Spidarlings (2012)

Interview for [re]Search My Trash by Mike Haberfelner

Your upcoming film Spidarlings – in a few words, what is it about?
At its core I believe it’s about young people having to deal with the consequences of not being able to make it in a society they never wanted to be part of to begin with, who don’t have the job opportunities they are hoping for, and about getting caught up in a system where you can’t survive if you don’t want to meet the requirements of a “standard life”.

How did the project come together in the first place, and what were your inspirations when writing Spidarlings?
A lot of it is based on real life experiences; I guess my biggest inspirations for the script came from all the unsympathetic and creepy people I have encountered in my life who eventually formed themselves into several characters of the story. For example all the landlords I ever had melted into one character.

Among other things, Spidarlings is also labelled a musical. Why, what music are we to expect, and would you consider yourself a fan of musicals as such?
I’ve always been a fan of musicals, I grew up watching Fred Astaire movies and for a while I wanted to become a tap dancer. When writing Spidarlings I thought the story demanded a really cool and original soundtrack. I envisioned every character in the film to have their own song in a different musical style suited to their personality and background, but for a long time I just couldn’t find a composer who could fully grasp the ideas behind it. At some point I heard the song “Spider in Love” by the Belgium group Two Russian Cowboys and I fell in love with it. Eventually we were able to contact them and they turned out to be amazing people and liked the concept of Spidarlings. So after we established that we are “partners in crime” they gave us the permission to use the song for free! I almost gave up on the idea of making it a musical until I met Jeff Kristian. I found working with Jeff to be a unique experience, because he’s not only a brilliant composer and song-writer, but he really got under the skin of the story and has given a lot of colour and emotion to the plot.

Fear of spiders is a very widespread if not entirely rational phobia. To what extent do you play on that in Spidarlings?
The choice of spiders was not based on the general arachnophobia but because I have always been fascinated with spiders, they are quite endearing little creatures.

How would you describe your movie’s brand of comedy?
When I first showed the script to a friend of mine he told me that the humour is too “mean spirited” – I don’t know if that is a correct assertion, there is certainly a lot of black humour in there but I personally believe that it’s more camp and tongue-in-cheek.

What can you tell us about your directorial approach to the story at hand? And do you see yourself more as a visual, a narrative or an actor-centered director?
Although I started in theatre I believe that my approach to directing is more visual. With Spidarlings I wanted to achieve an almost cartoony and artificial look and feel.

A few words about your leading ladies Rahel Kapsaski and Sophia Disgrace, and why did you choose them in the first place?
Sophia is a very interesting, intelligent and sensitive artist and is also a sweet and charming person. She has added a lot of emotions and expression to the character of Eden by being able to explore and comprehend Eden’s character in all layers. I’m so happy that we found her and it is amazing to work with Sophia.
I have worked with Rahel before on different projects, and she is a marvellous actress with great comical timing, I wanted her to play the role of Matilda from the very beginning and she became very involved in the creation of the character.

Of course, you also have to say a few words about the glamorous Tiffaney Wells and the very unique flavour (s)he brings to your movie?
Tiffaney Wells is a real Star, not only on stage but in every aspect of her life. She was wonderful to work with. Tiffaney has got an incredible voice and created an unforgettable atmosphere on set from the moment she walked into the room as Gena.

What can you tell us about the rest of your cast and crew?
In my whole life I have never worked with so many creative, passionate and enthusiastic people on a single project. I feel very lucky to have met people like Kjell De Kerpel, Allan Groves, Suzanne Coleman and of course Theofilos Vandoros, who will play Ticks and is a very well-known director and theatre and TV actor in Greece. We had a few setbacks during casting and I also had a very interesting response from a former Kubrick actress who had originally auditioned for the role of the fairy godmother! I knew Lynn Ruth Miller, who plays the fairy godmother now from previous years at the Edinburgh Fringe. Our crew came together one by one. We are like a big family with a lot of trust, passion and fun, and I hope we will be together on many future projects to come.

The $64-question of course: When and where will Spidarlings be released?
Beginning of Post Production is scheduled for end of April. We are still looking for a foreign distributor but are planning to have the film ready for selected Festival screenings this summer.

Let’s go back to the beginnings of your career: What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal education on the subject?
When I was seven years old my grandfather took me to see Full Metal Jacket – the experience completely blew me away and it had been my dream ever since to be involved in film-making. I originally studied to become a sound engineer but it never enticed me in the same way that film has, and although I’m not a believer of Film Schools I eventually switched to Film Studies at the New York College in Athens.

From what I know, your first film as a director was the short My Head Hurts. What can you tell us about that one?
My Head Hurts was a Horror Short I made when I was 13 for a short film competition that took place in Stuttgart, Germany. We shot most of the film in two nights and I edited it myself straight from the camera to video tape. Because I didn’t have the equipment or know-how I needed, I was rather unhappy with the finished result at the time; but it was my first film so I think of it as a learning process.

Other movies of yours you’d like to talk about? Any future projects?
I have several film projects in mind that I want to pursue in the future. It all depends on how I can finance them and which project we can afford to start on our own if we don’t get any funding.

Besides making movies, you are also involved quite a bit in the theatre scene. Want to talk about that aspect of your career?
My mother is a theatre producer so I was introduced to the world of theatre at a very young age. When I was 18 I started to do light design for various plays in London, Athens and Edinburgh and got to work with great directors like Andy McQuade who now runs the Second Skin Theatre and Victor Sobchak, a friend and mentor who has accepted to play the role of “The Bear” in Spidarlings. I think that working in fringe theatre has also helped me to be more inventive and spontaneous and was a good training on how to create something on a very small budget under constant pressure. I certainly love theatre as much as I do cinema and I appreciate both for what they are. I have only acted on stage once when I played Ian Brady in an adaptation of Fassbinder’s “Pre-Paradise Sorry Now” and directed several plays, my latest being called “That Abortion Play” written by the brilliantly satirical Greg Moulder. After Spidarlings I am planning to stage a new play called “Cat Killers” and take it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is play about abuse and how abuse is perceived by society. That is sadly all I can reveal about it at this point.

Your production company is called Àpres-Vague. Could you please explain the name, and your company’s mission statement?
The name is inspired by the movement of the Nouvelle Vague together with the image of the after-shocks that occur after an earthquake or seaquake. So Après Vague in a way stands for the vision of a New Wave of Independent Cinema and will hopefully also create a lot of after-shocks.

I’ve read somewhere that you have also been production assistant on Giallo by Dario Argento. Since I know many of my readers are fans of his, you just have to talk about that experience for a bit!
I’ve only worked on set for a couple days but it was the most amazing experience of my life, I’m a huge admirer of Mr Argento work. On my way to Italy I thought of the millions of questions I would ask him if I get to talk to him, but once there I found myself much too shy to ever approach him.
But I got an unbelievable and invaluable insight to a big production and the chance to see one of my idols at work.

Directors who inspire you?
There are so many fantastic directors whose films, style and approach to cinema inspire and fascinate me, I am a big admirer of Fassbinder, Cassavetes and John Waters. But the biggest inspiration and encouragement comes from directors like George Kuchar and Joe Christ, who have managed to create original and honest cinema on a Nano-budget and against all the odds.

Your favourite movies?
This is always a hard question to answer. My current Top 10: Freaks, Love Streams, In a Year with 13 Moons, Phenomena, Themroc, Polyester, Orphée, Daisies, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, Santa Sangre.

… and of course, films you really deplore?
I hate films with an overly reactionary or moralist attitude.

Your website, Facebook, whatever else?
http://www.spidarlings.com
http://www.facebook.com/Spidarlings
http://www.twitter.com/Spidarlings
http://www.youtube.com/spidarlings

No, I think we covered it all.

And thank you! I’ve been a fan of (re)Search my Trash for a while and am I’m looking forward to reading future reviews and interviews.

© by Mike Haberfelner
[re]Search My Trash
http://www.searchmytrash.com/cgi-bin/articlecreditsb.pl?salemkapsaski%282-12%29

Please support our campaign on IndieGoGo by sending the link to your friends and relatives and by getting the word out on your social networks! Thanks :)
http://www.indiegogo.com/spidarlings

Our Fairy Godmother, the wonderful Lynn Ruth Miller just appeared on Britain’s Got Talent!

Lynn Ruth Miller on Britain’s Got Talent!

Spidarlings in Xandermonium Magazine

Spidarlings cast will appear on the radio show What’s On on FM Radio 101.4. :) More details soon.

Also if you haven’t done so yet, please check out the new video about Spidarlings featuring brand new clips with Rusty Goffe, Sophia Disgrace, Lynn Ruth Miller and a sneak peak of Tiffaney Wells performing a song from the film.

If you were listening to The Church of Rock radio show last night you will have already heard; but if not I’m excited to announce that Bloody F Mess has agreed to play “The Punk” in Spidarlings.

More exciting casting surprises coming up…

Most exciting news first, Lloyd Kaufman has agreed to play a small role in Spidarlings!

Also after our IndieGoGo campaign was at a stand-still for a week it has finally picked up again; albeit we are still far from reaching our goal. But what can one do, the show must go on!
Had a great shoot yesterday, with three different designers coming in to bring us some of the most stunning clothes we had in the film so far.
We managed to film quite a lot of scenes and I was in drag for the first time in my life with divinesque eyebrows (though I didn’t get to wear any of the great designer clothes and my appearance made the cleaning lady nearly die in laughter when she saw me… I guess I won’t be the next Divine after all)

As always here are some pictures: (exclusively to the people who actually still check this thread)
Juicy Girls Daria Bulygina, Amy Little and Scarlette

Recording artist Scarlette

Apple Juice!

Pretty pictures
like the clothes

Cannot wait to see Lloyd Kaufmann

when he wants to be he is a fine actor

Thank you Den.

Another still – Daria Bulygina as Lacy

David Michaels interviewed composer Jeff Kristian and me about Spidarlings for his Saturday afternoon radio show What’s On, on On-Fm 101.4

You can listen to our segment of the show here

pretty good intervew tho David seemed to have no idea what was being talked about

Thanks Den. David was a nice guy, but yeah I was kind of surprised that he didn’t know what Oompa-Loompas were. Still was great to be on his show.

Meet Rainer the Tarantula, star of the film!
He’s still a baby!

^ Cute.

Met Lloyd Kaufman tonight and got to see Troma’s new film Father’s Day at the Prince Charles Theatre.

Tomorrow we are shooting with Lloyd in Soho, who will play the role of Mr. Banner, the mysterious Spider salesmen in Spidarlings.

We transformed Gerry’s Bar in Soho into a store of strange curiosities yesterday to shoot some scenes with Lloyd Kaufman and Rainer The Tarantula.
Working with Lloyd was a fantastic experience, not to mention a geeky fanboy’s dream come true!

We were also joined by a wonderful Cinematographer Sandra Samacá since our cinematographer Lewis is still recovering from surgery.and director Liam Regan who is currently making a documentary about Lloyd Kaufman and filmed us on set for his upcoming film.

Some behind the scenes pictures (more soon)

Q&A with Lloyd Kaufman at the Prince Charles Theatre
(Lloyd introduces us and shortly talks about Spidarlings around 10 mins in)

Truly impressive

a hero of mind.

Now if you could get Charles Band to show up

Some more pictures from yesterday’s shoot with Spider whisperer Lloyd Kaufman (curtsey of Liam Regan)

Even more.

And if you aren’t sick of all the pictures I post here PLEASE Like us on Facebook for tons more!
http://www.facebook.com/Spidarlings

Group photo

The Marlon Brando of his Generation!

Only 8 days to go on our IndieGoGo campaign please help us finish our film (and feed Rainer! )
http://www.indiegogo.com/spidarlings

New Poster Artwork by Jeff Kristian.

Our Composer Jeff Kristian will be appearing as The Singing Drag Queen in the new series of Endemol’s Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother’s Bit On The Side. Jeff will be there on Channel 5 with Brian Dowling for the launch Tuesday 5th June and also for the first eviction Friday 8th June. Don’t forget to tune in!

jeffkristian.com/

Our IndieGoGo ended yesterday. Once again warm thanks to all the people who believed in us and have donated to help us continue making our film or shared the campaign. Your love and support means the world to us! While we have only raised 2% of our goal, we do not feel defeated and shooting will continue as planned, albeit a little bit slower.
Tomorrow we will shoot the musical finale of the film.

Jeff Kristian and Sophia Disgrace in the recording studio

Hey hey, it looks like a great production and glad to hear you are not discouraged. We also ran an IndieGoGo campaign (for the Ergodic Cinema Project) which raised a little bit of money but did not bring us very far at all. And we’re also still going too, albeit like your production, at a much slower rate.

You did a marvelous job at keeping us in the loop with pictures and sound and news and everything. It’s a ton of work I know — thank you for sharing so much of this project as it progresses, and wish you the very best with the completion of it!

Thank you so much Odilon. :)
Has principal photography for the Ergodic Cinema Project already began?

We shot a number of beautiful scenes yesterday including our musical finale.
Our new Cinematographer Sandra Samacá did magic with the lights, while our Spidarlings Sophia Disgrace and Rahel Kapsaski bravely endured the heat being tucked in bed with the high temperatures outside enhanced by all our film lights.

As always here’s a still:

With Sandra Samacá

Cast and crew taking a well deserved break in the garden

More behind the scenes pictures from our last shoot
(All pictures by Sandra Samacá U.)

your sister looks pretty cute

(is that bad to say?)