Horror is a genre that encompasses many sub-genre’s within itself. Those who want to shrug horror off as mere murder and mayhem, with dumb psychopaths just killing topless coeds probably haven’t given too many horror films a chance. Just like any genre there are those people who are constantly bringing creativity and intelligence to the next level, and it would seem that director Lonnie Martin may just be one of those aspiring individuals.

I was given the chance to question Lonnie on many things, including his upcoming project: Women’s Studies.  We also touch base on his production company, working with Judith O’Dea from Night of the Living Dead, and the obstacles horror filmmakers face. A big thank you to him for participating in the following Q & A. Be sure to check out http://www.ningenmanga.com/ and add http://www.myspace.com/womensstudiesmovie as a Myspace friend.

 

TERRORTUBE: Please tell us a bit about yourself, and how did you get started in filmmaking?

“I got into theatre at a pretty young age. Like every aspiring actor, I wanted to be a leading man, but my build and talents lent themselves more to things like musicals, which I shamefully have to admit I love. In college, I studied directing for stage and started writing scripts. I write my first feature-length screenplay in the mid-90s and kind of never looked back. I tried going the screenwriter route with things like query letters and trying to get meetings in L.A., but nothing ever panned out. Having been a comic book geek as a teenager, I adapted one of my screenplays into what I hoped to be a ongoing comic book series. Again though, it didn't pan out. I only got as far as self-publishing one issue.
 
After that, I beatniked around for a bit, moved to Chicago, and worked in a coffee shop during the day and wrote screenplays at night. Eventually, I came back to DC where I had a couple short plays performed by some local theaters. I also started to do a bit of acting with local short films. I started learning about the process, making contacts with local cast and crew. After I got married, my wife and I started producing short films together. She would act. I would write and direct. Eventually, we decided to try our hand at a feature and lo and behold, here I am.”


TERROR:  How did Ningen Manga Productions come about, what is the significance of the name, and is there a company goal? 

“When I was I college, I hung out with a group of Japanese exchange students who, because I was so animated, referred to me as the 'Human Cartoon.' On my twentieth birthday, I decided to get the Japanese characters for my 'nickname' tattooed on me. However, there is no Japanese translation for the phrase 'Human Cartoon,' so I took the word for human ('ningen') and the word for cartoon ('manga') and used those characters.
 
Ningen Manga Productions (NMP) was born when I shot a short film for a video production class I was taken. As I kept doing additional projects, the name kind of stuck. My comic book was 'a Ningen Manga Production.'I finally incorporated NMP at the beginning of 2006.
 
As far as a company goal goes, the NMP motto is 'Stories with Character.' Since my background is as an actor, I tend to approach writing and directing form a character point of view. I believe the key to engaging audience is creating believable three-dimensional characters people can relate to. NMP strives to create those kind of projects.”
 
TERROR:  What is Women’s Studies all about?

“Women's Studies follows Mary, a grad student and women's rights activist who has been interning under a U.S. Senator. She's very passionate about striving to make the world a better place, but she's a bit frustrated that so many people are apathetic to the world's problems. Zack, her doctor boyfriend wants her to settle down and have kids, but Mary is more focused or her career and her cause.  The kicker is that Mary has just found out that she's pregnant with a baby she really doesn't want. After Mary, Zack, and their friends Beth and Iris have their car stolen on their drive back to school, a group of women from a Women's Academy invite them to stay at their school until the car is found.
 
Once at the Academy, Mary finds a friend and confidant in Judith, the ringleader of the Academy Girls. The school is a bastion of Women's Rights activism. For Mary it's almost a kind of Utopia. But there are dark secrets there too. The Academy holds an extreme view of men in which they must be enslaved and/or exterminated. Iris, desperate for acceptance, is influenced by Academy Girl Melissa, and takes extreme steps to be accepted. Mary's relationship with Zack and Beth grows more tense as her friendship with Judith deepens. Eventually, Mary discovers the murderous extremes the academy takes female empowerment to and is forced to choose: Join them or die.”

TERROR:  Where did the idea for Women’s Studies come from?

“A combination of influences brought Women's Studies into being. The most prevalent influence was probably original film version of The Stepford Wives which I saw for the first time shortly before beginning the script. Around that same time I had been reading Dave Sim's epic graphic novel Cerebus, whose backdrop is the conflict between two warring matriarchies. Carol Clover's feminist analysis of women in horror films, Men, Women, and Chainsaws was also a big influence on many of the film's ideas.
 
Back in 2000, I had just finished writing a different horror screenplay which I had sent to my old acting professor to get his opinion. He thought the writing was good. Since he was getting ready to teach his film unit, he asked me to write him a fifteen minute script 'with lots of women that takes place on a college campus' which he could shoot with his students. I wrote a forty page version of Women's Studies which was quite different from the version we eventually shot. It was too long and the subject matter too racy for the religious college my old professor now taught at. That as fine with me though. I kind of figured Women's Studies was something I'd eventually be interested in shooting myself, which as it turned out was exactly what happened.”
 
TERROR: Where has or will filming be taking place and how has community support been?

“We're wrapping up principle photography now. It'll total 51 days between May 29 and November 10. All of our shooting has taken place in the Metropolitan DC area mostly in northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Due to the large amount of corporate and government film and video work in the area, DC has a very robust independent film scene. All those folks who spend their days shooting editing training videos for the Pentagon are dying to sink their teeth into good narrative filmmaking, and many do. There's a lot of goodwill between filmmakers in the area and we all tend to root for each other's projects. Women's Studies has a lot of local buzz and support which I'm very honored by.”
 
 TERROR:  What is Women’s Studies being filmed with?

“We're shooting on High-Definition Video using the Panasonic HVX-200. My camera crew also used an M2 lens adapter to shoot parts of the film. I believe Women's Studies was shot in 1080p, but I may have that particular spec mistaken. All production sound has been recorded 24-bit/48 kHz to Compact Flash.”

TERROR:  What sort of obstacles have had to be overcome thus far in the process of getting this film going?

“It might be easier to ask what obstacles I haven't had to overcome. Locations have been the toughest, I guess. One reason a lot of indie horror films take place in the woods or abandoned buildings is because those locations are relatively easy to find. A college campus is a bit harder come by. Also, when I tell people I'm shooting an indie film and want to use their property as a location they go,'Great! What's the film about?' Once I tell them it's a horror film that deals with sexual politics, their interest drops exponentially. I think the subject matter has been intimidating to some people. Still, I believe nothing worth doing is easy. The hardships are worth it because I truly believe this film is worth making.”

TERROR: How did you go about casting the film? and feel free to tell us about the cast and how working with them has been going.

Most of the cast features DC area actors who are relative unknowns. My co-producer, Cindy Marie Martin, lobbied hard for the lead role of Mary. She's a brunette with kind of dark eyes, and I had imagined more of your all-American blonde. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized her kind of personality would add depth to the role,and it has. She's fantastic. I might be biased because she's also my wife, but I think a lot of folks are going agree with me. Tara Garwood, who plays the Academy Girl's ringleader Judith, had a day player role in the recent Nicole Kidman vehicle The Invasion. I originally had this dark, femme fatale vision for Judith, but Tara brought a lot of high energy and humor to the role in her audition. I thought it really made the character more real. Don't worry though, she's still pretty dark. Folks are really going to love her character.
 
The project's biggest coup was getting Judith O'Dea ('Barbra' from Night of the Living Dead) involved. It's too long-winded to go into now, but I have this whole theory about the evolution of the modern horror heroine which I talked a lot about while developing this film. Basically, Judith O'Dea in NOTLD is kind of the main turning point that gets us from Ingrid Pitt or Julia Adams to Marilyn Burns and Jamie Lee Curtis. I had recently seen her in Jason Paul Collum's gay themed horror film, October Moon. Her performance in that film was impossible to take your eyes off. I thought, 'Wow, she's even better now than she was in NOTLD.' Anyway, when it came time to cast the role of Mary's mentor, Senator Gayle Hamlin, we sent the script to Judy's agent. After reading it, she agreed to be a part of the project. Working with her was an absolute pleasure. She was witty, courteous, and shared my love of the made-to-order vodka martini.”

TERROR: These days everyone has something to complain about, do you think there would be any group of people that might find Women’s Studies to be offensive?

“I'm sure somebody is going to be offended whether I want them to or not. One of my filmmaking philosophies is that once a film is finished, it belongs to the audience. I'm not going to try to tell anyone what the film means or how they should think about any of it's themes. They have to draw their own conclusion. I will say that the film's ending is somewhat morally ambiguous. I really hope audiences come out of the experience talking about it.
 
I tried to get some of the feminist intelligentsia press and blogs interested in the film, but they've been pretty lukewarm to it. Part of me can understand how on the surface this project just seems like 'killer feminists' but there's nothing anti-woman about the film. In fact, though Women's Studies deals with a wide spectrum of women's issues, feminism is more of a 'MacGuffin' than anything else. The film is really about individualism and the dangers of groupthink and cults, about sticking to your personal principles even if means going against the larger group. Again, that's just my view of it. Audiences are entitled and encouraged to have their own completely different opinions.”

TERROR:  Which do you like best writing or directing?

“Both have their rewards. Writing is great because it's just you and your imagination without any limits. No budget to stick to. No Cinematographer saying it can't be shot a certain way. No actors putting their own spin on things. It's very empowering because it's only the writer's experience.
 
Directing by it's very nature requires collaboration and especially on the indie level, compromise. A lot of what I do as a director is pull everyone ideas into one unified vision. I set the boundaries I want the cast crew to work within. It's a lot of hard work. When your a low-budget film like Women's Studies, a lot of directing is nothing more than personality and management. Talented people are often difficult personalities, so there's a fine line to walk of making people keeping people happy and getting what you want. There have been shoots where I've felt like by the time we got the lights up, cameras set, and actors dressed, the only direction I had time to give was, 'Just go.' All that said, directing has a huge payoff, especially when a scene goes really well. Plus, you get that pay off multiple times when you go back and review the footage, and when you see the footage edited together. There's no greater feeling than seeing your vision come to life.”

TERROR: How fun was the Meet the Cast event at Goatman Hollow? Any future promotional events planned?

“The Goatman Hollow event was a blast. Mostly we just goofed around with crowd, asking trivia questions, giving away T-Shirts, things like that. Plus, the haunted attraction itself was loads of fun. We're definitely going to do some conventions when 2008 rolls around, though the schedule or where and when is still to be ironed out. There will be other promotional events scheduled as opportunities present themselves.”

TERROR: Any theatrical goals, festivals, distribution plans?

“All of the above. The movie market in general and the horror market specifically is pretty glutted out right now. There's a lot of low-budget movies out there getting lost in the shuffle. We've worked hard on every aspect of this film in the hopes that it can find it's audience. It's a very timely film, dealing with issues that are very much presently active. It's also a bit off the beaten path as well. We're bucking almost every trend in horror out there right now, but I think that's good. Too many filmmakers take the easy route and tread on already worn ground. We've taken some creative risks with Women's Studies. I hope they pay off.
 
We've already a couple nibbles of interest from a few small to mid-range distributors. Nothing concrete, but I feel good about the chances of getting Women's Studies to an audience.”
 
TERROR: What types of movies or what films particularly may have or do inspire you?

“Two of my biggest influence are the two Georges: Lucas and Romero. I know that might sound kind of lame, but it's true. Part of it is the maverick independent spirit of those two fellows. They make their films the way want. Damn the consequences. Both men have unique visions that aren't always in line with the mainstream. I think anybody working in the horror genre today owes a huge debt to Stephen King, even though the movies of his work are often a bit flat.
 
As much as a hate to admit it, a lot of what I settle in to for entertainment is pretty juvenile. Call me tacky, but I've never ran across a Michael Bay film I didn't like. I like big, loud mindless superhero movies as well. Those Jason Bourne movies are about the best thing going these day. I'm also a sucker for romances and musicals. Give me a good story with semi-interesting characters and I'm happy.
 
I have more eclectic tastes as well. David Lynch's Fire Walk With Me, where he tried to tie up all the loose ends from the Twin Peaks TV series is a favorite of mine. I loved Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. Almost anything by Terry Gilliam or David Cronenberg turns my volume up to eleven. I also like foreign directors like Ang Lee and Jean-Peirre Jeunet.”

TERROR: Any favorite scary movies?

“I'm pretty old school when it comes to my horror movies. To me, the holy canon of horror is Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and John Carpenter's Halloween. I also have a sweet spot for old black and white horror film. To me, films like The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Thing From Another World, Frankenstein, and especially Invasion of the Body Snatchers are still scary all these years later.”

 
- Wes Laurie