Interview with Andrew Jones
Producer at North Bank Entertainment
Andrew Jones is Managing Director of up and coming
production company North Bank
Entertainment who are based in my home country of Wales.
Swansea to be exact. Andrew has
written, produced and directed films since 2006 when he
worked as a painter and a decorator to
fund his first feature ‘Teenage Wasteland’.
Here Andrew has graciously agreed to give me an interview
and insight into his work, producing
cheaper horror films that can compete against higher
budget ones.
His quotes section on IMDB says this: “Every great horror
film I've ever loved, without exception,
has been a low budget affair. The original Night of the
Living Dead, Last House on the Left,
Halloween, Friday the 13th and The Hills Have Eyes.” I so
have to agree with this, ‘Halloween’ was
brilliant and a lot of people don’t realise it was such a
low budget movie. I mean, Myers’ mask was a
William Shatner mask painted white!
A lot of movies lose this translation somewhere these
days. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of
stinkers out there just making movies to make money. But
there’s also people like Andrew here who
wants to make money to make more films with that heart,
and for that I give two big thumbs up.
Q. Hi Andrew First off how are things?
A. Good thanks! I’m currently in post production on ‘The
Amityville Asylum’ and I’m very happy
with how the film has turned out.
Q. I love your story, it’s a true working your way up
from the ground one. Would you please in
your own words tell us at THN what it’s been like getting
to where you are today?
A. I’m still just starting out. I’ve produced three films
in the past year that have all been sold for
distribution so that’s a very positive start for my
production company North Bank Entertainment.
But for every three films that get made there are three
that didn’t get made, so it’s been a big
learning process over the past few years trying to get
different projects off the ground. We’ve now
found a micro budget business model in the horror genre
that ticks the right boxes for investors and
distributors. But it’s taken a few years, and learning
from a lot of mistakes, to find that combination
of the right elements to make it work. I won’t feel like
I’ve truly achieved anything until I have learnt
a lot more and spent 20 years making and selling films.
Q. You do a lot of filming in Welsh locations, how
difficult is it to get a nice clear day here to do
some good filming?
A. Because we make horror movies we don’t need them! The
grimmer the weather looks the
better!
Q. One extra thing I will say on that note, Wales, like
new Zealand (another popular filming
location), is full of vast empty spaces that just look
fantastic on the eye. Wouldn’t you agree?
A. Yeah I love the locations here. I have always loved
horror films that had a small town setting, and
there’s so many great rural areas in West Wales which are
particularly good for that. I’ve shot a lot
of stuff around the Gower in Swansea and down in
Carmarthenshire and those areas are particularly
fantastic.
Q. Do you get many onlookers when you’re filming or have
you been lucky in that respect?
A. Whenever I’ve shot stuff in major cities it’s
inevitable to draw onlookers and the odd idiot who
wants to try and disrupt filming by beeping their car
horn or shouting. But a lot of the time we’ve
shot in rural areas and those areas are so quiet and
peaceful we don’t get bothered much. If you
ever have any actors screaming during scenes in public,
often someone hears it and thinks it’s real
so they call the police. But once the cops turn up and
see we’re making a film they’re fine about it.
Q. A bit more serious now, your company strives to
compete with mainstream films at a quarter
of the cost, how difficult is this to do?
A. It’s a double edged sword. On one hand it’s more
difficult because you have a lot less money and
time to shoot than you would on a bigger budget project.
Also, we can never match the big
production value of a studio production at this level.
But on the other hand, by keeping our budgets
very low we not only retain creative control but we are making
ourselves very investable as a
production company. Our films don’t need to be huge box
office hits to make investors their money
back, a modestly good run in two territories on DVD and
VOD is enough to make a decent profit. Of
course that all depends on getting the film into the
market place and we’ve managed to do that.
We’re probably getting even further than I thought we
would considering our first film ‘Night of the
Living Dead: Resurrection’ got a UK theatrical release
and was picked up by a major studio in
America.
I think the key to getting these micro budget films into
the mainstream market place is capitalising
on market trends and films that are popular. Distributors
these days are far more inclined to go with
a genre film that is safe and familiar than a film that
is wild and experimental, so it’s important to
make films that target a specific demographic and fit
into a specific category. Producers should
always have a distribution strategy in mind and know what
audience they’re aiming at before they
even shoot the film. If you don’t do that, you may end up
with a film that you are happy with but
that no one wants to buy.
Q. Effects, actors, locations aren’t usually cheap. Do
you have ways to cut corners here or any
advice for upcoming producers?
A. The process of making a low budget film is always
about cutting corners. You have to beg,
borrow and steal to make the movie. It’s most important
to tailor the script and story to whatever
resources you have. If you own a car and you own a
guitar, then you know those are two things you
can write into the script and use for the film. If you
have access to a hospital building or a caravan,
then you know those are going to be your main locations.
Just work with whatever you know you
can get your hands on for low cost and adapt the script
to your resources. It’s a waste of time for
unknown filmmakers to write an epic blockbuster script
and try to convince someone to give them a
multi million budget even though they have no track
record. Start small, make something off your
own back and make the project marketable so you have a
chance of getting it sold for distribution
after you film it. Most importantly learn about film
financing, the tax benefits of investment and
also the technical elements and cost of delivering a film
to distributors. Once you’ve got a handle on
those things you’re in a good position to progress.
Q. You must scout locations and research thoroughly to
come up with these deals, is it hard work
sometimes or always?
A. We often find locations through the Wales Screen
Commission. Anyone looking to film in Wales
should check them out, they’ll provide you with pictures
and contact details of land and property
owners in Wales for free. The biggest obstacle to getting
good locations for indie filmmakers in
Wales are the BBC. They pay a fortune for locations
because they have license fee payers money so
when indie producers with modest budgets are trying to
secure locations that the BBC have filmed
at there’s no chance of competing financially. I once
offered someone £200 for a few hours filming
in a rural petrol station when it was closed and the
owner said the BBC had been there before and
paid him £4,000 for a day’s filming. So it takes a lot of
scouting around to find places whose owners
understand we’re not able to pay those kinds of prices.
Thankfully we do manage to secure good
locations on each project and I’m so grateful to everyone
who has allowed us to film on their
properties for a reasonable price.
Q. Your company also gives up and coming actors a chance.
This is very admirable I think but may
be a little gamble at times perhaps?
A. Not really. If you audition an actor or see their
previous work and they are right for the part then
they get the part. A lot of filmmakers chase big name
actors and get them attached to their scripts
in the hope it will secure them big budget financing. But
unless you have an A-lister like Brad Pitt or
someone involved it’s not going to get you financing if
you don‘t have a track record of making
money as a producer. That’s what really gets you
financing, a producer’s track record. It also doesn’t
seem to make that much of a difference in the horror genre
whether you have “name” actors or
not. It may interest some distributors if you have a good
genre name on board but horror has a
history of successful movies with unknown actors in them
so “names” are not as vital as some
people think. We’ve managed to get financing and
distribution at this low budget level without big
name actors so I’ll continue to do that. New, up and
coming actors are hungry to prove themselves
and hard working so I love collaborating with them.
Q. A little about your movies now if you will. Your first
film Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection
is a British remake of the classic 1968 version, what was
it like making budget wise and location
wise?
A. It was quite a challenge. We had twelve days of
shooting in total, ten of which were in an
isolated cottage in Llandysul in Carmarthenshire. The
nearest town was about half an hour’s drive
away and there was barely any phone or internet signal.
We were all staying in 3 small cottages on
the site and it wasn’t the most comfortable of conditions
for the cast and crew. We were all living
on top of each other for ten days and one or two people
got pissed off with it. But we had a small
budget so it’s always a struggle to get lots of luxuries
on a shoestring and thankfully the majority
understood that and just embraced the challenges. I think
the biggest challenge once you get into
shooting is the tight schedule and lack of time. Working
against the clock and trying to get as much
coverage as possible is always the biggest challenge for
a director on these micro budget films.
It was the first feature project for most of the people
working on the film, so the production was a
big learning process for us all. Ultimately I’m happy
with how it turned out, I think the director
James Plumb did a superb job. It’s unfortunate people
will compare it to the original because
nothing can live up to that classic, but then we knew we
would carry that burden by using the title
so I can‘t complain. The films to fairly compare this to
are other low budget British zombie films like
‘Colin’ and ‘The Zombie Diaries’. I think when compared
to films at that budget level ’Night of the
Living Dead: Resurrection’ definitely holds it’s own.
Q. What has it got in common with the original aside from
zombies?
A. The only thing it has in common is the core concept,
people trapped in a farmhouse during a
zombie apocalypse. But in our film the lead characters
are four generations of a Welsh family and
we don’t follow any of the plot turns of the original film.
So whatever people think of the movie, at
least it’s a completely new viewing experience rather
than a shot for shot retread of the original.
Hopefully people judge it on it’s merits rather than just
slamming it for being a remake or for being
very low budget. The original film had a small budget so
I think it’s quite fitting our British version
was made with similar limited resources.
Q. It’s released here on May the 13th, will all the usual
outlets/online be stocking it: amazon,
play.com etc.?
A. Yeah, the UK DVD of the film from 4Digital Media is
now available for pre-order on Amazon and
other major outlets. The North American DVD from
Lionsgate is also available to pre-order ahead of
it‘s 30th April release.
Q. Your second film Silent Night, Bloody Night: The
Homecoming is another British remake/sequel
of the classic 1974 version, what was it like making
budget wise and location wise?
A. The movie was a huge struggle for me personally
because I was in the midst of delivering ‘Night
of the Living Dead: Resurrection’ at the same time as
filming ‘Silent Night, Bloody Night’. I was often
on set in Wales for a fifteen hour shooting day and then
getting straight on a bus and heading for
London in the early hours to be at the post production
house to sort out the North American
delivery of ‘Night’. Being that I’m a one man band at my
production company my focus was
definitely split and I didn’t enjoy shooting the film at
all. I took too much on and rushed into
production too quickly. In hindsight I would have allowed
more time between projects.
The schedule was crazy. We had a great location for the
Butler House, a manor house central to the
story, but could only afford it for one long weekend so
we had to get about 45 pages shot in 3 days.
But considering we shot it in just ten days for a tiny
budget, I’m pleased with how it turned out. It’s
a love letter to the slasher movie formula and my only
request of the director James Plumb was that
he mainly concentrate on two elements - nasty kills and
nice tits! We had both in the movie and
sold it for UK and North American distribution to 101
Films and Elite Entertainment respectively. So
when all is said and done, job’s a good one!
Q. Does this one have anything in common with the
original also?
A. Unlike our ‘Night of the Living Dead’ project, we did
actually follow the original story for this
remake quite closely. Reason being is that we considered
this film to be a reboot of a property that
we could potentially turn into the first British slasher
franchise. So we wanted to remake the origin
story. We have the stories for the second and third
instalments ready so if ‘Silent Night, Bloody
Night: The Homecoming’ sells well then we’ll turn it into
a straight-to-DVD horror series. It all
depends on how many units it shifts in the UK and US now.
Q. Friday the 13th actor Adrienne King starred in this
one, what was it like contacting her and
working with her on this?
A. It was a great thrill to work with Adrienne, I’m a
huge ‘Friday the 13th’ fan. That was the first
horror film I ever saw and fell in love with when I was
five years old, so to work with the star of that
film was a great moment. It was a straight forward case
of emailing Adrienne, then sending her the
script. Adrienne agreed to do it while she was in London
showing some of her artwork at the Misty
Moon Gallery in London. She was a great pleasure to work
with and a signed ‘Friday the 13th’ poster
Adrienne gave me now hangs proudly on the wall in my
house.
Q. When can we expect to see this released and where to?
A. The UK DVD from 101 Films is currently available to
pre-order on Amazon UK and the US DVD
from Elite Entertainment should be available to pre-order
soon as well. Both are scheduled for
release later this year.
Q. You final film soon to be released is The Amityville
Asylum. What information can you give us
on this, locations filmed, budget and when can we expect
to see it?
A. This project was truly the most amazing experience I
have ever had shooting a film. It was one of
those very rare projects on which every single member of
the cast and crew was a joy to work with.
The film was set in America but we shot all the interiors
in Swansea, Cardiff and Carmarthen in
Wales and acquired some authentic exterior footage of
Amityville from the US. The film features a
mix of UK based American actors and a couple of Brits.
The film focuses on Lisa, superbly played by
Sophia Del Pizzo, who starts a night job as a cleaner at
a mental institution and faces horror from all
angles through disturbed patients, intimidating orderlies
and paranormal occurrences. We’re still in
post production but I’ve just signed a UK distribution
deal for the film and the distributor is aiming
for a release around August/September this year, which
will include a small theatrical run as well as
DVD and Video on Demand. We’ll be officially announcing
that deal and releasing a teaser trailer
very soon. We’re also close to finalising a deal for a
North American release so I‘m happy with how
things are progressing on the project.
Q. Also you wrote produced and directed this film
yourself. How was that?
A. So much easier than I thought it would be. On the two
previous projects, I’ve worked with a
different director and while I enjoyed that immensely I
fell in love with directing again on this film
and I intend to direct more in the future. When I’m
producing I’m mainly working on the business
side of the project because I allow the director free
rein over the creative side of the project. But
making ‘The Amityville Asylum’ made me realise just how
much I had missed shaping the creative
and visual part of the project. Working with actors, a
Director of Photography and an editor are my
three favourite parts of filmmaking and it’s great to be
doing that again.
Q. So for your production company what can we see on the
horizon, film wise and is it all going
great?
A. We have two other feature films shooting this year, in
June and October. I’m producing the one in
June with James Plumb as director and that’s a found
footage horror. I step back into the director’s
chair for the October project which is a horror film that
I can best describe as a cross between ‘The
Stepfather‘ and ‘Halloween‘. The June project was written
by James Plumb and David Melkevik and
the October project was written by American writer Will
Sanders. So these two projects will be the
first time I’ve ever worked on films I didn’t write or
co-write the screenplays for.
Going into next year I‘ll be moving away from working
with other directors and setting up a couple
of features to direct myself. Although I’m still open
minded to potential collaborations that may
come along, I feel the future for me is directing as well
as producing.
Q. Finally one question I ask everyone I interview, are
you ready for the coming zombie
apocalypse and do you have a plan?
A. I’m just going to allow myself to be bitten and turned
into a zombie! I’m a fat git who loves to eat
so would probably enjoy treating humans as an All You Can
Eat buffet.
Once again thanks for agreeing to this interview Andrew,
it has been a breakthrough for my blog
to have one with an up and coming Production Company.
Finally, is there anything else you would
like to add or say to the THN readers?
Whether you’re a film maker or a film lover, always
remember that feeling you had when you first
saw horror movies as a kid and fell in love with them.
Hold onto that feeling. Friends, relationships
and jobs come and go, but the love for cinema lasts
forever.
Very insightful there Andrew, wow folks was this a brilliant interview or what?
I have to say i loved reading Andrews answers they were great and to the point yet offered a lot of information on all the projects upsides and downsides
as always you can join me on twitter @TheHorrorNation
and like my page on facebook http://www.facebook.com/TheHorrorNation
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