else any serious damage was a bit of a challenge to. Handing a woman with zero weapons training and a little too much joy at having a weapon a sword and telling her to ‘just go for it’ could have ended badly, fortunately I only accidentally stabbed Troy once and it was barely a scratch.

TR: Having performed on stage and on film what are the major differences between the two mediums and which do you prefer?

RR:They both have their benefits and I enjoy both ways of working for different reasons.

You get much more rehearsal time for the stage, but then if you mess up in front of a live audience there’s nowhere to hide so you really need to be prepared and know exactly what you’re doing at any given moment. With film it’s far more immediate. If something isn’t working you can try it again another way until there’s a few takes on film to choose from. It would be nice to be able to take a stage play and go, I’ll just take that scene from that Tuesday and this scene from this Thursday, then the whole of act two from Friday and then I’ll be as close to happy with my performance as I can be but it isn’t possible to do that with the stage the way it is with film.

On the other hand you get an adrenaline rush and instant response from a live audience that you can’t replicate with a camera.

Twilight’s Requiem would like to thank Rayne for taking the time to talk to us. Don’t Get Bitten is the latest independent film from Staffordshire based Loosecrew Productions.

Tales From The Lounge # 44

Flamingo Fiasco

Tales From The Lounge # 43

Extinction Agenda

Don’t Get Bitten – Interview with Writer/Director Dominic Holmes

Filmed over a twelve month period, Don’t Get Bitten is the latest independent film from Staffordshire based Loosecrew Productions. Trenson, a world weary vampire slayer and his protégé Lilly are hot on the trail of a blood ring, the vampiric equivalent of human trafficking. These  vampires prey on the innocent, leave a path of death and heartache behind them and they never, ever glitter.

In this the first of a series of interviews, Twilight’s Requiem talks to the man behind the movie; Writer/Director: Dominic Holmes.

TR: Where did the idea for Don’t Get Bitten originate?

DH: I’d written a feature length vampire script about a young woman who is bitten by a vampire and attempts to find a cure before it’s too late. Part of that story involved a Vampire Hunter named Trenson. While developing that script I came up with the idea for a short film that could centre on Trenson and be something that might also compliment the feature should that take off. Due to one thing and another I couldn’t get the vampire script off the ground but still had this short script which was very doable.

TR: What was it like shooting on the Cannon 7D and did filming in full hi-def make a difference to how you worked?

DH: Shooting with the 7D wasn’t too different from filming with a standard definition camcorder, I was able to adjust the depth of field much more than compared with previous shoots but other than that the actual filming of people in front of a camera stayed the same. I have learned that I shouldn’t be afraid to flood the shots with light as shooting in full hi-def you’re not lighting one whole frame you’re lighting lots of tiny dots that make up the final image. Without enough light you tend to get a fair amount of noise in the darker areas which can either look interesting or just plain rough.

Dominic Holmes sets up a shot during one of the film’s night shoots.

TR: As writer, director and actor what was it like wearing multiple hats on this production?

DH: Directing stuff you’ve written yourself is straightforward enough as the film plays in your head each time you look at the script, you just need to be conscious of not getting bound to one way of doing things. Acting and directing yourself is tricky, you know what the character is as you wrote him but due to time constraints you don’t really see what you’ve done until the edit and I don’t think anyone is ever comfortable watching themselves on screen. You have to be objective but at the same time try to avoid being over critical.

TR: What was the hardest aspect of the production for you?

DH: Anything shot at night is awkward as you’re constantly looking at your watch and being very aware of the time just sprinting away from you. That being said I’m also a huge fan of filming at night because some of the visuals you get can be very striking. It’s also much quieter so the sound comes out clean too!

TR: As an independent film maker do you find working with a minimal budget a restriction or liberating?

DH: Having never had a proper budget I only know the one way of filming. There are times when I’d like to have a bit of cash to make life easier but then if it was easy everyone would be doing it. The challenge of lo/no budget filmmaking is half the fun.

Actor Jennifer Pratt as one of the film’s vampires.

TR: Who inspires you as a film maker and why?

DH: Peter Jackson is a big influence in terms of making films on a shoestring. Finding out about how he shot Bad Taste made filmmaking seem very accessible. Then there are people like David Lynch and Terry Gilliam who seem to maintain their style despite outside interference. Mike Figgis is another strong influence as he’s a big proponent of digital filmmaking and indie film in terms of it being away from the studio system.

Basically anyone who’s not afraid to say there is another way of doing things.

TR: What do you have planned next for Loosecrew Productions?

DH: I think I’m done with vampires for a while. A year of them in getting this short done is enough for now, I’ll be sending ‘Don’t Get Bitten‘ out to the festivals to see if anyone bites and hopefully get started on another project soon. I’ve got one script written and ready to take into pre-production that I really like called Hell’s Belles and I’m in the process of writing a horror film centered around Teddy Bears.

Twilight’s Requiem would like to thank Dominic for taking the time to talk to us. Don’t Get Bitten premiers on Thursday 29th November at Sutton Coldfield College.

Tales From The Lounge # 42

Sabre Tooth Cat-astrophe

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Abominably Yours

Tales From The Lounge # 40

There’s Always One

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Tricky Ricky