Q&A: “MEATHEAD GOES HOGWILD”

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Co-directors Zach Harris, Sean Pierce and Kevin Cline (who also stars) find an incredibly unique way to explore a variety of close-to-home subjects from their native city Chicago in their debut feature MEATHEAD GOES HOGWILD, which had its world premiere at the 2015 Fantasia Film Festival as art of the ‘Fantasia Underground’ section. A story about the unraveling of a tender-hearted butcher pushed to his limits from every angle, our protagonist seems to find dead ends everywhere – whether trying to order online food, walking on the sidewalk, or trying to give away carnivorous delicacies to the community. An extremely personal portrayal of a city and one very frustrated Chicago citizen, fused together in a tale levitra cialis viagra of gentrification, class, segregation and meat!

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Esinam Beckley: Where did the buy viagra online paypal general idea for MHGHW come about?

Kevin Cline: The idea spawned from a goofy short film that we had made, pretty much as a camera test. After making it we realized there was much more we could explore with the character and the story came about from long conversations hashing it out. Eventually it seemed like a film we were levitra online overnight delivery able to make that we all wanted to and we quickly went into production.

EB:  How long had you guys been developing the idea for MHGHW and what was the reaction to pitching a story like this?

Zach Harris: There was no actual pitch for the movie to anyone. We pitched it on the internet with Kickstarter. We made a video.

KC: We weren’t trying to get a ton of money so we were able to do it. As far as developing the idea we made this short film, and it kind of started out as a joke like ”what if we made a MEATHEAD GOES HOGWILD feature?” and that was just funny. Then the next thing you know we were talking about it and suddenly there’s a real story, and it was like well maybe we should actually do this.

Sean Pierce: We were excited by the idea of using a character who uses base emotional things to kind levitra pills free sempal of explore deeply rooted problems in the city of Chicago. Deeply rooted problems of masculinity and other discount viagra drug things. Just kind of using a simple character to explore big ideas.

EB: This is a seriously intimate film – culturally, personally, performance-wise – can you describe the process of working on it?

KC: I think I was only able to do some of the things acting wise because of the fact that we had such a small crew. Everyone on the crew were like best friends.

ZH: So it t was an intimate setting the whole time.

KC: To do all these weird things. Doing these breakdown scenes I was comfortable around everyone I was with. It was weird to get to those places but I feel like to me it’s easier to go big then it is to go small. So I just went really really big. The conceptual thing was that we knew I could overact. So we wrote a character that acted very big.

EB: You are all from Chicago, for people who are unfamiliar with Chicago, how does the film resonate, or does it in fact show certain specific traits of the city? If so, what are they?

SP: I’d say Chicago is a very segregated city in the sense that you can go into different neighbourhoods and you know what to expect. Not just in terms of culture but in terms of class. There is very much an ”I’m in this area now, and I’m going to go to this area’’ so as a film we thought it’s an easy way to show a process of travelling somewhere, going somewhere. Starting out in once place and ending up in another. Not just in terms of destination, but in terms of neighbourhood and experience. So in terms of building it based on neighbourhoods, that is kind of how Chicago is built, and we built the film in that way. When he’s going crazy we set it in a neighbourhood where that is honestly what is happening there. It’s out of control and it’s this very scary emotional place where they don’t have many options. That’s where MEATHEAD is in the story. He’s in a neighbourhood that we set is going through gentrification. So it is torn between two different things. The old traditional ways of thinking, and this new modern culture. Wealth is also being introduced so that neighbourhood doesn’t really know how to react, and the character doesn’t as well.

EB: The numerous scenes where our main character has his breakdowns are unique in the way that they are simultaneously funny/disturbing and require a lot of dedication for and actor. What was the method of capturing these scenes?

KC: This was my first time really acting. I’ve acted in a lot of things before but a lot of short films we were doing for fun. This, I feel is my first time trying to seriously act. So I consider myself not an actor. Method-wise I got in a really weird mental state the whole time we were shooting the film. I kind of was already in a weird mental state when we were writing the movie. Then, once we went into production it was like, alright I’m this character now. I’m really supposed to be going crazy. So I kind of just – rather than trying to stop myself from feeling like I was crazy – tried to bring it out as much as possible. It was very cathartic.

EB: What would you like your audience to leave your film with? What are some ideas you’d like to communicate with the film?

KC: Too many. As a first feature, there were so many different subjects we wanted to talk about. We kind of threw them all in there. Hopefully some of them come across.

ZH: I think more will come across to certain people or certain viewers and where they’re coming from what they take away from it. There is a lot of different themes to latch onto.

SP: There’s a lot to take away from it if you want to. One thing I’m looking forward to is hearing two people take away two different reactions and think it’s about two different things. Racial issues or masculinity. They can have two different readings of the movie because there is a lot there so we’re kind of hoping the audience takes away what they think the movie’s about.

KC: It’s almost like a Rorschach test where what you see in it says a lot about you. That’s what we hope. I would hope people think about privilege, racial issues, and segregation. The fact that these things are real. Also self-justification, and introspection.

EB: What was your experience like with the world premiere at Fantasia?

SP: Simultaneously very exciting and also nerve-wracking. We made the film only in Chicago and the neighbourhood outside of it using an all Chicago cast and crew. We’re all from Chicago, so to see it for the first screening in Montreal, Canada we were very curious about how it was going to play out in front of a different audience. We were very happy with the way it played. We hoped it had a universal feel. To see other people from different cultures, and different countries respond the same way that we were thinking when we were writing it, honestly, is a very very happy cool, incredible experience.

KC: I can’t imagine a better place to have the film premiere.

EB: What are some future ideas or projects you are working on now or want to work on?

KC: I’m starting to work on a script for a character fantasy quest film. A small scale fantasy movie. I feel like MEATHEAD was really disgusting. So now I’d like to do something that is really beautiful.

SP: I’m writing one about a courtroom stenographer who’s juggling the biggest court case of the year and honouring her father’s dying wish of finding treasure, so currently writing that and hopefully we’ll make it with these guys.

KC: We’ve got a few things, we’ll see what actually happens, hopefully something.

EB: What are some of your inspirations for making this film or of films in general? 

ZH: I would say AFTER HOURS is a very big influence.

KC: That’s one movie that we just talked about a lot when writing the script Scorsese’s AFTER HOURS.

ZH: DOWN BY LAW. Mostly just the entirety of Jim Jarmusch’s work. Roy Anderson from a general standpoint and the way scenes play out. The mentality of Werner Herzog is something that is very inspirational to all of us.

KC: We have a framed poster of Werner Herzog on our wall that Zach made.

ZH: He’s looking over us just constantly.

KC: We wake up in the morning and see a poster of Werner Herzog looking at us and saying like ”WHY AREN’T YOU WORKING ON YOUR FILM!?”

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Meathead Goes Hogwild from Festival Fantasia on Vimeo.

About the author:

Esinam Beckley

Esinam Beckley is a student at the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies.

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