Friday, March 16, 2007

Interview: AFI-selected film director Fredrick Wolcott

How to avoid making alien porn

By John P. Meyer

When director Fredrick Wolcott sat down to converse with me about his extra-atmospheric, AFI-selected fright flick, Beings, I learned that - although he's never had a close encounter or seen a UFO himself - his associate, producer Amber Shipp, actually has.

Amber's experience can be described as a "foo fighter" incident: while flying cross-country (in an airplane, O.K.?), she observed at close range a glowing blue orb that hovered and maneuvered outside her window. (Later, while photographing interiors during film production, additional blue orbs appeared in the prints.)

Fredrick Wolcott

Given Amber's testimony and the personal interviews he conducted with contactees, Fredrick now considers himself a believer in the phenomenon: he thinks there actually IS something out there, and it's messing with us. Which gives his film an additional visceral punch. (Here's our movie review, based on a DVD screener.)

John Meyer: Fredrick, congratulations on having your film, Beings, selected for one of the Midnight Special screenings during the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. Were you surprised to hear that your film made the cut?

Fredrick Wolcott: Absolutely. I had heard they were slammed with film submissions, which always makes for unsteady nerves. Plus, I’ve learned in this business to never expect anything. And be thankful when it happens.

JM: Tell me a little about your filmmaking background; how'd you get into it?

FW: I made my first movie at 9. It was called The Bee. It was about a relationship between a flower and a bee. I used a Polaroid camera and took all these pictures and then assembled them into a story. One week after I turned 18, I drove to L.A. from Louisiana where I grew up. I didn’t know a single person. I just knew that I wanted to be involved in making movies. I started out as a P.A. and worked my way up from there. I’ve pretty much worked in every position on a movie, except hair and make-up.

When I was 23, a producer who was probably tired of hearing all my movie ideas told me I needed to start producing. So I did. I optioned a script entitled Jungle Vacation, it was basically Caddyshack on an island, and I had (the late) Jim Varney attached. This was before Jim’s success and his prosperous Disney deal. I shopped it around town and never got it made. But I did meet a lot of people because I had a knack for pitching ideas. I was offered a job as Director of Creative Affairs at an independent production company, and I took it.

After that, I spent a couple of years as a script reader for some of the studios and indie companies. I read almost 200 scripts a year, and that was a period of revelation in my career because I thought, I know I can write half as good as some of these scripts that were actually getting made into movies. My first script, American Racer, was involved in a bidding war in Hollywood. When you first start out writing, it requires a lot of confidence because the only people that compliment your work are your close friends and family. You don’t hear many compliments from the people you are trying to get to buy it because they worry that you might get too confident and raise the price of the script. I’ve been very fortunate since then and sold everything I’ve written.

But then came the next hurdle: actually getting my scripts made. I was fortunate to have Academy Award-winning people read and contribute their comments or even option my work, but then it would always fall apart somehow. On my last deal, I thought I was finally going to get a break because the money was from a Paul Allen source, Creative Artists was involved, Kurt Russell wanted to play one of the roles, and Simon Wincer was set to direct. And then, that fell apart. Joe Dishner, who was attached to that project and is now one of my producing partners, was from Dallas, and we discussed the opportunity of making movies there. I had this idea about a sci-fi film, so I moved to Dallas and we set up a company, Juniper Entertainment Corp. We hired Amber Shipp, a Dallas producer, to help us run it, and we made Beings. It was an extraordinary experience making a movie here in Dallas because we have a great group of investors, companies and studios, who completely understand our mission. They have put a lot of trust in us.

JM: Aside from the 100 degree summer heat, are there unique challenges to making a film in North Texas?

FW: No. When you’re an independent filmmaker, you adapt.

JM: How did you go about finding your actors and other crew members for this film?

FW: Between Joe Dishner, Amber Shipp and myself, we know most of the film people in town. I also made a short film here about 5 years ago entitled Goodfriends. The majority of the key personnel from that short worked on Beings.

JM: What are your distribution plans for Beings?

FW: Our rep in L.A. has garnered distribution interest from every major territory in the world as well as some of the domestic cable companies and distributors. We’ve held off selling it to these markets because we are looking to see if any buyers will turn up at AFI Dallas. I think this movie would do very well if released theatrically as a midnight movie.

JM: What made you decide to make a movie about UFO occupants and alien abduction?

FW: I’ve always been fascinated by all the encounters and conspiracies surrounding UFO sightings and alien abductions. And it made good business sense as well. Considering that we were coming into a competitive market such as Dallas and building new relationships with private investors, I had to do everything possible to make sure they made their money back and turned a profit. We didn’t have a big budget, it was under 1 million, and normally you can profit on horror movies in that budget range, but I love sci-fi. So, I combined the two genres.

The Russian scientist's letter. In Russian.

JM: Just how much of the movie did you base on reports/folklore/evidence derived from the Kara Sea incident?

FW: All of it. Something extraterrestrial occurred in the North Polar Region that no one will talk about.

JM: I understand you're getting a lot of interest from what we might call (for lack of a better term) "the UFO community." Did you speak with any contactees/abductees in preparation for the film?

FW: Yes. And they were very precise in describing their encounters as well as the alien methods of experimentation. In fact, I was talking to Jim Marrs, author of the top selling non-fiction UFO book in the world, Alien Agenda, and we were discussing our experiences with interviewing abductees and the similarities of their encounter recollections.

JM: The movie's website is truly outstanding. Who did the design?

FW: Rick Thompson out of Los Angeles. I worked with Rick on the concept and design, and producer Amber Shipp and our company staff conducted the research and collected all the news articles and public opinion information on the site. The website is currently viewed in over 57 countries and has accumulated significant hits. It received “Best Science Fiction Website" from Desktop Starships, a site dedicated to science fiction and fantasy pictures and the artists who create them.

JM: Would you consider a visit to the Beings website to be an integral part of the film viewing experience? I mean, would you encourage someone who sees the film at the AFI screening to later visit the website for further immersion in the film's subject matter?

FW: Without a doubt, thebeingsdisc.com website has detailed information surrounding this event. We’re in the stages of developing further content for the website to provide an interactive journey into this story.

JM: At the beginning of the film there's a "disclaimer" relating to the dangers that might be faced by people subject to epileptic seizure. Is this a William Castle sort of device (like having ambulances standing by in front of the theater, to add to a horror movie's word of mouth), or are you really concerned (perhaps from a legal liability standpoint) that someone might have a seizure in response to the flashing light effects used in the film?

FW: I know it sounds like hype, but honestly, this is a real situation. Here’s what happened: a friend's wife is a psychiatrist and after she watched the movie, she made a comment that the disjointed editing style could potentially activate seizures in people prone to epilepsy. This was mentioned to our lawyers and then there was genuine concern. With regards to the vertigo warning, after spending 4 months editing this picture, watching it over and over, I actually developed a case of vertigo. My editor, Brett Snyder, experienced a slight case as well. So to answer your question, the disclaimer is a justifiable statement of caution for the viewers.

JM: Early in the film we see scenes shot from above that appear to be a "UFO's eye view" of a suburban neighborhood. How did you obtain this aerial footage, and where was it filmed? (Did you rent a helicopter or something?)

FW: We borrowed a helicopter from one of our investors. Most of the footage was shot over Arlington, where the actual abduction house is located. There was a strong wind that day, we had removed both doors and I was nearly blown out of the helicopter while filming. I looked over at my assistant and he was petrified, his face was literally green.

JM: To me, the cleverest convention you employed in the film was to have the alien encounters filmed through the eyes of the aliens, so that the camera catches the reactions of the horrified humans flush on. Plus, as creature-feature creators have long known, it's often preferable to let the audience imagine what the creature looks like, rather than trying to build a cheesy rubber costume for him - and of course this convention allows for that.

FW: I believe this is the first movie ever filmed entirely from the aliens' POV. If aliens are super intelligent beings like we think they are, then why wouldn’t they be medically advanced or employ photographic devices? There have been claims that in the Roswell crash discoveries were made that lead to significant advancements in our own technology.

The alien-POV technique amplifies the frantic pacing and hallucinating images in the film. My ultimate goal is to subject the viewer to the trauma abductees endure while in the captivity of aliens. I don’t want the audience to follow this movie; instead I want them to feel it. I want the viewer to psychologically experience an actual alien encounter.

JM: The other pitfall you successfully avoided in producing the film is the creation of the interior of the alien spaceship. I mean, we've seen some pretty sucky space ship interiors over the years, probably the

suckiest of which is the one devised for Plan 9 From Outer Space, which amounted to basically a table holding a few transistor radios set up in front of a curtained background. In contrast, you've taken the approach of making the spaceship's interior more organic, with more curves than corners, and doors that I refer to as "sliding skin." What was your inspiration for these organic interiors, and how were they built?

FW: I first got the idea when I was writing the script and found a snail shell on my balcony. The idea of a living ship is creepier and more fantastical. To hear its heartbeats and breathing fills the atmosphere with a surreal character. That’s what I love about sci-fi; it’s an open canvas. To this day, I believe aliens left that shell.

If this looks familiar, it might explain your recent memory lapse.

JM: I'm also intrigued by the "skin suits" that the aliens apply to the human captives - it appears to be a some kind of living protoplasm that - literally - grows on them. Where did you come up with this idea, or was it just an effective way to keep them from running around the hallways naked?

FW: That’s funny, John. I laugh about it now because that was an issue I had to confront. You can’t have aliens experimenting on people with their clothes on. And you can’t have aliens experimenting on people while they're naked; it would be considered alien porn I guess. The skin suits are alive and allow the humans to breath in space, and it feeds off their blood and bodily fluids.

JM: Speaking of running around the hallways: I noticed that the captured humans habitually scrambled around hunched over in a very ape-like fashion. Was this intended to be a statement about their inferiority in relation to their alien captors, or were those skin suits just a bit too tight?

FW: You’ll notice in one of the scenes, the skin suits start to contract, which makes it hard for the victims to breath and move. Not only are the suits helping them live, but the physical side effects are taking their toll.

JM: There's no soundtrack used in the movie, and it turns out this contributes to the eerie documentary feel of it. Did you ever contemplate employing a score, or did you decide from the beginning to leave it out?

FW: Keep the feel of the movie real was my constant motto from the beginning. James Neel (the sound designer) and I spent 5 months creating the sound EFX. Everything we used was either organic or living; dirt, teeth, tree bark, insects, animals, fish, etc.

JM: Regarding that eerie documentary feel: my wife and I were both reminded of The Blair Witch Project at different points during the movie. Do you agree it has that "flavor", and was that movie an influence on this one?

FW: Blair Witch, Open Water, Texas Chainsaw, Wells’ War of the Worlds, movies that present the “is this really happening” theme were influential. Beings explores the “what if” premise. What if there was a UFO crash and how would the governments involved handle or manipulate the situation? If you were abducted by an alien species, would you know it? What would it look and feel like to be subjected to alien experiments?

JM: The dialogue in the film is fairly rudimentary - lots of exclamations of wonderment and horror, plenty of painful screams - but not a great deal of narrative substance. While I was viewing it, I considered this to be something of a weakness, but in retrospect I'm not so sure. If we take this (admittedly fictional) docudrama at face value, it's like a series of closed-circuit camera recordings chronicling the internment of some ordinary young adults; faced with their totally disorienting environment, they are probably not speaking or thinking very clearly. Had you originally written more dialogue for the characters, or was this minimalist approach intended from the beginning?

FW: Of all the scripts I’ve written, this was the most difficult because I could not use dialogue to steer the story. The deliberate fragmented pacing of the film would not tolerate it. These victims endure physical and psychological trauma similar to torture, they are verbally devastated.

JM: I understand you recently screened the film for some folks at MUFON. What was their reaction?

FW: I didn’t screen the movie, just discussed it. It’s very effective on a big screen and I didn’t want to spoil it for them. Several of the members will be attending the screening as well as the state director of MUFON. I am going back in April to discuss how certain technical aspects of the movie were achieved. Jim Marrs will be our special guest at the screening. These individuals all share a bold enthusiasm about a controversial independent movie that challenges the boundaries of UFO and alien studio movies.

JM: Fredrick, thanks for conversing with us, and would you like to leave prospective AFI Film Fest attendees with any final insight about the film?

FW: IF YOU WERE ABDUCTED BY AN ALIEN SPECIES WOULD YOU KNOW IT?

JM: Thanks, Frank, I sure hope so...

FW: Thank you, John, it was a real pleasure.

Related stories

• North Texas filmmaker Fredrick Wolcott swings DVD distribution deal for Beings (Nov. 18, 2007)

See more stories in:

• Arts > Movies / Film > Film Festivals > AFI Dallas

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