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| MOVIE ENTRY |
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| title: |
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NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH |
| directed by: |
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Graeme Whifler |
| writing credits: |
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Graeme Whifler |
| location: |
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Glendale, CA, USA |
| official website: |
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www.neighborhoodwatchthefilm.com |
| press website: |
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Neighborhood Watch press site |
| synopsis: |
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A man tries to police his neighborhood from an outbreak of perverted sex. Starring Nick Searcy (Days of Thunder, Runaway Jury, Prince of Tides.(Q & A after the film) |
| runtime: |
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92 min. |
| screening: |
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Film Program 4 [ refer to schedule ] |
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Dark Romance Commentary |
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"I
can't believe what I just
saw..."
That's the dazed reaction
of most movie watchers after
a showing of Graeme Whifler's
"Neighborhood Watch."
The reputation gathered
by this film continues to
grow, with most viewers
describing how they were
horrified, but were compelled
to watch. The more sensitive
often declare the film to
be "too realistic."
Reports of some audience
members fainting or feeling
ill during the experience
have only fueled its notoriety.
In these jaded times, how
many horror movies would
love to have buzz like that? |
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| How long did your project take to create, from conception to final completion? |
| The first daft of Neighborhood Watch was penned almost fifteen years ago. Then, after many years of careful aging, the script was dusted off, polished, and about a year later the movie was ready for public consumption. |
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| Where did your inspiration come from? |
| Neighborhood Watch is inspired by two true stories I heard on the news. In both cases, people who were quite mentally ill, quietly went about doing things that were terribly perverse and disgusting before getting caught. Sorry, I'd love to say exactly what they did because it's so awful and they had so much fun, but I don't want to spoil any surprises in the movie. Anyway, I melded these two sick and twisted head-cases into one film character named Adrien who boils over with obsessions, compulsions, and conflicts, and I put him in a suburban neighborhood and gave him a nice young couple to fixate on. At that point the script more or less wrote itself. I just put myself in Adrien's head and figured all the naughty things I'd have to do to the nice young couple to make them pay. for being nice. The writing was easy and sublime, like dreaming. Technically, yes I was feeling antisocial at the time and had a few anger issues, but now I'm fine. As far as directing and the actual making of the movie, I didn't try in the least to make it a "no-holds-barred stomach churner", I simply shot what was in the script faithfully, so you might say I was just following orders. |
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| Is Horror or Sci-Fi your primary creative interest? |
| When people ask, "Graeme, what kind of films do you like?" I stare at them with hateful vacant eyes and respond in a dead threatening tone, "I like movies where people get hurt". Of course movies where people get hurt includes all good tragedies, dramas, thrillers, comedies, and yes even those of the horror genre. For some reason though, whatever I endeavor to create, the results are always rather dark, some would say black. |
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| Can you describe a typical day in the process of creating your film? |
| I really can't describe the creative process; it's quite personal and often dreadfully ugly. |
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| Who do you consider to be the greatest horror writer? |
| The greatest horror writer, one of whom I've read almost every word he ever penned, would have to be Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. |
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| Can you recall the first horror film that left a lasting impression on you? |
| Both the 1922 Nosferatu, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre left me with paralyzing nightmares that I found quite delightful. |
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| Who do you consider to be the greatest 'Master of Horror'? |
| Roman Polanski. |
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| How many participants comprised your crew? |
| We started off with a crew of over 127 but by the last day of shooting that number had shrunk to five and a half, most attrition due to psychological issues and/or intestinal disorders. |
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| How many castmembers? |
| Neighborhood Watch features 25 speaking parts and a Greyhound busload of extras. |
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| How did you find your cast? |
| We found our cast in the normal way. We asked around, we begged, and we put out a call in the Breakdown service which led to auditioning over 1600 actors and actresses. An no sex was involved at any time! |
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| Did you re-edit your film after the first cut? |
| Neighborhood Watch underwent countless cuts, scores of people were taken off the street and offered a pass at the editing, and everybody got their two cents in, from PA's and janitors to the producer's mom. It was a splendid democratic effort. |
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| Did you shoot on film or with digital cameras? |
| We shot everything on Super 16mm in eighteen days; no pickups, no reshoots. I never watched dailies. Why bother? I knew everything we exposed on film was going to look wonderful and cut together perfectly because we were so incredibility talented and modest. Now I must say that the biggest part of that "WE", the guy who is most responsible for the film looking like a 100 million dollar production is Bernd Heinl, our Director of Photography. Bernd, an old-school pro, had shot killer "Indie" movies like, Out of Rosenheim (aka Bagdad Café), and Rosalie Goes Shopping. Bernd is a true Filmmaker - not some film-school video sissy - who not only knows the motion picture camera and lighting, he also knows editing and most importantly, STORY. Our collaboration was so close, so effortless, that on our set communication was limited to winks, hand gestures, grunts and dirty jokes. We didn't even need storyboards or shot lists because we had designed the film using our psychic powers. Of course the fact that Bernd is a big fan of movies about diarrhea was a big plus. |
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| If you could choose any famous actors to work with on future projects, who would they be? |
This is such an easy question. The actor who I'd most like to work with, the one that slays me every time I witness his work, just happens to be the greatest actor to have ever graced the screen. That actor is of course Mr. Amitabh Bachchan*. And if his son Abhishek were part of the package, well that would be heaven.
* the Indian superstar of numerous Bollywood films. |
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