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James Sweet
198 Plays6 years ago
JAMES SWEET is an Oregon based Producer, Director, and Writer.
Sweet is the Director for the much-anticipated Friday the 13th fan film JASON RISING. For many of us horror fans, Jason Voorhees is the source of nightmares and a cause for pause in the consideration of sex, drugs, alcohol and rock & roll. The Friday the 13th series remains a primary source of slasher film horror since 1980. Jason has terrorized Camp Crystal Lake, the suburbs, Manhattan and even the far reaches of outer space. Jason Rising brings him back for more mayhem . . .
James Sweet began acting in 1997 and has trained with several methods and instructors, including friend, Robert Blanche. He is known for his vast resume acting in films such as Men of Honor and Television shows as Leverage, Grimm, Z Nation, and The Librarians. His eye has always been on filmmaking. James made his first short film, 'Blood and Sugar' with credits as writer and producer.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7798990/
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Transcript
Introduction: Podcast and Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Volante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. This is Ken Volante with Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and this episode we have James Sweet, actor, writer, director,
00:00:27
Speaker
Um, done a lot of work, uh, in films and, uh, just, just came into contact with his work. Um, uh, Jason rising, which is a fan, uh, film, uh, based on the Friday 13th, uh, series, uh, horror series. I love in a genre of film. I love horror.
Influences and Early Interests
00:00:46
Speaker
So I gotta tell you, it's a real, uh, it's a real treat, um, to, to have you on the podcast. Uh, James sweet. Thanks so much for joining us.
00:00:55
Speaker
Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah. So, um, first question generally ask is what, what were you like as a, as a young child? Uh, do you have an interest in, in film or art or what were you like as a young, young kid? Um, well, I grew up, uh, I was born in the seventies, so I grew up, I guess raised by film and, and television.
00:01:25
Speaker
Being an only child you kind of make that your world basically, you know, we this is pre You know internet and the the times when we still had beta V VHS machines and sure sure and Used to walk down to the local rental house and you know rent VHS tapes and and You know, I I was
Artistic Inspirations and Definitions
00:01:55
Speaker
one of the fortunate humans to be able to go to the theater and actually see Star Wars when it came out in the theater back in 77. I was pretty, pretty young at the time, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Um, so yeah, I mean, I, I was just fascinated by sci-fi or, um, as a kid, your imagination goes wild. And, uh, I was,
00:02:25
Speaker
I was always, for whatever reason, I was always drawn to horror in not so much a scary medium, but as in an art form because of special effects. I was always fascinated with special effects.
00:02:52
Speaker
So, you know, and I think some of the classic special effects, you know, in the horror genre and of course, you know, the work on Friday the 13th and with Tom Savini and you'd see all these, you know, it's kind of fascinating. You know, they're gory bits, but it sounds like you were kind of more drawn in by the how they how did they do that aspect? Is that correct? Yeah. And, you know, I I when I was younger,
00:03:23
Speaker
I used to do, I had my own haunted attraction business for a little bit. Started off in, kind of was raised by my grandmother and I was allowed, she gave me a lot of freedom, so I was allowed to kind of start my own little haunted house in the basement. So I was always wanting to be involved in effects and that type of thing. And I always felt like,
00:03:53
Speaker
little Tommy Jarvis in the final chapter I felt like I was that kid I connected with that that kid a lot because of his you know the Tom Savini portrayal of making mass and effects and and all that guy I wasn't that good but I I love that medium so um
00:04:20
Speaker
One of the things I ask each guest is kind of what forms of art attract you? I mean, obviously we've been talking about film in horror movies. Did you also have an interest or in other type of forms that were horror and other forms, comic books, paintings, dark paintings, anything like that? Or was you really kind of really pulled in more by film and television? Yeah, a lot of film and television.
00:04:50
Speaker
I grew up playing music. I started off in a band. So there was, I think that's kind of where I drew from performance and learning about, you know, I took a great interest in like later on, like Rob Zombie and White Zombie. And I loved Kiss as a little kid. I collected Kiss cards.
00:05:18
Speaker
Sure, so I love the the show and and There was just there's something about makeup and and transforming into a Monster and you know Also growing up, you know used to watch Abbott and Costello and when they would do Abbott Costello meets the werewolf or Dracula just always those
00:05:48
Speaker
those creatures and monsters. It's just always fascinated me for whatever reason. Yeah. Do you have a definition of art or what you consider something to be? If something's in our piece, what is it? What's your theory of art? Yeah, that's obviously a subjective question. I mean, everybody has, I think, a way to or freedom
00:06:18
Speaker
in their own minds of how to express themselves. And I think that's just kind of a way art is a personal expression of what people connect to the most in their own things. Like my daughter's a very good painter. She's very good with colors. And she does stuff that I couldn't imagine being able to paint as well as her.
Jason Rising: Concept and Creation
00:06:48
Speaker
Where I see Like I I look at things and I I'm very good with like wet I love weathering and aging things and making it look deteriorated Yeah, so I have like that type of outlook where I like I think that's what drew me mostly to Star Wars where it was like a dirty rough deteriorated space world rather than this clean futuristic thing I I just like that type of
00:07:18
Speaker
rough, almost apocalyptic vibe in everything I do. Tell us about Jason Rising. It's how I first came in contact with you and why I reached out. I'm a huge Friday 13th movie fan, horror movies. I've seen each one
00:07:42
Speaker
And I think it's pretty much we might be around the same age. You know, I saw Star Wars in the drive in with my parents and kind of the rise and prominence of horror movies in the 80s into the 90s. And one of the one of the franchises and most impactful of all of them was was Friday the 13th.
00:08:05
Speaker
With the film that you're doing, which just looks phenomenal, by the way, and I know a lot of people pointed to the trailer and said, wow, this has this great vibe about it. I really picked up on it. It was exciting to see. But tell us, I really want to know, as much as you can share, tell us about the project itself and just maybe a little bit about the story and just kind of the story of Jason rising.
00:08:36
Speaker
as far as the creation of it as a whole or the story in general? Yeah, like a creation as a whole, like where you decide to say, hey, I want to work on this project. This is how I want it to look like. And just a little bit about how the character, Jason Voorhees, reappears in this movie. Well, as when I was doing Haunted Houses,
00:09:06
Speaker
Um, Jason was always my first, uh, scene that I always had in my head of what I wanted to do in my haunt. Um, so I always, that was always a go-to for me. Um, I grew up probably, was probably around 12 years old.
00:09:33
Speaker
when I saw my first Friday 13th film, which was the final chapter, and then eventually watched all of them. The first one I saw in the theater was part five, and from there on in. And Jason always just scared the hell out of me, for whatever reason. Yeah. More so than, you know, I like Freddie. Freddie was fun. Michael Myers,
00:10:04
Speaker
I never watched, even though it was on every Halloween, I didn't really watch a Halloween movie until later on, which was great. I love Halloween. But there was just something about Jason and the Friday film that, I don't know, there was just something about that just really scared the shit out of me. And I loved it. I remember being in seventh grade
00:10:30
Speaker
when we had art class, and I made a paper mache hockey mask. And I wore it for Halloween when you're trick or treating. So I was always drawn to Friday. Throughout doing the haunted houses, I got to a point, because I started acting. I started getting into film and television as an actor.
00:11:00
Speaker
I always felt more passionate about the creating part of film and whatnot. So eventually, to make a long story short at the time, the stars aligned after I did a smaller short film, an original piece called Blood and Sugar. I said, you know, I would love to do a fan film and just to kind of get it out.
00:11:28
Speaker
you know, just to do something to be a better filmmaker and maybe you can find a better audience rather than doing an original piece because sometimes it's hard to have people want to look at your work when you're really nobody and there's so much saturation of short films and whatnot on YouTube. So this is, I never had like a hot rod or anything so this is kind of
00:11:57
Speaker
this fan film has kind of become my hot rod, my passion project. I know you'll put in more than you get out of it, in a sense. So back in 2017, one of my good friends and one of my acting coaches and mentors who helped me with Blood and Sugar, I asked him originally to direct the film and told him I wanted to do a fan film because he had directed Blood and Sugar for me, Robert Blanche.
00:12:27
Speaker
And so I started writing with him on the script back in, I think it was towards the end of 2017. And this was right at the time that a fan film came out called Never Hike Alone from Vincent Santi. And that wasn't why I made a fan film, but it was definitely a catalyst
00:12:55
Speaker
to give me that green light of saying, yes, this can happen. It can be cool. And it was kind of that tipping weight to push you over the edge to go, yeah, let's do this. So Robert and I, we went back and forth on stories and I think we did like, God,
00:13:23
Speaker
I can't even count the number of story ideas and script concepts that we had. During that time, I also reached out to Vinny and I just let him know, hey, I liked what you did with Never Hike Alone. And we developed a connection. He was very receptive and responsive as well. So I kind of developed, slowly started developing a relationship with him.
00:13:54
Speaker
And I think it was about, maybe a year later, we got to a finishing point, and then that final script that we wrote, I think it was around 25 pages of this original story idea, we had to start making some changes. And at that time, Robert was going through, he had a lung issue
00:14:24
Speaker
something that started getting progressively worse over time. And so he needed a double lung transplant and he finally was able to get the call. And that was right at the time when we were close to starting and we hadn't actually started a fundraising campaign or anything like that. He got the call to go into surgery.
00:14:53
Speaker
And I had no idea that what he was about to go through was going to be a long process. And so over time, it was like, okay, we need to do this. So I took it upon myself. He ended up spending nearly eight months in ICU with complications of his lung transplant.
Challenges and Persistence
00:15:24
Speaker
And there were times when I was worried I'd never even be able to talk to my friend again. I visited him in the hospital. He was up in Seattle. And that was a long, rough journey for that man. And I had to just kind of take it upon myself because we had gotten so far with it and eventually
00:15:53
Speaker
with Robert being in ICU for so long and and whatnot and the uncertainty of it I Had a few other people come on board Vincent Dasani being one to help write and finish the story so we could create a buzz and And get the fundraising going and and create some money and make this happen and we're going on a
00:16:22
Speaker
Geez, three years now, close to it. Two years of actually, you know, doing something and making it happen, but three years in its conception entirety. So when we finally decided on a concept for Jason Rising, it was, I kind of base it off the idea of the Predator film.
00:16:51
Speaker
that what was a simplistic way to get somebody that isn't just a camper or the cliche 80s slasher type storyline. So I thought let's, what if we had a fugitive escape and
00:17:18
Speaker
That was the drawing mechanism to get people into, and it was on the outskirts of the Crystal Lake area, and it was the reason why they went into the camp. I just wanted a simple story of these officers and local police and bounty hunters to follow this fugitive. The one fugitive became three and so on.
00:17:49
Speaker
One of the things about Jason rising is that I didn't want to necessarily follow the timeline. Um, I just wanted to see my, what I think Jason, some of my favorite parts of Jason from the older films and kind of take it a step further. Uh, which is if you,
00:18:15
Speaker
Look at Dan Kyle who plays Jason. He's kind of a mix of a part three, part four, but a little more dead. Um, sure. Yes. Yes. I wanted to kind of go along the lines of, of that, not necessarily going. Okay. Because if you look at the Friday, the Friday, the 13th franchise, a lot of the timelines don't make sense anyways, if you, if, if you want to get nitpicky on it. So it was like, okay, let's not worry about that. Let's just make.
00:18:45
Speaker
a good story, a simple story, will fill in the blanks and make a unique way to get to Crystal Lake and have characters that we care if they get killed. Whether we necessarily like the character or not, I wanted to create characters that, you know, because if you have a bunch of random kills of people, of characters that
00:19:12
Speaker
you don't even have time to connect to, especially in a short film, then you really don't care. And then you could just do a film about, you know, kills, but that's not a story. And I didn't want to do that. I wanted to emphasize on the story and the characters more than anything else. And where, where did you film? Where'd you film Jason rising? Uh, Jason rising.
00:19:41
Speaker
Has about three different locations most the camp area the the camp Crystal Lake Cabin area and whatnot and the business farm is is an Oregon City My family has about 30 acres And they let me use their property to kind of do that which believe me. That's That's a huge
00:20:09
Speaker
Huge thing with this film having the access and and the availability to be able to do what we do on their property It's that's amazing. Yeah, we've had a lot of freedom with that and I can't thank them enough Because we we'd be missing out on a lot of a lot of nice shots if we didn't have that. Yeah, so So that and then in some of its importance
00:20:34
Speaker
in battleground washington in the state park where we use our that's our crystal lake uh water and some other uh areas in in washington little north of vancouver there for some other wooded areas but for the most part it's oregon city and and battleground thank you thank you so much it's great to be able to to situate uh where it is
00:21:01
Speaker
Um, yeah, thanks for the background on, on the movie. Um, uh, one of the things I was wondering, uh, particularly as you were answering the question and describing your process, the amount of time that it's taken. And there was some, you know, both, uh, friends working on the film and some, you know, some health issues and travails throughout the process. Did you ever stop back and say, you ask yourself, you know, why am I creating this? Like, why are you creating this? Uh,
00:21:31
Speaker
this piece Yeah There's times. I'm still questioning myself like what the hell did I get myself into sure and it's Yeah It's one of those things. I know that it's hard to explain I Somebody asked me a question of what do you know what is Friday 13th to mean to me and
00:22:01
Speaker
From the time I started, I don't think I had the answer. And I may not still have a complete answer to that. But during this time period, there has been some amazing things, some bad things that have gone on. My father passed away during these past few years.
00:22:27
Speaker
My friend who Robert who got the double lung transplant who was a part of this film he passed away recently this year There's been You know the the fact that we were able to get somebody like Vince Sandy to come on board and and help this brought up the you know his
00:22:54
Speaker
His success for NHA really helped the success of our campaign for Jason Rising to be able to raise funds to do some of the things that we've been able to do with this. Being a first-time director, I wrote and produced on my short film Blood and Sugar, but I had to take on the directing role, which I've always wanted to direct, but sometimes it's kind of like having kids.
00:23:24
Speaker
Even you know making movies is kind of like having kids you're never ready until you actually just you just have to do it yeah, you got a stick stick both feet in and and just you know you There's always going to be problems. There's never going to be a perfect scenario there's always you know bumps in the road and things that you have to adjust for and I Was I was fortunate and blessed to have a
00:23:54
Speaker
the cast that I have, the crew that I have. My DP, Carl Winery, who has been with me from day one on this, huge, huge artist that, you know, without him, you know, his camera work is so beautiful. He does a lot of music videos as well.
00:24:23
Speaker
being able to have somebody like Dan Kyle, who's an amazing actor, to play Jason and to be able to feel, because one of the things I wanted from this is to be able to sit back and feel like I did Friday the 13th justice a little bit and watch it as a fan, not just as a filmmaker, but as a fan going,
00:24:52
Speaker
Did we do something cool? In a selfish way, you have to kind of do this for yourself, not to please other fans. And then once you get a little more involved, then it's like, okay, if I like it and I'm a pretty hardcore fan, then hopefully there's some things that people can attach themselves to and go, yeah, that was really cool.
00:25:22
Speaker
I think one of the things a lot of people have touched on that they liked was the canoe scene where Jason's pulling back the gal in the canoe. And that was just a spur of the moment thing before we shot our concept trailer. It's like, this is kind of a cool idea. This would be pretty intense. What if we did this? Because sometimes you never know. Sometimes it feels good in your head or you put it on paper.
00:25:52
Speaker
but doesn't always translate well when you film it and try to create it in a piece. So I probably diverted a little bit from the answer, but Friday the 13th, with all this long journey it takes to complete a project like this, some people can do it faster. I know even Vinnie's said to me,
00:26:21
Speaker
It took him close to four years to do NHA because you're always, you're changing things, you're learning things as you go. So this has been almost like giving birth to a child in a sense. And right now it's because it's been so long, you feel like you're nine months pregnant and you're like, okay, let's get this baby out. We're overdue.
00:26:49
Speaker
and I had a Filmmaker friend of mine kind of say something he goes he goes once you Once you finish it and you release it to The world you put it online. It's not your film anymore. You gave it away at that point So I sometimes you want to over over care for what you're doing you're over caressing it you want to
00:27:18
Speaker
You want to make sure it's right. And that's the great thing about being able to take time and take this because we can improve upon it as we go and fix things and whatnot. So in a sense, it's been a blessing to be able to take this long, but it's also been, you know, you're putting a strain on your family. You're putting a strain on your bank account sometimes because this does take a lot of sacrifice in
00:27:48
Speaker
in all forms.
Art and its Significance During the Pandemic
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. So you keep asking yourself the question, which makes a whole lot of sense, which is part of why I ask is like, you know, why do you create? You keep going back to that and assessing that questions because, you know, it's been around for a while and I'm sure it's been a, you know, work of passion for you.
00:28:09
Speaker
I wanted to ask a question about its particular role and it's a challenging role, but I started to ask the question about the role of art and what's going on in the world right now with coronavirus and it being a pandemic. It's had a significant impact on most people, but for you in creating something, what do you feel the role of art and or horror, I mean, you can answer it either way,
00:28:39
Speaker
But where we are right now and how that impacts what we do or what artists do in C, what kind of impacts does it have on you? Well, as far as a filmmaker, it definitely delays things because we've had to push some shooting dates, some of our few days we have left of filming. We've had to adjust for that. So as far as that goes, it's, you know,
00:29:10
Speaker
And sometimes now we have to look at the world and kind of put aside, you know, you got to put it down for a second and check in back into the real world and go, okay, we have to take what's going on around us seriously. But it also, it brings, it's like, how many
00:29:40
Speaker
how many zombie film memes are we seeing now? Because of something like this and the correlation with 28 Days and The Walking Dead with these infections and whatnot. So I'm sure a lot of horror filmmakers are just running rampant with these ideas now. But as far as art goes,
00:30:09
Speaker
You know, it really separates you because whether the world's coming to an end or not, are you still going to do what you're passionate about doing? And that, I think, is the difference between a person who's truly passionate about what they want to do with art.
00:30:36
Speaker
There's people in other countries that live poor on the streets, but they're still doing paintings, maybe selling it for a little bit of money on the street to survive. You have to realize that true artists are not going to stop what they do no matter what's going on around them.
00:31:06
Speaker
I'm sorry, go ahead. I feel like that even though we're in a pandemic, a world crisis right now, we still have it in our heads. We still have this film, this story that has to get out. I feel like even though there's a sense of dread
00:31:35
Speaker
with what's going on, we have a sense of hope through the art. I really appreciate that, and I know it's a challenging question, and I've just been really fascinated since I started asking it.
00:31:55
Speaker
And I think one of the main things that I've encountered in interviewing artists is it ends up being so important in almost a mode of being. So it's still going to be there, right? There's an external
Final Thoughts and Future Aspirations
00:32:07
Speaker
part. But it's still going to be there. I get the big question of the podcast, James. Why is there something rather than nothing? Oh, man.
00:32:29
Speaker
Because something is more fun than nothing. It's a better option than the other one. It's a better option, yes. But yet, is zero not a number? Zeros and ones. It's all zeros and ones, right? Zeros and ones. That's right. Thank you, Trent Reznor. Hey, James.
00:32:56
Speaker
Uh, you've talked about your, um, you talked about the Jason rising. Uh, you've, you've done some work, uh, as, as an actor, how, what would you like to share with listeners? Uh, you know, with regards to the film, uh, yourself, where to find you, where to find your work. Um, you know, so this, this time's yours. I was just wondering if you could connect, uh, listeners to what it is, uh, that you do and some of the things that you mentioned. Um,
00:33:25
Speaker
Well, as an actor, yeah, I've done, I was fortunate enough to start actually getting paid as an actor through some small television roles, co-star. But I've been very passionate about filmmaking, kind of put acting on hold for a long time since the creation of Jason Rising.
00:33:52
Speaker
which gives me a new perspective on acting as well when you create a film and you're directing actors. And it just, it kind of changes your perspective of all of it. But, uh, so there is a website for Jason rising. Uh, it's called Jason rising 13.com. There's a Facebook page right now. We have an Indiegogo, uh, a post-production campaign.
00:34:22
Speaker
So if you go there, you just type in Jason Rising should come up. It's still live as of now. There is a sneak preview out on YouTube right now that has basically the opening scene to the film. Give people a little bit of a sense of how the film starts.
00:34:50
Speaker
We can kind of show a little bit of what's been going on over these past few years. People are like, what's going on? Why is this taking so long? But I feel that this will definitely be out this year, but we've never put out a release date. And I know this is one of the toughest things for everybody who's been backing and kind of watching out for the film.
00:35:21
Speaker
And that's only because we don't want to sacrifice anything. We don't want to say yes and then feel like we're rushed and sacrificed for the film. So we, we want to, you know, because once you let it go, once you put it out there, if that's it, that's your, you're done. You can't go back and go, ah, let me hang on a minute. You know, let me fix this. Um, I think that,
00:35:52
Speaker
putting in a little extra time is going to be much better and much more appreciated by the fans after the fact. I want to get it out there more than anybody, but I also want to make sure that when I walk away from it, when I wipe my hands clean of it, it's exactly how it should be. Yeah, and thanks
00:36:21
Speaker
James for that. Again, I was happy to run into your work and I was very excited when you'd say you'd be a guest. Very much looking forward to it. I want to thank you for your thoughtful answers and just really appreciated the time and just so happy you were able to join the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. James Sweet, writer, director, actor of Jason Rising. Again, a deep thanks to you.
00:36:50
Speaker
No, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it. It's great to have people look at what you're doing and acknowledge it. It's been a great pleasure, James, and I hope you have a great day. All right. Thank you, Ken. Appreciate it. Thank you.
00:37:20
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing.