Film Courage: At what point did the stakes rise for you with making films where you had
money that was given to you and it became more serious and then it became
more stressful at times because now you're responsible for more? How did
you handle this? Brad Sykes, Filmmaker: I think that one of the movies that that happened for me on was a
movie idea called DEMON'S KISS which was...well it was a big...was the biggest budget
I'd had until that point I'd probably directed five or six movies to that
point and DEMON'S KISS was a bigger budget was shot on film.
That's right off the bat that's puts you in another bracket economically you know
and it was a longer schedule and was just a bigger film and it was the first
film I was making for this particular company and I was I think this and also
it was a script that I hit was a concept I had pitched to the investor which I
should point out that a lot of the films are made back then especially horror
films and exploitation films and stuff sometimes someone would just come to you
or they'd come to the producer you're working with and say we want to make
this movie X movie and are you in or you're out they already had a title
they're at artwork they'd already done pre-sales and Milan or something and
they it was your choice whether you want to be involved in the movie or not
demons kiss was something I pitched I had the title the concept and I pitched
it and it got the green light so and I was writing it and directing it so I was
I was very it was very important to me not only to handle the you know the
production well and and you know come in on budget and you know that was but to
make a good movie that I'd be happy with too because I was actually getting more
resources to do it with you know that was that was one of the films I think
for sure that I was you know and it wasn't I can't say I had fun making that
movie you know I mean I've made movies what I all of him say is the movies I've
had the most fun making they didn't turn out as well or they didn't do as well
some of the ones that have been nightmares to make they they're like my
most of my most successful films you know I it's
I don't know why exactly that is sometimes because I work hard on
everything I direct but it just turns out that way sometimes demons kiss was a
was a really hard movie to make it wasn't a huge pit necessarily but it
wasn't you know didn't disappear either it's kind of somewhere in the middle but
I just remember every day on that talking about a little different
location every day I had to DPS I had a DP who was forced on the production who
was more or less trying to take over the movie I had to take him aside early on
and tell him that that's not going to happen that's not gonna work and and
after that he was fine but that was something I had to contend with on the
first day of shooting there was a lot of nudity in the film it was an erotic
thriller and it was the most of those type of scenes I've ever ever had to
direct at that point so thankfully the actors are really cool and professional
and all that but that was kind of a challenge for me too
and I just you know just the post-production was also very
challenging let's just say in terms of the movie I saw it being vs. with the
executive producer saw it as being but yeah that was probably the first times
I'm her feeling and I just got married too so it was like it was first movie I
made after I got married and and we've been prepping it for a long time so you
know you have the more prep you have sometimes the more psyched out you can
get that's why I don't like to have too much crap on a film like I've sung but
not too much because after a while you can start to psych yourself out a bit
that's really interesting the the ones that didn't turn out the best actually
were the most fun and then vice versa that's it's weird I mean like for
example I mentioned this movie death factory that had in blockbuster my first
movie in Blockbuster ok that was a nightmare to make that movie we're
shooting in a location that didn't have running water and barely had electricity
there are no bathrooms and it was interior and it was in the dead of
summer super hot and we were like being in fans that it wasn't enough it was a
haunted attraction like a closed down haunted attraction that we were shooting
in that was closed for the summer but they it was just a
you know was ridiculous and there was a lot of effects there was a lot of gore
everyone was getting covered in blood sticky blood and our days would always
go longer and longer and you know it was one of those shoots where you start off
with normal days and then by like day five or six years starting in like 5:00
p.m. you know and it was really tough to make but that ended up being one of my
most well known successful movies I will say we were making it I had a feeling
about it that it would do well that it would do well and they would turn out
well actually I don't know how I managed to do well I knew would turn out well
because I just could see what I was seeing on screen I could see that you
know in the monitor and on set I could tell that it was delivering it was a
kind of movie I'd like to see you know that I would be happy with it if I
rented it that's like my gauge a lot of times you
know most of the time is I want to see a film I want to make it from that I'd
like to see that I'd be happy with as a jaded horror fan you know so yeah does
one start out a jaded horror fan or already builds after it builds it builds
because because I see I interact a lot with like fans and stuff and there's
like fans of different generations who like my so my older movies and stuff and
there's like just starting out and it's funny because like people who it's fun
to almost to see somebody get excited about some 80s slasher that you've seen
like 20 times or you've seen 10 times and you're like yeah whatever what's the
big deal about that but what is a big deal to them now because they're just
discovering it but you do get yeah once you see more and more stuff you do get
jaded yeah and then you've made movies too on top of it you really get you know
it's it's hard to maintain the kind of enthusiasm and you know the excitement
about new release horror you know sometimes right you know we all
I'm coming here whatever age I always say well I'm not going to end up like
that like so dream crusher or whatever and then I think enough things happen
and you don't mean to do it and I'm not saying that's how you are I'm just
saying but we all have to like check ourselves because it's like so easy you
do it jaded about whatever it is I saw a lot of that too
when I first moved here I saw it from guys who are in their 40s right when I
was in my early 20s or get into my mid-20s I saw guys in their 40s who are
super jaded and I thought they had the best jobs in the world and I'm like what
are you complaining about what's your problem and you know of course there are
levels to all these things that people if you don't really know them you don't
know the whole story or but I I mean just having said that this is a general
statement I think it's very very important to keep your enthusiasm about
what you're doing and your gratefulness for what you've been able to accomplish
because you know it's very very hard to make any movie any movie any type of
movie any budget movie whatever it's very very difficult and anyone who does
that I mean that's an accomplishment right there and there's you know if
you've been able to blend lucky enough to make a few and then then some of
those have actually gone out and have fans and people that like your stuff and
they appreciate what you've done that that's you know you should be very
appreciative of that I think I don't think you should ever lose your
appreciation for that or your love of the game and it's really hard to lose
your loop it's really easy to lose your love of the game because this is a very
difficult game to be in it's probably easier to maintain your love of cinema
than it is the business of cinema you know but you can't have one without the
other so yeah that's true I know so I think if you dip your toe back into what
you don't want then you have a new appreciation for kind of like what you
have a little bit because ya can I think it's very easy to see the glass half
empty we I think we're as humans are engineered that way no matter what we're
doing what field ran but I see it sometimes from other filmmakers that
seem like they're not my peers who have also some very cool accomplishments but
they always seem to focus on the thing that they didn't get the store that
their movie didn't get into the festival they didn't get into the money they
didn't make the this that and I'm thinking you know you can choose to see
it that way but there's so many other good things that have happened for your
film that you ought to be happy with and sometimes that's something that
Josephina I talk about is let's always be grateful and thrilled for the stuff
that goes right and stuff that works and the people that approached us about
doing cool things with the movie because you should be appreciative of that stuff
and there's a lot of people out there doing it you know the more people now
that when I started making all kinds of movies so you do have to kind of you
have to train yourself to see it half-full I think because there's a lot
of negativity but you just don't want to get and let that be the mean you're like
your go-to reaction you know right and I like what you said about there's
difference between the love of cinema and then the love for the business but
sometimes the love of cinema can reignite it it does it does I mean like
we watch movies you know regularly and all different types of movies new movies
old things we haven't seen sand those watch something that we just both love
and like we both love Paul Schrader films and like when we first met we
first started talking my Paul Schrader and I thought there was a girl that
knows who Paul Schrader is and was like and she's in Romania and she loves
horror movies and and you know because most people like in was in film school
most people were only interested in Kevin Smith and Tarantino they didn't
care about Bob Fosse shrade or freaking you know any of these guys so and I was
more interested in that type of stuff so we'll just watch something that we
really love that we know it's good and then you discover another layer of it
usually because these are great films they hold up for you know we're P
viewings and you discover another layer whether it's the sound or the
photography or a performance or something so yeah you need to renew your
your love for movies that way I think for sure yeah and when all else goes
wrong just yes yeah it's absolutely absolutely remind you why you're doing
this while you're putting yourself through this and guess what otherwise
why way it's torture that I'm torturing myself you're why you know well you're
it's something you're aspiring to and it's also a world that you want to
contribute to and that's what we're you know that's what we're doing this
because we want to contribute to to film to the you know not to sound pretentious
but the you know the art of cinema or the history of film or whatever you want
to call it sort of must love dogs most love well not even right exactly that
would be yeah prerequisite must be a fan of Americans
and cat people
you