Film Name: Baby Blues – Going Dark
Director: James P. Gleason
Writer: James P. Gleason
Starring: Jim Ortlieb, Shanti Lowry, Tyler Poelle, Aliya Victoriya
Barney needs a tooth out. His regular dentist is not in the office, but that’s OK — Dr Carroway and her
assistant Penny will take care of him today … He really should have rescheduled. This is not going to
go well, especially after the power goes out.
In a new Exclusive Interview on Blazing Minds ahead of Horror-on-Sea I got a chance to ask Writer/ Director James P. Gleason a few questions about the film ‘Baby Blues – Going Dark‘
Baby Blues – Going Dark will play at Horror-on-Sea on Saturday 11th January at 3:00pm
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. To be honest, I don’t know. It’s a bit of a social experiment. If we’re successful, it will play like a live-action Animaniacs cartoon, albeit a bloody Animaniacs cartoon. It’s a comedy. A dark comedy. And then it gets a little darker. Then a little darker after that. Here’s the experiment: These ladies, these dentists – they’re funny when we start, bantering like pre- teens on a sleepover. As things get darker – are they still funny? Then it goes darker. Still funny? DARKER! Hey audience, how about NOW! Are we still funny? What they’re doing to the patient is awful! But I don’t want you thinking about the patient, he’s just a prop for their goofy ineptitude. If you’re feeling too bad for him, we’ve lost you! Will we be able to hold that audience or will we lose them? If we’re successful, the banter will still be funny at the end. It may not work – but that’s OK. It’s an experiment!
But only the first experiment!
I have a feature script in development called THE AWAKENED CHALICE where one of two roommates is a boring nerd, the other is a goofball, the life of the party – you can hardly wait to hear what comes out of his mouth next. In the second act, he does something atrocious – Still in character, but REALLY atrocious. After that, he’s still a goofball – the dialogue is no less funny than it was before, but he’s not funny anymore! The audience should be mortified by his humour (has he no soul, no moral compass?), we should be as scared of him as his roommate is.
But why? Why in BABY BLUES – GOING DARK, are they still funny after they do all this terrible stuff to the patient, but in THE AWAKENED CHALICE, he’s NOT funny after he does what he does to the nun (oops, did I say too much? Forget the “nun” part)? What’s the difference?
It’s in the execution. If I do it right, that is.
That’s why this is exciting! We’re dancing on a knife edge! We could fail. That’s the thrill!
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script?
A. I grew up on Monty Python, so I grew up warped! Then add some SHAUN OF THE DEAD sauce and HOT FUZZ powder from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg and that pretty much sealed the deal!
Maybe that’s why we’re premiering in the UK! You’re the first to take the bait!
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. Oh, my answers are too long. I’ll cut to the chase with this one. My overall look and feel are inspired by Mad Magazine (not kidding), David Fincher (think SEVEN) and Terry Gilliam (Must-See: 12 MONKEYS – my favourite movie ever), with a healthy slathering of James Cameron (TERMINATOR, AVATAR) over the top. It’s unfair (but common practice) to single out the directors it’s their production designers and cinematographers who manifest, enhance and deliver the vision.
Why Mad Magazine? Truthfully, I haven’t picked one up since high school, but I was always dazzled by the rich detail in every frame, additional gags and objects tucked into the corners while the “A” story played in the speech balloons and the principal characters.
I want every shot to be gorgeous. Even ugliness can be shot beautifully. I learned this was possible from watching the works of those filmmakers above. Colours, textures, shapes can all be interesting and beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, even if when viewed overall, the composite we’re looking at is something terrible to behold. The trick is to be stunning in service of the story (instead of showboating in front of it).
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Not on purpose! This thing is thick with banter, but there were a few points in the script where I realised that I was so descriptive about the goofy antics that I left holes in the dialogue (uh-oh)! On the first day on set, Tyler (Tyler Poelle, playing Barney – the patient) and Shanti (Shanti Lowry, playing Ashley – the dentist) just filled in the holes with ad libs like it was written that way, and by day two, Aliya (Aliya Victoriya, playing Penny – the dental assistant) was ad libbing as well … in the end – you can’t tell which lines were written and which lines were spontaneously created – this cast was amazing.
We were having so much fun on set, we didn’t even notice that we missed a few things in the script. Fortunately, this tale is more like a theme park ride than a jigsaw puzzle. If you take away a drop or a loop, do you still have a roller coaster? Of course you do. My next one, however (shooting in March), is more of a jigsaw puzzle – if we miss a piece – you’ll notice! I’m glad we started with this one – now we know what to watch for when we shoot that one!
We ran out of time (there’s never enough time – but lessons are learned on every shoot), so we didn’t get to circle back and shoot the in-between shots where the dentists line up the dental tools before cutting to the grisly inserts (Oh No! We don’t have the connective tissue between the banter and the nasty stuff.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. Those ad libs! This cast was on the ball – like an improv squad!
We kept on hearing laughter from video village, I was afraid it was going to ruin the audio tracks (it didn’t), but it was reassuring to know that the goofball humour was working! I’m eager to see if that crackpot energy infects the audience. I’ll know soon!
Cindy (Cynthia Gravinese, Producer) assembled a fantastic crew that all got along. I’ve been on happy sets. I’ve been on miserable sets. This was one of the happy ones. No attitudes, we were all looking out for each other, we were all having fun with each other, the zany antics and props. That’s not to say we didn’t have moments, but they were blips that quickly resolved themselves. We were like a happy family!
Danny Cistone is an incredible Production Designer. He whipped up that set for us – it looked like an established dentist office. His positive energy oozed onto everybody else. He was everywhere at once like there were three of him, and he brought on an eager and cheerful art department.
Colin Oh (Cinematographer) was amazing. We had to scramble for a new DP six days before we were to start production and Mitch Yapko (WATCHING WALTER Director) recommended Colin. Colin stepped in with NO prep time, had to use the previous DP’s team (not his own team), he cobbled gear together – between his own, the previous DP’s and some rentals at the last second – and he gave us a look like he had weeks to plan and prep – it was miraculous!
The script calls for a power failure – the ladies are going to do surgery by cell phone light. I wrote this a year and a half before shooting it not knowing how we were going to get our look. Would it be islands of darkness in inky black (like the Castle films of the 60’s?) Would we have unmotivated light illuminating the background (destroying the feel of being in a blackout?) We managed to thread the needle by a combination of Colin’s subtle lighting approach and Danny 3D printing cellphone-like cases to house Nebo flashlights that had more kick than cellphone flashlights. I love the look that we ended up with.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. I had never shot more that four pages in a day (spoiled by film school where we often shot at a studio pace – a page or two per day). I know the indie world moves faster than that, I figured I better learn how to pick up the pace since I don’t have a studio budget doing this on my own.
WELL – the first 12 pages of this one take place in a fairly static setting before we get into the juicy and technical stuff – so we thought we’d punch it out on the first day. OOPS! We “only” got 8 pages in the can that day (WOW – twice what I’d ever shot in a day, so YAY!) – but that meant we came up short and didn’t make our day (so not-so-YAY). We never caught up, but fortunately, didn’t fall further behind (OK, maybe a little bit further behind). As luck would have it, the last day was only supposed to be a two hour night
shoot (plus two hours of prep) in the parking lot.
Remember me saying that this crew was great – we all had each other’s backs? Though we limited ourselves to 11.5 hours on Days 1-4, they all agreed to take on a long final day – We shifted all that backlog into a day shoot on the stage (finally making up the lost time, all the dental work inserts and other juicy stuff), then went out and did our night scene in the parking lot. It was our only day that went longer than 12 hours. Nobody complained, we supported each other and got it done. I love these guys!
Q. What makes it stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. We’re playing it as a straight comedy. It just happens to have some horror in it, but never mind the bloody stuff, let’s just have fun. This is a comedy that just happens to be gruesome and nasty.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. Remember to schedule your next dental cleaning.
And don’t forget to floss.
And if you ever go to your dentist office, and there’s a substitute, it may be best to reschedule!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Funny you should ask! We just put GEORGE’S PATH (a gentle family dramedy that takes a not-so-gentle left turn into macabre absurdity) and STRAIGHTY JACK’S (my two-minute twisted take on modern chain restaurants) into production, these being the other two shorts on my three-film comeback slate before we take on a feature! We’ll shoot them back to back in March.
Baby Blues – Going Dark will play at Horror-on-Sea on Saturday 11th January at 3:00pm
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
