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Robert Massetti
by Wendell ReddingIt’s been a while since there have been any decent new directors emerging from the world of direct-to-video horror. For every Eric Stanze or Scooter McCrae, there’s a thousand hacks out there that just seem to be pumping absolute JUNK out there into the marketplace.
Thankfully, that’s about to change as a new filmmaker with powerful visions and incredible talent makes his way into the microbudget scene. That filmmaker is ROBERT MASSETTI, and his debut movie, PHOBIAS, is set to hit DVD in early January, 2003, from SUB ROSA STUDIOS (www.b-movie.com).
Massetti is based out of South Florida and operates a film production company there. Ironically, it’s filmmaker Tim Ritter, who also used to make splatter movies in that same geographical region, who first noticed Massetti’s work and said, “somebody give this guy a distribution deal.” A few months later, Massetti and his colleagues found themselves with a distribution deal for PHOBIAS, funding for their upcoming REALMS OF BLOOD movie, and a chance to do a feature-length movie penned by Ritter himself, called THE WOODS ARE ALIVE, which is set to roll sometime in 2003.
Massetti couldn’t be happier. Although still fighting his way up in the no-budget world of video, everyone surrounding him (from Sub Rosa execs Ron Bonk and Tim Ritter to his local collaborators and the hard to please critics) knows he’s going to be the next thing.
PHOBIAS takes two simple stories and heightens them to levels rarely seen at this level of production. The first story deals with a man having psychotic delusions of murder and attempting to cope with them. The second story tells the tale of an abused housewife who kills her husband…and the disturbing events that follow her after she gets away with it. The twisted endings will leave your head spinning!
What makes this 70 minute presentation of two shorts so good? Well, for one thing, the acting is unbelievably top-notch. The music is powerful. The editing, the lighting, and direction are super slick. And the gore---if you like gory ax murders, blood, betrayal, and double-crosses that would make Brian DePalma proud---look no further. PHOBIAS is a movie for you. And let’s talk about making the most out of having no budget. Keep reading and find out how much Massetti spent to GET this incredible work done. It will show that there’s hope for everyone with talent out there---money is NO LONGER an obstacle for the independent filmmaker.
As an added bonus to the PHOBIAS phenomenon, Tim Ritter’s very first anthology movie, TWISTED ILLUSIONS (also shot in South Florida, back in 1985!), digitally remastered with EXTENDED SCENES (including the original TRUTH OR DARE short!), will be on the disc as well! This movie has been out of circulation since 1995 and is invaluable to any fan who is a true collector of microbudget work.
Additionally, director Massetti and his partners in crime do a full-length commentary on PHOBIAS, so filmmakers looking for inspiration will find it on the disc. Other extras include trailers and bloopers… there’s hours of entertainment with this release, so mark your calendars, folks. JANUARY 14, 2003…PHOBIAS is out on DVD.
I recently caught up with Massetti and in between shooting his newest movie and preparing PHOBIAS for DVD release, he was kind enough to answer my questions. Take heed, fans, a new force in moviemaking is arriving on the scene…ROBERT MASSETTI!
1. Robert, what inspired you to become a filmmaker?
A: Well, I grew up with horror films because my parents were huge fans of the genre, but I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I know at one point I wanted to become a lawyer (ouch!), then a movie came out that would change my life forever. STAR WARS. When I saw this movie it blew me away. I think I paid to see it in the movie theaters about 25 times. I couldn't get enough of the film. That's when I decided to become a filmmaker. I wanted to make movies that made people forget about everyday life for two hours and to be entertained. So I started to look into making movies. I had a film history class in high school and instead of taking the final exam I told the teacher I wanted to make a movie instead. He liked the idea so I made my first short called "Night Prowler". It was a horror / slasher short (about 8 mins) shot on super 8 film and I did all the editing myself. The teacher showed the movie in class and was blown away by it. In fact, he like it so well he wanted to keep the film to show all his classes but it was my only copy so I pry it out of his hands to be able to keep the film. That was the beginning of my movie making career.
2. What movies and directors influenced you?
A: That's a hard question because I have so many favorites being a huge fan of movies myself. I love the classic horror movies of the 30's and 40's. There's just something about them that will never be captured on film again. Especially movies like Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, that has to be my favorite. Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead. The Thing (remake), Suspiria, Psycho, the Evil Dead trilogy, The Fog, In the Mouth of Madness, The Changeling, Prince of Darkness, The Old Dark House, The Hammer Dracula Movies, Bad Taste, Dead Alive, The Frighteners and The Hunger. That's just a small list, but those are my favorites.
My favorite Directors would be Alfred Hitchcock, Brian DePalma, Steven Spielberg, George Romero, John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Ridely Scott, Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson and George Lucas.
3. You have your own South Florida based Production company and now working on your second and third features. Tell us how this all evolved - Did you go to Film school? What made you choose to open your own production company? And how did you end up in South Florida?
A: My Production Company FEAR FILM Independent Productions came about because I was tired of seeing so many bad horror movies coming out of Hollywood. I wanted to make horror movies that I would like to see and make them the way they should be made. Thus FEAR FILM was born. At first it was just a hobby. I wanted to make some cool short horror movies for my now famous Halloween parties and it grew into an actual working movie studio. It was trial by fire, but it all worked out in the end. I had no idea the company would grow so fast and growing ever bigger everyday! I grew up in Chicago (Go Cubs!) so I went to film school at Columbia College in Chicago. At the time, it was ranked as one of the top 5 film schools in the nation. The school really helped me fine tune my filmmaking abilities and opened my eyes to the independent filmmaking movement. I would highly recommend attending the school for filmmaking.
I ended up in South Florida about 10 years ago because I was sick of the cold weather in Chicago, but I really miss the city. Great people and great town.
4. PHOBIAS, your first feature, is about to be released on DVD. Tell us how PHOBIAS evolved from concept, through shooting, to it's current form?
A: PHOBIAS is a double feature of my first two shorts made under the FEAR FILM production banner. The first short is called "When Shadows Lie Darkest" and the other is "Blackout". "Shadows" was really my first short film that I made with sound. When you go to film school, because film is first and foremost a visual medium, they teach you to tell the story of the movie visually with no dialog. That's not an easy thing to do, but it really makes you understand filmmaking. If you look at the classic silent films you will know what I'm talking about. Plus "Shadows" was the first time I ever use a video camera to make a movie. I made all my films before on Super 8 or 16mm film. I had no idea what to expect. So with "Shadows" I had to learn filmmaking all over again and use what I learned with film to get the end results I wanted. So by the time I made "Blackout" I was really familiar with video filmmaking. "Shadows" originally was only be shown for my famous Halloween parties and turned into something that now has a life of it's very own. It's pretty weird how things sometime turn out. There is actually two cuts of "Shadows". In the original cut, the story was told pretty straight forward and really seemed to drag on, so I was never really satisfied with the end result. After working with the editing program that we use called Final Cut Pro for about a year, I was excited to find out at all the things I could do in Post Production that I didn't know how to do when we first cut "Shadows". So I sat down one day with all the original footage and re-cut the movie into it's present form. Which is how I originally wanted it to look like, but had no idea how to do it. After working on "Shadows", I was ready to take on the challenge of putting together "Blackout". "Blackout" was the first time I ever used a Canon XL-1 since we used a Sony Hi8 for "Shadows". Plus it was the first time shooting in 16:9 widescreen which is a challenge if you don't have a 16:9 monitor. In the 16:9 mode, the image is distorted until it can be compressed into a 16:9 image, thus the two black bars you see on your screen. So without the 16:9 monitor, everything looks stretched and weird, but after a while you get used to it. Each movie we do is a big step forward in our filmmaking abilities and production value. All and all both movies, believe it or not, cost about $200 in actual costs to make. That's for tapes, make-up and some lighting equipment. Everybody worked on these projects for free. We used our own apartments for sets. We borrowed all the equipment from friends. Now we own our cameras, lighting, and editing equipment which cuts down on our costs a great deal. But if you look at the amount of money we have put in for equipment, it would seem a lot, but it's still way cheaper than trying to produce movies on film!
5. Any tales from the trenches you relay for us?
Making movies is not as glamorous as you might think it is. It took us two hours to set up a shot, getting the lights just right, only to have to tear it down, right when we are ready to shoot, as it begins to rain and puts us behind schedule. We had a lead actor one time decide to change their look in the middle of the shoot. We had to postpone one shoot because of a hurricane!. We had an actress smash their face on a mechanical bull in the middle of a shoot and we had to rewrite the script to keep the footage we already had of her. Actors almost passing out from heat exhaustion. Being eaten alive by bugs in the middle of a forest or attack by a flying bat! Every production has it's problems and it never goes smooth, but you try to make it as smooth as you can. Taking every bump in the road with a level head and try to solve the problem as best as you can. After making about 20 movies in my career, I think I have encountered just about everything that could happen on a set. But that is part of the business, you deal with it and move on. Learn from your mistakes and try not to do it again. Filmmaking is trial by fire, if you’re the director you have to be the one that solves the problem and if don't know how, you pretend that you do.
6. You seem to get excellent performances out of your actors. Obviously, working with professionals is a good start, but a director really brings a lot out. How do you approach directing actors?
A: I write most of my material, so I have a good idea what I want a scene to look like. That's really the key to good directing, know what you want. See the scene played out in your head before you get on the set. The actor only knows what you tell them, so if you don't know what you want to accomplish in a scene you and your actors will be lost. I discuss character with my actors at great length. Who they are, where have they come from, what do they want. A character always wants something or is trying to achieve something which motivates the scene and progress your story. I rehearse my actors before we start shooting so we are on the same page by the time we are on the set. I find this makes shooting the scenes work much faster and I can get what I want from my actors. I don't have any problem doing 20 takes to accomplish what I want. The hard part is trying to find a way to get the performance that you want. I have the actor play out the scene different ways until we find the "happy medium" of a good performance. Remember, the director is the only audience that an actor has on a set. Appreciate them and their art and you will get what you want from that actor.
7. What is your take on the current 'shot of video' horror market?
A: There is a lot of product out there. So much, that good movies are being lost in shuffle which is really a shame. You have to really search for it, but all and all there is some pretty original movies coming out of the movement. Hopefully, they will give Hollywood a run for it's money, but it's still hard to compete with a movie budget of 60 million, but they just don't have the imagination. When you see 10 Jason movies being made you know something's wrong. Hollywood is going for the sure money maker and not taking chances with new material, which I think will be it's done fall and the independent movement will prevail.
8. Speaking of future movies, you're shooting a new anthology movie now called, "REALMS OF BLOOD". Tell us about the movie and what viewers can expect.
A: "Realms of Blood" is a series of 3 different stories and one 'wrap around' story told in the tradition of such movies as "Creepshow" and "Tales from the Darkside". "Realms" is my first attempt at a feature length movie, so rather than jump right into a feature length story, I decide to do a series of shorts and link them together by one story. Plus I wanted to raise the bar on low budget filmmaking and doing an anthology was the best way to do it without much of a budget.
This movie is really preparing me for "The Woods Are Alive" which will be my first attempt at a feature length story. This movie is the most challenging shoot that I have ever done and will really show in the finished product. We really concentrated on the look of the movie and the Cinematography. Giving it an X-Files look with contrast of lighting. Plus with this film we have an actual budget, not a lot, but a great deal more than we have ever had. Which really gives us the freedom to tell the story the way it should be told without compromising. The movie starts with two roommates, one that loves horror movies and the other that just can't understand the appeal of horror. A power blackout occurs and they are left in the dark with nothing to do. So they light some candles and try to scare each other by telling scary stories.
The first story is called "Pain Killer" about a war veteran whose disfigured by a chemical bomb and goes on a deadly rampage after his wife wants nothing to do with him. The next story is called "The Cologne" ( written by Tim Ritter ) and tells the story of a geeky loser that uses a 'Cologne' to attract women, only to find it has deadly consequences. And the third and final story is called "Blood Runs Cold" about a Goth chick that thinks being a vampire is really cool until she becomes a real one herself.
Even though the movie is shot on video ( with a Canon XL-1 in 16:9 ), we tried to make the movie look very professional. We are using for the first time a GlideCam V16 which gives the camera movements a nice flow to them. I think this is the first time a GlideCam is being used on such a low budget production and will give the production the professional look we wanted. Between the lighting, the professional equipment, the great writing and the talented actors involved, I would say this will be our best work to date. This movie will make people laugh, cry and jump out of their seat. It should be a great ride and we hope to have it out on DVD sometime in 2003.
9. You actually raised funds for a budget this around ( for Realms). That's a hard this to do in today's economic climate. How did you and your colleagues manage this?
A: I guess we were just lucky. We knew of some people that had saw some commercials that we had made down here in Florida and they were very excited to hear about us working on a feature length movie. Most of the money was coming out of our own pockets, but when the investor saw that we had distribution, that really made them jump at the chance. Plus we gave them a really nice deal which should give them a nice return on their investment if the movie sells well. And that's "IF" it sells well, which you can only hope it does.
10. You're jumping into a full-length feature soon called "The Woods Are Alive". It's rumored to be in the tradition of HILLS HAVE EYES. Tell us about plans for this one...
A: "THE WOODS ARE ALIVE" is a very exciting project. TIM RITTER has written the screenplay (based on a story by Ron Bonk) and I think this one will become an instant classic if we can raise the money I think we will need to do it right.
We are also trying to get some B-Movie stars attached to the project which should get the movie a wider release and bigger budget. After reading Tim’s finished script for the movie, I think horror fans will be very happy when the movie is done. It delivers everything you’d expect…and much, much MORE. I've always wanted to make a horror movie set in the woods because I think the woods at night is very creepy. So now I finally get my chance to really scare people. A website for the movie will be up soon so you can keep updated on it's progress. For now you can check out the FEAR FILM site for updates at www.fearfilm.com
11. The music and songs in your movies seem really pro--tell us what composers and bands you use and how this all happens. PHOBIAS features a super score with some dynamite songs in it...
A: Music is very important to a movie, in fact, it's so important that it could make or break the movie no matter how good it was. When people saw the rough cut of 'Psycho' without the music, they though it was terrible. Then when they put all the music in, it became a classic. The music sets the tone and feel of the movie, which very important. I think we were really lucky to find the bands we use in our movies. There are a lot of very talented bands that are local to South Florida. It has always had a great music scene so it was just natural we would find the music we wanted for our films. The first band that we used for our films was "DEATH BECOMES YOU". These guys are HUGE horror fans so we got along just great. We had seen them live a couple of times and they just blew us away. Not only is there music great, but they put on a great show. Very theatrical with make-up, costumes, and cool lighting. We used the songs "Scratch the World and " The Dead Don't Die" for "PHOBIAS" and plan on using more of their music for "Realms of Blood" and "The Woods Are Alive". We now have this great composer scoring "Realms" for us and his name is CRAIG PADILLA. His music is perfect for our movies. Very moody and mysterious, plus Craig is a huge horror fan! You can go to MP3.Com to check out Craig's music. You can check out "Death Becomes You" at deathbecomesyou.com.
12. With "PHOBIAS" coming out and two new features in various states of production, you're really on a roll. What are your long-term plans? To use these movies as a calling card to Hollywood or do you intend to stay independent? Will you always stay in the horror genre or do you see yourself doing other genres?
A: My long term plans are to keep making low budget horror. It's hard work, but really fun. I'm not making movies to become rich, if I do that's great, but it's all about making horror movies. I just love horror movies and making them. If Hollywood takes notice and offers me a deal that is on my terms...sure, I would make a Hollywood movie, but it would have to be on my terms. I will always be an independent because I can make the kind of movies I want to make without someone telling how to make my movie. I like having control over my projects and if I can't have that control I want, then I wont do it. I have to say true to my vision, not someone telling me what that vision should be because they can me a ton of money from it. I want to stay with the horror genre. It's the only genre I'm interested in. Maybe down the road I might change my mind and make something different, but I will always make a horror movie over any other genre because I love horror and hopefully it shows in my movies.
13. It's tough and crowded market these days. What advice would you give to people wanting to break into the business and get that first movie out there, or even noticed? A: Don't do it! Just kidding, it's really tough with all the product out there. I would say try to do the best work that you can and do something original. There is a lot of the same stuff out there and I think if you can show that you a versatile and can do different things with your movies I think you will stand out. This is a crazy business and you never know what the public wants or if they will buy your movie. All you can do is put it out there and hope they buy it and like it!
14. Anything you'd care to add?
A: I just want to say thanks for reading and I hope you take a look at our movies. I think horror fans will like our work if you give us a chance. For those of you that have supported us from the beginning and continue to do so, we thank you. You guys RULE! We have a very small fan base right now and I think it will start to grow once the movies are seen. Thanks again for all your support and continue to support independent horror!
PHOBIAS is available January 2003, from Sub Rosa Studios, www.b-movie.com You will be able to pre-order copies in December, so do yourself a favor and CHECK IT OUT!
For more information on the work of Justice Howard just head to any of the following sites.