WAMG Interview ? Jack Snyder, Director of FATAL CALL | We Are ...

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 5th, 2012

Jack Snyder is a St. Louis-based writer and director with two feature films under his belt. GHOST IMAGE was a 2007 supernatural thriller starring Elisabeth Rohm? and Stacey Dash that has aired over 250 times on the Showtime Network and The Movie Channel. It is available on DVD, and is distributed overseas through 20th Century Fox and NBC/Universal. Jack Snyder?s newest feature is the thriller FATAL CALL starring Kevin Sorbo and Danielle Harris. It was filmed last year in the St. Louis area and will be playing at the Tivoli Theater Sunday night, November 11th at 8:30pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Jack took time out of his schedule to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about his films and his upcoming projects.

We Are Movie Geeks: Are you from St. Louis originally?

Jack Snyder: Yes, I am.

WAMG: Did you see a lot of movies as a kid?

JS: Yes, I guess I saw as much as I could beg my parents to take me to and what I could catch on TV. My most movie-going period was when I turned 17 and could drive and then went to movies a lot.

WAMG: Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

JS: Yes, I remember wanting to make films when I was a kid. I had other interests but was always drawn back to film. My first movie I made when I was about 14 or 15.

WAMG: Super-8 movies in your back yard?

JS: Exactly.

WAMG: Do you still have those films

JS: Yes, some of them.

WAMG: Did you study filmmaking?

JS: No, believe or not I?ve never taken a film or writing course in my life. I learned filmmaking from doing and reading books. I learned screenwriting from doing it and reading books as well. The irony is that I teach those subjects at UMSL (University of Missouri in St. Louis) now!

WAMG: FATAL CALL is your second film. Your first was GHOST IMAGE. What did you do before you began making feature films?

JS: I made several short films that won a slew of awards. I did make a feature film on 16mm back in the ?80s, a horror film called. Believe it or not, that was called FATAL EXAM so I?ve made two features with the word Fatal in the title. FATAL CALL was originally titled CALL ME ON TUESDAY but my distributor wanted me to change the title. So that was in the ?80s. What I?ve done for a living is the video business. I?ve shot weddings, I?ve shot industrial films, I?ve been a hired gun and a hired editor.

WAMG: Let?s talk about FATAL CALL. It was originally called CALL ME ON TUESDAY. Why did they want you to change the title?

JS: They said that if someone is flipping through the gable guide and they see something called CALL ME ON TUESDAY, that doesn?t tell them if it?s a romance, a drama, a comedy, or what. Whereas with FATAL CALL you immediately know that it?s a thriller. Though I still think CALL ME ON TUESDAY is a better title, I understand what they are talking about. They sold GHOST IMAGE to Twentieth Century Fox and MCA-Universal and Showtime and The Movie Channel, so they know that end of the business very well.

WAMG: Where were some of the locations of FATAL CALL?

JS: With the exception of some exteriors, the film was shot exclusively in Sauget, Illinois (just across the river from downtown St. Louis). Judee Sauget is one of the co-producers so the whole thing was shot in Sauget. We did some helicopter establishing shots in downtown St. Louis and we even did a shot in downtown Clayton to double for a location in downtown St. Louis but you?d never be able to tell. Those were second unit shots.

WAMG: Is that a refinery that the climax takes place on?

JS: Yes, it is a closed-down plant on the property of other plants that are active. We had some scenes shot at The Oz nightclub there in Sauget as well.

WAMG: I noticed your characters in FATAL CALL were drinking Lemp Beer!

JS: Yes, I?m friends with Steve DeBellis, owner of the Lemp Beer brand and publisher of the St. Louis Globe Democrat (the world?s largest one-man newspaper) and he provided the beer.

WAMG: I?m friends with Steve as well. He?s good at providing beer. What are some of your favorite movies that were shot in St. Louis?

JS: Besides mine? (laughs) I am a big John Carpenter fan and when he shot ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK here (in 1980), I went down to the set and accidentally walked on to the set by walking up an alley right on to it and he was standing right there talking with Debra Hill and I spoke with him briefly.

WAMG: I noticed with both FATAL CALL and GHOST IMAGE you don?t film a lot of exploitative elements. There?s no nudity or much blood in either one. Is this a conscious decision?

JS: Yes, and it?s also a practical decision. The moment you introduce blood makeup effects, you slow the whole production down. Also, if we?re going to get it on television, or distribution period, you?re better off with a PG-13 film than an R-rated film. There is a bedroom scene in FATAL CALL and that could give us an R-rating. The distributor said to shoot that scene in a way that could give us a PG-13 or an R. Fact is, with the exception of how many F-bombs you have in a film, you take that off the table, there?s no solid line that separates a PG-13 and an R. It?s by a per-film basis. Until we go to the ratings board, we don?t know.

WAMG: Danielle Harris is the star of FATAL CALL. Were you aware of her Scream Queen background?

JS: Of course. I can honestly say FATAL CALL was the first script I?ve ever written where I?ve pictured an actor in the role. Normally I don?t do that but I wrote it with Danielle and Jason London in my mind.

WAMG: How did she get involved?

JS: It?s very difficult to reach an actor directly. The trick is to hire a casting director in Hollywood. They know all the agents in town and call them and say they have a script for their client. So a call from a casting director is taken a lot more seriously than a call from a filmmaker.

WAMG: Did any other name actors audition for FATAL CALL?

JS: Well, name actors normally don?t audition. What generally happens is, you make them an offer and beyond that, you can get people to audition. Lochlyn Monro for example, maybe not a household name, but he?s been in over 140 films including UNFORGIVEN, and he?s in FATAL CALL.

WAMG: What was Kevin Sorbo like to work with?

JS: Kevin was great. We only had him for three days, but that was a lot of shooting in three days. He was great to work with. When you?re making an indie film, there?s no wriggle room for getting people in in advance to rehearse so they literally fly in in the evening and are at working filming the next morning. You rehearse it a couple of times and you shoot it.

WAMG: I?d heard Kevin Sorbo had some health issues.

JS: People are confused about that but he had just written a book where he talked about the strokes that he had. But those strokes happened in the late ?90s. That?s what it was. He was on the interview circuit with his book while we were shooting, so that?s what that is all about.

WAMG: Are there some local actors that you like to work with?

JS: I like to work with all the local actors that we can. Generally we have a Hollywood cast for the leads, and the rest of the cast is made up of locals. There are lots of good actors here and sometimes it?s hard to make a decision who to go with. There?s a local actor named Brian Peters who?s also a stunt man, so he played a character in FATAL CALL and did his own stunts and also stunt doubled for Jason London. That was a great experience working with him.

WAMG: Where will FATAL CALL be playing?

JS: I don?t know yet. It did play at the Cannes Film Market this past May and we got great feedback for that. It?s at the American Film Market as we speak, a screening there, and of course the St. Louis International Film Festival. One of the things that separates indie film distribution from studio film is that a big film knows when it?s going to be released as soon as they start filming it. With an indie film, you just hope the distributor can do something with it. They?re working hard on getting it a studio deal though. FATAL CALL was presented to Twentieth-Century Fox almost a month ago so right now we?re just waiting.

WAMG: Who are some of your favorite directors? You mentioned John Carpenter.

JS: I like Carpenter?s early work. I like Steven Soderbergh, I used to be a fan of Spielberg and James Cameron but now I?m more interested in directors like Cronenberg, but I don?t keep a list in my head of my favorite directors. Christopher Nolan right now is probably my favorite director.

WAMG: Do you have a lot of screenplays that you?ve written that you?re sitting on?

JS: Yes, what I do is teach at UMSL and I write screenplays for other people. I?m writing one for a producer right now. This is my third or fourth screenplay for hire.

WAMG: What?s next for Jack Snyder?

JS: I have a script that I?ve finished. It?s titled A WILL TO KILL and we hope to go into production on it next summer. Then I have a science fiction script that isn?t finished yet that I hope to get produced.

WAMG: Do you think these will be filmed in St. Louis?

JS: A WILL TO KILL will be filmed primarily in St. Louis, but some desert scenes will be filmed outside Los Angeles. The science fiction can be shot anywhere since the bulk of it takes place on a set anyway so we?d most likely build a set in a warehouse here.

WAMG: Well, thanks for talking to We Are Movie Geeks and good luck with FATAL CALL and all of your upcoming projects.

JS: Thank you.

Source: http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/11/wamg-interview-jack-snyder-director-of-fatal-call/

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