The Black String (2018)
Director: Brian Hanson
Writers: Richard Handley, Brian Hanson, Andy Warrener (Story by)
Stars: Frankie Muniz, Blake Webb, Chelsea Edmundson, Richard Handley, Cullen Douglas
Jonathan is a lonely twenty-something, stuck in his home town working night shifts at the local convenience store. When an unexpected encounter with a mysterious woman turns his life upside down, Jonathan is stricken by illness and nightmarish visions. Paranoid and desperate, he launches on a quest across the suburbs to find the seductress who started it all. Friends and family believe he’s losing his mind, but Jonathan is convinced he’s the target of something far more sinister.
Following the International Premiere of The Black String at Arrow FrightFest, I got an opportunity to ask co-writer /director Brian Hanson and co-writer/producer/actor Richard Handley a few questions about what people can expect from their debut film, how the idea came about and working with Frankie Muniz in a career best performance.
Q. We are here at FrightFest for The Black String today; can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
Brian Hanson – For those who have not seen or heard of The Black String it’s a psychological horror, so those that like; The Black Swan (2010), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), I would even say Shutter Island (2010). Is this really happening or is it in the protagonist’s mind? If you like that sort of film, then The Black String is right up your alley.
Q. How did the original concept for the film come about?
Brian Hanson – It was originally sketched out and outlined 10 years ago by me and my bar tending buddy in Hollywood Andy Warrener. We came up with this idea because we wanted to make a micro budget film. All the stuff that was popular then was females in danger, haunted houses, people realising they were ghosts or big city zombie movies. Us as contrarians we were like what do we want to rent, what do we wish we could see? So, we thought, put it in the suburbs, put it in a safe place where a lot of us group up.
Then centre it around a character that connected with us when you don’t know what your next step is; your graduating out of high school, you didn’t go to college, you could be in a job that you don’t know how to leave. Whatever it is your stuck and is so lonely and desperate for change. That’s where we started and then we created this fun little phantasm, maybe adventure at times but also kept that seriousness of mental illness. What if it isn’t that phantasm occult tall man coming after you and its all in your head, that’s scary.
I went to the army, came back and went to film school again at Mount Saint Mary’s University met Rich who was also military vet. I pitched him this idea just siting at lunch one day and he came back a few months later and said we should make that movie. So, he came in as a doctor and a parent and added the other 40 pages, so we co-wrote at that point.
Richard Handley – So we were just heading into our second year of film school, working on thesis work and we were like what do we do? Do we a couple of shorts, make an anthology with our other buddy. In the end that idea that he had told me a year prior had stuck with me and we said, let’s do a feature film. We thought we would be doing it on a micro budget level for beer money with friends and hope for the best. But then part of our thesis we had to turn in for our masters degree was both a fully fleshed out feature script which came in at 80 plus pages, so we had double the size and went super deep on the characters and understanding the nuance of the story. Both the doctor and parental aspect I came in to work on that. We wrote out the script over an entire year in exquisite detail, making sure that it fits together in a way that was cohesive and equally entertaining. That kind of where it all started.
Brian Hanson – We just said let’s go for it and make this tiny movie, but it ended up growing much bigger than we had anticipated.
Richard Handley – Part of our thesis was the script. We shot at a weekend a teaser trailer…
Brian Hanson – It was good, and it made people say whoa!
Richard Handley – It had to do two things. It had to tell a really compelling story and get people intrigued about the story and it had to show filmmaker prowess as we were both first time filmmakers, so we had to present proof that we are capable of making a film at least. At least a one-and-a-half-minute film that is interesting to watch. We then had to put together a pitch presentation. We had a barbeque at out university to bring in friends and people in the industry pitching our business. It was now becoming a business, so we set up an LLC, we turn in our thesis project and graduate from university. Now it’s a real business lets go ahead and forge forward with the idea that this is going to be a feature film, and instead of a micro budget, it’s a low budget that substantial enough to get a legitimate film off the ground, with legitimate actors…
Brian Hanson – A Legitimate actor for one day was what we thought was going to happen (laughs)
Q. When you were writing the script did you have anyone in mind who you wanted to play the characters either as friends or profession actors?
Richard Handley – Not anyone specific, but a type we had in mind. It was written darker with a lonely slacker in the suburbs, not the powerhouse that Frankie (Muniz) has.
Brian Hanson – Probably more of a dark Donnie Darko (2001), I don’t know who the 24-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal is today. Daniel Isn’t Real (2019) was pretty good, the actor in that did it in that movie. He is a very lonely dower guy desperate for attention. That’s what we thought it was going to be, but Frankie come along. We got a casting director; we could have cast it ourselves but again good advice, pay a few bucks for a casting director as they are going to open doors for you. Jeromy Gordon sure did.
We were seeing a lot of people from a lot of different agencies that we never thought it would be possible and at the 11th hour Frankie Muniz’s name was thrown in and we were like how did that happen; does that guy still act? He had been racing cars and playing drums in a band. He really liked it and said he will drive out here to audition, you have to say yes to let him audition even though we were ready to cast that day. We put it on pause, he knocked it out of the park on 24hrs of prep. We had another call back and he hit a grand slam and that was only the beginning, he only had the script for 72hrs. Imagine two weeks from now, he had the skillset and the charisma. We adjusted what we envisioned originally to allow for Frankie’s personality. He understood the dark side too, he understood the humour, bursts of aggression and the shy moments without us having to say a lot. It was in the script and he got it.
Richard Handley – To Brian my hat is off, he was able to melt Frankie’s comedic sensibilities with various relationships within the film. Dena’s character, the ERC, both of them are great comedic actors, Ravi Patel who comes in for one scene as a doctor. All of these actors are talented in terms of their comedic sensibility, but Brian had to reel some of that back in and allow some of it to come fourth when it made sense. As a director he made a really good balance with that.
Brian Hanson – William Drucker and myself we were co-editors. We made a lot of the decisions in the editing room as well, because there is a lot of comedy talent on that set and there’s times they just kind of went for it.But you just have to serve the tone of the movie and it was never intended to be a comedy. Roman Polanski, I know saying Roman Polanski is a dirty word, but with his movies it’s the movie, the characters why people liked it. Repulsion (1965) the characters are so full of life and vibrant, they are not boring or brooding, except for the protagonist, but that’s intriguing. We wanted out characters to be full of life. I loved the Badadook (2014) but that’s a straight brooding movie, I don’t think anyone smiles in that whole film, I don’t think there is any other colour than blue, black and grey, which is great. It’s that style of setting the mood and controlling the audience, but we wanted to be more open and let the character live freely despite the overarching tone.
Going back to how we cast Jeromy Gordon got the word out which allowed Frankie to come in, but for everyone else in there… Anyone who watched this movie and says, “how did you get all of those names in there like Blake Webb, Ravi, Bret Green?” You know what that is… You know what that is go bar tend in Hollywood for 10 years, because you are going to work with all those people. Cullen Douglas is another one. Those are from the early days of being in the trenches as a bartender, PA or something.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
Richard Handley – One of my favourite moments was a scene which almost entirely cut from the film. We debated this and went back and forth, because me and Brian both loved this scene, but we were getting notes back. Do we really need that scene? Does it really push the film forward? What’s the purpose because it doesn’t really pay off in the end? But it was a fun scene in the sense it was great comedy, great energy and showed another side of Frankie. In the end it won staying in the movie because it showed Frankie physically fighting back, because he is always the guy whose been picked on and getting sand in his face. This is him stepping up and saying “No I am done with this.”
Brian Hanson – For context Richard is talking about the gas station scene where he fights the fit guy
Richard Handley – That’s one of my personal favourites I don’t know about you Brian
Brian Hanson – I think the whole theme of the movie is encapsulated when Frankie runs back into the store getting close to act 3. He’s out of his mind telling his buddy Eric. “Yeah man I figured it out” and Eric is trying to be a good friend, because that is exactly what our movie is all about. Because even Jonathon, who is played by Frankie admits, ‘I know this looks crazy’ and I think that’s the key. I know it looks crazy but it’s happening. He is just on fire; he is so entertaining, and you have been on the journey with him. He’s right. He’s got to express himself to somebody, but what he said sounds absurd and that’s exactly what it is. It’s happening, as far as he’s concerned. What makes that scene really pop is Eric played by Blake Webb, he is just going with it like a friend would. Oh my god, my friend is out of his mind, I can’t start him. How do I get him… just go get some snacks and go to the bathroom, now I can get on the phone and call the cops. I think that scenes my favourite. I think we shot that on day one or day two, but that’s proof of how Frankie got it immediately. There was no doubt that he got to learn the character and did that a week later, that was first up.
Richard Handley – It was the first day and as a producer I was like oh god I am sweating this is it, but the prep work that he did knowing that he would have to back track to that moment was a testament to his ability as an actor and understanding that character so well. It held up and watching it now you think he did it on the first day of production and that is just awesome.
Q. Richard you also act in the film playing one of the doctors, did you intentionally always want to play the character whilst writing the script?
Richard Handley – Yeah, I wanted to sink my teeth into something really juicy and as an actor this film provided that opportunity. It’s something that was going to challenge me as an actor, not just to play the character, but write the character you are going to play and give it nuance, depth and colour. The first scene up, you may notice at the beginning of the film a commercial that plays. Dr. Ronaldi is kind of chipper and he is excited about his career and he is going to help people. You come to my clinic and I am going to help you with those drug addiction issues. Everyone in that commercial is like, “Yeah it really helped, life is really good now”. Fast forward to later in the film, this is 20 years later for Dr. Ronaldi and he has seen a lot of patients from the time he saw that commercial and that time seeing Jonathon. He is kind of burnt out and frustrated, he has a certain expectation, that when he sets a certain protocol in place, the patient is either going to respond or not. But it’s likely that the result will be what we see in the film. So, that was fun as an actor to write it and go on that journey. It was a challenge also as a producer on the movie, but as we were talking about earlier having people on the set help take the reins when I was trying to stay in character, but I love that aspect of being able to play that role and be the artist in that sense. It was a great challenge and a great problem to have, I was excited, and would do it again and again given the opportunity.
Q. Do you have any other project which you are working on?
Brian Hanson – Yes, we have one in a similar genre and feel in the occult, paranoia, thriller, horror. Briefly it’s a downtrodden, I don’t want to say deadbeat dad, but he doesn’t have a great track record. He has got his young kid for the weekend and tries to have this nice birthday party in the backyard to show the ex-wife he is a good dad on the weekend. So, he hires this low rent magician to do some magic tricks in the back, some of the local kids and families are in attendance. The greasy magician is smoking cigarettes and puts little birthday Johnny in the box, but then little Johnny doesn’t come out. Everyone was like where did he go, so he says let me try that again, but little Johnny doesn’t come out, little Johnny is gone. The dad is like what did you do with my son and he is like, what it’s just an illusion these are the instructions of how it works, this isn’t real magic it hasn’t happened before. Then it just becomes crime, where everyone becomes a suspect. A bit like Prestige (2006) where it’s like magic can’t be real can it? Because this kid is gone. The police get involved and the dad has to clear his name and then he goes on this journey that goes to some really dark places, as he tries to work out what happened to his son. That is what we are working on for 2020
Q. If someone was looking to write their own film what advice would you give them?
Richard Handley – There are great books out there, we talk about Syd Fields, Save the Cat, The Hero with A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Those are the kind of pedagogy of how to get it done. Ultimately it is just sitting down and reading other really good scripts, look online there is a mass of information about what is a good script and show me a good script. Then you have to write to develop your own voice and takes classes if you can. Brian’s actually in a second MFA writers programme. Even now after having done The Black String he is continuing to work on his craft and writing. Its so important to just do the work.
Brian Hanson – The script will be the start of all conversation, any excitement to get people to buy and jump in on your team to make this movie. They’ve got to be down with the script. If you are a real beginner you’ve got to keep it simple, small, manageable. You’re not gonna have a lot of money. We went way to big. If it wasn’t for the will of a lot of people, donated time, equipment, locations. We could not have made his movie. So, keep it simple and early on do not risk a lot of money You can make a movie with an iPhone and a friend. Before you spend any real money work out the kinks, edit it yourself, go through the process. There is a reason why Steven Spielberg can make Saving Private Ryan (1998), because he has 150 million dollars and 300 employees, don’t be fooled to think a young Jedi director with three friends can pull this off. That’s the beauty of Blair Witch (2016), it embraced that and there are a lot of films here at FrightFest. Bliss (2016) was a big hit. That was three, four, maybe five actors and three locations, but it was a very energetic story and camera movement. So, keep it simple and make great simple products that impress people. Eventually the money and crew will come to you. Look at any filmmaker and their first one or two movies. They don’t start with Private Ryan.
Richard Handley – Look at Christopher Nolan’s first film Following (1998), its three actors following someone around London and its very effective
Brian Hanson – And now he makes Batman trilogies. He makes whatever he wants. Go look at your heroes but not what they are making right now, really look at where they were at square one and before that they probably made a lot of short films.
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!
