Studio CarryOnHarry brings on board Writer Director Michael P Blevins on occasion of his newly released film Digging To Death. In a candid talk filmmaker shares his journey in Hollywood filmmaking and making of his new film.
About You and Your background ? Lets begin days when you were aspiring to be , Days When you became what you are , professional upgrades in your journey?
I’m from Kansas City, Missouri. I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was 17 years old. I made 3 small micro budget features in KC before I moved to LA in 2012. From there I aspired, started a lighting company, and finally transitioned into directing and producing in 2018.
How do you convince yourself with things that you have to shoot for a film but you actually don’t otherwise believe ?
Suspension of disbelief. If I don’t believe what’s happening why the hell should I expect anyone else to? I get PUMPED for these stories and essentially believe every second of it. I’m essentially my own favorite audience member.
Your Scripting Process ? Your approach to casting ?
I come up with a story and hammer it out. I don’t like writing when uninspired. I gotta be pumped. I like writing rolls for people I have in mind, and if they’re unavailable then I see what the universe brings to the table
How much does your life influences your story telling and the characters that you bring to life ?
My life has been crazy so I imagine my crazy stories stem from it
How do you work on yourself to become better in your field learning , observing , reading ? Type of things you keep yourself involved with
My biggest thing I’ve worked on is my patience and my ability to respond vs react. Patience really makes the movie work, even when you can’t be patient, you have to be patient. You just have to hold steady
Filmmaking is team work. Tell us about your team and what sort of pre planning gets done before you decide to make a film. Tough things about making films and what keeps you going despite those tough things ?
Filmmaking isn’t tough. It’s damn near impossible. Granted that’s at first, but then it slowly gets easier. My team are all pros and work in the industry in LA consistently so it was hard to lock them all down for this one but we just did.
Justin Jones has DP’d countless big budget high concept music videos, Thomas Bangert is an internationally recognized filmmaker, and Vanessa Zamarripa just did Army of the Dead, amongst a plethora of other awesome movies and shows
Title Of Your New Release
Digging to Death
What is the central theme of film ?
A man finds 3 million in cash and a dead body in his backyard
how many days it took you to shoot ? What locations it has been shot at ?
14, house, and some studio days.
Share your thoughts about production process . Any interesting trivia about its making ?
We almost killed Tom Fitzpatrick in that box. It was January in the rain
What platforms will the film be released ? Date of release ?
It’s out— everywhere but Netflix rn
Any other project you are working on ? Some details about the film ?
The next movie is called The Devil Comes to Kansas City…. and it is NUTS. Gonna be a helluva wild ride
How do you deal with Negative Feedbacks ? How do you stay balanced with Positive Feed back ?
Haha I made this movie for me to enjoy. I listen to positive criticism but typically the haters hate and the fans fan. I like hearing critiques from my idols and people I look up to. Everything else is just white noise
How did you hear about CarryOnHarry ? Any message for Studio ? Any Suggestion that we can make it better ?
My publicist
IMDB Link
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7752100/
