Page 14 - the NOISE August 2013

LEFT TO RIGHT: Angie Johnson-Schmit, Andrew Johnson-Schmit, Dino Palazzi, Kevin Goss, Blaine Walpole (zombie), Dan
The Prescott Film Festival (PFF) has just wrapped with an- other outstanding collection of films from the world of inde- pendent cinema. They honored Beth and George Gage and five
of their documentary films ending with Bidder 70, the Sundance award winning film. They also highlighted Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, in which most of the movie was filmed in Whedon’s house! Whether you desire to get out of the heat in Phoenix or only escape into the dreamscape of a dark theatre, Prescott has the answer for you. Visit their website for their Au- gust Schedule at: PrescottFilmFestival.com
The Noise was able to talk to Andrew Johnson-Schmit, the di- rector of the film, Dead Vote Society, which played at the Prescott film Festival to an enthusiastic crowd of zombie wannabes. We discussed the trials and tribulations of independent filmmakers who have to do almost everything on their own without a huge budget, relying instead on creative collaboration with friends and family — not a bad way to go when performing a labor of love. Andrew’s number one helper is Angie Johnson-Schmit, the writer-producer on the film. The couple also collaborated with writer Christian Smith, who moved to Springfield, Illinois but did much of his writing online.
tN: Where did the idea for Dead Vote Society come from?
Andrew: After Angie and I moved to Prescott, we were part of radio theatre comedy group on KJZA called Coyote Radio The- atre. We did it for eight years. Every year we did a fundraiser in early November called the Day of the Dead Dinner Show, so we had a lot of spooky stuff written. I started going through old scripts, looking for something that would work visually and was still funny years later. I came across this script called Dead Vote Society. It was about a post-zombie apocalypse that turned out to be not so apocalyptic. Now the zombies and everyone else are just trying to put their lives back together. Zombies are trying to get jobs, get back the rights they lost when they died and turned on everyone. Politicians see a whole new demographic to lure into the voting booths. It’s a mess! And sometimes you can get good comedy out of a mess like that. Plus, it’s set in the same small Northern Arizona town all our stuff is set in, Crest Top, AZ. (It’s pronounced “Cressed Tup” rhymes with “messed up.”) Obvi- ously, it’s not based on any real town.
How did the story take shape once you had the idea?
It’s all done over the internet now. After either Christian or I do a new pass on the script, Angie reads it and finds out where it works and where it doesn’t. Every comedy writer takes turns thinking his stuff is golden — all of it — or he has lost ability to write anything funny. What Angie does is find the “Ha!” that’s in there and figures out how to make it better. It’s always been our secret weapon. I’m liking the Angie/Christian/Andrew writ- ing style. If there’s an auteur, or the genius making the movie, it’s somewhere in-between the three of us.
So, it wasn’t so much being huge fans of horror that wrote DVS. Or trying to cash in on the way zombies are so popular now, it’s just in the air these days and zombies can stand for just about anything. That’s what I loved about George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the sequels, there was interesting ideas about things like race and consumerism; along with noises in the dark, blood everywhere and flesh-eating ghouls. They had something
Seaman and Judy Stahl on the set of Dead Votes Society. PHOTO By DENISE ELFENBEIN
for the pointy-headed intellectual AND his creepy nephew at the movies.
How did the various production departments come together and figure out positions for cast and crew?
It all starts with the script. I agree with Akira Kurasawa when he said “the script is the flag we are following as we head off to battle.” So, we sweat the script pretty hard to get things tight before we get to the location and have extras standing around looking at us. I think next time we’ll call ourselves co-director and co-producer. People kept thinking of Angie and I that way and it gets old trying to convince them not to ask the closest one of us what to do. Angie and I work as a team. If one of us really
“gets the piece,” the other supports that.
Angie and I are both journalists, so we know a lot of Prescott
actors from covering shows at the Prescott Center for the Arts and other venues. We set up open auditions and videotaped people playing different roles. It was interesting seeing people take a role in different directions.
We got so lucky with our crew too! Helen Stephenson, from the Prescott Film Festival, suggested Forrest Sandefer and I’d seen his work on Ken Gregg’s movie here in town and thought he’d be right for the job. Then I met with him and immediately thought, “this guy’s fantastic.” Forrest had worked in LA and you could tell he had experience right away.
Nick Stecki helped us with the sound mixing and Matt Jack- son is a local jazz keyboardist who started making films on his own. He offered to do the soundtrack and when you’re doing comedy, having a great, fresh soundtrack, takes everything to a whole new level. Lots of friends pitched in, we absolutely could not have done it without them. And finally, Ridge Gallagher, a make-up artist who works in LA helped Penelope Davis, an art- ist in Prescott, design some zombie make-up techniques.”
What do you hope will come of this film?
I’d like to get DVS into a flock of film festivals, especially the Palm Springs International Film Festival — which is like the Sundance of short movies. I hope it gets a lot of laughs out there, because this world could use a little bit more of that.
Good luck Andrew and Angie! Check: DeadVoteSociety.com
The Sedona International Film Festival (SIFF) continues its relationship with the Mary D. Fisher Theatre to give Northern Arizona the best of independent film, dance and theatre offer- ings. Check out their website at SedonaFilmFestival.com for all the great listings in August!
Start to mark your calendar for September when NAU returns with their two great film series. The Classic Film Series cele- brates its 10th year in Cline Library for free on Tuesday nights and The International Film Series shows their free films Wednesday nights in the Liberal Arts Building room 120. Keep your eyes peeled for our September edition or go to: nau.edu/cal/events/ calevents/ for their full schedules!
| Bob Reynolds hates in when a kernel finds its way into his molars. bob699669@hotmail.com
14 • AUGUST 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us