Andy Copp Interview

Andy Copp is one of my new favorite directors, having directed a very disturbing flick as THE MUTILATION MAN. Hell, I even think it's more disturbing then SCRAPBOOK and that's saying something. Anyway, Andy is a very cool guy and he was so great to let me interview him, so check it out.

Please check out Andy's awesome site at www.coppfilms.com





THE INTERVIEW

Kristy Langford: What are your favorite horror flicks?

Andy Copp: My Favorite Horror flick is THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, the original Tobe Hooper film, not that piece of shit, gap commercial abortion that slimed its way across movie screens and the inpressionable teen consumer audiences embraced this past fall. The 1974 film still has a power and impact unmatched by any horror film before or since. The feeling of dread, and doom is established immediately and builds for the whole movie. TMC was one of the films that made me decide that the real power of the medium lay in the horror genre.


KL: What do you like to do in your spare time?

AC: Masturbate mostly ! Actually I paint and draw a lot. Art is a great way for me to express ideas that are more difficult to do on film. Obviously I am a voracious movie/video watcher. I obsessively collect movies, and obscure video form all over the globe. I also write and do my own zine, website etc. I'm probably too busy doing stuff for my own good.

KL: How did you get started in the independent film industry?

AC: I started like nearly everyone else, by making my own little movies. I actually started doing them for my Church Youth group! The pastor, a gent named Pete Johnston encouraged us to make movies of Bible parables, but he let our imaginations run free. So he never censored or saddled me in. I went to film school for a while but was forced out because my work was too controversial for the instructors. They were afraid it would reflect badly on the school if they got a reputation for violent student work. This was before RESERVIOR DOGS changed the way people looked at Indy films. Now they probably wouldn't care, but in 1990 it was a huge problem for them. Then I started working with Jim VanBebber helping him out with all kinds of stuff on MY SWEET SATAN, CHARLIES FAMILY and other stuff.

KL: What do you think is the hardest part about being a filmmaker? Do you have any advice for aspiring filmmakers out there?

AC: The hardest part is just getting things organized and going. Being a full time working person leaves very little time to do the movies. My actors and crew all work too, so scheduling and organization are very, very difficult. Also doing films in Dayton is hard once your outside of the film school circle I mentioned. No one wants to finance your work because they got burned on those other "acceptable" projects. But most of what I want to do is so low budget that works okay for me. Time is my biggest enemy.

My advice for newcomers? I have lots of it, maybe too much, all of which I learned the hard way. Never EVER fianance your movie with Credit Cards unless you're making something that will get picked up and make that money back. That's a big one. You'll end up bankrupt, broke and in debt forever. Also never use a girlfriend (or boyfriend) in an integral part of your production unless you KNOW the relationship is staying together, forever. The movie will be a big emotional running sore when the relationship breaks off. Thats been a real difficult one for me. I only did it once, but it was the biggest mistake I ever made filmically. What else? I think all filmmakers should make at least one movie on FILM of some sort. Not just DV. Too many young people make these DV movies and call themselves filmmakers but never learn the language of film. They need to learn what its like to have to conserve your footage, plan your shots ahead, to expose film, F-stops, and all of that. DV is great cause its cheap, looks good etc. but it makes people lazy, and the movies messy. But if you shoot film, you cherish each frame exposed and you make it count. That is very important, at least to me.

KL: I thought THE MUTILATION MAN was an amazing film. How long did it take to shoot this flick? How did the concept of this flick come about?

AC: That movie was long in the making. It is based on a poem I wrote in College, which was in turn based on a short story by Kafka Called THE HUNGER ARTIST. The idea churned for a long time in my head of a guy whole did shows of self mutilation. Once I figured out he did it to keep the cycle of child abuse revolving it all came together. Stylistically it is very influenced by surrealism films like EL TOPO and TETSUO, which I love.

We shot over a period of three or so years and I spent a year editing it, linear I might add. I did not have a computer system to load the footage too. Nor did I own any edit gear. I snuck into a school I worked at and edited there all night long for a year. It was all real guerilla film.

KL: What was it like working with Jim Van Bebber?

AC: VanBebber was a complete joy to be around in those days. He was my mentor, older brother and good friend. He was instrumental in making that movie happen. He helped me get gear, film stocks, actors everything. He lent me legitamacy for the project while we were shooting. He really pushed me to make it the best thing I could and then some. Unfortunately I have lost touch with him over the years. The things I hear about his life these days always make me sad, but I am thrilled for him that Charlie's Family is finally done (retitled THE MANSON MASSACRE(?)). I'll always be grateful to him though.

KL: I have heard great things about BLACK SUN. What can you tell me about it?

AC: Ah BLACK SUN. That isn't even really a movie. Its a peek into my subconscious from that time in my life! That is my total full on experimental movie dealing with love, relationships, self worth and all that stuff we struggle our whole lives to make work. Its very Cronenberg in how it deals with emtional issues but in physical terms. All the emotional wounds the characters suffer in the movie are shown to be disease, tumors to be exact, that they pass back and forth until the main character gets his head together. I'm very pleased with the movie but I'm not sure people will connect with it, at least right away. Its a very multiple viewing type of movie. Its also very dark and brutal in many ways, though hopefully it is a cathartic journey for the audience.

KL: I recently saw the trailer for HER NAME WAS SAMANTHA and it looks quite good. When will we get the chance to check this flick out?

AC: Didn't Mr. Couto do a fucking great job on that trailer? God only knows when it will be finished. Hopefully by the end of 2004. It is shot, but this was the film that I was talking about never letting your significant other be irremovably involved. My then girlfriend, was the producer on it and doing an excellent job I should add. But when she decided to take off on me, it left me holding the bag completely, which took what was gonna be a quick month or two project, turning it into a year and half ordeal/nightmare. The footage is being logged now and is being sent to Eric Stanze by the end of Feb. So then it is whenever he can get it into his schedule to edit.

The movie is my grindhouse, 70's style blowout. A rape revenge movie in the style of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE or more specifically MY FRIENDS NEED KILLING. Its funny cause on a personal level the movie is painful due to the emotional strain of making it, but on a technical level, and especially my cast, there are great things. My actors in this are terrific. TELSA who is SAMANTHA is fantastic, MICHELLE MACLAUGHLIN is also equally awesome. The bad Guys, played by THOMAS NEALIGH, THE WOLF, JOE MAKENZIE, and GREG NICHOLS are also fucking fantastic. I fully intend to work with all of them again. We shot some seriously disturbing, grisly things and it has a twist in the end that I think no one will see coming. So the final movie should, fingers crossed, be worth all the heartache.

KL: When did you first meet Henrique Couto? What is your honest opinion of this wacky guy?

AC: Who is this Henrique Couto of which you speak? Are you talking about the crack addict that calls himself Dr. Freak, who runs around accosting people at conventions with a giant crayon? That guys insane! He freebases with clorox, and pimps his pets to government funded beastiality porn films. We gotta stop him before the world crumbles beneath our feet from his shenanigans!

Actually I met him when he was 12, he came into the public access station I worked at to make shows. He took my classes to learn how to make video and we have been friends since. Its funny cause I taught him everything he knew and these days he is teaching me stuff. I can't recommend enough for other filmmakers to go to him for their DVD authoring. He did BLACK SUN and FREAKSHOW DELUXE for me and they are awesome. Much better than many major DVD's out there.

Plus he really is the Ted V. Mikels of Dayton Ohio. The women just flock to him and become part of his filmic harem. They get really obsessed with his charisma (its the flamingo pants I think) and worship him much like the people who followed Jim Jones. If he had a castle I am sure they would all live there with him and make B-movies all day long. Then he would kill them when they tried to move out. He's like that. Always killing people. He's kinda like Charles Manson that way too I guess. Except Manson isn't as crazy as Henrique is!

KL: What do you think is the most difficult part about getting your film distributed out there?

AC: The biggest problem is that my work is not the norm. Its really hard to sell movies that are so weird and unlike other movies. How do you catagorize BLACK SUN? A distributor can't call it "THE NEXT SIXTH SENSE!" or something like that, so they just pass on it. Yet my films have gotten great reviews, so the critics and fans dig em. But the distribution people are terrified to take the chance. And I understand that cause they bank on things being salable, and my films really aren't. They fall between art films and exploitation films and that makes it hard to sell to either audience.

KL: In your honest opinion, what do you think of the recent crop of horror flicks that have come out in the past few years, whether being from Hollywood or a low-budget indie film?

AC: Boy I can get myself into trouble here by shooting off my mouth. But fuck it, I will anyway. I am extremely disappointed in the horror field right now and a lot of it is the fans. They tend to accept whatever garbage is thrown at them and gulp it down with glee. For example, CABIN FEVER which was raging piece of shit. Director Eli Roth got out there and promoted the shit out of himself, he really talked the talk and walked the walk in the horror field and just said all the right things that horror fans wanted to hear. He went on and on about how his film was this gorefest throwback to the eighties and how he was the ultra fan who aimed to deliver. So fans who read this in Fangoria or whatever had already decided the movie was great cause he was "one of us" and never stopped to notice the movie was poorly written, warmed over scenes from other, better movies. Very few other horror films really deliver these days either. They are all designed to be big commercials for the MTV generation, geared to make superstars of untalented WB teen actors. The TCM remake is the epitome of this. Its well made, but ludicrous, without anything intelligent on screen at all. But Horror fans have slobbered all over it. Yet these same fans wont try out small films at all. I remember at the Twisted Nightmare convention several fans being pissed off that there were microbudget filmmakers as guests, like we are some sort of disease! That attitude just makes me so mad.

But it isn't all lost. Overseas filmmakers seem to have the right idea. 28 DAYS LATER was terrific, and I love Japanese horror, especially Takashi Miike. THE EYE was truly scary and SUICIDE CICRLE was great too.

On the Microbudget scene, I personally think Eric Stanze is the most talented of all of us, myself included. I think SCRAPBOOK is tremendous, ballsy, and unrelenting. No one else could have made that movie work they way he did. He is what I think a lot of us should aspire to be like. And that is not because I am working with him either. He is a true talent. But I think the Microbudget scene is rife with similar problems as the mainstream. Far too many of us feel that if we throw up enough gore and titties that our audience will buy the flick. I feel that we all need to try to do more, and be more adventurous in what we do on screen. I mean who are we answering to? No one but ourselves. So why not break down the fucking walls and really shake the pillars of heaven (to quote Jack Burton!) with our movies. We could compete with the mainstream if more of us took our work to that next level. And I include myself in those comments. Its time for all of us to push, to write better scripts, get better performances and keep challenging audiences. Stop accepting the lowest common denominator on screen as viewers too. Demand intelligence and wit in our films!

KL: Are there any new projects that we can expect from you in the near future?

AC: Well there are lots of things written or being written. My big dream project is actually a comedy about kids working in a Drive In theater circa 1983. Its my DAZED & CONFUSED for the eighties. The Brassfield Brothers want to make a Sasquatch movie so that is being rolled around. There is a really intense crime script I am writing about teen violence that I would love to make too. Its all up in the air right now but something will click soon I am sure. Oh yeah there is that Bukkake movie that Henrique, Chris Seaver, Matt Brassfield, Allen Richards and I are doing. Wanna be in it!! We still need a star!

KL: Before we go, is there anything you want to say to everyone that will be reading this interview?

AC: Can I use this as an oppurtunity to get some dates? I mean come on ladies!?! A six foot, dark haired, complex filmmaker with a huge....... movie collection (!)and artist looking for a soulmate interested in the same? Why aren't you calling.......Christopher Walken and I can come to your house! We'll bring Todd Bridges......we could be there right now!

KL: I really want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me. You are awesome!

AC: you think I'm awesome you should check out Mr. Awesome. That guy, he's out of control! Thanks for the interview, you're the awesome one!