Horror movies &stuff "Frayed" Interview Series: Part 2
In the second part of our "Frayed" interview series, we talk with the films Co-Writer/Co-Director/Co-Producer, and Stuntman Rob Portmann!
MR. H:Your involvement in the film "Frayed" is most interesting. Not only did you co-direct it, but you also co-wrote, drew storyboards, co-produced, and did stuntwork in the movie! You must've been pretty exhausted and yet at the same time relieved once the movie was finally completed eh?
Rob:I was pretty wiped. We were all wearing a lot of hats to get this dream project of ours completed. It definitely took its toll on me and my wife, Kelly, who picked up the slack for me at home. My kids were very young when we first started "Frayed" back in 2002 and I had no idea what I was getting her into. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be putting my family through an endeavor that would take a good part of the decade. What a ride! To see the final product now is quite an amazing accomplishment that I feel very thankful to have been a part of with my good friends, Norb and Kurt.
MR. H:So what did Rob Portmann try to add to the script for "Frayed"? What did you see that the script was missing, or needed that you tried to add in?
Rob:I like to refer to our production company, Lock It In, as the "3-headed monster". Kurt would be the head with the fire and passion that kept the energy flowing during the grueling script writing process. Norb would be the steady, solid head that kept the whole story going in a sensible direction and never seemed to lose focus of the overall big picture. I am the head that has ADD. My mind is always a jumble of random thoughts and nightmares that these guys really helped me corral to get the best out of me while writing "Frayed".
I wanted to bring to the script a gut wrenching sense of suspense like the horror films of old that we grew up loving and I knew we needed to have a shock ending that left you disturbed and thinking. As far as things I tried to add in, I was constantly adding things in, but the great thing about having a writing team of 3 is that 2 always out votes 1 and way-out crazy ideas can be kept in check. By far, the writing of "Frayed" was my most enjoyable part of the process.
MR. H:What stunts specifically did you perform in the film?
Rob:Stunts...Mainly, I did what comes natural for me. Falling. I did a lot of falling down doubling as Aaron Blakely's character, Gary. I fell down a canyon hillside, down a flight of stairs, out a gas station window and was close to falling when I dangled about fifty feet up in a tree. Growing up in the 80's making home movies with our friends we didn't think twice about jumping out of trees or speeding vehicles just as long as someone was recording the feat. There was nothing worse than jumping out of moving car and looking up and asking "Did you get it?" and the person behind the camera would say "The battery cut out!!" Thankfully in "Frayed" we never had that problem and it brought me kind of back to our early beginnings by doing the stuntwork. That, and I came at a very budget friendly price...free.
MR. H:For an indie horror film, there were a lot of people involved in the making of "Frayed". How did you guys manage to work together as a cohesive unit, and not let egos and small disagreements get in the way of the ultimate goal of completing the movie?
Rob:History. The friendships that Kurt, Norb and I have built together over the 30+ years of creative collaboration was the key. We know each other so well. We were totally on the same page from day 1 to day 22 of the shoot. We had spent the good part of 3 years polishing our script until we knew it inside and out. This enabled us to go into this project with an absolutely clear picture of what we needed to do to get the job done. We also surrounded ourselves with a lot of old friends that we knew we could count on during these extreme shooting conditions. The crew was just the right mix of veteran film workers and loyal friends to make "Frayed" a fairly smooth production. Not too many bumps.
MR. H:Do you think it's easier to come together and make a movie with people who haven't been in the industry for years, and who are just starting out?
Rob:I do. I think, for the most part, the hunger and the energy is definitely there to be part of something special. People just starting out do not have the "been there done that" attitude. So it was nice to work with people who were almost as excited about the project as we were...if that's even possible.
MR. H:What was the specific audience you guys had in mind when penning "Frayed"? Hardcore genre fans, suburban teens, or soccer moms?
Rob:First and foremost, we wanted to make a movie that WE wanted to go see...the kind of suspenseful movie that we had grown up on...the type of movie that had the patience to build the nerve-racking suspense that the new generation of films so sorely lack. We wanted "Frayed" to have all those classic elements for the hardcore fans but packaged in such a way that it would please the teen crowd also. As far as the soccer moms? I think the first and last 5 minutes of our film would give any soccer mom nightmares for years!!!
MR. H:What were some of your favorite horror films growing up?
Rob:THE EXORCIST - Made in 73' and still the scariest film I have ever seen. THE SHINING - Kubrick created such a creepy isolated feel in that movie that has never been duplicated at any level. EVIL DEAD 2 - The most entertaining camerawork eye candy ever. HALLOWEEN - The original was so suspenseful it made my skin crawl. THE THING - The scene when they are checking out who is an alien by touching the hot coat hanger into the blood samples is totally intense. MADMAN - A low budget classic with an excellent theme song.
MR. H:What was the casting process like for "Frayed"? Difficult, smooth, or a little bit of both?
Rob:Extremely difficult. We thought it would be quite easy. "We don't need a casting director. Too expensive. We can wear this hat too," we thought. You know, you contact a few talent agencies and throw up signs at some college campus's announcing an open casting call for a feature horror film. Actors should come running in droves beating down our door at the chance to be in our film. That's what we thought.
We thought wrong!!! We had one person show up and she was a friend of Kurt's! We then realized this was one hat that did not fit at all. Realizing with no past films under our belt we had no clout. We needed to reluctantly spend in that department. We needed some clout in a big way. That was all fixed when we hired Jodi Rothfield as our casting director. She had the clout to get the kind of quality actors that we needed to bring "Frayed" to life. She did a fantastic job. It was money well spent.
MR. H:Tell the folks one factoid about casting an indie horror movie that they don't already know.
Rob:People think indie horror and they think cheesy B-movie acting. That is definitely NOT TRUE. There are so many fabulous actors out there. We were so pleasantly surprised at how much talent we were able to get in the Seattle area. I think the fact that "Frayed" was such a more deeply layered story than the average indie horror film really brought out how talented cast was.
MR. H:How did you guys raise money for "Frayed"? Did you max out your cards, borrow from any loansharks, or did you just save up nickel and dime after nickel and dime?
Rob:Actually, Kurt and his wife Dana came up with the financing for "Frayed". They took a huge risk by borrowing as much as they could afford to lose and then some. This was during the time of the housing boom, so I guess you could say they took advantage of being taken advantage of.
MR. H:What type (mm, ratio, aspects, etc.) was the film shot on?
Rob:We shot "Frayed" on HDCam, 1.78 aspect ratio, using the Sony CineAlta 900 and the Pro35 lens adaptor with Zeiss prime lenses.
MR. H:How long was the shoot overall?
Rob:22 Grueling nights/days. 6 different locations. A whole lot of hats and even more blood shot eyes.
MR. H:What was one of your favorite scenes to film in "Frayed"? Which scene was the most difficult to film?
Rob:My favorite scene is when Gary encounters the masked Kurt in the gas station. It's intense and came out so much better than I could have ever imagined when we wrote in into the script. The amazing thing was that how I had it storyboarded we were able to get everyshot I had drawn up. During the filming process there were some storyboards I had to just tear up because of time constraints in the shot schedule. But this was one that came out perfect and even exceeded my expectations. Very creepy!!!
The most difficult scene and I think my partners would agree would have to be the Gary up in the tree scene. It was a real pain. It took so much longer to shoot than we ever could have imagined. The logistics of getting our main character and our DP Karel Bauer 50 feet up into a tree was quite the undertaking. Moving equipment and getting situated to capture right shots through a web of limbs slowed the scene to a crawl. It put a huge amount of stress on our shot schedule for that evening.
MR. H:How does "Frayed" differ from other recent indie slasher movies?
Rob:"Frayed" differs because of how layered it is. There are a lot of indie slashers out there that are pretty straight forward. What you you see is what you get. "Frayed" is so much deeper than what appears on the surface level. It has a lot going on and you really need to pay attention. There is really no good spot in "Frayed" to get up and go to the bathroom.
"Frayed" is not your typical clear cut/ black and white horror indie. There are allot of gray areas that we intentionally left in "Frayed" for the viewer to interpret for themselves. I wanted them to question"What did that part mean to you?" I really wanted "Frayed" to be a what I like to call a "Parking lot" movie. The type of movie that after you see it you want to stay around in the parking lot and discuss.
MR. H:What's next for you personally, and can we expect any more collective projects from you, Norb, Kurt, and the rest of the gang?
Rob:The next film project of course. Kurt, Norb and I have currently put the "3 Headed Monster" back to work collaborating on several new projects ranging from Horror to comedy...and of course a "Frayed" sequel if necessary. We have a lot of stories to tell.
End.
Read Part Three Of Our "Frayed" Interview Series, our chat with Executive Producer Kurt Svennungsen Here!!
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