A while ago we mentioned the upcoming indie horror The Taking as one of the more interesting looking indie flicks emerging soon. We managed to get an interview with The BAPartists: Lydelle Jackson and Cezil Reed, the creative minds behind the gruesome new flick. We discuss The Taking, Art-House Horror, Hollywood and more, so read on.

Horror Chronicles: Firstly, what can you tell us about the BAPartists, how did you guys start up?

Cezil: I’d come back from film school and I shared with Del a lot of ideas that I was working on and he was great at giving feedback. He told me about this one crazy idea of a 70 year-old man living with a severe mental illness and he believes he’s a superhero. I told him we should write that. We did. That’s kind of how the relationship started. We also went to middle school together.

Horror Chronicles: Your current movie The Taking is billed as an arthouse horror movie, what aspects of the movie should we look forward to?

Lydelle: When we say “Art-House Horror” we mean just that. This is a horror piece that both horror junkies and art-house snobs can enjoy. It’s the amalgamation of terror, drama, visual harmony, and orgasmic sonic experiences. It’s an art piece...with two vital organs...brains and balls.

Horror Chronicles: As independent producers/writers how much does your creative freedom mean to you?

Cezil: Everything. We like being our own boss. We need time to think, create, make mistakes....learn..recreate....and fuck up again without someone giving us the middle finger and threatening to take money away from us.

Horror Chronicles: Seems Hollywood is intent on rolling out dozens of remakes these days, especially in horror, what's your opinion of the current state of the horror industry?

Lydelle: It could be better. The problem is a lot of times Hollywood neglects some fundamentals when it comes to horror...The story, characters, and boobies come first in my book. I mean one out of three ain’t bad, they definitely got the boobies thing down. But if I’m not invested in the characters then I’m not going to care when they are placed in harms way. Right now, I think horror is too concerned about body count and not about the story and characters. When I’m watching a horror film now a days I’m thinking about how gruesome it’s going to be but I think it’d be interesting to have characters that you don’t want to see die. That way when shit hits the fan, you’re really on the edge of your seat.

Horror Chronicles: Any cool stories to tell us from the set of The Taking?

Cezil: There was a major assface floating around on set. For all you indie filmmakers out there be careful about who you bring on to cast and crew. Don’t just take anyone who comes your way, be picky. I brought a good friend from college on to our crew and he turned out to be a disaster. Totally ruined the experience of making a film, not only for me but for everyone else on set too. He really brought down the moral and swirled nothing but shit around all day. Also, he got one of our leads sick by feeding him bad chicken...John Halas, our lead, wound up in the hospital for 4 days because of it...I won’t say his name but he was a douche...oh, and I think he had a crush on Lydelle.

Horror Chronicles: It seems to me like a lot of the great original horror ideas are coming out of their indie area of the business, how much would you agree with that?

Lydelle: When it comes to indies being original...that’s a given for any genre, I think. And that is mainly because you have to be creative and clever when you don’t have a lot of money. Oh, and let’s not forget that there is always cool stuff coming from overseas. Saw was really original...but that was like...forever ago.

Horror Chronicles: Which creative artists do you guys respect the most and why?

Cezil: Steve Mcqueen...he’s a black director who’s not concerned with race bent films. He’s big in the video art world and created a visual masterpiece called “Hunger”. Jackson Pollock because he showed that you can delve into the imagination and create an impact without creating forms that are recognizable. Dali is always going to kick ass because all the hipsters out there are creating shit that he was on 80 years ago. Any artist a part of the dadaism movement because every one now is just copying them, so that shows strength. Da Vinci is always going to be a beast because he was not just an artist, but a mathematician, inventor, and scientist. Honorable mentions would be Lynch, Aronofsky, Nolan, and Otto Dix.

Lydelle: I’d also like to nominate my good friends the Luna Brothers, they are the masterminds behind graphic novels like Girls and The Sword. They taught me a lot about following your dreams and letting your hard work show. Also that you can make a living doing what you love. I’m also a big fan of Joe Madureira, Alex Ross, Michel Gondry, Bjork, and Vincent Gallo...the list goes on and on.

Horror Chronicles: How tough is it to find financing for the projects your involved in?

Lydelle: It’s harder than sucking juice out of a rock. I mean we got a few bucks here and there from a small fraction of friends and family. But in the end we basically funded 95 percent of this film ourselves. Pay check after pay check...and we’re still paying for it. The truth is unless you come from money it’s going to be hard to find funding. There are smart ways to find money (crowd funding, grants, etc.) but it’s still tough...especially if you’re making a horror. You think your state’s film office is going to want to release funding for a horror film when there’s a nice family drama being produced down the street from you?....guess again, pal.

Horror Chronicles: Any ideas on what you'd like to do when The Taking is finished?

Cezil: Tell a love story a la Amelie style or do a love story involving vampires.

Horror Chronicles: This is our open question, your opportunity to say anything to the world you like:

Cezil: If you all like what we are doing after you see The Taking, then we’ll create more art like stories involving horror. If not, we’ll sell out and go completely Hollywood, develop cocaine habits, contract a new form of STD, and attempt suicide at least twice in order to build buzz for our upcoming films.

Lydelle: We are The BAPartists. We love you...and thanks so much for reading.

There you go folks, hope you enjoyed our interview with The BAPartists. We'd like to thank Lydelle and Cezil on behalf of ourselves and our readers for their time. Be sure to stick around for more info on The Taking!

For more info on The BAPartists you can visit their webpage over at: http://www.bapartfilms.com/
The BAPartist Blog can also be found here: http://thebapartists.com/

Share this post

COMMENTS  

Posted On

2011-06-06 18:42

Posted By

Horrfreak79

0 Good Read!
Good read and thanks for the effort. I am really looking forward to see this movie, for the very same reasons as stated above, beeing bored of those "hyped mainstream" crap.

Reply Reply with quote Quote

Posted On

2011-06-06 18:43

Posted By

mogoil

0 RE: The BAPartists Interview (2011)
"If not, we’ll sell out and go completely Hollywood, develop cocaine habits, contract a new form of STD, and attempt suicide at least twice in order to build buzz for our upcoming films"

Lmao, on behalf of every indie writer, film maker, and anyone struggling in an industry and selective hype dominated world, hallelujah.

Great interview, looking forward to the Taking, and good work. Sounds like BAPartists got the right idea - "The story, characters, and boobies come first in my book." - nobody can say it better than that :)

Reply Reply with quote Quote

REFRESH
RSS

LEAVE A REPLY

Do not spam or post links to pirated materials!

Name

E-mail (required, but will not display)

Website

Title

Notify me of follow-up comments

Refresh

Send

Cancel

JComments