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Jim Hemphill started off his
career as a film critic. It is only natural we here at Cinema Crazed
have a soft spot for him. He is now directing indy films such as the
indy horror/slasher film BAD REPUTATION. Jim Hemphill discusses his
film critic career, his film, the horror genre, how important speech
is in movies, and what he has planned.
TF: For those who might not be
familiar with you, tell the audience about yourself?
JH: Well, I’m a filmmaker as well as a journalist who writes
about movies for various magazines and websites. Basically, I’m a
guy who is obsessed with cinema at the near expense of everything
else, though I do like to take a break from films and Karaoke every
now and then.
TF: Who were some of your
favorite filmmakers and films growing up?
JH: Probably the first filmmaker who made an impression on me
was Clint Eastwood. He’s the person who first made me aware of who a
director was and what he did. I started to notice that there was a
distinct difference between the movies Eastwood directed himself and
the ones he starred in for other directors; the ones he directed all
had a specific sensibility that I came to recognize and look forward
to. John Carpenter, Brian De Palma, and Walter Hill were other big
ones who I became aware of from a pretty young age and who had a
huge impact on me. As a kid HALLOWEEN, CARRIE and 48 HRS. were my
favorite movies. Then as I got into high school and became really
serious about becoming a filmmaker I got really influenced by a lot
of character-driven comedy directors like James L. Brooks, Ron
Shelton, Barry Levinson, and Preston Sturges. And when I got to film
school the floodgates opened and I found dozens of filmmakers,
especially old Hollywood masters like Sirk and Minnelli, who made an
impression on me.
TF: I read you
were once a film critic, how much of your film critic experience has
shaped you into the director you are today? Do you look at films
from a film critic point of view? Or from the point of view of the
audience?
JH: I still write for
AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER every month, and my experience as a film
critic has a big influence on my directing and vice versa. To me
it’s all part of the same continuum, in that it’s all just about my
love of movies. Obviously BAD REPUTATION borrows a lot from the
movies that came before it, and that probably comes from my
background as a critic; the movie is sort of a commentary on other
teen movies and other horror films. But to answer your question, I
think I do approach
filmmaking from the point of view of the audience. Above all else
I’m just an enormous fan, and I make the kind of stuff I’d like to
see.
TF: How did you go from film
critic to writer/director?
JH: Well, like I said, to me it wasn’t so much a transition as
just different parts of the same job. It does require a slight shift
in your thinking though, in that making a film and dissecting one
are completely opposed activities. Sometimes you have to avoid being
too critical or analytical when you’re directing, or else you’ll
never finish shooting a scene.
TF: Where did you go to film
school and what was it like?
JH: As an undergrad I went to a place called Columbia College in
Chicago, and then I went to grad school at USC. Both places were
absolute heaven as far as I was concerned—six years of immersing
myself in movies with other people who loved them.
TF: A lot of young people who
want to make films are always curious about film schools. A lot of
Hollywood directors have not gone to film school. Do you recommend
it?
JH: Obviously a lot of great directors have taken other paths
than film school, but for me it was invaluable. I was so hugely
influenced by my professors, and simply by the act of watching great
films on the big screen with other students with whom I could
exchange ideas.
TF: How did inspiration for your
film BAD REPUTATION come about?
JH: It actually started with a desire to make a movie about
sexual double standards among teenagers, believe it or not. I read
these books—FAST GIRLS by Emily White, and another book called
SLUT—that were sociological studies of American high school students
and the ways in which they characterize themselves and each other
according to their sexuality. I knew I wanted to make a film about
this stuff but couldn’t figure out how to do it until I seized upon
the idea of doing what guys like Wes Craven and Larry Cohen did in
the 1970’s, which was to make these kind of social satires in
exploitation clothing.
TF: BAD REPUTATION is influenced
by a lot of films, how did previous films inspire your film?
JH: In all kinds of ways. The broadest and most basic influence,
I suppose, was I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, from which I borrowed the
underlying structure. Then, since I’m such a horror nut myself, I
put in a lot of little homages and in-jokes for horror
fans—references to TERROR TRAIN, HALLOWEEN, and literally dozens of
other movies. You don’t need to get the
references to enjoy the story, but they’re an added little bonus for
the fans and I thought this was the kind of movie where I could slip
them in without the device seeming obtrusive. There were other
things I just blatantly copied from movies I love too…the climax
being lit by a strobe, for example, was an idea I got from the
finale of LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR.
TF: How hard was it being writer
and director of BAD REPUTATION?
JH: Well, writing it was a breeze. The easiest script I ever
wrote, for whatever reason. Directing, on the other hand, was really
tough since I was kind of learning as I went. I had great
collaborators and got some great advice from other directors, but it
was still a real trial by fire.
TF: What was the filmmaking
process like?
JH: It was a low-budget independent movie, so in a lot of ways
we did it like I used to do my student films: a minimal crew on
practical locations, and with a very informal hierarchy in which
everybody did multiple jobs. In a lot of ways it was surprisingly
relaxed in spite of the stressful moments, because everything was so
stripped down we could move pretty fast.
TF: Angelique Hennessy was
brilliant in BAD REPUTATION, how happy were you to have her in your
film?
JH: I honestly don’t know if I would have made the movie without
her. Casting that part was really tough since the character is
essentially the victim, the heroine, and the monster all in the same
movie (I thought a lot about James Whale’s original FRANKENSTEIN in
that sense). I saw a lot of actresses, many of whom were extremely
talented, but Angelique was the only one who could nail every aspect
of the character.
TF: How do you convince someone,
in this case Angelique Hennessy, to star in your film? It is very
low budget and you have to ask them to go into some pretty dark
places and perform some pretty brutal scenes.
JH: Well, at the risk of seeming immodest I think she knew a
good script when she saw one, and I guess I convinced her that I
wasn’t totally incompetent as a director. It’s the kind of role
that’s really tough to do, but which can get a lot of attention for
the lead actress if she pulls it off.
TF: You did not shoot a lot of
the death scenes in detail or up close. Was this on purpose? Or was
it because of budget reasons?
JH: When I knew that we wouldn’t have the financial resources to
do a lot of special effects, I did make the decision to go in the
direction of Hitchcock or Polanski and suggest rather than show
everything. If we had more money I might have gone a little gorier.
TF: How important to you was
making sure the speech of the film was authentic and true to high
school form?
JH: Hugely important. As I said before, I’m very influenced by
directors like Ron Shelton and Barry Levinson, who are geniuses when
it comes to dialogue. I love good talk in movies—it’s why I love
Eric Rohmer and Ingmar Bergman—and it happens to be the one thing
you can do as well in a low-budget movie as in a studio one. Great
dialogue doesn’t cost a
penny more than mediocre dialogue.
TF: Did you go to a high schools
similar to this one?
JH: Yeah, I would say the school is more or less based on the
suburban high school I attended.
TF: Are you happy with the final
product of the film?
JH: I am. There are certainly things that I think I screwed up,
but overall I feel like we really accomplished what we set out to in
terms of making a slasher flick that tweaks the genre in smart,
funny ways.
TF: How has your film been
received by critics and audiences?
JH: We’ve been very, very lucky with the reviews, in that
they’ve all been fairly positive. And the audiences at the festivals
have been great. The wonderful thing about making horror movies is
that there’s a worldwide community of devoted fans and internet
critics who are extremely passionate and very supportive of
independent cinema.
TF: Do you have any future
projects in the works?
JH: Yeah, I’m finishing up a ghost story called THE REVENANT
that I’m hoping to make as my next movie.
TF: What are your thoughts on the
current horror genre? Including Eli Roth's HOSTEL and films such as
the SAW franchise?
JH: This is such a great time for horror movies. Just this year
I loved THE DESCENT, HOSTEL, THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake, FINAL
DESTINATION 3, and a whole bunch of other ones. The studio stuff is
great and there are some dynamite independent films out there like
SEVERANCE. And I was a big fan of both SAW movies, though I slightly
prefer a movie called
KOLOBOS that came out a few years ago and covered similar ground,
but was even scarier.
TF: With Lions Gate being so into
horror films and horror films being at an all-time high, do you
think your film can get funding from a studio?
JH: Well, I’m certainly hoping to make THE REVENANT at a studio.
Some people find no-budget indie filmmaking romantic, but I’m not
one of them.
TF: Are you going to be a horror
guy? Or do you want to explore other avenues of films?
JH: I love so many different kinds of movies, but the good news
is that you can do a lot within the horror genre. Cronenberg made a
great horror love story with THE FLY, Cameron made a great sci-fi
horror movie with ALIENS, and there’s even a pretty good horror
musical, Brian De Palma’s PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. My guess is that
I’ll do mostly horror movies, but I’d love to have the kind of
career somebody like Polanski or Cronenberg has had, in that they’ve
made a lot of horror movies but also made detours into other genres.
TF: How can people see your film?
JH: It’ll be playing at Shriekfest in Los Angeles on September
23, and we might have a few more festival screenings before the
movie is released in 2007. The best way to keep up to date on where
the film is showing is to go to our website at
www.badreputationmovie.com
TF: Any advice for a hard working
film critic such as myself?
JH: Just keep on doing what you’re doing. Critics who champion
small movies like BAD REPUTATION are the lifeblood of the
independent film movement, and filmmakers couldn’t do it without
that support.
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Tony Farinella
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