Interview with Days of Vengence director, Isaac Pingree |
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| Written by Bruce Frigeri | ||||||
| Wednesday, 12 May 2010 | ||||||
 "Jake Reid travels to smalltown Covelo, CA to dig up the past and the missing loot from the botched robbery that killed his outlaw father years earlier. But Covelo proves to be a town of many dark secrets, and a strong dislike for nosey outsiders."This is the synopsis from Days of Vengence, a crime thriller that is the latest release from Lifesize Entertainment. We sat down with the director of the movie, Isaac Pingree and asked him relate his experiences making this feature. Indiefilmchat: Tell us a little about your background and how you came to make Day Of Vengeance? Isaac Pingree: I'd wanted to make a feature since I got interested in film at age 15 or so. While in college at UC Santa Cruz, I was feeling impatient and decided that it was something that I could do if I properly used all my resources. I was lucky to have an older cousin, Mike Foodman, who was pursuing a career in cinematography and a friend, Sebastian Passanisi, who was pursuing screenwriting. We teamed up and did the best we could. IFC: A big failure of recent American indie cinema has been the rather fuzzy storytelling. Day Of Vengeance avoids this problem by being a classic genre narrative with a very tight script. Was this an intentional choice or did this kind of storytelling just evolve organically?  Isaac Pingree: The town of Covelo inspired the choice of genre. A friend of ours lived there and it seemed like the perfect setting for a crime thriller with a modern western feel. The key to almost every genre movie is telling a story efficiently and keeping things moving, so we worked very hard to make sure that the script didn't let the pace drag too much. At the same time, we wanted to make sure that the town of Covelo and its inhabitants felt real, so we tried to work scenes around places or events that already exist in the town. This was both an attempt to let the story flow from the place and the characters as organically as possible, and to maximize our very small budget.IFC: We have long written about the need for American independents to embrace their place and not be afraid to make a "regional" film. You have clearly done this with Day Of Vengeance. What made you decide to make a film in rural California as opposed to L.A. or S.F. where you and team members are based? Isaac Pingree: I chose the setting of the film before we even had a story. There were two main reasons I wanted to make a film in this small town in Northern California. The first is that it offers a beautiful backdrop and I thought it would separate the look and feel of the film from so many urban indies. The second reason was logistics: I knew a rural setting would offer us freedom from the prohibitive permitting laws and location expenses that would have been unavoidable in a city. IFC: How do you think making a film in such a small town setting affected your creative process and the final product? Isaac Pingree: The plan was always to incorporate as many locals and local characteristics into the film as we could, so the creative thinking process was always based on how to best use and highlight the locations and the talents of the people that were already there. What I hadn't counted on was how helpful all the locals in Covelo turned out to be. Their enthusiastic involvement and many contributions were absolutely invaluable to the production. IFC: How did you raise the money needed to produce and finish Day Of Vengeance? Isaac Pingree: I read up on how the low-budget films I love had raised their money, and then followed the model laid out by films such as The Evil Dead. I wrote an investment prospectus and I used that along with a short " prototype" film to pitch the idea to anyone who would listen b spiraling outward from family, to friends of family, to friends of friends. Late in post-production, when all else failed, I opened up a few credit card accounts. IFC: Too many filmmakers take the process of casting for granted. How did you go about assembling your very strong cast? Isaac Pingree: Larry Laverty and Johnnie Rodriguez had worked with us before, so we had them in mind during the screenwriting process. We also held auditions in San Francisco and found some very talented and experienced actors such as David Fine and Tony Sommers. Lastly, we held auditions in Covelo and filled out the cast with locals. Overall, we ended up with an eclectic and exciting mix of actors, from Stu Klitsner, a staple of Bay Area acting, who has shared screen time with Steve McQueen and Will Smith, to Mike Reynolds, a Covelo apple farmer who, despite having no acting experience, was a natural as a barfly itching for some vigilante justice. IFC: How much pre-production did you and your team do before shooting actually began? How many days were you in actual production? Isaac Pingree: We did about a year of part-time pre-production (I had school and Mike and Sebastian had jobs to attend to), then two weeks of pre-production on location and six weeks of shooting on location. IFC: I was struck by how great Day Of Vengeance looks. So many cinematographers still struggle with the strengths and weaknesses of high def cameras but that is certainly not the case with the final product of your film. Did you have a working relationship with your Director Of Photography before you assembled your team or did you just bring him in? Isaac Pingree: We actually shot the movie on Super 16mm film, which is one of the reasons it looks good. The other reason is Mike Foodman, the director of photography. (The downside of film is that its costs took up most of our budget.) Mike was in fact the first person to join me on the project, not only as DP but as a producer as well (he is also my third cousin). Photographically, we tried to embrace our lack of lighting equipment and budgetary limitations. We shot outdoors in daylight as much as possible, and we worked with shadows and low light during all nighttime and interior scenes rather than trying to overcome them. IFC: What was your favorite part of the filmmaking process and why? Isaac Pingree: As is typical of low-budget films, each member of our small production crew had to wear many hats. Little did I know that on top of serving as our screenwriter and production manager, Sebastian would become an amazing full-time chef for the cast and crew. Everyday, the shoots were difficult and tested us all, but everyone looked forward to whatever delicious concoction Seb served up for dinner. IFC: What was your least favorite part of the filmmaking process and why? Isaac Pingree: I generally enjoy all parts of the filmmaking process, but external factors can make it less enjoyable. We filmed a good chunk of the movie through a record heat wave that kept the temperature around 110 degrees. This forced us to have another equally important goal on top of making the day, making sure no one died from heat stroke. IFC: What was your biggest challenge in making this film? Isaac Pingree: For most of the shoot the entire crew consisted of Mike, Sebastian, and I, plus a friend of mine on sound (though there were a fair amount of days with just 3 of us). This made everyday a challenge, just making sure we were prepared with everything we needed, keeping things running smoothly and trying to keep our actors comfortable, while not getting bogged down so much in the work behind the camera that we lost focus on the story in front of the camera. The other challenge in working so closely together, with each of us covering many jobs, was making sure that, in spite of any tensions or disagreements, we kept our set free from physical violence. IFC: Would you share one " war story" from the production? Isaac Pingree: We bought a Digital Audio Tape recorder on E-bay. Its constant malfunctioning plagued the production. I won't share all the details, but I will ask this of your readers, if you live in the Boston area and you ever meet a guy named Razi4211, punch him in the gut. IFC: What is your next project? Isaac Pingree: I'd like to do another film on location in a rural setting, but exponentially more remote - a horror film set in the campo of Paraguay, based on their folklore. We're currently in the very early stages of development. IFC: Any advice for aspiring independent filmmakers? Isaac Pingree: I think I'll make a couple more films before I start doling out advice on the subject. But I can say that for me two of the best pieces of guidance I've ever found on directing and independent filmmaking, respectively, are the Coppola's Notebook extra feature on The Godfather DVD, and Robert Rodriguez's commentary track and 10 Minute Film School on the El Mariachi DVD.
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