Karma, a new film by Tom Roarty, © 2006 CrookedEye Productions.
Tom Roarty is an Independent filmmaker based in Lackawaxen, PA. He is currently working on his first film, Karma. I took the time to get inside the head of an Indie and learn about his experiences.
ME: Obviously this is your first feature as a filmmaker, but what was it that made you actually want to do this besides the motivation from Kevin Smith?
TR: Well, Kevin Smith was a big part of it for sure. I am a designer by nature who went to art school, worked for an ad agency, a few magazines, moved on to the web, and this was the next step in a creative evolution I think. So far it has been the most fun thing I have done and it has been a pretty easy process now that the ice is broken. Plus, i saw Shall We Dance which was a big confidence booster that i could actually do it…
ME: Yeah, we’ve all been there with that film. So, I have read about your production of your film, getting clues from your blog, as well as ads, but what is your film about?
TR: Hmmm… well without giving the ending away, it is about a preshcool teacher, she has a pretty good life from what we can tell. She loves her job and the kids love her. One day after work, she is abducted by this guy who has obviously done this before. From there, the journey gets very dark as he tortures, beats and tries to sell her into slavery. It sounds almost like The Passion of the Christ ,I know, but I swear there is a point to it. What the audience has to decide on is what is being done to her a valid crime. It is definitely not a random act, so it gives the viewer to choose a side between two evils. I let a few people read the script just before shooting and they had no idea what was coming so the pay off was done well in my head and hopefully I can get that to translate to film… So far everything I have seen from production has been really good!
ME: Sounds interesting, I’ve read your blogs from beginning to end on the production of Karma, and where does production stand right now?
TR: We are just about done with filming, we have one day left actually thanks to the cast that never slept! I believe we are going to shoot the last two scenes next week and be done. The hold up is one of our characters dropped form the project at the last minute (literally) and we want to get the right person for the part because as soon as this production is done I have two prequels and two sequels planned and my promise to my actors was they will be written into all the stories even if it is just a cameo. So finding the right people is really important, not just for this production, but to the future of the project as well. After that, I think we have about six more weeks of editing and we should be ready for the Fall Festivals!
ME: You seem really confident with this film, especially already planning sequels and prequels. What festivals are you planning to enter this film in and what kind of things are you hoping to take home from the festivals?
TR: *Laughing* I’m only confident because I don’t know I am not suppose to be! Actually, I really like the story and I have always been into movies that develop characters and don’t just base their success on special effects. I think there should be more character based movies sequels, because in actuality you’re trying to squeeze an entire life of a stranger into a two hour block of time. I decided to continue this story from before and after view points because it came to me so easily thanks in part to the actors who would ask “where did this charactor come from?” In answering them came the material for the additional scripts. Plus, we own all the equipment now, so why not use it? Right now we are looking at the Black Bear Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Eerie Film Festival, Secret City Film Festival, Screamfest Horror Film Festival, NYC Horror Film Festival, Northampton Film Festival, Slamdance Film Fest, Victoria Independent Film, DIY Film Festival, Boulder International Film Fest, Cinequest Film Festival, Washington DC Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, with more to follow as we get closer to the deadlines and such. I told my wife at this point I would just like to have people clap at the end of the movie! I am a realist and know I’m not going to be big tomorrow. So I will make the prequels and sequeles and see if I can get a following and go from there. It would be really cool to actually do this for a living though!
ME: Always have confidence in your film! Whether it is good or not, you need to have faith in your own production. Earlier I mentioned the motivation from Kevin Smith and you met him and he told you to “Just do it.” With those inspiring words from a successful director, despite the motivation it gave you, what was the overall impact that he gave you with just those three words?
TR: It was amazing actually! I was with my son when it happened and I had the idea for the film in my head for about two weeks before we met, but had no idea wht to do with it. When we ran into Kevin he was not a happy camper, it was at comic-con on a very screwed up day because of the amount of people that showed up, the Javits Center in NYC, which is where the event was held, was locked down by the fire marshal so no one was getting in or out. So while waiting to get out of there it just happend that Kevin and I were so close for a few minutes and I just wanted to say some thing to him without sounding too dumb so I threw out the “What’s the best way to get started question”, he was so cool to answer it just triggered something and I felt I had to do it! I watched Clerks like twenty times since then just looking at camera angles, use of light and space and his break down of his scene selections are not all complicated with filler which inspired the look of my film although the content provides little comic relief. Kevin Smith is living the dream and I totally admire him for that and am honored that he took the time out to say anythng to me!
ME: In your blog you tell about one of your friends switching to a nightshift. Apparently he got pretty pissed and had many twisted thoughts of torture. What were some of the things he talked about and what did you end of using in the film and what didn’t make it?
TR: *Laughing* This guy is awesome! He is my friend, Frank. He worked his whole life at his job and when they changed his hours to the midnight shift, saying he was pissed was definitely an understatement! He came over to my house after the news and started rambling off how he would like to chain the people involved in ruining his life to the floor in a basement, get them addicted to heroin just so that he could deprive them form the drug so they would have to go through withdrawls, and repeat the process till they finally died. I thought that was really twisted and it stayed with me for some time until the idea of the story materialized from a news clip I saw on FOX 5. After putting those two situations together I thought up some interesting situations of my own and a script was born. By the way, Frank keeps telling me if the story makes it big, we’re partners. I hope I can make him rich one day! I would say that was the biggest thing he came up with really, all the ideas for the rest of the scenes made it in. We were really carefull not to show any nudity because we get how the rating systems works and if we ever did get picked up for distribution, *fingers crossed*, nudity added to the content in this film would probably push it to an NC-17, the rating of death!
Tom Roarty has been keeping a blog since day one of his production of Karma, read it all here.