God Hates Geeks is tearing into the film indie world with our first coverage and interview with two extremely talented filmmakers about their soon to be distributed thriller horror film, Run Like Hell.
Up-and-coming filmmaking duo James Thomas and Canyon Prince are the driving force behind Two Guys and a Film, one of the hot new production companies trail blazing with not one but two new films soon to hit distribution: Run Like Hell and Hard Sun. Your favorite “Traveling Nerd”, Lance Paul, and all around Horror fan was able to snag an exclusive interview with these two horror buffs and pick their brains on breaking into the business and the making of Run Like Hell.
Sit back and enjoy my fellow Film Nerds!
Can you talk a bit about how you two got into filmmaking and how Two Guys and a Film came about?
Canyon Prince: I’ve always been involved in film, from a very early age. I grew up on films and knew that’s what I wanted to do. I started as an actor, and then when the WGA strike happened, I started getting into directing. With Two Guys, it started as a conversation back in 2011. James was wanting to direct his first feature, and I wanted to direct my first, so we decided to start the company and go shoot both films back to back. Here we are a couple years later and both are releasing and we’ve got a ton of projects in development. It’s nice.
James Thomas: When I was a kid I would shoot little shorts and fake music videos with my friends. It wasn’t until I watched ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ remake, that it hit me – “This is what I want to do with my life!” What really caught me in that film was the cinematography because it was so stunning!
Two Guys sparked out of a desire to create something bigger than what Canyon or I had done before. We both had wanted to step up our game and do a feature film for some time! So we met for sushi in Burbank and talked about the possibility of doing two features back-to-back. That was in December of 2011, by January of 2012 we were location scouting and in July we went into production on our first film ‘HARD SUN’. ‘RUN LIKE HELL’ came less than a month later!
Tell GHG more about some of the hurdles you two over came to wrap not one but two features right out of the gate? Thats Hectic!
CP: I think the biggest hurdle was mental. We decided very early on that we couldn’t listen to anybody’s negativity regarding what we were doing. We knew it was crazy and next to impossible, but we didn’t need people reminding us of that everyday. We were very selective with who we brought on board to join us. Once production started on Hard Sun, we just kept pushing and riding that momentum through Run Like Hell.
JT: You hear this one a lot, but you’ll never have enough time or money on a film. I feel like we experienced the heightened version of that because we were making a micro-budget movie. That creates a huge set of obstacles because you can’t just buy your way out of a problem.
As storytellers what part of “Run Like Hell,” spoke to you?
CP: What spoke to me was the simple idea that someone doesn’t have to wear a mask or have super human strength to be a frightening villain. In real life, there are some monsters out there doing horrible things to people, and that’s what we focused on in the film.
JT: I always find that movies where people are the villains become the most terrifying. I love a good supernatural horror film as well, but we really wanted to explore the idea that you could look at someone, even talk to them, and never know they’re about to kill you. That’s the really terrifying truth in our world. Monsters don’t exist, people do.
While filming Run Like Hell and Hard Sun were there certain other filmmakers that influenced your style and method for filming?
CP: As a lover of film, you obviously get inspired by different directors and cinematographers. Run Like Hell was definitely a gritty throwback to 70’s horror. There was also a lot of Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects in there. With Hard Sun, I think the two films that were the biggest influence both tonally and visually were Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games. In Hard Sun, we also had a shot we referred to as the Aronofsky, which we used several times in the film. We even had a really long take version of it that we called the Taranofsky.
JT: I have many influences ranging from Stanly Kubrick, to Wes Craven, to Rob Zombie. I think that as a creative person you can’t help but be influenced. On Run Like Hell, movies like The Devil’s Rejects and The Hills Have Eyes were big influencers on me.
As a fellow indie filmmaker who has been able to squeeze every dime out of a budget, what were your biggest budget headaches? Where did the most money allocate to?
CP: Bottom line is, you never have enough time or money. And both of those things inherently effect the other. The less money you spend, the more time, and vice versa. It was a constant balancing act of where we were going to spend money and where we were going to spend time.
JT: It would have been nice to have a bigger special effects budget on the film, both for bigger kills in the movie and for more time to shoot them. Practical effects are super hard to do and they never go right the first time, so you’ve got to allow more time for those.
For other indie filmmakers juicing to cut their first feature, what was your method and main course of action once raising the budget started? Obviously not giving away any special recipes. ha
CP: Our approach has changed over time. I really believe, now, that raising money from traditional investors is much easier than getting friends to donate through crowd funding. Especially in LA, where all your friends are busy trying to get their own projects off the ground. Nowadays, we have a whole pitch deck and PPM that we put together for each film and utilize that when going after the money. Either way, the most important thing is to get that first feature under your belt.
JT: It was very simple. We went to everyone we knew that had money and asked them to be involved. We got quite a few ‘Nos’ but there were also some pretty amazing people that believed in our idea. That’s the bigger lesson in all of this I think. You’re going to have a bunch of people that tell you “Don’t do it” or “You’re Crazy!” You can’t listen to them. You almost have to have tunnel vision. You already know that what you are doing is crazy and feels impossible, but you can’t let that overwhelm you. I would say take it one step at a time. Focus on location scouting until you lock down some locations and then move on to the next item on the list. Before you know it you will be on set shooting your film!
We have heard your next goal is 5 films in the next 2 years. So with this in mind, whats up next?
CP: That’s actually been rapidly expanding. We’ve got about eight films in development right now, along with four television shows. The next film I’ll be directing is a paranormal haunter called Lot 310. James is currently working on an urban sci-fi film that’s going to be pretty great.
JT – At the heart of that is really just creating more content. Using the momentum we’ve built to continuing on and make more films. In the immediate future, we’re releasing our next film ‘HARD SUN’ in November and looking forward onto the next films. The first of which is a pretty great film called ‘Lot 310’. Canyon and I have spent a lot of time on this incredible story based on true events. I am working on a new sci-fi/horror project that is pretty exciting.
For behind the scenes shots with Two Guys and a Film and Run Like Hell check out their site also “like” Run Like Hell on Facebook and “follow” Two Guys and a Film on Twitter.
James Thomas Directs. Dave Finn, Canyon Prince, Robyn Buck, Tamara Carey, and J Michael Biggs
Synopsis: When four friends end up stranded in the small town of Spaulding, one local family offers help. The family’s real motives become terrifyingly obvious, as the couples find themselves fighting for their lives.