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The original english language interview is also available.
Du erzählst eine andere Art Zombiegeschichte – kammerspielartig mit einer überraschenden Infektionsart. Kannst Du mir mehr zur Stoffentwicklung erzählen?
Meine Frau, Carlee Baker, und ich wollten schon seit einer Weile einen Film zusammen machen. Eines Nachts hatte sie einen Traum über ein altes Paar, das sich während der Zombie-Apokalypse streitet. Sie stellte sich einen relativ putzigen Blick darauf vor, wie Menschen in Langzeitbeziehungen streiten und wie die Frau oft Recht hat, aber der Mann einfach einen Sieg braucht. Sie schrieb den ersten Entwurf und gab das Drehbuch dann an mich weiter. Zu dieser Zeit, Anfang 2019, war ich zunehmend angewidert von unserem spaltenden politischen Diskurs in Amerika. Also ließ ich mich von den Filmen von George Romero inspirieren und dachte mir, warum nicht diese Zombie-Überlebensgeschichte als Vehikel für einen sozialen und politischen Kommentar nutzen? Die Zombies in Romeros Filmen sind ein ständiges weißes Rauschen im Hintergrund, aber selten sind sie die wahre Bedrohung. Es sind die Lebenden, die gefährlich sind. Also habe ich das Drehbuch für „Love Bite“ dunkler und verdrehter und hoffentlich auch ungewöhnlicher gemacht, indem ich es mit einer düsteren Sicht auf menschliches Verhalten und insbesondere toxische Männlichkeit aufgeladen habe.
Kannst Du mir etwas zum Setting erzählen – wie war es eine Handlung auf so begrenztem Raum umzusetzen?
Kannst Du mir allgemeinen mehr zu dem visuellen Konzept erzählen und was DIr dabei am Herzen lag?
Deine SchauspielerInnen finden sich wunderbar in ihre Rollen ein. Hast Du sie über ein Casting gefunden?
Und wie hast Du den perfekten Hund ausgewählt? Wie arbeitet es sich mit Tieren am Set?
Es war im Grunde Vetternwirtschaft. Bella ist unser Hund oder besser gesagt, Carlee und ich sind ihre Menschen. Die Idee, einen Hund in das Drehbuch einzubauen, kam sehr spät im Prozess, wahrscheinlich erst ein oder zwei Wochen vor Drehbeginn. Carlee hatte ein BabyBjörn gekauft, um Bella darin herumzutragen, und als ich dieses Bild sah, erinnerte es mich sofort an das Filmplakat für John Woos „Hard Boiled“, wo Chow Yun-Fat dieses süße kleine Baby in die Schlacht trägt. Also habe ich Carlee gefragt, was sie davon hält, Bella in die Geschichte einzubinden und ein Trio aus den Figuren zu machen. Die Leute werden auch in der Zombie-Apokalypse Haustiere haben. Also probten wir ein bisschen mit Bella im BabyBjörn zu Hause, und es schien, als würde es funktionieren. Wir planten eine Menge Extrazeit für die Aufnahmen mit Bella ein, aber wir brauchten sie nicht. Bella gab uns irgendwie sehr schnell genau das, was wir brauchten. Es half, dass Cuyle heimlich seinen eigenen Hund zum Set eingeladen hatte, was Bella dazu brachte, auf Kommando zu bellen. Außerdem hat Bella vor einiger Zeit alle ihre Zähne verloren, so dass ihre Zunge immer heraushängt. Allein dieser Anblick scheint uns beim Publikum Wohlwollen zu verschaffen. Sie ist ein Star.
Der Film wirkt wie ein Exzerpt zu einer interessanten Welt – könntest Du Dir vorstellen von dieser noch mehr zu erzählen?
Kannst Du zum Schluss noch ein bisschen mehr zu Dir und Deiner Arbeit beim Film erzählen?
Ich wollte schon als Kind bei Filmen Regie führen. Es war ein langer, kurvenreicher Weg. Ich wurde auf angenehme Weise von meiner Reise abgelenkt, als ich zwei Jahrzehnte lang als Produzent von Inhalten hinter den Kulissen arbeitete und über 100 “Making-of”-Featurettes und Dokumentationen für einige ziemlich große, angesehene Filme und Fernsehsendungen produzierte. Aber während dieser ganzen Zeit wollte ich immer noch zurück in die Regie gehen. Ich hatte einige Studentenfilme und Kurzfilme gedreht, aber mein erster Spielfilm war CRAVE. Er lief ziemlich gut auf den Festivals, gewann einige schöne Preise und erhielt wunderbare Kritiken. Aber ich musste zurück in die Welt hinter den Kulissen, um ein Dach über dem Kopf zu haben, und so ist „Love Bite“ das erste Mal seit „Crave“, dass ich die Möglichkeit fand, eine Idee zu verfilmen, die ich auch für bezahlbar und lohnenswert hielt. Die Produktion von „Love Bite“ hat mich dazu inspiriert, nicht mehr so lange zu warten, bis ich wieder Regie führe.
Sind bereits neue Projekte geplant?
Die Fragen stellte Doreen Matthei
Übersetzung von Michael Kaltenecker
Lies auch die Rezension des Kurzfilms „Love Bite“
Interview: In our conversation with director Charles de Lauzirika we were able to learn more about his short film “Love Bite“, which was screened in the ‘Shock Block’ of the 21st Landshut Short Film Festival, how his wife and the political situation of the country shaped the script, what it was like to shoot in a cramped space and how well his own dog fit into his role.
You tell a different kind of zombie story – chamber-play-like with a surprising way of infection. Can you tell me more about the story development?
My wife, Carlee Baker, and I had been wanting to make a film together for a while. One night, she had a dream about an old couple bickering during the Zombie Apocalypse. She imagined a relatively cute look at how people in long term relationships argue, and how the woman is often right, but this man just needed a win. She wrote the first draft and then handed the script to me. At the time, in early 2019, I had become increasingly disgusted with our divisive political discourse in America. So taking inspiration from the films of George Romero, I thought, why not use this zombie survival story as a vehicle for some social and political commentary? The zombies in Romero’s films are a constant white noise in the background, but rarely are they the true threat. It’s the living who are dangerous. So I made the script for “Love Bite” darker and more twisted, and hopefully more unusual, by loading it with a darker view of human behavior, and toxic masculinity in particular.
Can you tell me something about the setting – how was it to realize a plot in such a limited space?
Well, 90% of the short takes place in a truck cab, which made shooting it both fairly easy and incredibly difficult. We had virtually no location moves, so the crew was always camped in basically the same place. That bought us a lot of time for other things. But finding interesting camera angles and squeezing our gear — and ourselves — into the truck cab was very challenging. Fortunately, we found a truck with a large cab that had been used in Marvel’s “Ant Man and the Wasp”, so it was perfect for filming. But it is still quite restrictive in how many different angles we could find. I swore after my first feature, “Crave”, I’d never make another movie with a lot of vehicle interiors again. Obviously enough time had passed between films, I had forgotten all about that vow.
Can you tell me more about the visual concept in general and what you had in mind?
Making anything in a single confined space can get old for the audience very quickly. So that’s why I indulged in a bit of intense action in the opening scene before we settled into the truck interior. Once the characters start arguing, it can easily become a boring ping pong match, just going back and forth, back and forth. So I divided the rest of the film into color chapters in order to break up any visual routine the audience might get tired of. So we go from a desaturated warm day, to a green glow stick evening, to a cobalt blue night, and finally to a fiery pink-orange dawn. It’s almost like a mini-homage to the Romero NIGHT-DAWN-DAY cycle, just in different order.
Your actors and actresses fit into their roles wonderfully. Did you find them through casting?
I found the actors through friendship, and in one case, marriage! As I mentioned, my wife Carlee and I had been wanting to make a film for a while. She wrote this script for herself to star in, so that casting was baked into the process. She has a lot of acting experience, and it was a joy to see her in front of the camera again. She’s amazing in it, especially in that final tragic scene. And in the role of George, our good friend Cuyle Carvin seemed like a perfect fit for someone who can be both goofy and dangerous, and since we already knew each other, there was an easy trust in place. I feel like the three of us really had a fun experience together on this, where we allowed everyone to play and experiment, taking chances when we had time.
And how did you choose the perfect dog? What is it like working with animals on set?
It was basically nepotism. Bella is our dog…or more accurately, Carlee and I are her humans. The idea to introduce a dog to the script came very late in the process, probably just a week or two before shooting began. Carlee had purchased a BabyBjörn to carry Bella around in, and when I saw that visual in person, it instantly reminded me of the movie poster for John Woo’s “Hard Boiled”, with Chow Yun-Fat carrying that cute little baby into battle. So I asked Carlee what she thought about including Bella in the story, making it a trio of characters. People are still going to have pets in the Zombie Apocalypse. So we rehearsed a bit with Bella in the BabyBjörn at home, and it seemed like it would work. We scheduled a lot of extra time for the shots with Bella, but we didn’t need it. Bella somehow gave us exactly what we needed very quickly. It helped that Cuyle had secretly invited his own dog to the set, which caused Bella to bark on command. Also, Bella lost all of her teeth a while back, so her tongue is always hanging out. That visual alone seems to buy us good will with the audience. She’s a star.
The film seems like an excerpt of an interesting world – could you imagine expanding more on it?
I don’t think so. I think we told our little story during a very specific time, and there’s really nothing more to say in that specific situation. Our story is about two people of different political points-of-view arguing about how a mysterious virus spreads during a global pandemic. We finished the film and premiered it just a few months before the real pandemic hit. I don’t think it would be interesting or tasteful to continue in that fictional world after we’ve just lived through more than a year of the real thing…minus the zombies, of course.
Finally, can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your work on the film?
I had been wanting to direct films since I was a kid. It’s been a long, winding road. I was pleasantly detoured from my journey for two decades working as a behind-the-scenes content producer, producing over 100 “making-of” featurettes and documentaries for some fairly large, respected films and TV shows. But that entire time, I still wanted to get back into directing narratives. I had made several student films and shorts along the way, but my first feature was CRAVE. It did fairly well on the festival circuit, winning some nice awards and earning some wonderful reviews. But I had to go back to work in the behind-the-scenes world to keep a roof over my head, so “Love Bite” is the first time since “Crave” that I found the opportunity to film an idea I also thought was affordable and worthwhile. Making “Love Bite” has inspired me to not wait so long until I direct again.
Are there already new projects planned?
I have a few in the works, all very different from each other. I have a dream project that’s a very dark, nightmarish Medieval horror odyssey that I hope is my next feature. The script is fantastic. We just need to secure the money. Then I recently signed on to direct would could be the most jaw-dropping making-of documentary I’ve ever been a part of. It’s a crazy story very few people know about, and it’s going to stun a lot of film lovers. And I’m currently working with Kalen Egan, a writer and executive producer on “The Man in the High Castle”, on a new series. We’re developing a sweeping, emotionally-rich futuristic mystery based on a story by Philip K. Dick. There are a few more things in more nebulous stages, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, the more irons you have in the fire, the better your chances are at getting the next thing going.
Questions asked by Doreen Matthei
Read on the german review of the shortfilm “Love Bite”