Kicking The Dog

Picture copyright respected holders.

Interview With The Director Of Kicking The Dog Scoot Lammey By Chris 15/7/09

Kicking The Dog is a great indie comedy, a great cast and a great script made this film really enjoyable. It’s a film worth renting so go check it out.

So read on.

Kicking The Dog Website

1) How did the film come about? 

1. I saw the movie “Dazed and Confused” and discovered that filmmaker Richard Linklater got his big break because of a low budget movie he made called “Slacker”. I then watched the movie “Clerks”. These movies made me realize it was possible to make a film that could compete with Hollywood films, so I began writing a movie about my experiences that I felt could be made on a low budget, but still maintain all of the elements that would allow it to get international distribution. I also realized that to compete with bigger budget films, I would need to work on a wide range of films – from low budget to large budget – to gain as much knowledge as possible, and to meet people who could help me achieve my goal.

2. Movies like “American Graffiti”, “Dazed and Confused” and “Clerks” were my inspiration for making the film, as well as anything by John Hughes. The story within “Kicking The Dog” was inspired by my college experiences and everything I did and said that made my life interesting and fun at that time. I wrote what I knew about – boobs and drinking.

3) How long did it take to film?

3. The movie was shot in 20 days over the course of 4 weeks. The nude scenes were added later and shot in a single day.

4) What was casting like?

4. Choosing the actors was stressful and fun. Stressful because I needed to find 12 very good actors, and I had to travel nearly 3 hours to New York City for casting sessions, and I had to make the trip numerous times. It was fun when I found the actors that brought my characters and script to life and gave them personalities.

5) Was it hard to edit the film?

5. Editing was difficult at first because I had no editing experience. Daniel Watchulonis, the Director of Photography, convinced me to edit the movie myself because it’s a comedy and timing is the most important element in comedy. I had to buy a computer, software and all of the other components necessary to edit a movie, and then learn how to edit. I actually taught myself how to edit while piecing together this movie. The other difficult aspect was realizing that some scenes, or parts of scenes, hurt the flow of the movie and needed to be removed. It’s not always easy to be critical of yourself, or have the ability to step back and realize that although part of the scene may be funny, it hurts the movie overall. The first cut of the movie was almost 20 minutes longer.

6) Has the film had much international sales yet?

6. I won’t receive sales figures until August. It did play opening night of the Drake Film Festival in Bagnoli, Italy, although this has nothing to do with sales.

7) What was it like making the movie in your folks house?

7. It was tough and easy. Easy because I could control everything and we were in one location for almost the entire shoot, so we didn’t lose time loading and unloading equipment every day, which allowed us to have shorter days, but film for a normal amount of time. It was tough for my parents because they couldn’t be in their house except to sleep, and they could barely walk from room to room due to the amount of equipment in the house. My mom also repainted the entire interior of the house to provide a better backdrop, and she repainted it afterwards to hide the damage

8) Was I happy with how it turned out?

8. I was very happy with the way the film turned out. Almost every distributor told me that a low budget comedy with no name actors to put on the box cover could never make it into Blockbuster or get international distribution. I proved them wrong. I never wanted a “B” movie actor in the movie, because if you use a “B” movie actor, you made a “B” movie that will never be taken seriously – whether the budget is $50k or $10 million – it’s a B movie. But if you use all up-and-coming actors, you have the chance to make the next great indie cult film. 

9) Was it hard to make low budget?

9. More difficult than I could ever explain. I borrowed the money and now I have a mortgage payment every month. I basically mortgaged my future, knowing there would be a chance I could never own anything in my life because I wouldn’t be able to take out another large loan. I drive an old, junky car that I’ve had since I was 17. I rent a small old house. It hurt my relationship with my family and friends and put stress on my life that is, at times, almost unbearable. 

10) Responses to the film.

10. College kids seem to love the movie. I sent copies to some fraternities across the country and I began receiving e-mails from the students telling me how much they love the movie, or that they show it for brotherhood events or they ask permission to show it on campus movie night. Non-english speaking countries haven’t seemed to enjoy it as much, as they probably don’t understand the terms, slang or comedy. I doubt the humor translates well – and I’m sure most of the slang terms used in the movie don’t translate at all. Basically, people under 35 seem to really enjoy the movie and see the humor. It’s a very unique film in dealing with college conversations and hanging out.

11) Was it hard to finance?

11. Very difficult. I tried everything I could think of before finally being accepted for a loan.

12) What did I learn?

12. Editing the movie, after having written and directed it, taught me a lot about filmmaking. It’s a great way to see the mistakes you made in writing. It teaches you how to transition from scene to scene and also the importance of pacing and making everything shorter and quicker.

Another aspect I learned is that people generally don’t care about low budget films any more. With the numerous video sharing sites in the internet, many people have made “movies”, and somehow I get lumped in with those movies, even though Kicking The Dog is at Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon, etc. It’s ridiculous ad frustrating that people don’t realize how difficult and nearly impossible it is to get shelf space at a store.

13) Had the internet played a part in sales?

13. The internet is highly important – from posting on myspace, facebook, twitter and youtube, to even purchasing advertisements on those sites that are directed towards my specific demographic. The internet also allows fans to share information about the movie, or post info or the trailer on those sites 

14) What was the editing process like for the film?

14. From a technical aspect, the editing process was fairly easy once I learned how everything worked. I worked slow, and still do, since I’m self taught and never learned the shortcuts. From a creative aspect, it was much more difficult. The first cut was nearly 20 minutes longer than the final version, so I had to be willing to eliminate a lot of material that I wrote and really liked. I had to learn that sometimes there is addition by subtraction. I had to be very critical of myself, my writing, my editing and the acting. At times, the scenes don’t work the way you had hoped, but you have to figure out a way to make them work to get the point across, because not everything can be simply eliminated.
15) Anything I wouldn’t do next time.

15. I would never borrow money to make another movie.

16) What’s next?

16. I have no idea. I’m trying to write a few other scripts in case a studio is interested in my work. I’d like to get a meeting with a studio to pitch a few ideas and scripts. Otherwise I’ll probably just play wiffleball and drink beer. 

17) Did the actors stay on script?

17. Most actors stayed to the script, but a few did some improvisation. Improv was allowed, and at times encouraged. Sometime it’s tough to improve when there are 8 people in a scene all talking and reacting to each other – and that’s most of the movie. 

18) Any major problems making the film?

18. I think it had to be one of the smoothest running low budget films ever produced.

19) Is it hard to make an indie film?

19. Making a film isn’t difficult. Making a very good film with the elements of a major film is tough.

20) What advice would I give someone wanting to make an indie?

20. Work on as many films as possible. Work on ultra-low budget garbage as well as million dollar budget films. You will learn proper professionalism and protocol from the big budgets, and you will learn how to not make a movie from the low budget films. You will meet people on all films that may be able to help you. Making a movie with no experience gets you nowhere – you have to get experience by working on real productions. Most new filmmakers simply want to make movies – and they do – and they look like crap. And they possess none of the elements that would allow them to compete with a Hollywood production, but all those people think the same thing, “I just want someone to think “if he could make that movie for $1,500, imagine what he could do on a real budget”. But that never happens because their movies looks like shit – generally the writing is bad, the acting is really bad, the sound is below average, the camera work is bad, and it all combines for a bad movie and nobody is ever going to be impressed. People generally don’t want to work on other projects. They don’t’ want to put in the time. They aren’t dedicated – they think – but their not – because true dedication would mean they quit their job to work on other people’s projects so they could learn and meet people who could help them be successful.

Also, don’t think you’re going to make a movie for $3k that anybody outside of your family actually cares about. It’s going to be bad. It’s not possible to make quality for that price. Go bust your ass for someone else, get the money and make a real movie.