| BijouFlix Releasing
presents |
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| A lifetime fan
of Spielberg Cinema rebels, creating an epic vision of Hell on Earth set smack
dab in the heart of Universal City. Can an already crumbling Western
Civilization withstand the additional cultural, er, weight? |
Innerview by Dave Coleman |
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Flickmaker Damon Packard
was an early BijouFlix star in the rising. We streamed his
earliest efforts here during the first year of our existance, so it's
perhaps understandable if we feel a certain sense of pride that he's
gone on to complete a first flick that  rivals Lynch's Eraserhead for sheer deconstructed
cinematic glee. Herein we present you with twice the ability to take
a candid, chaotic view into the inner workings of Packard's demented
genuis -- once by releasing his debut epic feature Reflections of Evil on DVD
and VHS and twice with this rambling innerview.
BijouFlix: Let's start with your background. Did you attend film
school? If so, did you think it was of value? And even if you did or didn't,
which directors were the most influential on you growing up?
Damon Packard: I did go to LACC
Film school back in '86-87 but had already been making flms for 4-5 years.
Mainly it was to borrow equipment, meet people, etc.
I was perpetually
broke in those days. In fact "Dawn of an Evil Millennium"
 started off as a short 'chase film' for film class. When I showed
the class some of my past films they thought I was kind of an anomoly because
these films were extremely advanced for a Film101 course at a community college
in the 80's.
As for influential directors? Unfortunately I wouldn't be
completely, brutally honest if I didn't ashamedly admit
 that by far Spielberg was the biggest influence on me growing up.
But this was the Spielberg of the 70's & early 80's, he was a tremendous
inspiration at that time. I'd see every one of his films 60-70 times, it was an
obsession. I patterned my life after Spielberg, unfortunately that's the sad
truth.
However he certainly wasn't the only influence: others include
Ken Russell, John Boorman, Ralph Bakshi, Donald Cammell, Don Coscarelli, Alfred
Hitchcock (was obsessed with Hitchcock for a spell), Richard Donner, Francis
Coppola, Martin Scorcese, William Friedkin, Jerry Scatzberg, Bob Fosse and
others. The Devils, Zardoz, Demon Seed and Wizards
were obsessive childhood favorites.
There are sequences in Reflections of Evil that make me
imagine they're not unlike the result you might get if you dosed Kubrick with
acid and set him loose with a fish-eyed steadicam. How much do you pre-plan
these visual odysseys? How much of the flick is shot on 35mm versus
high-quality digital?
 I'm not too much for
pre-planning. I generally like to shoot spontaneously and intuitively (hence,
sometimes the length issues).
None of it is shot in 35mm, still too
expensive. It's 85% 16mm, 10% Super8 and 5% Digital8, give or take some
percent, thats a rough estimate. |
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