The apocalypse is coming. Stock up your supplies! Load your guns! Lock your doors! No, it’s actually happening in a short film made by Scott Antifave. To donate to his film and keep it going, check out his website. Shortly after a long shoot day, I got a chance to sit down with Scott and ask him a few questions so he could fill me in on more of his interesting concept of a short.
HNMAG: So a war unleashes onto the world, all hell breaks loose, and at the same time a couple struggles with a dinner party, where did you come up with the idea of two crises forming together into a movie?
Scott Antifave: Something Brewing, this movie idea has been in process for over two years as far as production-wise. I had the idea for probably a year when it was a multitude of events going around the world. All the events leading up to specifically this. This is about what could possibly happen like that. You’re bound to see things happen in places that are much more familiar to you. What would ever happen if this happened to us in our own city? The comforts are so familiar, and you’re never expecting it to be like that. How would you deal with something unexpected like that? Instead of looking at it as “Who are we fighting? Why are they attacking us?”
HNMAG: What kind of software did the VFX users to create the special effects? How did you hire such a talented crew for an epic trailer? It looks like some really serious effort put into this work.
Scott Antifave: I have freelancer. Having a low budget, I used favours, begging, and pleading with industry colleagues, and thankfully I had a network of people who were willing to help out with the cinematography side. So, everyone who’s involved with the shooting process was Vancouver locals that I’ve met on set. Then I outsourced the project to a very talented visual effects guy in Minsk, Belarus. He basically oversaw all of the visual effects and was primarily using After Effects and creating certain 3D elements.
HNMAG: How did you get in touch with the cast? Had you known them for a long time or did they show interest in the project when you mentioned it somewhere?
Scott Antifave: I knew all the cast from my connections with the acting world. I actually perform comedy improv in the city as well. So I kind of wrote the story with limited characters resembling who I would likely cast in these roles and then there’s a few great surprises, like one of my male leads who actually booked a movie with Gary Busey at the time. So I had to replace him at the time, and a recommendation from one of my existing cast, I auditioned another actor who was absolutely perfect for the role. Then I didn’t know of any specific child actors, I was looking for a specific look. An old friend that works in the casting sides put out a call to all of her agency friends and they were able to send some suggestions of newer and young up and coming children who were looking for opportunities to sink their teeth into some kind of role. I basically just got lucky with that one as well. I let everyone read the script beforehand, and they seemed excited and even told me it was written in a way that wasn’t exploitative.
HNMAG: What was it like filming the movie? Were there any other challenges you have faced besides finance?
Scott Antifave: Time. My own time. Putting it towards it. I got like 5 hours of sleep before this because we shot a 16 hour day overnight. That was the average of my last two years. You’re working on set and you’re spending every last minute to scrape everything together. I was essentially a one-man team who was using the favours and benefits of a network of people. Props as well. I was looking for props online and I was driving down to Gorilla Surplus, or finding prop guns. I was scouring the Internet for a gun that wasn’t $15,000 and then I went to a place in Richmond which basically sold non-working exact replicas which I could use safely on set without having an armer in there to insure safety. I had members of the stunt team from Arrow and Robocop who came out and did all my stunt coordination for me. Basically putting jobs in the right hands of experts who knew stuff that I couldn’t handle. And I got amazing results just from giving that control to them and getting amazing results. But mostly time was the tough thing.
HNMAG: What was the best experience you had while filming?
Scott Antifave: It’s always exciting to see your words come to life. And basically, this film has no dialogue but it’s all just portions of descriptive creation. Seeing how people take those directions and turn it into a compelling performance that is sometimes just told through a look. Just the feeling of collaboration of all these people, taking their time to come and help me. We shot over 2 1/2 days. 2 of them were over 15 hours long, and just people not stopping, continuing to work for me for nothing, for zero dollars because we worked together in the past and we created a relationship in the past. When you work on bigger budget stuff, there’s a lot of people there just for the job. But to have had all these people who had cared about me and I had cared about them, and they all came together. That feeling was really tremendous at the end of the day.
HNMAG: What do you plan to do with the film after submitting it to festivals? Any possible sequels? Any other projects?
Scott Antifave: We are having a screening on April 9th at the Cinematheque. As part of my Indiegogo, I promised everyone a screening. I want to see it on the big screen. We’re going to watch it there and then it’s going to be submitted on to festivals. It could be a possible feature, and for me an exhibition of my possibilities as a director. As my most ambitious project, the one I’ve spent the most time on. Something that took two years to develop, that I can show.
