The Life of Brian:

An Interview with the director of Far Too Gone

by Morty Pinkerton of B.O.T. Magazine  

May  1st 2004

MP:  Is this the first movie you've ever directed; what kind of experience do you have?

BL:  Yes, this is the first movie I've ever worked on, first movie I've directed, first script I've actually ever finished, the first time I've ever acted in anything since high school. I've had no formal schooling or training in filmmaking or script writing, I've never attended a writing workshop or purchased or even read a book on how to make a film, except maybe flipping through a few pages at the local library.  Mostly out of laziness, but in retrospect it was a good thing, because if I had read about how to make movies, I would have learned I didn't have enough money or experience to make one.  Luckily, I didn't make it that far so I made one anyway.  So, I guess you could say I'm totally self taught and just decided to do it because I wanted to make a film.  Screw the rules, screw what everybody else says, I just did it.

As a side note, not only did I not read any books on how to make movies, I rarely read to begin with, and don't really like books as a rule, anyway.  I mostly watch television and rent movies.  I read a book cover to cover on average once every two years. I'm a big fan of new media, and generally feel that books are antiquated and obsolete with all the pages and pages of small type and few, if any pictures.  I mean, why don't people walk around with stone tablets, why is everyone so attached to this media device of millennia gone by.  People've been writing for thousands of years and that's great, but there was a little something called television and radio that we invented between 50 and 100 years ago and for the life of me, I still don't understand why these pretentious, elitist, self- important fucks visit bookstores en masse buying & reading these stacks of antique text when there are perfectly good videos they can watch instead.  I mean, don't get me wrong, if books were a little shorter in length, like maybe 20 or 30 pages long and had more color pictures, maybe they'd be viable for another 20 or 30 years, but in their present form, are only of use mostly for propping up a broken leg of a sofa. 

 MP:  Why did you think you were the best actor for this role?

 BL:  Because I was convinced that I was the only one with enough talent to portray Josh.  Just kidding;  I didn't think anyone else would want to wear the wig. 

 MP:  Are you a Tori Amos fan?  How'd you come up with this twisted idea?

 BL:  Well, I was in the middle of writing the synopsis for a documentary about dysfunctional families, like the kind you see on COPS, including all the usual stereotypes, like the alcoholic father, the slutty daughter and the brain-damaged stepbrother.  At the same time, I was starting to get into Tori Amos and her music was always playing in my room while I was writing.  And then I decided to stop writing the stuff about the white-trash family, because I thought it'd be cool to write a stage show about Tori Amos, complete with wig and dress, sort of like a tribute or cover band.  I thought I would perform all her songs, but in a weird stupid way that'd make people laugh and I actually started really planning on doing it, but what stopped me was realizing that not only would I have to do a ton of networking and promotion to get people to show up for this, but that I'd have to repeatedly do so for every performance, not to mention convincing a club owner to book me and learning how to play the piano.  Which I was willing to do!  I was actually preparing to be lowered onto the stage on a rope while singing Me And A Gun in baritone.  This actually was the basis for a scene in the movie which didn't make the final cut.  But, oh well.  I digress.  So, anyway, I thought I'd just combine the two ideas and write a documentary about a guy who thinks he's Tori Amos, because I could then produce the movie one time and then be done with it, so that's when I decided to write the script and try to get it produced.  Ultimately, deciding to produce it myself because no one else would ever fund something this insanely stupid.

MP:  How'd you find a producer, cast, crew? 

BL:  One of the people that answered my ad for cast & crew was a guy named Eric Scott, a guy with tons of experience shooting commercials and other television work.  And happened to love the script when he read it, offering to produce the project for me, for little more than blood, sweat and tears.  So I hired him.  Everyone else just fell into place.  Virtually everyone in the movie was the first person to apply for the job, they were all perfect, Felicia Banegas, who basically demanded that I cast her in the role, and fearing for my health then cast her immediately, to Robert Devoe, who on our first meeting basically showed up dressed & talking like the character Salem, but when I commented on this I found out that's the way he dresses and talks normally.  So, he was hired on the spot.  Then everyone else in the movie kind of just fit in perfectly, whether they applied for the job or were pulled from real life and thrown into the movie without any experience, like Skater Dude #1 and Dave, the record store owner.   

MP:  How did you go about shooting the film (i.e. permits, budget)?

 BL:  Actually, we did have a budget, it was called my paycheck from work, which I would spend on the movie before paying rent or buying food.  And, of course, the obligatory maxing of the credit cards.  No self-respecting indie filmmaker can make his first film without doing that.  And apparently, I hit upon something that a lot of other indie filmmakers never do, namely, treating the cast and crew with respect and feeding them constantly, for which they were continually astonished and eternally grateful. As far as the permits.... Fuckin' oops!