Actor, director and writer, Conor Sweeney, is twenty percent of the eighties-throwback powerhouse filmmaking team, Astron-6. His mad
scientist-style, brilliant co-creators are Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks, Jeremy
Gillespie and Steven Kostanski. Like some sort of movie-making Transformer each
is integral to the whole, and the end product is a beautiful conglomerate of
comedic horror art.
Body Count Rising: Were you mentored as a
young director? Please feel free to elaborate if so.
Conor Sweeney: I wasn't really, no. We've gotten some great advice over the years from
the head of the University
of Winnipeg film
department: John Kozak, and guys like Guy Maddin and John Paizs, but we
basically have had to make our own way from the beginning. Once Astron-6 started
working together as a group, I feel we started to teach each other how to
be better filmmakers, as we all seem to excel in one area where maybe the
others do not.
Body Count Rising: What was the most
valuable piece of information or advice that another director or industry
person has given you?
Conor Sweeney: John Kozak told us to never spend a bunch of our own money on a movie, because
we'll sink into a mire of inescapable debt and never make it back out. In
hindsight, we should have listened to him.
Body Count Rising: Have you modeled your
directing style after, or was your directing influenced by someone who inspires
you?
Conor Sweeney: We have very, very loose set. We see our movies as comedies, and we are
huge comedy nerds above all else. We let actors improvise, feed them lines from
off set, surprise them with lines and fill the background with funny visual
gags. David Wain works that way, so does Woody Allen. Maybe I was subconsciously
inspired by these directors. If a great joke that I love isn't working, I won't
stop until it feels right, and often it's not something you can reword and
solve. Comedy is a mercurial thing, a line can be delivered an infinite number
of ways, and ten of those are hilarious. To answer your question, we didn't
model our directing style, but we've modeled aesthetic style, tone and content
from some of our favorite guys. “Divorced Dad: Home Improvements” is very much
David Lynch in the world of cable access television. “The Editor” is the Zucker
brothers meet Fulci.
Body Count Rising: What is some advice you
would give a new director just starting out?
Conor Sweeney: You're in a brand new, difficult, but also exciting industry that was
very different when I began, even though it was only ten years ago. I would say
make a movie for as little as possible, but make it good and unique most
importantly. Don't just make another slasher or ghost movie unless you can do
something that totally adds something new to the mix. Distribute it on your own
via iTunes or Vimeo. If your movie was cheap enough to make, and your product
is good, then you'll probably be able to make a profit on your movie. Make your
next movie on a bit of a bigger budget, pay people, and get a known actor (very
important). A famous or semi-famous actor will get you funding and maybe
Netflix will buy it for a nice fee. Go through the same process; release it on
your own if Netflix isn't interested. Use Indiegogo and social media to gain
awareness. Keep working your way up.
Playing big festivals is key. This is easier
said than done, but you really need to go this route. If you don't get in, your
movie is probably not very good, or just not ready. You get the skills to make
a festival-worthy movie by just making movie after movie after movie, and trying
to make each movie better than the last. Be hard on yourself. The good news is
that if you play the big festivals, usually all the other festivals will want
you. Make this a goal. Plus you'll meet other filmmakers, producers, etc. in a
way you never would have been able to before.
Body Count Rising: Would you be opposed to
mentoring a budding new director?
Conor Sweeney: I would do it happily, but we're still so small time that I’m not sure I
could do much for him or her. I love the idea of doing it once we're making
some money for ourselves and have gotten a bit bigger.
Body Count Rising: Tell me about your
biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome while directing. How did you work
through this obstacle to achieve your goals?
Conor Sweeney: It’s all obstacles, so it’s hard to just pick one. Car chase stunts were
hard, fire stunts were hard, difficult actors was hard. The biggest obstacle is
never having enough money to make the large in-scope movies we create.
Body Count Rising: What aspect of directing
do you need to take extra time and care with?
Conor Sweeney: I'm not a great cinematographer, so I need to be careful with that. Adam
is a painter, so I leave the composition up to him most of the time. Except on
the upcoming “Divorced Dad: Home Improvements” which I am very specific about
in every capacity.
Note:
“Divorced Dad: Home Improvements” is playing at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas
in September, 2016.
Body Count Rising: Have you ever started
with a certain vision, and then found it just wouldn’t be possible? How did you
modify and correct to make the scene a success?
Conor Sweeney: I honestly don't know if this has ever happened. I think we fight hard
for what we want and steal locations that we want even if it isn't entirely legal. We're pretty smart to write stuff
that we know we can shoot. And with our budget we've been able to shoot some
crazy stuff, especially with “The Editor.”
Body Count Rising: You seem to be
exceptional with time management, which I’m sure is of the essence when staying
within a budget. Does working within a team become a benefit to that extent?
Conor Sweeney: We're actually not that efficient with time. It's more a strong drive to
get the project finished, so we're willing to shoot 20 hour days. 26 hours is
our longest shoot day. Our determination and single-mindedness evens out our
seemingly never ending shooting schedules.
Body Count Rising: In regard to many of
your films, you have remarked about limited budget, or how you ran out of money…
Conor Sweeney: In The Editor we hired a crew we shouldn't have trusted, rented out a
large film studio, and hired people that were supposed to look after our
expenses and didn't. We ended up blowing through basically 100% of the budget
on the first week, and still had a year of shooting left ahead of us. We fired
the entire crew, started an Indiegogo campaign to make back some of the money,
which bought us a used Red One, and finished the movie ourselves with the same
barebones, five-to-eight person crew we used on "Father's Day."
Body Count Rising: Would you prefer a micro
budget with complete autonomy, or to direct a big budget film with limited
control of the scope and vision?
Conor Sweeney: I'd prefer a moderate budget with complete autonomy, but I would be
thrilled to hand over some of my control to be able to make a commercial movie.
I don't think this brings you down artistically at all, there is some great
commercial stuff out there, and I need to feed myself.
Body Count Rising: Say you had some wealthy
benefactor who what a huge fan of your films. You would be given complete
control and an astronomical budget and unlimited resources. What is your dream
film that you would love to direct?
Conor Sweeney: Absolute above all else dream job is to direct a “Star Wars” movie. Aside
from that I have a ton of pet projects that I'm pretty hot on, right now. I've
been trying to work out a treatment for a coming of age movie, and it'd require
a pretty sizeable budget for the music and kids. That's my second dream
project, after “Star Wars.”
Body Count Rising: I’ve heard you do your
own stunts. What about your own effects? Is there
anything on the set that you absolutely won’t do?
Conor Sweeney: I've never done any effects. I'm sure there's a stunt where I'd
eventually draw the line, but we've never gotten to the point yet where we've
said “no” to something. I look back and wish that we'd done more dangerous
stuff. I'm always unimpressed and wishing we could revisit and put ourselves in
more danger.
Body Count Rising: You have mentioned that
you often find talent through social media. Has this ever backfired for you?
Conor Sweeney: Never backfired. We haven't really done that since “Father's Day” though.
Since then we've done our hiring through the usual means (agents, managers),
and reusing our actor friends.
Keep up with Conor’s projects on IMDb and Astron-6 on
the official Astron-6 website.
