Slickster: Anything else about “Jason vs Michael” you wanted to say?
TD: I will tell you that it is a piece in larger fan film saga. I’ve done about three other ten-minute fan films and I ended up shooting additional footage to intertwine each of their stories into one long fan film. It’s about an hour long and has over ten million views! I can’t believe it. We never thought it would get so big.
Slickster: One of the other short fan films was “Jason vs. Leatherface,” and that was over five years ago, now. What are some areas that you feel you have grown the most since then?
TD: I’ve grown the most in camera technology and technique. I’ve gotten better equipment since then. With “Jason vs. Michael,” I used the Panasonic GH4 to shoot it. It has a 96-frame slow-motion feature, which was great for the fight scene, specifically. I watched a handful of stuff from director Zac Snyder and especially the behind scenes stuff of Sucker Punch. I learned a lot about the fake slow motion stuff from him, and you can learn a little from each movie you watch.
Slickster: Natalie Stavola was in “Jason vs Leatherface.”
TD: Yeah!
Slickster: Can I get her phone number?
TD: (Laughs) I don’t know if that is the same number. I haven’t talked to her in a little while. She’s on Facebook!
Slickster: Definitely thinking she is Girl of the Week material.
TD: Dude, please! She’s fantastic and would be perfect. That was actually my first fan film, and Cheyenne was working on that, too. We knew we needed some sort of protagonist to bring those two slashers together and she was the perfect fit. And this was back when the new Leatherface, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, had come out a few years earlier and with Jessica Biel in it Then I saw Natalie and said, “This girl looks almost like Jessica Biel. This girl is HOT!”
Slickster: I noticed Natalie was wearing the same costume as Jessica Biel.
Slickster: Yeah, I was wondering if that was intentional.
TD: Of course! Come on now! (Laughs) So we wanted something skimpy. I actually have that blood-stained tank top signed and framed on the wall in my house! What we did was go back and watch the original Texas Chainsaw films and copied some of the shots. Like the one where we’re following the girl from behind as she walks into the house is in the original. So we used that too.
Slickster: Is horror your favorite genre to do?
TD: Honestly, it’s sci-fi. But sci-fi is tricky. It’s hit or miss. Sci-fi is it’s own little niche. But I love the suspense in horror. It’s like a whole roller coaster putting people on the edge of their seats. It scares the heck out of you, but that’s what it’s supposed to do! I find creating that suspense a challenge, and I like that about horror.
Slickster: Right, like, “What’s lurking around the corner?”
TD: Exactly. One of my favorite sci-fi horror movies is The Thing from John Carpenter. That’s the perfect mixture of horror and sci-fi. That movie scared the pants off me more than anything else when I was kid. The original, practical special FX were so awesome!
Slickster: Let’s talk about what’s happening right now. What is the End of Days Film Festival? How can people get involved with End of Days (EOD)?
TD: The EOD is a fun little film festival I created to showcase apocalyptic horror films, action films, anything that incorporates the end of the world or the end of society. It could be someone’s life is coming to an end or they are being hunted. So anything kind of like those films that features something creative in that aspect. I created it because I enjoy film festivals, have gone to film festivals, and placed my films in film festivals. And just like anything else, there are some good ones and there are some bad ones. So I thought to myself, I’d like to create one that is really cool and cater to the film makers specifically. I’m kind of an organizer, director type so I decided to take up the challenge to collect some fun apocalyptic films around the world and showcase them in Orlando.
EOD is at God’s and Monsters, which is huge fun comics toy store place. They have a bar with beer and wine. They have a big screen and speakers, and it’s a great place to host something like End of Days. The event right is free to the public and whoever wants to show up, and we’re trying to get a little mini convention going there. Artists can show up and sell some artwork, and people can come check out the artwork, the toy store, the artists, comic books, film festival…. kind of everything in one place. It’s my first year doing it and starting out kind of small. Hopefully, next year, in 2017, it will grow a little bigger. The website for more information is: www.EndofDaysfilmfestival.com.
Slickster: Trent, you run a film maker bootcamp, how did that get started? What else can you tell us about it.
TD: That is something fun I decided to create about five years ago when I moved back to Orlando from California. My family is all teachers and college professors, so I love sharing knowledge. I wanted to do something quick, fun and easy where young aspiring film makers can get the basic fundamentals of film-making. If they want to go to film school after that, they can. I went to film school. A lot of film schools these days are really overpriced, and it’s not like getting a medical degree or law degree where you can immediately go out in the field after you graduate and get a job making $50,000 a year to pay back your debt. So I wanted to be one of the folks that offered some free or cheap information on really good, solid fundamentals. I think that is the important thing that gets pushed to the wayside with the younger filmmakers. Everyone gets so caught up in the latest technology. I hear kids all the time saying, “I can’t make a movie because I don’t have THIS camera.” Back when I was younger, you were just lucky to have a camera, and you used what you had, and it looked horrible and sounded bad, but you got a movie out of it! And you grew and you learned from it. So “not having the right camera” is just a horrible excuse.
Slickster: Yeah, if you have a camera, you can do it.
TD: Yeah, the cameras on your phone look better than the HI-8 camera I used to have. Even the microphones are much better. So, the fundamentals aspect are what I wanted to focus on, and that is the priceless information, I think, is how you conduct yourself as a filmmaker, as a director. It’s really the fundamentals that are going to set you apart from other filmmakers out there.
Slickster: Trent thanks for taking the time to talk with Slickster. Any shoutouts you want to give?
TD: My co-producer, Cheyenne Hess, and all the costumes he brings. He’s a big part of this and I definitely could not do this without him. He’s helped to push me along. I would also like to thank the fans. Without them, there would be no audience to enjoy, comment on, and share the fan films that I make. They definitely help keep me true to the genre and characters.
Happy New Year!
