A chat with Chris Power and Nathan Hynes of "Long Pigs"

Chris Power and Nathan Hynes

I’ve been fortunate enough to become a part of the promotion of a great independent film, “Long Pigs.” Having seen a screener copy of the film I can attest to the quality and entertainment value of the film, and I may be its biggest fan. Having the opportunity to sit down and chat with the filmmakers behind the movie is an incredible experience, and being able to do so with Chris Power and Nathan Hynes of “Long Pigs” is certainly one of the top experiences that I’ve had in this business. What follows is a rather lengthy interview that will not only give the opportunity to learn a little more about “Long Pigs” and the men behind it, but it also gives an insight into the trials and tribulations that go in to making a great film; as they have.

• Who came up with the title and how did it come up?

Chris:
“I found the title when I was doing some research online, found the term “Long Pig” (human flesh or a human body as food for cannibals) and turned to Nathan (Hynes) as one of those epiphany moments were we said ‘that has got to be the title.’ Since then there wasn’t any question about it, but a couple distributors talked about possibly clarifying it. It was mentioned in variety, ‘… Just because ‘Wild Hogs’ was a success doesn’t mean ‘Long Pigs’ is going to be…’ (Chuckling)

Nathan:
“Any press is good press.”

• What were your respective roles in “Long Pigs?”

Nathan:
“We pretty much did everything together, wrote the script passing the laptop back and forth in a week. When we started filming it was the same way, we passed the camera back and forth, we both acted and we both directed, and when one of us had to do a little more acting the other did a little more directing. It was an absolutely 100% collaborative process.”

Chris:
“We both have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to this sort of stuff, but for the most part we were always there on the set working together. The best part of this movie was that we never really had any tension, or any bad days. The more I think about it now, and I think about those days with the first special effects guy, there was some tension. Our actress that played Lucy (Barbara Walsh) had to come back on three separate occasions and get naked and hung up in that torture device multiple times. That first special effects guy had all kinds of problems with air in the lines and other technical problems. But it was a very collaborative effort and the best Ideas always rose to the top.”

• What was your filmmaking experience coming into “Long Pigs?”

Chris:
“We had dabbled in a few projects collaboratively, we had done some short films and some music videos, and a semi-aborted documentary which was part of the emphasis for this project; and I was also an art director in the DGC (Directors Guild of Canada). While working on our own stuff I was able to bounce back and forth on “real movies” with big directors and see how they make their mistakes as well. We have been working together for more than 10 years on varies things.”

“We had done a short film called ‘The Shity Apartment’ which was kind of the opposite of ‘Long Pigs’ in the sense that we had built the sets to shoot through walls and had everything storyboarded, but then we realized that if you don’t have good performances, then you really don’t have anything. ‘Long Pigs’ was our attempt at getting performances first and shooting it in a way that we wouldn’t have to sacrifice a take because of anything technical.”

• Most killers in films, especially in documentary style films, are maniacal psychopaths. Yet, most people interviewed who actually knew a serial killer always comment on how normal they. Anthony is a refreshing character in the sense that he is the “normal guy” outside his culinary hobby. Was this something you guys were looking for specifically or did it just come out when you started filming?

Chris:
“We definitely wanted to make a regular guy make him more like a serial killer actually is. It’s funny because Anthony (Anthony Alviano) is such a talented guy, but we kind of let him be himself to because he kind of is that guy in real life; minus the cannibalizing and killing of course. We wanted to make him the nice guy and everyone else bastards, especially us (Chris and Nathan played the film crew in the film), and I think that’s kind of how it worked out.”

Nathan:
“I think it also came from our experience with our aborted documentary where we met a guy who, when you talked to him on the phone he sounded like a nice guy. We actually knew someone who was a good friend of Paul Bernardo (Canadian Serial Killer), who is the Canadian Ted Bundy, that we met when we were waiters, who had been in his wedding party. Bernardo was the quintessential good looking, nice guy, and that’s always scarier anyway, and usually the way it is with these guys. We reference Ed Gein and Dahmer and both of these guys are fairly average, their neighbors always say, ‘I never would suspect it’."

• Was there ever a time during production that you thought that it just wasn’t going to happen?

Nathan:
“The whole time.” (Laughing)

Chris:
“We started out so long ago and the most disheartening part for us was the original ending, where the story gets out of control in the media. When it started it was just a story with the local media and it ends on kind of an Entertainment Tonight story after the tapes were discovered and they were going to make a big movie about it; and it was good junk of our budget. We used real studios with news casters speaking 100 different languages and constructing the whole thing, but for all different reasons everyone said it just didn’t work. It was disheartening to have to drop that from the film and now we didn’t have an ending for our movie. So, we basically had to retro-write in the Radio Host into the movie, where he kind of strung things together and he’s the only character to confront Anthony and ask him any questions; at the end of the movie. So, yeah, there was a few times when we thought we were in trouble.”

Nathan:
“I think that and our first attempt at the big effect with the body, which was also pretty close. But it was like any other film you have to fight through the battles; I don’t know how any films get done. Even working on films with an $80 million budget, there are still problems and I’m still amazed that any film gets made in any coherent sense."

• Where was “Long Pigs” first premiered and what was that like for you two as filmmakers?

Nathan:
“We had our world premier at a film festival, Cinequest, in San Jose, CA. We all flew down there with our friends and family, we were very excited. There was a market attached to it where buying happens, so we thought we were going to be coming back millionaires.”

Chris:
“I think we were really naive in that sense thinking we were only taking a deal if got money and we were expecting this big turnout at our premier. The people at Cinequest were and the festival was awesome but as mistakes do happen, our film was listed as being screened at 10:00 AM, instead of 10:00 PM. So everyone followed the guide as any sensible person would do when looking for the next film to attend.”

Nathan:
“So another film that is billed as ours has a sold out screening, and then about six people showed up at ours. So it was basically our friends and family and these six other people.”

Chris:
“I think we counted about 50 people there, but the other thing that was disheartening was that we had to walk around handing out flyers saying, no, our film is at 10:00 PM. So it comes times for the screening and there’s people lined up outside the theater and we were like, ‘Yes, it worked,’ and we’re excited, unfortunately we were premiering in the same theater as ‘300’ which was premiering at the same time. So, basically we were getting the people that couldn’t get in to ‘300.’"

“We had a full house at another festival and everyone was laughing and cheering and then the film stopped with about ten minutes left to go, turns out the projectionist fell asleep and hadn’t realized that the reel was up.”

Nathan:
“The Milwaukee screening is beginning to feel more like the real premier, it’s screening in a theater in a big city, not a festival; I think that Milwaukee is the real premier for us."

• The original cut of the film was more than 3 hours long, what was hardest scene to cut?

Chris:
“Any scene is difficult to cut, but I think we kept the best parts in the film.”

Nathan:
“We shot a whole scene up in the country with Anthony’s brother, with a guy who is a very prominent theater actor and director from Toronto. There was a lot of actions shot and gun shots going off, and we did a lot of our best acting, bickering with each other, being in a remote location where our lives are in danger, and it was a fun scene to shoot but we had to cut it in the end.”

All of the cut scenes will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on June 8th, 2010. This is one you’re going to want to add to your collection; I know I’m making room for it my personal DVD library.

• Do you have an advice for aspiring filmmakers out there?

Chris:
“Don’t do it if you think you’re going to get rich or if you think you’re going to finish in six months. Do it for the love of the process and because you want to. We’ve heard it before from other people that it’s easy to make the movie, but everything after that is what takes the time. Don’t give up, don’t quit, at least get the first cut down.”

Nathan:
“Get the most capable technical people that you can, make sure that you have people around you that want to be there, not someone who’s just doing you a favor, because that can make things very difficult, especially for your first film. Align yourself with other talented people; it always helps when you surround yourself with talent."

Nathan Hynes, when asked about his relationship with horror reminded me of myself when I was a kid, sneaking in the tapes to my room to watch the “F13” and “Nightmare” series.
 

• Have you always been a fan of horror movies?

Nathan:
“I have been a fan since I was a kid, I used to bring the TV into my room and watch like four or five in a row.”

• What is your favorite horror movie of all-time?

Nathan:
“Wow, that’s tough. I like all the genres, but as a kid I really like ‘The Changeling,’ with the ball bouncing down the stairs. I was always a fan of the early Friday the 13th, particularly the F13: the Final Chapter. I also liked a lot of the Italian, sloppy 80’s cannibal zombie movies, especially ‘Zombie,’ I really liked that one a lot."

 Do we love these guys or what? Chris answered, “Evil Dead 2” and Nathan is here talking some great films!

Chris:
“So you’re not going to pick one?” (Laughing)

Nathan:
“No, I like them all.”

Again, this was an incredible experience, I want thank Chris Power and Nathan Hynes for taking the time for this interview, and I hope that you enjoyed reading the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it. Chris and Nathan are very talented filmmakers and “Long Pigs” is a testament to that fact. “Long Pigs” is premiering at The Times Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 22nd at 7:00 PM. Tickets are just $5 for the show, so mark it down on your calendars, send yourself an email alert, put on your desktop reminders, hell, even tattoo it on your forehead so you’re reminded every morning (if you’re the forgetful type); just make sure you have this marked down somewhere.
 

Long Pigs Official Trailer HD 480p from www.jordan-entertainment.com on Vimeo.

Anthony McAlistar is a jovial fellow who just happens to give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money in the cannibal serial-killer territory. Introduced preparing his own unsavory type of meal, Anthony regales the camera with philosophical anecdotes, aware that, as the subject of a documentary being shot by a pair of young filmmakers, he’s the star of the program. The satire grows more pungent as the story progresses and the line between comedy and horror becomes thinner, calling into question not just Anthony’s horrific actions but the role the camera plays in them. When does the media’s fascination with watching become dangerous? And, when it comes to human lives, where is the line drawn between documentary and subject?

Trailer:
http://www.rsquaredfilms.com/films/long_pigs_trailer.html

Synopsis:
http://www.rsquaredfilms.com/films/long_pigs.html

The Times Cinema:
http://www.timescinema.com/schedule.php?venue=times

Longs Pigs Site:
http://www.longpigsthefilm.com/