The Cellar - An Interview W/ Jamie Langlands

Jamie Langlands in an actor and filmmaker out of the UK. His upcoming film, THE CELLAR, recently won multiple awards including at The London Horror Film Awards, The ZedFest Film Festival, The Haunted House FearFest award for best horror feature, and several others. Today we speak with him about his the new movie, his creative inspirations, and advice for other independent filmmakers. You can watch my latest review of THE CELLAR HERE.

*****

MAD: Jamie, thanks very much for taking some time with Horror To Culture today to discuss your upcoming, award winning independent film entitled, THE CELLAR. When did you decide to become a filmmaker, and how did production of The Cellar come about?

JAMIE: Hello Michael, I’ve worked as an actor for over 20 years and have worked closely with many independent filmmakers so I gained a lot of contacts, friends, confidants etc over the years and I learnt a lot about the whole filmmaking process so gaining all the experience and all of the contacts to talented local crew members and actors put me in a great position to start producing films myself. It just took me up until a couple of years ago to decide to take the leap of faith that I should have taken earlier. I had some ideas based on locations I had worked in as an actor and just took these locations as inspiration for ‘The Cellar’.

*****

MAD: I have been fortunate to interview several independent horror filmmakers recently, and indigogo.com has been hugely important in both fundraising, and promotion of their works. How crucial is fundraising and word of mouth, and do you have any advice for running a successful fundraising campaign for a feature film?

JAMIE: Without indiegogo and the support from all the backers ‘The Cellar’ probably would never have been made so crowdfunding was vital for me and I will always be grateful to all the backers and all the support from everyone who supported me in making this film happen. Fundraising is a full time job and you get out what you put in so you really do need to put in the hours to promote the project and to get people intrigued and excited to be part of the project, because I feel a successful campaign should really make the backers feel part of the project. People who backed ‘The cellar’ I think really feel part of the film. They have made fan pages, gone to represent the film at festivals, received awards, received festival passes, have memorabilia from the film, have interviewed the actors etc so I feel it’s important people realise they are part of the film.

*****

MAD: I have to commend you on the direction and editing of The Cellar, as there are a copious amounts of shots and vantage points taking place in several locations. You’ll have to forgive me, but it reminds me of some of the tension building of the earliest Resident Evil games (which is a good thing). How difficult was it to bring cohesion to all of the scenes (aligned with a pretty cool soundtrack), and did storyboards play a big role in your filming decisions?

JAMIE: The biggest inspiration for ‘The Cellar’ was the 1st Resident Evil game. I love that game and was obsessed with it when I was younger. I wanted the viewer to go on a journey with Abigail just like playing a computer game and a lot of the shots I storyboarded, I had resident evil at the forefront of my mind. The editor ‘Cristian Parras’ did a great job with the score, in fact the whole edit in general but certainly the score.

*****

MAD: Lead actress Meghan Adara does a really great job in the film, conveying so much throughout, with very little dialogue. She’s even won some best actress awards for her portrayal of Abigail in The Cellar! All of the performances are pretty strong here. How did the casting process come about and do you know what is coming up next for Meghan?

JAMIE: The beauty of knowing so many local actors is I don’t need to audition anyone, because I already know them as people and know what they can do. Meghan is both tough and vulnerable all at the same time so that makes for a very compelling character and someone I feel people can root for.

I know it’s acting of course, but the character really does need to be part of the person. Meghan is working on many other indie horror films at the moment. I’d like to think her performance in ‘The Cellar’ played a role in that.

*****

MAD: You and I spoke briefly about the different layers and interpretations of what this film represents. Could you just give readers a brief synopsis of what they might expect from The Cellar when it’s released?

JAMIE: A film that will hopefully stay with the viewers after the final shot for weeks after. A film that people may not fully understand but will certainly come up with their own interpretations and will certainly get the mind working overtime. Nothing is certain in life and nobody really knows why we are here, if there is a reason at all, and it’s good to reflect that in films and any artwork, and the fear of the unknown of course is the biggest fear of all.

*****

MAD: How much fun is it to engage in the festival circuit and actually win awards with something you’ve created? That’s gotta be a thrill. What were some of the coolest award shows you’ve attended so far?

JAMIE: Yes I guess it’s nice to get a bit of validation and know that some people enjoy and appreciate the film and the work that went into it. I’ve not actually attended many of the festivals. A lot have been in America. Meghan went to haunted house fear fest in New York and Zed fest in Hollywood which both looked like good film festivals. Myself and quite a few of the cast attended Romford Horror film festival in February, and that I thought was a great festival. It’s also showing at Brighton Rocks festival in the U.K. next month so I’ll be attending that. It’s all very unexpected and it’s great to see ‘The Cellar’ being screened and winning so many awards at film festivals.

*****

MAD: Who are some of your personal cinematic inspirations, both behind, and in front of the camera?

JAMIE: I suppose more recently it would be Ari Aster and Osgood Perkins behind the camera although Osgood Perkins also gets in front of the camera also which I guess makes him more of an inspiration as he was an actor before a director. Anthony Hopkins I think is a great actor and I’d definitely put him down as an inspiration as well. There’s so many and I could probably give you tonnes of names but let’s go with those 3.

*****

MAD: Favorite authors and books? Favorite bands and musicians?

JAMIE: Authors I’d say the classics, Stephen King and Wes Craven just for A Nightmare On Elm Street alone. Musicians. Michael Jackson. It seemed like the whole world was his stage. Again I could give you so many names.

*****

MAD: Do you have any advice for first time small budget filmmakers?

JAMIE: I’d say set deadlines and make sure you work towards them and stick to them no matter what or you’ll always find an excuse to put it off and do it tomorrow.

Have a plan B in mind because a lot of the time that’ll need to be the plan that’s implemented maybe even plan C or D. Understand that there’s no right or wrong way of doing things just simply A way, whatever that way may be, just do whatever you can to get there.

*****

MAD: It looks like you have a lot going on! Aside from the release of The Cellar, what’s the next project looking like?

JAMIE: The next project is a horror-slasher film called ‘The R.I.P Man’ which will be fully complete and edited by June because the deadline is June 1st. It’s a bigger production than ‘The Cellar’, more locations, more cast, more crew, more budget, longer run time. This is something I’m co-producing with the Writer ‘Rhys Thompson’, and directing. It’s more ambitious than ‘The Cellar’ and I think it’s really something that a lot of people in the horror community will love and will hopefully be a big success. I’m excited to show the world our creation.

*****

MAD: Jamie, thanks again for your time! What would you like to close the discussion with today?

JAMIE: I’d just like to say thank you for your time and support, as well as everyone else who’s supported me and these projects over the last couple of years and there’s plenty more Horror to come!

======

Michael A. Dyer is the host of the HORROR TO CULTURE podcast, vidcast, and website.