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TWPT: Tell
me how you got started in the movie business? Is this a recent change
of direction in your career or has the desire to work in movies been
there all along?
SP: I have worked in the film and video business for eighteen
years. Till now I earned my living by making educational and
promotional films and videos.
If you want to know the history of my development as a filmmaker,
I'll try to condense it for you. I've wanted to be a writer since I
was in grade school. When I was very young I wrote comic book scripts
and stories based on my favorite characters. I read a lot --
particularly science fiction and fantasy. I wanted to become a
storyteller myself.
I also always loved movies of all kinds. I began to read a lot about
how movies were made, and I naturally developed an interest in
directing, since the writer and director are the principal
"storytellers" for a movie.
In high school I discovered the joy of acting in theatre and working
with other actors. My interests combined as I realized I could fuse
my love for writing, acting, and directing by becoming a filmmaker.
After all, making movies is one method of telling stories.
I decided to attend college for filmmaking. I went to Penn State and
graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Artis in Film Production.
While I was "paying my rent" by writing and directing TV
commercials, promotional videos, etc., I wrote scripts for movies.
Iıve had interest from producers in my earlier scripts, but
nothing actually went into production. I decided to make "Drawing
Down the Moon" on a small budget, partially out of the
impatience generated by having to depend on others to get my work produced.
TWPT: Whose
influences are we likely to see in what you create behind the camera?
SP: My favorite director as I was growing up was Stanley
Kubrick with films like 2001,A Clockwork Orange, and Dr. Strangelove.
Since the making of Aliens in 1986 I'd have to say my favorite
director is James Cameron. I love the stories he told in Terminator
and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Aliens, and The Abyss. I also enjoyed
that big boat movie of his (Titanic), but his science fiction stories
are really what made me a fan of his.
I think in "Drawing Down the Moon" you'll see some
influences from James Cameron (albeit on a much smaller-budgeted scale).
TWPT: Tell
me how your latest project Drawing Down the Moon came to be?
SP: Back in the early 90s I was doing research about a
controversial subject --repressed memories of ritualistic abuse. I
wanted to write a script revolving around it. A lot of talk shows had
been doing stories about people who were suddenly remembering that
years ago, as children, they had been sexually abused by their
parents and other adults in Satanic rituals.
I was in New York City doing some research and I went into an occult
store called The Magickal Childe. As I was browsing through books, I
found a great deal of interesting information about witchcraft and,
specifically, Wicca. Wiccans were obviously interested in separating
themselves from these "sexually abusing Satanists." (And it
now appears that these supposed Satanic groups were actually just
urban legends, since there isnıt a shred of evidence to prove
they ever existed.) I found an informative handout in The Magickal
Childe about Wicca that really caught my attention.
I became fascinated with the modern witchcraft movement and started
reading a lot about it. The more I learned, the more intrigued I
became. A story for a film gradually started to percolate in my brain
about a modern day witch who moves to a small town and has to combat
the prejudice she finds there.
I bought and read Margot Adler's terrific book "Drawing Down the
Moon." A quote from the book really stood out to me as summing
up several key concepts in the movie I wanted to write.
"The Witch, after all, is an extraordinary symbol --
independent, anti-establishment, strong, and proud. She is political,
yet spiritual and magical. The Witch is woman as martyr; she is
persecuted by the ignorant; she is the woman who lives outside
society and outside society's definition of woman."
At the same time that I was doing research on Wicca I was growing
increasingly tired of playing the usual game of getting films
produced -- write a script, submit to an agent, get a producer or
studio interested ... That whole process depended too much on other people.
I decided I wanted to make a small-budget film set in my home town,
something my filmmaking partners and I could do ourselves on the
small amount of money I could raise myself through business contacts.
And I realized that this "Wicca movie" I had in mind was
the perfect film to make on a small budget.
TWPT: During
your research you said that you read lots of books on the subject
but did you ever seek out those who were on the path to get their
input as well?
SP: I posted a notice on several Internet newsgroups in which
I described the film and asked for guidance while I wrote the script.
The response was overwhelming. I had volunteers from around the
world. Since the lead character in our film is a woman I chose four
women from different areas of the United States to serve as my
consultants. They are Hilda Marshall (Columbine) from Massachusetts,
Sue Nisivaco from Chicago, Jessa Lynch from the Washington DC area,
and Teara Staples from the Northwest.
As I was writing I would email questions to them; all four responded
quickly with their opinions and were incredibly helpful. Luckily,
Columbine and Sue were then able to come to the set as we were
shooting to guarantee authenticity.
TWPT: Have you had much reaction
to the impending release of this film from the Wiccan/Pagan
community? Has it been good, bad or indifferent?
SP: The response from the Wiccan/Pagan community has been
overwhelmingly positive. In all about 500 Pagans and Wiccans have
seen previews of the film as we were editing and finishing the sound
mix. I passed out audience response forms at these gatherings and 90%
of the reactions were highly favorable.
Of course you can't please everyone, so some people didn't like it.
The one criticism I've gotten from a few Pagans is that they were
expecting the film to be a little more "realistic." Our
movie has no major special effects and it is based in present-day
reality, but it does have a fantasy/fable quality to it. The Witch we
portray is somewhat idealized; in fact some people have referred to
her (and they meant this favorably) as "super-witch." Once
you see the movie hopefully you'll understand what they meant.
TWPT: How
did your film come to be called "Drawing Down the Moon" and
does it have any relationship to the ritual that is referred to by
that name?
SP: The ritual of drawing down the moon plays a significant
role in the film. I loved the poetic sound of the ritual and thought
it would be the perfect title for the film. Our movie is not,
however, based on Margot Adler's book of the same name. Ms. Adler's
book is non-fiction; our movie is entirely fictional. (Titles cannot
be copywritten, by the way.)
TWPT: Does
the film have a very overt spiritual content or is it hidden behind
the storyline? To put it another way how dependent is the storyline
on Wicca and how much do you go into the beliefs with your characters?
SP: The storyline is very dependent on Wicca. Because we were
aiming for a large general viewership I knew I had to teach much of
the audience a little about Wicca, so the film delves into the Wiccan
belief system in some detail (but hopefully it never becomes "preachy").
I'd say the spiritual content is overt but is a natural part of the
storyline. To a great extent the film is about religious tolerance
and acceptance. I needed to be sure the audience understood Wicca so
they could make an informed opinion. It was a bit of a challenge to
put that spiritual belief system into an action-oriented story, but I
think the film succeeds admirably.
TWPT: How
many others besides yourself are working on this film, excluding the actors?
SP: We had a crew of about twenty for much of the shooting.
Now that we are in post-production, only four other people are
working on the film with me.
TWPT: Working
on a small budget must have affected your timetable for making this
film, how long has it been from start to finish and did you ever have
any doubts about it being completed once you got under way?
SP: The small budget made a huge difference in the timetable
for the film, in that we could only work on the film part-time while
we did "normal" jobs to survive.
I wrote the script late in 1994 and early 1995. We shot in the summer
of 1995. I edited the film from 1995 through a fine cut in 1997.
Marketing and sound mixing took from 1997 till now.
Editing was very time consuming because I could only work on the film
at night, when the editing facilities were sitting vacant. I put in
hours on our film after working a full day as a video producer.
Sound mixing was also incredibly time consuming because we could only
work during the facility's off hours. Legal affairs were protracted
because we had to ask the Screen Actors Guild for an amendment to our
contract, and the negotiations literally took a full year. |
