An Interview with Wes Sullivan; Nightbeasts
During his 17 year career as an animator at Walt Disney, Wes Sullivan lent his artistic talents to a slew of Disney features including: Pocahontas, Hercules, Tarzan, Mulan, Treasure Planet, Fantasia 2000, The Goofy Movie, The Lion King, Treasure Planet, Home on the Range, The Princess and the Frog among others.
Several years ago, seeking to get into “live action” projects and wanting to fulfill his desire to direct, Wes formed Treehouse Pictures and wrote, produced and directed his first feature length live action horror film, Nightbeasts.
Shot in 35mm scope and starring Sci-fi/Horror favorite Zach Galligan (Gremlins, Waxwork), Nightbeasts tells the story of a recently divorced father, Charles Thomas who takes his son Tim on a weekend deer hunting trip in the mountains in the hope of bridging the emotional gulf between them that’s been caused by the divorce. Charles owns a rustic cabin that was left to him by his father in the mountains that becomes their base camp for their trip. What neither of them knows is that the timing of their trip coincides with the awakening of an ancient evil, the Sasquatch, that creates a horrific life and death situation for them and the other mountain inhabitants.
IFQ’s Briege MGarrity had the pleasure of catching up with Wes to hear more about the elements that went into the production of Nightbeasts, a horror film that is actually fun to watch and has been garnering buzz and awards on the festival circuit.
Independent Film Quarterly (IFQ): Tell me about your thinking behind Nightbeasts and what compelled you to tell this story?
Wes Sullivan (WS): The origin of Nightbeasts can be traced to an interest in the Bigfoot legend that started 30 years ago when Leonard Nimoy first infected me with the virus. It’s all his fault! Seriously, when I was a kid in the 70’s, his show” In Search Of ” did an expose on the Bigfoot phenomenon and I recalled being frightened and at the same time attracted to the notion of some “other” life form sharing the planet with us that was neither man nor beast and yet was smart enough to evade detection for the most part. There’s something really disconcerting on a primal, visual level, seeing a large hairy primate that you know is powerful enough to kill you, walking around on two legs. Just recently, we saw the strange case of a gorilla walking upright in a British zoo so it’s within the realm of possibility. It was always there in the back of my subconscious. Over the years and into adulthood, I saw numerous documentaries on the subject hosted by the likes of Arthur C. Clark. I read gorilla expert Jane Goodall’s thoughts on the subject and her “hope” that it existed and studied the seminal visual evidence of the creature, the Patterson footage. Now I have to preface this by saying that I’ve worked professionally as an artist, an animator for 20 years and a big part of what I do on any project is “action analysis.” We do this to understand the thing we’re going to caricature, be it a dog or a cat. To my trained eye, the Patterson footage is intriguing in that the creature depicted moves and turns its head like a primate using its whole body and shoulders and not like a man in a suit. Its stride and proportions also differ from a man in a suit. If it’s a fake, it’s a damn good one.
In the mid 90’s, I wrote a short story that contained all the characters that appear in the film and it went over very well so I decided to expand it and make it my first live action feature film.
IFQ: How did you go about making Nightbeasts?
WS: The making of the film started with the acquisition of equipment. My previous filming experience as a film student was on 16mm and I always liked the aesthetic of film. I was aware of the digital revolution and even did experiments shooting shorts on Mini Dv but it was still just video to me. I’m first and foremost an artist and film has a painterly quality that not even a RED camera can duplicate. On weekends and on my lunch hour, I haunted Hollywood camera houses looking for affordable “used ” 35mm movie cameras. My desire was to make the most professional looking movie possible and 35mm film was and is the gold standard. I initially purchased a used Arriflex 2b camera which sounds like a loud sewing machine and is primarily a MOS camera. But I found a large aluminum Blimp housing that weighed 130 lbs on eBay that the 2b camera would go inside thus turning it into a studio sound camera, making it virtually silent so that I could shoot dialogue scenes with actors. This was all state of the art stuff in the mid 1960’s. I loaded this baby with film and shot numerous camera tests and had the dallies projected in a professional lab and the results were mind blowing. What I saw looked like a “real” movie. A movie is 35mm. I bought another ancient camera the following year, a 35mm Mitchell camera that weighed even more than the arriflex in the blimp, but it is an awesome camera as well. Most of the “classic” movies made were shot on a Mitchell from Casablanca to Gone with the Wind to the original Star Trek TV series. I’ve always bought my own equipment starting in college when I bought my first camera, a CP-16.We had an equipment “cage” where you could sign out equipment to shoot your projects, but the” best” gear always went to the students who were friends with the guys that worked in the cage. I wasn’t friends with any of them so you could guess what happened. Owning gear was always my ticket to independence and freedom as a filmmaker. At any rate, I paid a Hollywood camera tech to install modern video taps on my large, ancient cameras and Nightbeasts was filmed with those with excellent results. My cinematographer and I held training seminars in my backyard on weekends to train the younger crew members who would be on the film in the ways of my arcane camera gear. Next up was raising the money which was a grassroots affair involving friends and family. Everyone in front of and behind the lens was paid “something” except for me [Laughs].
IFQ: Now that you have formed your own company Treehouse Pictures, what kind of projects most interest you?
WS: I formed my company Treehouse Pictures to give myself a level of autonomy in the development and making of my movies. As the Writer/Producer/Director, I can tell the type of horror and sci-fi stories that I find entertaining and enlightening of the human condition with minimal interference. By keeping the budgets modest, I can retain a greater authorship of the films.
IFQ: How did casting go and how did you get Zach Galligan attached?
WS: Casting Nightbeasts proved to be very challenging as it was difficult to cast the Native American roles. I saw every Native American actor in Hollywood before settling on the Apesanhahquat (A veteran of the art film Baghdad Cafe and the TV Show Northern Exposure) as Lewis Freebird and Sonny Skyhawk as the chief and Audra Wise as Morning Sky and the now departed Billy Daydodge as Leroy Crustyfoot.
Casting Zach Galligan was pure kismet. From the time I wrote the screenplay, he was the only actor that I ever saw in my mind’s eye doing the role of Charles Thomas. I must have sent a message out to the Universe via telepathy that he was “the man.” Because shortly after finishing the script, I was surprised to find that an acquaintance of mine had his telephone number. We were having dinner and she asked “Who do you see playing this role?” and I answered “Zach Galligan” and at that moment she called him up right then and there.
I know what this sounds like [Laughs]. When I was a frustrated wannabe filmmaker, I would often read crap like this and want to vomit. It’s so easy. It’s as if the heavens open up and gold rains down from heaven on some “chosen” dude fresh out of film school. I can assure you this was not the case! I sent him the script and months went by. I REPEAT months went by, He had other commitments and was on the fence about doing the film. Afterall, he didn’t know me from Adam. So we corresponded via email and I explained things in the script that he was unclear about and also emailed him various pieces of preproduction art that I created like storyboards and such. He was STILL on the fence. Finally, I wrote a very long and detailed character sketch containing the history, genealogy, eating habits and health of his character Charles Thomas. Finally, he agreed and we had our Star.
IFQ: You have enjoyed a prolific day job as an animator. it’s interesting that your debut feature is a horror! Do you normally gravitate towards unsettling, horror films?
WS: My day job has been working on G rated family films which I enjoy, but I’ve always had interest in classic horror and Sci-fi literature like HP Lovecraft, Stephen King, Robert Heinlein and Cyril Cornbluth as well as cinematic horror by the likes of John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, William Friedkin and Ridley Scott. I am NOT a fan of modern torture porn movies like Saw.
IFQ: What was your experience like at Walt Disney?
WS: My experience with Disney was wonderful. I was able to work on some of the most successful and highest grossing movies of all time. It was very much a collaborative effort. At the height of any production, well over 1,200 artists and technicians can have their hands in the mix. It is slow motion filmmaking, sometimes 5 years from pre-production to a finished project all taking place under a large corporate umbrella where no expense is spared. Very talented artists work in tandem, putting their egos aside to realize a common vision. It is quite a contrast to the making of Nightbeasts
Nightbeasts was driven by me at the top of the pyramid as producer/writer/ director. The budget was modest and time was limited. It was filmmaking at 90 mph from pre-production to finish. The crew at its largest was just 20-30 people.
IFQ: Night Beasts seems to getting good word of mouth as well as awards? Were you surprised being it’s your first feature film?
WS: I am very pleased that Nightbeasts is winning awards and gaining notoriety. It is a great validation of all the hard work and sacrifice that I’ve put into the project as well as all the hard work and sacrifice of Zach and the rest of the cast and crew in making the film as good as it is. It would be pure folly and ego on my part to sit up like some smug erudite filmmaker and say I knew this would happen. I didn’t. I hoped it would happen and I never stopped believing in the story that I was telling or in the film that I was making, but there are 1000 things that can go wrong in pre-production like casting the wrong person and things can go wrong during principal photography like losing locations, accidents, etc. and in post- production, improper music selection, bad dubbing etc. that can leave a project still born if done improperly . That minefield has to be skillfully navigated by the director. You also have to be damn lucky.
IFQ: I know horror sells well at film markets. Have you had representation and interest from buyers?
WS: Several distributors have expressed an interest, but we are still in the middle of negotiations to find a proper home for the film.
IFQ: What’s the financing situation for a film like this?
WS: The financing situation for a movie like this is that my investors need to get their money back plus a small profit, which is a tough thing to do in these perilous economic times. They believed in me enough to give me their money so it’s my job as Producer to hold up my end of the bargain. But movies are a risky investment and they knew that going in, but I’m sure we will succeed in the long run.
IFQ: Who has been a cinematic influence on you?
WS: The filmmakers that have had the greatest influence on my own work are Terry Gilliam (also an animator), Richard Donner (Superman), Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, John Carpenter, Orson Wells, Sergio Leone, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sir David Lean and George Romero and James Cameron. In addition to being commercially successful filmmakers, these guys all have an acute awareness of the “camera” as a narrator or invisible character in the film that actively participates in the telling of the story by way of forced composition that leads your eye to what they want you to see or through revealing camera movement. They all have a strong sense of frame within a frame composition, depth of field, light and dark and deep focus. I never tire of their work.
IFQ: Any advice for fellow emerging film directors?
WS: My advice to emerging filmmakers (which is counter-intuitive) is to shoot your movie on film, even if it’s just 16mm. Practice on HD and DV, but shoot film. It will make your movie richer, aesthetically and it costs the same as RED if you get Kodak or Fuji to give you breaks on filmstock. All the important movies STILL shoot film. Just look at this year’s Oscar nominated films. There’s a hundred years of film chemistry and improvements in 35mm film. Every time a new stock comes out it’s like getting a camera upgrade. Secondly, and more importantly you must have great TENACITY. Don’t ever give up on your dreams. I know that this sounds clichéd, but when you are in debt up to your neck financially, have used up all your favors with all your friends, when the dallies look like crap, when someone on the crew thinks they can do it better than you and you and your actors scream at each other in frustration and exhaustion it will be really tempting to throw in the towel. But you need to be a little insane and persevere because all this is a sign that you are doing “something” right.