LDead: Welcome Dom. How about a little about yourself to get things started? What made you want to become a filmmaker and is horror your genre of choice or just a starting place?
Dom: I made the decision that I wanted to become a filmmaker when I was about thirteen years old. I had just discovered “Clerks” and it was my first real introduction to independent film. I have been obsessed with movies for as long as I can remember, but I think that was the first time it had ever occurred to me that writing and directing a movie was an actual possibility. Hearing Kevin Smith’s story of maxing out his credit cards and selling his comic book collection to make his movie, only to have a major studio buy and distribute it was probably one of the most inspiring tales a movie geek like me had ever heard at that age. I spent the better part of my youth studying film as a religion and reading as many scripts as I could download in order to learn the screenplay format so I could one day make a flick of my own.
Horror has always been my favorite genre. I grew up in the era of video stores (remember those?) where it was commonplace to simply wander aimlessly and happen upon any random film that had an interesting looking box cover. I’d ultimately end up in the horror section, renting obscurities like “Rocktober Blood” and “Ticks”, but every so often I’d also stumble onto classics like “Halloween” and “The Exorcist” before I was of age to realize how important they were.
LDead: "The Darkness Within" was shot on a very micro budget yet I feel it is higher quality than most indie films with much larger budgets to work with. How did you achieve such a clean and eye pleasing look with such limited funds?
Dom: Thanks, man. Oddly enough, the movie is not even shot in HD; it’s all standard def. We used a Panasonic DVX camera and those who are familiar with the DVX gear know that the pictures it produces are very “eye pleasing”. I really just tried my best to work within the limitations we had with our budget and our equipment. We tried to light scenes as inventively as we could and I also think shooting most of the film in close-up helped give it a certain look. I’m very partial to a shallow depth of field and cinematography that is always sort of drifting and finding its target. It gives the images a sense of immediacy, which is something our movie needed to have. The more you feel like you’re a fly on the wall observing the lives of these characters, the more I think you’ll be inclined to forget about some of the budgetary constraints of the flick in general.
LDead: I was highly impressed with the level of writing displayed in "The Darkness Within" I honestly did not see the end coming at all and was blown away when it all came full circle this lead to me wonder who some of your influences were when it came to developing both your writing and directing style?
Dom: For writing, Kevin and Quentin were definitely influential to a kid who was discovering his love of dialogue-heavy independent cinema. It sounds odd since we’re discussing a horror/thriller, but George Carlin is absolutely one of my biggest heroes, not just as a comedian but also as a writer. His comedy had such a sharp sense of purpose and he was a man who truly loved language. Scorsese is bar-none my all time favorite filmmaker. I remember watching a VHS copy of “Goodfellas” when I was probably only about 10 or 11 years old and that having a very profound impact on me.
For “Darkness” itself, I’d say Kubrick is the guy I most wanted to emulate. “The Shining” scares the shit out of me to this day and I always dug the impending sense of dread that flick carried. Everything Kubrick touched sort of tapped into this very dark place in the human psyche, but “The Shining” is the film of his that I revisit the most. There are also some touches of Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and “Rear Window” and even some of Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” that I think rubbed off on me. Edgar Allen Poe’s dementedly beautiful writing also had a hand in this flick as well, as far as I’m concerned. If you listen really closely, you’ll catch a quick nod to “The Raven” in there.
LDead: "The Darkness Within" was not your first film you also wrote and directed "Duality" care to share a little about it? Is this something that can be found and viewed by ourselves and our readers?
Dom: This is true. The first flick I made was a gangster-comedy called “Duality”, which was about a guy who is mistaken for his identical twin brother and is forced to pay off said brother’s twenty thousand dollar debt to a low-rent drug dealer. It is online in its entirety if you would like to partake (http://www.vimeo.com/8954505). Making it was one of the best experiences of my life and it is where I met many of the people involved in “The Darkness Within”. Ken Flott playing the twins does a great job at making my amateur directorial efforts look somewhat serviceable.
LDead: You were recently in our neck of the woods of Kentucky at the Fright Night Film Fest. How did that go? Make any wrong turns and find yourself running through the wilderness dodging arrows and jumping over wire traps?
Dom: Dude, I’m actually in an underground bunker right now stealing the wireless connection from the wild-eyed, hillbilly rapists holding me captive.
No. Really. Can you notify my next of kin?
Yeah, the festival was great. Ken Daniels and the rest of the folks in charge put on a really awesome show. I got to catch a few flicks that I dug a lot and I got to meet Roger Corman. THE Roger Corman. All in all - a success in my book.
By the way, you know I’m kidding right? How many hillbilly rapists you know got a wireless hookup. C’mon.
LDead: We are all looking forward to seeing what you have for us next; do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about?
Dom: Right now we’re developing two projects. One is a short film called “Nicky” which is based off of a very dark short story by Ken Flott about a man dealing with the abduction of his young brother. The other is a full-length feature called “Saint Joey”, which is a script I’ve had in mind since “Duality”. Can’t talk much about it yet, suffice it to say that it’s a coming-of-age comedy about dudes in their late 20’s/early 30’s from Boston – and I think you’re all going to like it a lot.
LDead: I know a lot of our readers are dying to see "The Darkness Within" is there any upcoming screenings you'd you like to mention? Perhaps an ETA for a DVD release?
Dom: Currently, we’re waiting to see how our submissions to the Arizona & Minneapolis Underground Film Festivals pan out, along with the Terror Film Fest (in Philly) and Rock & Shock Film Fest (in Worcester, MA.) Hopefully, we’ll be invited to screen as part as one of those, but either way we will be self-distributing a short run of DVD’s in November of this year, which will be available on our site www.doorelevenproductions.com. So anyone who wants to see the flick should definitely be able to.
LDead: We at The Liberal Dead appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to talk with us and we are all pulling for you and look forward to future Dom Portalla films. Good luck with "The Darkness Within" it's truly a great film before we go is there anything you'd like to say to our readers? Words of wisdom?
Dom: Words of wisdom to other independent filmmakers: Go make your flick and contribute to the conversation. The idea that’s floating around in your head, get it down on the page. If you let it float for too long, you’ll be surprised how fast it can float away. Don’t worry about that 60-inch HD TV, you can get that later. Maybe throw that money you have stashed away at that camera you’ve been drooling over. Making a movie is flat-out hard work. Anyone who commits to it and actually finishes one – whether it’s good, bad or ugly – has my utmost respect. The world will be a better place once you got yours in the can.
Words of wisdom on life in general: If you play roulette on occasion, always bet on black.
For more on Dom and his projects be sure to visit Door Eleven Productions. Keep this one on your radar, we here at Liberal Dead have a strong feeling that you'll be hearing the name Dom Portalla a lot in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment