Bluebox trades big screen for bigger one for "Bride"

By Sean Leary / MOLINE DISPATCH / November 5, 2006

In December 2005, the Bettendorf duo of Bryan Woods, 22, and Scott Beck, 22, grabbed first prize in the mtvU Best Film on Campus Contest. In addition to a development deal with MTV Films (more on that later), the pair won a 42" plasma HDTV.

However, true to their real passion, filmmaking, they decided to sell the TV on eBay about a bounty hunter hired to protect a bride-to-be. However, when secrets from the past break open, a deadly mystery unfolds.

The film features an all-local cast and crew and its original score was composed by Scott Morschhauser and performed by The Metrolites. It's already garnered 10 award nominations from the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival.

Recently, Scott Beck took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions about the new film and the future of Bluebox.

Sean Leary: What led you to do a contemporary western?

Scott Beck: I think it all starts from the idea that we want to try new things and not lock ourselves into one certain tone or genre. I think it's important to push yourself and work in new ways, and the western genre certainly gave us this chance. Both Bryan and I had an interest in doing a western and part of that stemmed from meeting Scott Morschhauser. He's an avid fan of spaghetti westerns and loves the music of Ennio Morricone and that really rubbed off on us. So in a strange way, it almost feels like we the made the movie so he could score it.

SL: What artists influenced you in embarking upon this project, and during it?

SB: Sergio Leone's films were a great inspiration, just because of their boldness and great characters and landscapes. His scenes are just extremely powerful through visuals, and so as directors, Bryan and I sort of approached this film as an exercise in directing like that. However, Leone is the obvious influence, as his westerns are some of the most popular of the genre. There are so many other artists who we have learned from, and every little bit has helped us in storytelling. The story and the characters are revealed in a non-chronological way, so the audience discovers more at the same time as the characters, so I guess even films like Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution" and Chris Nolan's "Memento" have left their mark with us.

SL: What was the origin of this script in particular and how did it evolve?

SB: The film all stemmed from us waiting for our development deal with MTV to go through negotiations. Things had taken some time, and we decided to just go ahead and make another film. We had been writing screenplays for the last year-and-a-half, but hadn't directed anything in a while, so we said "Let's do this, let's make another movie." Well, the script was originally about five to 10 pages and it was going to take us a couple days to shoot it. But eventually, after revisions and everything, it turned into 30 pages. Then when we got to shooting, it took about 16 days and the final cut of the film runs about an hour.

Since we thought the production was originally only going to take a couple days, we wrote the parts for actors we had worked with before. We knew their strengths, weaknesses, and logistically speaking, we knew their time schedules. It was great to work with familiar faces, because it was a comfortable atmosphere, and it was fun to challenge each other to do the best we all could do.

SL: How do you feel this film is an evolution for your style, and how do you see it informing future work?

SB: I don't think Bryan and I could even see a "style" in our work, if it's even present. I guess if there is a style, it probably revolves around the fact that we care about our characters, our visuals, and we try to bring something interesting to the table. I mean, our last two films were all about characters. "Her Summer" is kind of a ghost story, suspense film, but it's really about its characters. "University Heights" is the same way, only in more obvious ways. So I guess we like showing people with three-dimensions, and in "The Bride," it's all based around moral judgments and people who shield their past.

SL: What gave you the idea to sell the TV to raise funds?

SB: There was no question about whether or not I was going to keep the TV. It was sold before I even won it! Honestly though, we entered the mtvU Best Film on Campus contest to win that development deal and sell the TV so we could fund movies. There's been some other contests that we have entered where the prizes have been cars or something expensive like that, but we've only entered those contests to sell the prize and use the money for films. So when I got the HDTV delivered, I immediately put it on eBay and sold it to the highest bidder. And luckily, we got some good money for it, so it was able to fund "The Bride," which turned out to be our most expensive film to date. It's like this -- if either Bryan or I won the lottery, we'd spend millions on making a movie here in the Quad-Cities, no question about it.

SL: How did the collaboration with The Metrolites come about, and how did that work out for you?

SB: Scott Morschhauser contacted us in early 2005 about doing soundtrack work, so we met and just discussed our interests and what we were doing and what we wanted to do. Of course we listened to The Metrolites "In Spy-Fi" CD and loved that, and Bryan and I were really interested in working with Scott. Over time, we just kept in touch and he worked on themes, and eventually, when Bryan & I decided to make "The Bride," we approached Scott about doing the score and he was definitely in.

It was a great experience, and the spaghetti western genre was a perfect fit for Scott, since he's a big fan of those films. The nice thing about working with Scott, is that he really understood the script from day one. He was always on the same page as us and he knew what direction we wanted. Bryan and I are incredibly happy with the final result.

SL: What is the status of the MTV deal? What are the snags, and when do you see it coming to fruition?

SB: Paramount and MTV Films were recently restructed, so that has slowed things down a bit. Regardless, things are still on track and they're definitely good. We're still in the negotiation phase, so it may still take a couple months, but things should be happening soon.

SL: If the MTV deal comes through, what do you want to work on for them, and what timeline do you have for doing so?

SB: We have several projects we'd like to do for them, and those projects, of course, will fit into MTV Films' material, but at the same time, Bryan and I will want to keep things fresh and unique. The timeline is dependent on the contract negotiations.

SL: What projects will you be working on next? Ideally, what do you want to do next?

SB: We have a ton of projects that we want to do, and they vary from horror films to comedies. I think it'd be fun to work on a comedy, since we haven't really ventured into that direction yet. There are so many different stories that excite us, so after "The Bride," we're going to have to sit down and figure out where to go from there. Personally, I know there are about four stories that I'm really excited about exploring, and beyond that, there are more than 10 that are a little less developed, but still really intriguing.

SL: In the past you've been influenced by filmmakers like M. Night Shymalan and Alexander Payne. What directors do you feel have had the biggest influence on you, how do you see that in your work, and who is currently among your list of influences or directors you admire?

SB: It sounds obvious, but any good director is an influence and more importantly, a teacher. Payne, Cameron Crowe, Wilder, Hitchcock, Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, Zemeckis; they're all equally important, even though they span genres and time periods. Payne really cares about his characters, and that's something that has stuck with me. His characters aren't just black and white, but they're real people. Payne really has a knack for taking away the glossed, overglamorized look and feel to Hollywood movies, and portraying real life on screen.

One director I incredibly admire is the French filmmaker Jacques Tati. He only made a handful of films in his life, but they're among the best films I have ever seen. They're so full of life and comedy. One of Tati's last films and biggest failures (at the time), "Playtime," is one of my favorite films of all time. In fact, the script was over 400 pages long, and he had memorized every single page -- that's how much he loved and cared about his film. That's something that really inspires me to do better as a filmmaker.

SL: What genre haven't you done that you would really like to do, and why haven't you tackled it yet?

SB: A comedy. A lot of my favorite films are comedies, or at least are films with humor in them. I'm not sure why I haven't tackled it yet. I'm not interested so much in a laugh-a-minute, over-the-top comedy, but something along the lines of "Annie Hall," "Elizabethtown," or "Election." Although, I recently watched Billy Wilder's "One, Two Three," and that's an over-the-top comedy that really delivered and was masterfully directed. Regardless, some of the projects on the backburner are comedies, so it'll happen soon.

SL: You've talked about staying based in the Midwest regardless of how things pan out with the MTV deal. Is that still the plan, and why or why not?

SB: It's definitely the plan. The Midwest and the Quad-Cities is just a great place to make movies. Since movies are a rare commodity around here, film production is exciting, so you get a lot more people interested in helping. We've said this a lot and we mean it -- there's tons of talent around the region. Bringing a large scale production to the area is still a goal for Bryan and me. There are tax incentives in the works for film productions in Iowa, and we're really hoping the bill gets passed, as it would be a huge boost for the many filmmakers throughout the state. That would also make it easier to get bigger productions back in the area that would boost the state's economy and in turn, make Iowa a bigger player in the film industry.

SL: How did the documentary on the Avatis come about? What's it going to be called, what does it cover, and when is it coming out?

SB: Bryan and I were on the set several days while the Avatis were shooting in the Quad-Cities. We shot footage both for ourselves and for the Italian RAI Television channel, which will be producing their own behind-the-scenes documentary. Their documentary will probably accompany the release of the film next year. As far as our documentary, we're kind of on hold, as we want to wait until the release of "The Hideout" (the Avatis' latest film, which was shot in the Quad-Cities earlier this year) and see how it does and if there will be any more to our documentary's "story." There's many different directions we can take the documentary in, but we've discussed the idea of two young filmmakers from Iowa learning from two master filmmakers from Italy.

SL: How do you feel about what you've accomplished so far?

SB: I always feel like there is more that I could be doing to further myself. I'm grateful for all of the opportunities and things that have come our way, but there's always this feeling that I should have accomplished more by now. There's a long road ahead and the film industry is a tough one, so it takes a lot of hard work and persistence. Bryan and I have always known this and we're ready to tackle it, so we're always more focused on the future than the past.