d3rang3d Interviews : Mark Terry

As part d3rang3d Magazine’s plans to bring an ongoing look into upcoming horror movie Live Evil, we are happy to give you our first installment, an interview with producer Mark Terry.

Mark is currently involved with the movies post production, but was good enough to give us some of his time and words and we think this one is shaping up to be a winner folks.

d3rang3d : To start with, what can you tell us about Live Evil's story? 

Mark Terry : There are really two stories within the movie "Live Evil."  Vampires in our story are becoming extinct due to all the bad things that people have in their systems.  Aids, Drugs, processed food, and so on, you get the idea.  This has started a sort of civil war between vampire cliques who are in search of "Pure Blood."  Some different cliques of vampires have also mutated due to what they have fed on.  The era of strong, powerful, and bold vampires is gone.  Vampires are on the brink of extinction and are almost like drug addicts looking for a fix of pure blood.  They will risk anything to get it.

Our main focal vampire group decides to relocate from their desert hide out to Los Angeles in order to find out what vampire cliques are still around and if there is any pure blood left.

A mysterious and unknown vampire slayer named only "The Priest" (Tim Thomerson) is on a quest to destroy the vampire race once and for all.  He follows the focal group of vampires to Los Angeles to confront them and kill them off.

"Live Evil" is what is written on playing cards left on the dead bodies of slain vampires.  A palindrome that explains, "Life can cancel out death."

d3rang3d : Any interesting stories from the set of Live Evil - serious or funny? 

Mark Terry : Yes, I can think of a story that was serious and then turned funny. We were shooting a bar scene in Culver City a while back.  Tim Thomerson was in the scene with Chuck Williams.  Lots of people remember Chuck from Bubba Ho-Tep and Dark Walker.  He is a great guy.  Chuck plays a bartender which is located in the middle of the desert.

Through out the movie "The Priest" (Thomerson) carries around a bag with a samurai sword half sticking out, guns, and even explosives.  The Priest walks into this bar, run by Chuck Williams, after he gets hurt in the car chase.  The Priest is in need of a drink of whisky to kill off the pain.

While doing one take Thomerson swings his bag on the bar then asked for a drink.  It looked cool so director, Jay Woelfel, asked him to do it again.  Thomerson comes back for take two and swings the bag again but this time a little bit harder.  As the bag is in motion the samurai sword flies out of the holder in the bag and zips right over the top of Chuck Williams head.

It was a tense couple of moments but once we knew Chuck was ok, everyone got a good laugh out of it.  We did capture the take from Chuck's point of view.  The look on Thomerson's face as the swords flies is priceless.

If there is a blooper reel this one is on there for sure.

Mark Terry : The scenes that were deleted get us to know more about the main group of vampires and the people around them.  There are a few quick deleted scenes that include Thomerson as well.

One scene which was really hard for me to see cut out was the gas station scene that included a cameo of Texas Chainsaw Massacre III's director, Jeff Burr.  Jeff played a dirty trucker who the vampires try to feed on to "fill up" before they reach LA.  Jeff in the scene plays a diabetic and since his blood is useless all hell breaks loose.

Another quick scene has "The Priest" inviting the vampires to a party run by Max (Ken Foree).  I hate to see this section go as Thomerson does a great Charles Bronson impression while talking to the vampires on the phone.

None of the scenes really help the movie move along so they needed to be trimmed down or cut.  I really hope whoever the distributor is going to be leaves them on the DVD as extras.  The deleted scenes all together are around 15 minutes.  The movie should run around 98 minutes.
 
d3rang3d : How difficult was it to get funding for Live Evil? 

Mark Terry : Just like the vampires in our story are desperate for pure blood, I was desperate to find funding to tell this action packed story.  At one point I even went down a clinic in Santa Monica to donate sperm to put away some extra money.  That's the God's honest truth.  Wow this should be a fun DVD commentary.

A good buddy of mine who played with me in a mens basketball league in Pasadena had a company that came in with the funding.  That guy's name is Robert Sotto who is one of the sharpest up and coming executive producers in this industry.  Another producing buddy, Beau Unger, also came in and helped find additional financing.

Robert saw the opening scene that we shot in March of 2006.  I was taking it around to various film markets and showing it to any producers rep that would open their doors.  Robert loved the opening scene so much he wanted to get involved in any way possible.  We didn't fully start to shoot the movie till 8 months after we shot the opening scene.

We kept our actors that stuck with us in the opening scene then brought in Jay Woelfel.  Jay rewrote the script, gave Thomerson a call, and the rest is history.

One a side note, when we first shot the opening scene, Don Calfa, was slated to play "The Priest."  Don left the project due to personal issues.  Jay's friendship with Thomerson and the fact that Thomerson was so good in his first few dailies was also a solid selling point to get even more funding down the road.

d3rang3d : How tough has the making of Live Evil been on you personally? 

Mark Terry : Very tough on me and I think anyone around me.  At the beginning of the shoot I came down with some disorder called "positional vertigo."  This left it almost impossible for me to drive.  I would never wish vertigo or an inner ear infection on anyone in my life.  Try making a movie, much less a desert vampire chase movie and not be able to drive.  The crazy thing is I have been extremely healthy and lucky enough to plays sports all my life.  Its weird to wake up one morning and have trouble keeping balance.

Its also very difficult to make a low budget chase movie based out of the desert.  I never want to see another desert in my life.  Its a world of extremes.  Too hot, too cold, too windy, nothing near by and so on.  Lots of indie movies are shot in one place or just a few close by locations.  We were every where in and around Los Angeles.  We even shot on the Walk of Fame.  Its all worth it to me though if people enjoy the movie.

Special Thanks to Lis Busch my co-producer for doing some driving for me and Jay Woelfel being the glue on the creative end of the movie.

d3rang3d : How easy was it to get along with legends Tim Thomerson and Ken Foree? 

Mark Terry : No problem at all.  Their agents maybe a different story.  No in all seriousness both guys were a joy to work with.  As a fan myself and producer I would get nervous that the food wouldn't be good or they would be less comfortable on an indie film than a studio movie.  Tim Thomerson was never late a day and never complained for one second.  The same could be said with Foree.  So the answer is very easy.

PS:  It was also cool to work with Tiffany Shepis.  She shot with us on one of our very last days of shooting and it was a very cool addition. 

Mark Terry : We are currently doing the sound and music.  At this point with out those two elements the first car chase is my favorite scene for a few reasons.  There are two in the movie.  Its the one you see in the trailers with the El Camino.

This 4 minute car chase represents the hardest sequence I ever had to coordinate in my life.  Here are a few reasons why; 

A.) Lost our hero car a day before and had to get a rent a car which we totally trashed.  Thank God I took out the full insurance on it.  More on the DVD commentary later.

B.) My good friend and teacher, stuntman Jerry Alan, drove the chase car aka Priest's El Camino.  It was very scary to see a close friend and 60 year old man do a pipe ramp jump with no roll cage.

C.) Russian Arm.  We were able to use the Russian Arm camera car crane for the car chase.  This is the same piece of gear that was used in Fast and Furious, Transformers, and War of the Worlds.  You will never see this type of gear on anything but big dollar movies.  Using the gear really gives us a boost in production value and the ultimate toy for any film maker trying to tell an action based story.

d.)Seeing it all come together SAFELY and having a very entertaining scene.  The fact that we pulled this weekend off with under 20 people and not much money is mind boggling to me.

I think the fans will be into the vampire baby scene as Thomerson mentioned in your recent interview.

d3rang3d : Which creative artists interest you these days? 

Mark Terry : I think you will find most indie film makers say guys like Godard or John Sales to try to pretend they are artsy.  That's not me though.  I like entertainment that gives back to fans of that specific genre, fun, tells a good story, and maybe ridiculous at the same time.  This type of entertainment style is an art form too.

Now I know I am going to get bashed or laughed at but there are two men today that I look as "creative artists" that very much interest me.

a.) Sylvester Stallone.  At age 61 this guy is still making entertaining movies.  I got a chance to hang out on the Las Vegas set of Rocky Balboa.  This man's passion for the business and will to be the best is unreal.  I have never seen a actor/director do a psychical scene, yell cut, then run over to video village, and run back to do another take.  Let alone that guy being in his 60s.

Another great thing about his movies is they all have strong messages and a personal philosophy for never giving up.  Even his arm wrestling movie "Over the Top" proclaims, "Life will only meet you half way."  Is that a catch phrase for a ridiculous Cannon movie or a way to live your life by?

b.) Vince McMahon.  Another guy in his 60s that took a business in the direction of his own vision.  Like it or not sports entertainment or pro wrestling (call it what you will) is an art form and has its own merit and place when it comes to story telling.  Its maybe done in ridiculous fashion but that's what its all about.

Is there any theater company or TV show in the world that creates 5+ hours of live original programming a week, 365 days a year?  That's not to mention that these shows are usually put on in front of 10,000 people plus every week.

McMahon also has a passion for what he does much like Stallone.  That's why these two "artists" have interested me for the last 25 years.

d3rang3d : What do you plan on doing after Live Evil has been completed? 

Mark Terry : I have said for years I would love to make or remake one of those early 1980s Italian amazon cannibal movies.  Hardcore violence, Hardcore action, and a big name 1980s action star.  I am in the works of getting a script optioned that could make this happen.  However, in this business plans are always subject to change.
 
d3rang3d : Finally here is your spot to say anything to the world you like

Mark Terry : The producers of "Live Evil", myself, and d3rang3d.com are working together to give the readers of this site first chance interviews with cast and crew of "Live Evil."  More to come.

In closing, we hope that genre fans will love this movie.  How many times have you been promised "the next big" thing when it comes to independent horror films only to pick a copy up and its a video taped snooze fest shot in someone's garage?  How many times have you seen Thomerson in recent films only to wish he was back kicking ass like he did in "Trancers" or "Dollman?"  We hope to deliver that with an over achieving attitude with "Live Evil."  If people walk away with a smile on their face and feel like they got their monies worth than we have done our job.

d3rang3d: More to follow on Live Evil soon folks, It’s worth mentioning that the movie is currently slated for a late 2008 release and is going to be one to watch out for. Live Evil has an official website which can be found at : http://liveevilthemovie.com/