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HORROR HOOKUP: Writer/Director AMY TAYLOR!
195 Plays6 years ago
In our latest HORROR HOOKUP, we welcome writer/director Amy Taylor!
Amy's latest work is HUNTER'S WEEKEND. After writing and directing several well-received short films (DEADMAN - Official Selection of the 2011 LA Comedy Festival, and JESS ARCHER VS. THE EX - Official Selection of the 2012 Dragon*Con International Short Film Festival), Amy created the web series JESS ARCHER VERSUS.
After debuting on YouTube, JESS ARCHER VERSUS was picked up for distribution on Amazon, and is an official selection of the 2017 HollyWeb Festival, where it screened at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles.
Listen in to yet another amazing interview with an artist working in the genre!
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Transcript
Humorous Opening Exchange
00:00:07
Speaker
Don't be afraid. Be very afraid. We have some bad hombres here and we're gonna get them out. Bing, bing, bong, bong, bing, bing, bing. I love China. Is it on? Do you see the red light? If I saw the red light I wouldn't be asking if it was on.
00:00:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's on. Guess I have the magic touch. It's all you, baby. Got it? All right.
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome to Hunter's Weekend. We gonna light this bitch up. Sorry. Welcome, everybody, to another horror hookup brought to you by Friday the 13th Horror Podcast. If you've never joined us for one of these horror hookups,
00:01:06
Speaker
This is where we just take a moment to speak to someone in the industry about
Guest Introduction: Amy Taylor
00:01:11
Speaker
horror. I mean, that can range from directors, writers, podcasters, pretty much anything that we want to do. We get them on and we talk to them about it because we think they're interesting. So today we have a very special guest. She is the writer director of a little movie that premiered at Days of the Dead Chicago. And the name of her movie is Hunters Weekend. And we are joined by Amy Taylor. Hello, Amy.
00:01:36
Speaker
Hi, guys. How are you today? Good. How are you guys? Great. Doing well. Calling us from the great state of Virginia. Yes. In old, in old Virginia. The old Virginia, the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth of Virginia, not even a state, but a Commonwealth.
Weather in Virginia and Chicago
00:01:54
Speaker
How's the weather out there in Virginia?
00:01:56
Speaker
Um, today it's pretty nice. It's in the fifties. It's sunny. I'll take it. It's finally in the fifties here in Chicago too. So our little cold hearts are fine. Excellent. So as I was stating, uh, we met you, um, on a very interesting panel at a days of the dead Chicago. Uh, what led you to be on that women in horror panel?
00:02:22
Speaker
Oh, let's see. Well, after I got accepted, I was just emailing with the programmer. And she was like, oh, hey, we have this woman in horror panel. You know, are you interested in doing panels? And I was like, yes, absolutely. So yeah, she was just like, here, I'll hook you up with the guy who's in charge of the panel.
00:02:48
Speaker
And the rest is history, I guess. And if I remember right, one of the other women on the panel, was that one of your professors? Is that right? She wasn't one of my professors, but she was a professor. She's a professor actually at DePaul here in Chicago.
Amy's Filmmaking Journey
00:03:06
Speaker
And you were there with your movie Hunter's Weekend, which we'll get into in a little bit. But tell us a little bit about yourself, like how you got into this crazy world of filmmaking and, you know, all that jazz. Well, let's see, how far do I go back? I was born on a cold winter day. I let's see. Well, I didn't.
00:03:33
Speaker
When I was younger, I thought I was gonna be like a professor or a Latin teacher. Okay. Goodness, I love it. So I majored in classics in college. And I had, you know, I'd always loved film, but I was like, that's not something a real person can do with their life.
00:03:56
Speaker
It's not a real job. That's for people in California or whatever. So I hadn't really pursued it in undergrad. But then, you know, I sort of had like a quarter life crisis and I was like, I can't do this. I have to pursue filmmaking. So I actually went to a screenwriting MFA program at Holland University. It's in Virginia. They have like a summer graduate program. So I did that for a couple of summers.
00:04:26
Speaker
And then I went to Ohio University, their film school, to do film production. And then after that, I moved out to LA with actually one of my fellow film school students. As you do. I did do, because, you know, if you don't do it then, when are you going to do it? And so, yeah, so we moved out to LA. I was there for...
00:04:50
Speaker
almost six years, I think, just sort of, you know, writing and trying to make connections. Yeah, of course. And so, yeah. And so while I was there, I filmed a web series called Just Art Diverses that I wrote and directed. And that's not really it's not really horror, it's more of a comedy mystery, but it has a couple sort of horror
00:05:14
Speaker
Elements. Elements, yeah. I mean, there's like, not to get into this too much, but it's very much like you see sort of the fantasies, like brief snippets that this girl is having and some of them are very horror based.
Love for Horror and Influences
00:05:34
Speaker
Um, so that leads me to, um, horror. I mean, how, why horror is the horror, something that you've always been into? Is this a, is this a new forte for you? Uh, why, why that? Um, yeah, I think I've always loved horror. Um, I mean, when I was little, I would check out all these books from the library that I'm sure they were like, Oh, what's wrong with this person? Where are her parents?
00:06:01
Speaker
checking out books about medieval torture and you know like those scary stories to tell in the dark books like they were I read I devoured all those um yeah for sure I can see them sitting on my bookshelf from here yeah yeah I mean I terrified myself um but they were so great and then um the x-files you know that was a big oh for sure in my life um
00:06:30
Speaker
So yeah, so I've always sort of gravitated towards horror. And then when I started writing my own stuff, it was usually either, well, it was usually comedy, but then there would be horror elements. And then yeah, I just kept sort of gravitating more and more towards horror stuff. That's awesome. So yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
So Amy, I'm sure that you know just by virtue of the name of our podcast, Friday the 13th, that a lot of our listeners are LGBT. And of course we are as well. And we think that the LGBT community has a very particular experience when it comes to the horror genre. But I think that women probably do as well as a community. Tell us a little bit about that. Tell us a little bit about what it means to be a woman who's a horror fan, but also to be a woman who's working in the genre.
Empowerment in Horror for Women
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think for women, you know, horror can be so empowering to watch. I mean, and it's like,
00:07:33
Speaker
You know, I feel like it is very ahead of its time and even if the women are villains You know giving them more complex characters than possibly other genres And just There are of course a lot of problems with the horror genre as well like Just a few you know torture porn and all of that but you know
00:07:59
Speaker
And it is this fine line, but it is very cathartic, I think, to watch, you know, as a woman, you know, even if it is...
00:08:08
Speaker
sometimes verging into exploitative, you know, watching sort of a woman get chased and kidnapped and all these things. But then, you know, in the end, she gets to be the final girl and she gets to sort of take back her power. And I think that's so powerful. And there's just so many great women characters in the horror genre. I mean, to go back to the X-Files, like Dana Scully was such a huge influence on me. You know, and Ripley,
00:08:35
Speaker
Um, you know, Sarah Connor, you know, I, I don't know if the Terminator is strictly horror, but you know, it's very adjacent, you know, I always think, you know what, you're, you're the viewer. If it's horror to you, then it's horror. Like I'm not, I'm not here to like put like cages around things. You know, it's like, if this is horror for you, just call it that.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's great. So yeah, Sarah Connor. And Buffy, of course. You know we love some SMG around here. Now you've also been quoted as saying that some of your big influences in the directorial area are people like Jennifer Kent and Karen Kusama of The Invitation.
Influential Female Directors
00:09:21
Speaker
Talk to us a little bit about what from them kind of drives you to make the kind of films that you're wanting to make. Well, I think that they... I mean, Babadook is such... I mean, I don't know, that film just struck me so hard. And...
00:09:45
Speaker
it was so much of the woman's experience. And it wasn't through a male lens in any way. And it was just like, wow, you know, I, I've been dreaming of, you know, seeing this perspective sort of my whole life. And even, you know, like, like I talked about Ripley and Scully and all that, and they're great characters, but just,
00:10:12
Speaker
You know, it's a man who created those shows and those movies. You know, they're great, strong characters, but there's just something about seeing, you know, dealing with sort of this.
00:10:24
Speaker
postpartum, maybe depression, the problems of raising a kid on your own or just even raising a kid in general. And this, you know, it was like, oh, I've never seen this addressed, really. Yeah. And not to mention like one of the worst children in the world. Oh, my God. But I've never turned so hard on a character like at the beginning. I was like, oh, this kid is the worst. I can't. And I was like, oh,
00:10:50
Speaker
This kid is amazing. I love him. You know, and it was just such a powerful experience watching it. And it was like she doesn't, you know, she's not gonna compromise what she's telling the stories that she's interested in telling. Yeah, totally. And I think Karen Kusama as well. You know, they're not trying to cram their vision into a box of what might be marketable or what, you know, other people might say is marketable.
00:11:18
Speaker
yeah they're putting out what they want to put out exactly yeah and it usually ends up you know being a really big success i mean i think that there are kind of two two thoughts on the babadook is that some people like i think all three of us love that movie and then there's then there's some people that are like
00:11:34
Speaker
It's too artsy for me and those kind of people, but I think it's very interesting to tell stories from a female perspective that are truly from that perspective, something that a man could never understand. A man is never going to fully understand childbirth. A man is never fully going to understand getting a period, for God's sakes. It's that kind of stuff that I think is really interesting.
Synopsis of Hunters Weekend
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, but so we actually watched your movie hunters weekend and that is what premiered at the days of the dead That we went to unfortunately had to leave before it premiered, but you gave us a little
00:12:14
Speaker
A little screener, if you will, is our first like a quote unquote screener. So we're pretty pumped about that. But we watched it and we both really enjoyed it. But do you want to give a little spoiler free synopsis of what Hunter's weekend is all about?
00:12:32
Speaker
Sure. Basically, it's these two park rangers. Every year they host this hunters weekend, where they, you know, it's invitation only very elite, you come to the park and you basically compete to see who can get the most kills. And so
00:12:53
Speaker
They're all at the park. They're ready to do that. And then someone starts killing off the hunters and we're following our two park rangers as they sort of bumble their way toward trying to figure out. Yeah. And it's kind of filmed in like that mockumentary style. Christopher Guest. Yes, exactly. Now, was there is that something that you was that intentional from the beginning of that was the way you were going to approach this or did that kind of come out organically?
00:13:22
Speaker
Um, that was from the beginning. Um, the way, the way I wrote it, um, I dunno, usually I just like to write an idea and then write, you know, wherever it takes me. But for this one, I knew I wanted to be able to shoot it. Um, so I sort of took stock of like, what are my assets that I can use? Um, and I was like, okay, well, my parents have this house that's out in the woods. So we have,
00:13:46
Speaker
as many woods as we want. These are the actors I know that I can sort of corral and coerce to come with me. And then it was like, but of course, you know, I don't, we won't have a lot of time. We can't make this a month long shoot. It has to be done, you know, very quickly. And so, well, okay.
00:14:09
Speaker
you know, mockumentary style is something that you can shoot very quickly. So that was built in from the beginning. And I knew I always had wanted to do something, you know, like in that style, because I love Christopher Guest, I love The Office, I love Parks and Rec, you know, all that stuff. What we do in the shadows is so funny and great. So I knew I wanted to do that style. So it sort of went from there. And then it's like, okay, what can I do with these assets?
00:14:37
Speaker
Sure. That I'm interested in. Now, the whole movie follows our two main people, Victor and Lyle. And there are two park rangers. I have to ask, are those based on people that you know or are those just an amalgamation of people that you just were inspired by?
00:14:59
Speaker
I, not really people that I know, I would say. They felt very fully formed, so I didn't know. No, I wouldn't say that. I would say there, you know, types of people that I've come across. And I was always interested in that dynamic of sort of the alpha male and, you know, not to get into because I think alpha is such a stupid
00:15:24
Speaker
Oh my God. I hate it. I hate it so much. I was literally just before this interview, just to put this out there, I was just bitching about alpha on Facebook. Go on. I'm done. Go ahead. I understand. Cause it's like that it's such a.
00:15:40
Speaker
like, rather than say, let's say like sort of the toxic masculinity, and that sort of dynamic that goes on between guys, or that can go on between guys. So I sort of modeled them after
00:15:56
Speaker
You know, people that I had observed, not anyone that I particularly know well, but, you know, being in college, you see a lot of that dynamic big in the world. Everyone's trying to out-masculinize each other. Exactly.
00:16:13
Speaker
So yeah, I felt like I knew these characters very well even though I wouldn't say they're based on anyone that I know.
Funding Challenges in Indie Filmmaking
00:16:21
Speaker
So making a movie isn't free. The thing about especially independent films that I think a lot of people don't get is that
00:16:30
Speaker
You know, you really should pay people when you're doing things, you know what I mean? And everyone just thinks that artists work is always just, you know, oh, great, here, it's for free. Awesome. So I know that for this, you had a Kickstarter that funded part of the film. Tell us a little bit about that experience, because I know that it's a fairly popular thing now for filmmakers and other artists to do. Tell us about what that was like.
00:16:55
Speaker
Well crowdfunding is I mean it's amazing that it's there but it's the worst because the whole time you're just like full of anxiety about whether you're gonna make your goal or not. So I had actually done a Kickstarter for my web series as well and you know the thing about
00:17:15
Speaker
I think the thing to keep in mind about crowdfunding or Kickstarter is that you have to sort of take stock of who do I know that I can count on for donations and sort of have a number in your head that you know you can get to. Sure. So it's sort of this like strategy game wrapped up in anxiety. It's awful.
00:17:36
Speaker
And I'm hoping I won't have to do it that way again. But if I do, I mean, you know, it is what it is. But yeah, so for this one, we raised about half the budget. Okay. Because well, I had just moved back to Virginia from LA. So I had like my security deposit from my I was like, Okay, well, I can use this. You know, and I had various other little
00:18:03
Speaker
things saved up. So I was like, okay, well, if I can make this much on the Kickstarter, I can supplement it with this. And then we can actually, we actually paid people on this, because for my web series, we didn't pay people and everyone was kind enough to, you know, donate their time. And that was great, but it was a lot of the same people. And I was like, you know, I can't
00:18:26
Speaker
I don't feel right about taking advantage of their time again. So even though we didn't pay them what they were worth by any stretch of the imagination, but we were able to pay them some. So that was very important to me.
00:18:42
Speaker
I mean, it really was, you know, it was designed to be a very low budget film. So our biggest expense basically was probably food. And, you know, the costumes were pretty cheap. Trying to think what our other big expenses might have been.
00:19:04
Speaker
Because we got gear for free. Oh, fantastic. Ohio University, where I went for film school, they were very kind to let us use their equipment. And they recommended a sound person for us. And so you just have to know who you can sort of lean on to try and get that together.
00:19:32
Speaker
No, that's something that I really took away from your movie, is that what you knew that you could do well was done so well, and then the things that I think that you knew that you couldn't maybe afford or kind of go further with, it was done but not the extreme to where it looked schlocky, you know what I mean?
00:19:54
Speaker
There's a lot of these independent horror movies that feel like if you just throw a bucket of blood on the wall, that's your movie. And I found that your movie really, what it hinged on was the writing and the kind of the two main characters and how they play off of each other. And I think that that was done very well. Oh, thank you. And you shot this in seven days, right?
Rapid Shooting Process
00:20:20
Speaker
Um, we, we scheduled seven days, but we ended up shooting it in five and a half because I was really worried about the weather. And I was like, no, no, we'll just, we'll do more today. We'll, we'll shoot 20 pages today because I'm really afraid. And as wouldn't you know it, as we were shooting the very last shot, it started to rain.
00:20:44
Speaker
So I feel like we dodged it. It was Kismet. Exactly. Well, is there anything coming up for you with Hunter's weekend? Any any film festivals or where can people see it if they are able to?
00:21:03
Speaker
Um, well, we're still waiting to hear back from a few more festivals and then hopefully, um, we'll get it distributed on the streaming platform somewhere. Um, I don't quite know where yet. Um, so there's not really much news to share.
Social Media and New Projects
00:21:24
Speaker
But Amy, where can people find you on all of the social medias?
00:21:28
Speaker
Ah, yes. You can find me. My Twitter, Instagram, it's at walkingcandyapple, W-A-L-K-N, candyapple. Yeah, and that's me. And then of course Hunter's Weekend is at Hunter's Weekend film. Perfect. So yeah, you can find us and then yeah, definitely keep you up to date that way.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah. And we will we obviously keep in touch with Amy quite a bit. And when she does have any sort of scheduled events or if it ends up on Amazon Prime one day, you cross the fingers. Yes. We will let our listeners know. But are you working on anything new?
00:22:12
Speaker
Um, yes. Uh, so I don't know how much I can say. I just had a script option excited about, um, and they're still like dealing with like all the contract stuff. So what you're saying here is that somebody just bought your script for $8 million. Is that what you're saying? I'm saying someone bought my script. I'm not saying it was free. Okay. Okay. Universal. Awesome. That's cool.
00:22:41
Speaker
It was, yeah, somebody did and we have some potential directors that I'm very excited about.
00:22:50
Speaker
And yeah, but they have to work through the contracts. And I don't know, I don't have an agent. So my contract is very simple, but other people have agents. So they have to figure that out. But yeah, hopefully, I'll have more news about that in the future. I guess I could say it's a script that I think is sort of in the Rosemary's baby area. Awesome. I love that.
00:23:17
Speaker
just to give you some idea. And then to continue my directing, I sold that script and then I was like, oh no, someone else is going to direct it. And then I panic wrote a script that I could direct.
00:23:33
Speaker
you know, low budget, because this script that I sold obviously needs like a high budget to be able to really do it properly. So yeah, so I panic wrote a script that I could shoot again from like my parents' house, very low budget. So it's a zombie rom-com. So I'm hoping to start getting into the very pre-pre stages of pre-production and get that rolling.
00:24:02
Speaker
That sounds like fun. So finally, last question.
Favorite Horror Movies
00:24:05
Speaker
What is your favorite horror movie? Oh, my God. Come on. It's this is you knew it was coming. This is the question upon which you will be judged by everybody. You know it. Oh, no. OK. Or upper echelon of your horror choices. You can give us top three if you want.
00:24:28
Speaker
Okay, that's a little better I'm so bad at these things that are like What's your top five movies of you know? I'm like, I love all of them Okay, I mean Shaun of the dead it's huge influence on me. I love it. You're right You know the horror comedy fantastic Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna say I
00:24:57
Speaker
It's between the thing and aliens. Good choices. I don't know. I just love I love the practical effects like that scene in the thing where it's like the head spider thing. It's so great.
00:25:14
Speaker
I'll say the thing. I love that. Then I'm going to do a shout out to the Cabin in the Woods because I just love it. It's like a response to torture porn and it's so funny. It's just that little movie. I think we know.
00:25:32
Speaker
But all right, well, Amy, we have truly appreciated you coming on and talking about your movie and kind of your perspective. And we really appreciate it. Yes, thank you very much. We will keep our listeners. Yeah, we'll keep our listeners up to date on everything that you're doing. As a reminder, be sure to follow Amy at Walkin Candy Apple. Once again, that's W A L K N Candy Apple on Instagram and on Twitter.
00:25:58
Speaker
And don't forget to follow her movie as well, Hunter's Weekend Film. That's at Hunter's Weekend Film.