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EXCLUSIVE
INTERVEIW- By Eric Bradner He worked with Don Coscarelli on several of the Phantasm movies and as art director on the recent drive-in epic Bubba Ho-Tep. Join us as Trash film Orgy talks to Justin Zaharzcuk about scary movies, how to make a hallway depressing, designing the soul sucking cowboy mummy, the Dealey Plaza model, JFK’s and Elvis’s rooms, and a fascinating look into indie filmmaking... TFO- Your first credited film work was on Phantasm: Oblivion, I believe while you were still in film school. How’d that come about?. JZ- In 1991 I was a still in high school and struck up a friendship with Kristen Deem of Phantasm II. She was a storyboard artist whose information I found through Fangoria Magazine. This was slightly before the internet explosion made it so easy to find/meet people. Kristen was kind enough to forward a few samples of my work to Don Coscarelli in early 1992. He took a liking to my work, or at least my persistence and eventually, bits of my work ended up in his films. The first was a scene in Phantasm: Lord of the Dead that ended up being cut out. My ideas of the Tallman's planet and living area caused them to go over budget and the scene was never totally filmed. Just pieces I think. Don was a lot of fun to collaborate with. Its fun to think back on it and remember how I didn’t have a computer, instant messaging,e-mail, nothing. Even the color copying machines were lousy back then. Its amazing Don ever received my work at all. TFO- Bubba Ho-Tep has a cool look about it, and definitely got the most out of its budget. What are some tricks you played on the viewers to make them buy the illusion? And what’s with the different color schemes? You built up the hallways sets to be nice and brown and sort of organic, the other sets are very different colors. JZ- Bubba Ho-Tep was a pressure cooker type of atmosphere on set. We had very little money and high hopes for the final product. That’s a rough combination but I work well under the gun and had a lot of fun. The story has many comedic elements to it but the original script was still very dark. We went for depressive browns and tobacco stained coloring on the walls, wainscotting, door trims, and especially Elvis' bedroom set. We must have spent weeks rubbing burnt ocre and dark blue onto the walls. Then taking turpentine rags and wiping everything back out except for where it would catch in the crevices and divets. The Production Designer- Daniel Vecchione and I were budgeted to do one hallways of the Shady Rest Retirement Home. It was hard because the original story suggested a labyrinth type of feel to the hallways so we decided early on to basically never sleep. That way, we would have enough time to create what was basically a 100 ft long hallway crossed by another 100 ft hallway with several off-shoots. Image something like a giant "T" or maybe an "H". We never went home once we started pre-production I learned a lot while making Bubba Ho-Tep. One thing was what it really meant to be scared. We spent weeks building up the inside hallways of Shady Rest Retirement. At first, it just looked like unfinished wood and tons of saw dust. No big deal, but at a certain point, I think it was like 3:30 AM when I realized something very quickly. I was at the end of this long dark hallway painting and was like-- "what am I doing here and by myself?" I wanted to drop the brush, get in my car, and leave. We were shooting these sets in what was essentially a five by five block area of ghost town in Downey, California. There were very few people around during the day at pre production and nobody at night except the art department. I always slept with a baseball bat on set just in case. At any rate, the weird feeling the sets gave off let us know we might have accomplished making something that would aid the film. Every Phantasm film had its own set of unique hallways and with Bubba Ho-Tep, it was our chance to put a new, different spin on what has become a Coscarelli tradition TFO- And the rooms are each unique. —Elvis’ austerity and JFK’s elaborate in-joke Dealey Plaza models and conspirator photos. As an assassination buff, I really appreciated this attention to detail. JZ- We wanted a contrast between Elvis' room and JFK's. Several people wanted to know (during pre-production) why Ossie's room was so clean and crisp while Bruce's bedroom was left dirty. Elvis didn’t need to prove anything; he really was the King and didn’t need to impress anyone. He didn’t need the little reminders that JFK did such as pictures of the conspirators-Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey,etc. Jack was just an old man with an identity problem. Whether it’s Alzheimer’s or a result of the brain surgery he had. (This is alluded to when Elvis sees the little scar on Ossie's head). The Jack character needs things like the Dealey Plaza model to help convince himself and more importantly, others of his status. TFO- The emaciated cowboy mummy really looks gorgeous. What’s the evolution of that character? JZ- When I was told that Bruce Campbell agreed to star, I figured we had a fighting chance to make something unique AND that people would really want to see. Bruce brings a built in fan base to any film he does. The story is so out there, that you need a popular guy like Campbell to bring attraction from an audience. I was originally hired a few years before filming began to flesh out what the main characters might look like. My Elvis was a bit more rounded and "meatloaf" like. Bubba Ho-Tep, the Egyptian, soul sucking cowboy was more emaciated and elongated to contrast Elvis. Bubba also had a habitual need to graffiti everywhere, and everything. I depicted him etching more than drawing on things including the scarab beetles, the visitor's bathroom, and even his own jaw. Maybe in a future movie, Don will bring him back. TFO- Your work as an art director is in service to the film, and the sets usually get destroyed at the end of the shoot. Any sadness at destroying all your hard work? Ever save any souvenirs? JZ- Yeah, it’s hard to conceptualize, plan, draw up, and build something that’s going to get knocked down after a month or two. Its a fascinating process to take words from a page and make them into a physical being for film. What's interesting is that if something looks OK when you build it. It usually looks GREAT on actual film. After the director sets up the angles, the cinematographer lights, and actors enhance, if all goes properly, the sets come to life. Its magic really, and I don’t think Ill ever totally understand what it is about film that turns ordinary things and people into something epic up on the theatre screen. The Shady Rest sets are all still there though. Vacant and sitting in the dark up in Downey, CA. It’s kind of strange now that you brought it up. I'm pretty sure the city bought the property as a training ground/complex to teach LA SWAT teams how to train. If you want to see more of the retirement home sets, just rent Roger Avery’s Rules of Attraction. He repainted them grey and white a few days after Bubba's filming ended. They became the dorms that James Van Deer Beak wanders around in through the film. I kept the Dealey Plaza Model. It sits on a display shelf high up in my house in California. It has working street lights that were not put on in time to be filmed in the movie. I put them on once in a while if we have company at night. The Lee Harvey Oswald figure and blue Lincoln limo just came back from being on display in a Philadelphia art gallery. TFO- What other artists were attached at different times to the Bubba Ho-Tep project, and how long was your shoot? JZ- There were several. I can only remember a few though. We had an artist named David Gechman do up the "Everyday Man or Woman's Book of the Soul- By David Webb" This scene started as just a far shot of Bruce holding the leather book cover and saying his lines. Moths later, after all the principle actors and scenes wrapped, Don wanted to elaborate on the scene and see what Campbell was looking at close up. I gathered drawing from Gechman,David Hartman(of Sony Ent.) and myself and shipped them out to Philadelphia for Dave to cobble together, do some elaborate, drawn out text and then format it all on disk. When he shipped the disk back to us in California, I brought it to a local print shop and had them spit it back out on high gloss book stock paper and carefully sewn/glued into the prop leather book. Coscarelli really wanted to get carried away with this thing. He had us put in a section about the Tallman from Phantasm with drawings and everything. It was cut from the final film but made a nice inside joke. TFO- What artists have influenced you? Any particular movies that inspired you to follow a career in film? And what exactly about them fired you up? Ron Cobb and some Drew Struzan. I remember being in a comic book shop at an early age and picking up a 1979 issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. The conceptual and pre-production art of Alien were there in full color. I think I brought it home and stared at it for half a month. William Stout is good. Have you watched the special features section of "The Return of the Living Dead" DVD? That guy did so much with very little. When I first picked up Frank Miller's "Dark Night Returns" I was surprised by how far ahead he was of his time. Not many main stream comics tried serious, adult story-telling. Miller had also taken Batman out of campy icon-hood and re-vamp-ed him as a real flesh and blood, troubled character. The hues/color palette were striking to a 10 year old who was used to the Technicolor vibrancy of comic art up until that point. TFO- Any tips and tactics for kids looking to break into the film industry? Besides interviewing with trash film sites, that is? JZ- Take it easy with spending your money on elaborate film schools unless it’s some place big like NYU or UCLA. A lot of these places just want your money. If you know the basics, just get out these and start meeting people. Start shooting, writing, directing, etc any way you can. Any experience out in the field is way better than months or years sitting in class reading about doing it. When you first start, you may not want to take the lower end things like set pa or film runner (if you even get to shoot on film). Take the jobs that you think suck, it’s your chance to at least see and be around an actual movie. It’s a way to make contacts and show people you are serious. You can usually tell who will make it and who won’t. The guys that won’t pick up some trash because it’s in a shot wont. The people who mumble and groan but then DO pick up the trash,dog mess,etc usually do. You have to love film; I mean be obsessed with it because the pay is low or non-existent at first. --And be sure to do at least one interview at Trash Film Orgy. It's a must.
All art/photos, property of Justin Zaharczuk. Not to be reproduced in any way without written permission from the artist. |
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