STALK ‘N’ SLASH: Had you always wanted to make a horror film, or did you just get up one day and say ‘let’s make a movie’?
ROB GRANT: Realistically I wanted to make all kinds of movies
but I had very little experience in doing so. So for our first film I knew we'd be learning on the fly and making mistakes, I decided in the writing stages to pick an idea I had for a horror movie first because I think horror is a far more forgiving genre. You can have mistakes in a horror movie and still be more accepted rather than if I had tried to make a complex drama, it probably just would have come off as cheesy.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: Why Zombies? Are you a big fan?
ROB GRANT: Zombies were just a staple in my youth. Growing up, I can remember one of the first movies my parents told me to leave the room for was the original Night of the Living Dead. Of course this made me seek it out on my own terms. It was never a horror genre I was CRAZY for, but one that I would keep tabs on. I'd say it hit me though with the remake of Night of the Living Dead that zombies offered a lot of human satire to critique, far more than other horror genres, and that’s an aspect I'm really into.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: My favorite Zombie film of all time is Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, what’s yours?
ROB GRANT: I would have to agree with you there, it's interesting that most people's favorite zombie movie is a movie that actually features very few zombies in regards to plot. But that's probably what makes it so good, the zombies were just a catalyst for all these interesting circumstances that humans have to deal with - and who wouldn't want a shopping mall to themselves really? A close second place though is Peter Jackson's Dead Alive or Braindead (whatever you like to call it)... But that's a classic for entirely different reasons.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: I know YESTERDAY was made on a micro-budget, and I think you did an amazing job; how did this effect the way it was made - what would you have liked to have done differently if the budget had allowed?
ROB GRANT: I guess we knew going into this project that we'd have no money. We were realistic with the prospect that no one was going to pay us with no feature experience. So after the original draft was written (which I thought I had done with a low budget in mind) we still had to tweak things a bit to be realistic to what we had available. I'm really proud of what came out of it considering some of the problems we had on set (we went through 5 film cameras because they kept breaking on us, it got to the point that our producer was standing behind the camera op with a screw driver jammed in the film mag and manually cranking the take-up feed!). So on that end I feel I really accomplished something, but of course looking back there are a ton of things I would have liked to do differently. And not just on a production end, I think I'm a bit more experienced now on what translates better from page to screen so I would have polished the script a little more because it all starts there. If there budget would have allowed I probably would have had more action elements - and perhaps hired a stuntman to do them...
ROB GRANT: The idea of shooting a feature came during the winter of 05-06. I was joking with Scott Mainwood (my cousin/producer), that if I didn't get accepted to the 3rd year UBC program I would just take my tuition and make a movie that upcoming summer. I received the rejection letter in February and Scott was just like "So you have a script? Let's get into pre-production." He kind of got the ball rolling and motivated me to hammer out a script and soon enough we were shooting in the August of 2006. From there, I spent basically the next entire school year from September to March attending school by day and transferring the film a little bit at a time by night at a post-house I used to work at. We snuck a few pick-ups and re-shoots in there as well. Then I'd say for the next year it was just constantly editing, re-editing, and us finding music, then a friend (Ian Robinson) to sound design and mix the movie by nights as well. We were still all attending school during this time so it was really just sitting down with it whenever we had free time. We set a cast/crew screening date for 20 Sept. 2008 and unveiled the movie then to everybody - a full two years later.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: What was that like – seeing the finished film, were you pleased with the end product?
ROB GRANT: I never had any sort of nervousness or stage fright or anything before that night. I now have a full on anxiety disorder from our initial screening - I think I realized there's something deeply personal about working so hard on something and putting everything you have into it for so long and then just letting crowds of people watch it and critique it. I feel like I'm standing up there for the full two hours... Everyone tells me to calm down, and the movie seems to get a positive response every time but I have a hard time sitting through screenings of it. I constantly have to remind myself that as long it’s eliciting a response from people that's all I can ask for. I'm tremendously happy with how it’s being received, and I like to think we have a good first film to build off of.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: I love the cast of this film, they had a great chemistry - how did you find them?
ROB GRANT: Thanks! The cast of the film were all either friends, co-workers, or friends of friends. We didn't really have open casting calls. We (myself, Scott Mainwood, and Mike Kovac (actor/producer)), had a sit down and just started to pool our resources of everyone we knew and thought about what was a good fit for them. It certainly helped that we all went to the same film school (Capilano U's Motion Picture Production Program) together, where we knew a lot of talented people.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: Given that you had such a small budget I was surprised to see some great action elements in the film, car crashes for example, how on earth did you pull it off on such a low budget?
ROB GRANT: I realized early on that to help our movie we need to find a bunch of production value. We didn't have access to any extraordinary sets or props or great numbers of people which seemed to be the first go to in regards to production value, and originally all of the car crashes were going to be camera trickery, but I had bought a junker of a car once before on craigslist and knew I could probably get a few of them for a thousand bucks. Then rather than hire a stuntman, and not willing to ask my cast or crew to do anything I wouldn't do, I suited up in full hockey gear and did the t-bone car crash myself.
The van going into the ditch was the most budget effective rig ever... a power drill rigged up to pull on the gas pedal with a zip tie. I suppose a cinder block would have been more cost efficient, but that really wouldn't have given us any control - Most other action elements were practical, using pesticide sprayers as blood pumps and squib hits. In post, I then taught myself basic after effects and sweetened some of the gore with some digital elements.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: I know a lot of screenwriters put their own character traits into their characters, which character in YESTERDAY would you say is most like yourself?
ROB GRANT: Well when I was originally writing it, all the names of the characters were supposed to be played by friends of mine using their actual names - While writing I had myself in mind for the main bad guy Rob. To the benefit of the entire film however Scott convinced me that was a bad idea. And no, I don't think I'm most like the character Rob, but he was probably the most enjoyable to write because I honestly feel he was the most realistic in regards to the human condition. If there was a world catastrophe I'm sure we'd see a lot of Robs out there. But I think one thing I noticed as a rookie writer looking back is each of the characters has a bit of me in them. Hopefully that's something I can manipulate a little more next time around.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: Any sign of that distribution deal, I’ve left a gap on my DVD shelf!
ROB GRANT: Thanks again! We have been made a few offers but are kind of letting our festival circuit run its course while trying to learn everything we can about the next step. It's all new territory for us so we probably won't jump into anything without having a handle on it first. Hopefully if the right offer comes along we will know when to take it.
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: So what can we expect to see from you next?
ROB GRANT: We have a second feature written. I'm really excited about the prospect of doing another film just because I feel I've learned so much from the first one. I'm taking everything I've learned and just want the opportunity to apply it to our next feature. It's called "Mon Ami" and I like to describe it as a horror film disguised as a buddy comedy. I'm really trying to push the limits of protagonist/antagonist in this one and am trying to blend a bunch of genres, something a little more complex theme wise. I have a few more touch ups to do on the script but we want to try and drum up some finances to shoot it next August.
And finally a couple of fun questions:
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: What are your top five horror films (an impossible question, I know – but try)
ROB GRANT: Awww man, okay on my ever rotating top five right now: The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, Cannibal Holocaust, Evil Dead 2, The Shining... and yes I am aware that none of them are zombie movies...
STALK ‘N’ SLASH: Zombies attack – I’m in my armoured Hummer, out hunting those Zombies. Where are you?
ROB GRANT: In a hunting lodge somewhere way out of town - with a 22 rifle, while trying to cultivate a small garden in the woods and hopefully some living company...
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