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Interview with Earth Day Director Mister Ooh-La-La
By admin | October 9, 2009
image stolen from Mister’s site: http://www.fauxshowproductions.com/
Earth Day is available at here.
Urinal Gum: So, I wanna be sure to ask this question: where did you get your name?
Mister Ooh-La-La: It was something I wanted to do for a while. I thought about it. I wanted some kind of gimmick. You know. And, I had a friend who died right when I got out of high school. She was a dynamic individual and lived her life the way she wanted to live it and that was a bit of an impetus for me. And, it was a bit subconscious. I wanted something that was both formal and kind of exotic.
UG: People can’t help but call you Mister.
MO: Right. And, I was really into Rocky Horror at the time, and it may have had a bit to do with Dr. Frankenfurter. Not consciously.
UG: I have a master’s in psychology, so I like to look at everything with an eye on psychology. Does the name change have anything to do with your relationship with your parents?
MO: No. Around the time, it was tumultuous. I changed it at 18. It wasn’t too bad with them. My dad would do everything he could to push me to get my own apartment. He was a bit half-assed with being a hard ass. When he caught me with weed, he said I had to take it all to my friend’s house and smoke it that night.
UG: How long did it take you to make Earth Day?
MO: I started writing in May 2007. I stopped for a month or so. I picked it up. I had a final draft in December of 2007. Then, I gave it to Lloyd Kaufman when he was here in February of 2008 for the Poultrygeist showing. Never heard anything back.
UG: Did you get funding at some point?
MO: My dad co-signed on a bank loan and friends invested in the film. It’s hard to say how much the film cost. If you are going to force me to estimate, I’d say I spent anywhere from 15 to 18 grand.
UG: When did you finish up shooting?
MO: It was the start of August to the second week of September. We would do three-day weekends shooting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then, I’d work my day job, Monday through Wednesday. Thursday was a prep day. I’d get everything together. I’d make the checklist for the week. And then, there was a week when we had bad tape, which fucking sucked. We had to redo the walk through the park. And, we should have redone the opening scene. You can kind of see.
UG: What kind of movie making experience did you have previous to this?
MO: Nothing.
UG: Did you take classes?
MO: No.
UG: Wow. I’m pretty impressed because it took you less than two months for the shooting. How did you get your knowledge on how to make a movie?
MO: Mainly I just read books. Lloyd Kaufman’s book was a big help. This digital video book I got was a big help. Mainly, once I just got a handle on the whole scheduling thing and making worksheets everyday listing the characters and costumes, what we’d need for the day, special effects, and props, it was easier.
UG: What kind of educational background do you have?
MO: I graduated high school. Then, I went to Lane Community College for a term for the TV Media program. The broadcasting class was fine. It helped me gain knowledge of the equipment. That’s the only reason I would go to film school is to gain knowledge of the equipment. I would never take a film theory class or any class that would tell you how a film should be. I don’t think a person should tell you how a movie should be: nothing content-based.
UG: I can relate to that with writing. I’ve kind of avoided the writing classes because I’m afraid. I want to be original and outside the box. I feel like the theory classes are counter to that.
MO: Right. You don’t want the bullshit in your head. You know. It’s like you’re trying to grow a garden and you immediately plant weeds. Then, I took a screen-writing class and that was the pits. The teacher was some old dude who was retired and just teaching the class for a couple extra bucks. On the first day of class, he was telling us how he and his daughter went to the movie Stepmom and just cried afterwards, and I thought, “Oh! Red light!” And then, the text was the book Screenplay, which is about 25 years out-dated. And then, just about everything he showed us was a scene of this or that: 20 minutes of Forrest Gump, which I hate. I think it’s the worst movie every made. I don’t like anything that’s life-affirming. And, it really has a conservative lesson about it. Because Forrest does everything he’s supposed to do. Jenny is a rebellious hippie dying of AIDS. That’s what you get.
UG: So, you’re saying you voted for Obama?
MO: Yes, but I am grateful for Bush. Without him, Obama never would have gotten elected. Besides, I love the Bushisms. I don’t know how much stock you put into this, but my astrological profile is almost exactly the same as George W. Bush.
UG: Really?
MO: I have the sign Cancer like him. And, I’ve read about him. Like, that he’ll fart in the middle of a meeting.
UG: Just like you?
MO: Just like. And, he’s a total goofball.
UG: Would you fart in the middle of a meeting?
MO: If I was comfortable enough to do it. If I were president, fuck yeah. I would definitely fart. I would fart while getting a blow job in the oval office. I would take the conservative demon and the liberal demon and combine them: the liberal part being the blow job, of course, and the conservative being the farts.
UG: I’m just saying though: feel free to fart around me.
MO: OK.
UG: And, I’ll wait for the invitation to do so from you.
MO: …
UG: Acute toxic bleach exposure: I was a bit disappointed because I did a Google search on this, and it didn’t come back with “did you mean ‘blank’?” It came up with nothing. How did you come up with acute toxic bleach exposure?
MO: I needed to remove mom because of Lenora needing to be there. And, I think I was looking for something that lends itself toward insanity because, eventually, Priscilla ends up being insane. Her dad is obviously insane.
UG: I love the dad by the way.
MO: He thinks he’s the only one who’s sane in the whole fucking family. Anyway, as someone who works in the food service, being all about cleanliness…nah nah nah nah: it just came to me. I didn’t even really think of the correlation. Someone else pointed it out to me that later on Simone is killed by toxic bleach exposure. I don’t try to make art. I consider myself to be an entertainer who has chosen film to achieve this venture. I plan on making films again, but I don’t consciously try to infuse any sort of message or symmetry. I figure if that’s going to happen, it’s going to happen on its own. You can’t try to control it or manipulate it because if you do it becomes a distraction. I just want to entertain people for 90 minutes or however long.
UG: I just wanted to point out a few patterns I saw. Not really with the first killing, but the other three, Priscilla meets up with the victims before their demise. Was that intentional? Was this done so she could gauge their ideals?
MO: Well, the confrontations need to compel her to end them. And, it was another way to bring them back into the story. I was trying to find a way to intertwine it all.
UG: I’m pretty impressed by, for a low budget film, how cohesive and easy to follow it is. That seems to be the big problem with low budget films. Now, at first, when I saw the movie, the one sister is dead and the other sister takes her on mentally. I saw this as a theft from Sisters, but then, I saw it as an original take on that motif. And, I’m sure Sisters was not the first to use it…
MO: Oh yes! DePalma has historically taken a lot from Hitchcock: like that end scene in Dressed to Kill. Like the psychological breakdown is straight out of Psycho. I would recommend any DePalma. The Fury is good. I noticed in Urinal Gum you mentioned that something was worse than WCW.
UG: Wait, did I?
MO: Are you into wrestling? Do you like wrestling?
UG: I haven’t seen much. But, I’ve heard stories about how you have a love for it.
MO: I have over 700 wrestling tapes and DVDs. I have every pay-per-view event from both companies, and the TV.
UG: I just remembered the reference: I was referring to reality TV. I was referring to the drama being worse than WCW because the last I watched was the waning days. It was Vince McMahon, and I didn’t see any fighting: just a lot of talk.
MO: That. WCW went out of business.
UG: You talked about Sisters. Would you say that is a big influence for you?
MO: Big influence, but not as big as John Waters in general. <Shows off an authentic hillbilly tattoo of two pink flamingos crossing at the base with “Filth” written underneath> Female Trouble is his best one. Serial Mom is also a big influence.
UG: “Fuckin’ Don Knotts!”
MO: “He’s the coolest.” Waters believed there were three generations of the insane: Don Knotts, him, and Steve Buscemi. He was trying to get Don Knotts into one of his movies. That’s one of my dream projects though: to make the John Waters biopic with Steve Buscemi as John Waters.
UG: Speaking of future projects, do you have anything lined up for the future?
MO: Yeah, I’m kind of vacillating between three projects. With this one, once the distribution deal is signed, and if it’s a huge hit, then I’ll probably do the sequel. If not, then my next two projects are A. an action comedy based on the world of competitive eating, or B. a horror comedy involving snuff films. And, I love Arnold. He’s perhaps my favorite movie stars of all time.
UG: I don’t think he’s that bad of a governor either.
MO: Arnold’s a cool guy. He wasn’t against the gay marriage. He smokes weed with Tommy Chong and says, “What’s the big deal? It’s just weed man!” And, he does it in Pumping Iron after he’s won. Arnold is smoking a huge doobie. I’m sure once he’s done being governor he’ll go back to making movies. I don’t think it’s right that they made a Terminator without him. I didn’t even watch Terminator 3 because James Cameron wasn’t directing. I think Cameron is the greatest action director of our time.
UG: I like how Earth Day captured Eugene. It definitely took place in Eugene. You can’t say it took place anywhere else. I know how all of John Waters’ films take place in Baltimore. Are you thinking that you’d like all of your films to take place in Eugene?
MO: Oh definitely! All of my movies are going to take place in the Emerald City, U.S.A. for sure.
UG: Now, I had never seen someone killed by douching. I really appreciate the ingenuity in the death.
MO: Actually, it was an enema bag. Same difference. If a girl says it’s a douche bag, you can tell that she obviously doesn’t douche.
UG: Have you given yourself an enema?
MO: I have.
UG: What can you tell me about your experience?
MO: I did a three day cleanse once. I don’t know. It’s not horrible. It’s like being filled with a warm warmth. That’s all. You take it in and push it out.
UG: Tell me about the Bijou. I heard they cancelled the viewing at the last moment.
MO: Not the last moment. At first they told me the showing fee. Then, they suggested that we just split the proceeds. They wouldn’t charge anything. Then, I gave them the screener, and suddenly, there were no openings available and they weren’t doing late-nights. Then, my friend told me it was the end that killed us…the bush. I was upset: Come on! They play porno!
UG: I immediately thought of Poultrygeist. An extreme movie I saw there. It wasn’t even a real bush!
MO: It didn’t even look like a real bush. It was surreal and ridiculous.
UG: Well, one of the things that got me excited to see your film was that the Bijou refused to show it. I know in movies a lot of times they won’t show sex because it’s gross. Were there any implied sex scenes?
MO: No.
UG: I love the mouth close-ups. What inspired you?
MO: That was all Balboa. That was his genius. He’s the other one on this team. I call myself the voice of faith and he’s the voice or reason. He’ll say, “We need this, Mister! We need this!” He’s the cinematographer/editor/you name it. This movie was a real testament to networking. A lot of people pitching in here and there. Friends willing to go the extra mile.
UG: Yeah, I hear the guy who had his johnson cut off…
MO: Zak Johnson?
UG: Yeah, I heard he had to lay in the cold for eight hours or something…
MO: I would say more like three. We had to shoot that scene twice. We tried it at night, but it didn’t work. So, we refilmed. Another of my big inspirations is Halloween. It totally set the archetype for horror, slasher, invisible killer. Jason movies are a cheap Michael Myer rip off with the mask and the holiday. Other favs are Dawn of the Dead, Sunset Boulevard, and Ed Wood.
UG: What are you hoping critics will say about Earth Day?
MO: It’s a good comment on the slasher drama.
UG: Have your parents seen Earth Day?
MO: Yeah, they liked it! My dad loved it. He said he was proud of me. He was pretty upset when I changed my name. He tried to beat me up. I had to leave the house.
UG: How did you get into watching movies?
MO: I used to go to the cinema with my mom. My dad was into movies, but he never wanted to go. So, my mom and I would go to see the new movie every week. She showed me Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time when I was five. I was so into it. I wanted to be Freddy Krueger when I grew up. I had work gloves and I’d make a Freddy glove, and every day, my mom would take it away from me, so I’d have to make a new one. I was way into horror movies. They never really scared me. When I was ten, I made a murder map of how I was going to kill all of the families in the neighborhood.
UG: Did your parents see this?
MO: No. Oh man, I am a huge Elvis fan. Priscilla is kind of based on him. Elvis was a twin. The twin died at birth. He felt obligated to live for the dead twin and wondered why he was the one who lived. The Priscilla character also has these drives. The only comparable celebrity to Elvis is Michael Jackson, who I also love.
UG: Were you born and raised in Eugene?
MO: Yeah. The writing is the part of the process that I most enjoy.
UG: I saw that you are on the editorial board for Denali, the LCC publication.
MO: Yeah. To keep in practice, I like to write storylines, or angles, for wrestling. Good guys are “baby faces” and bad guys are “the heels.”
UG: What do you think of cage fighting?
MO: I prefer the carniness and manipulation of wrestling. It is totally campy. My original goal was to be a pro wrestler, but I don’t have the body for it.
UG: So you don’t want to wrestle right now?
MO: Come on, Motherfucker! Okay, I’m going to whip your knees with the display board there, then I’m going to head toss you beneath the bench, then I’m going to go for an elbow drop, then you move, and when I move and go for the elbow there, you clothesline me into the pavement. Then, do an elbow drop from the bench onto the bench, then the bouncers will take us away and we’ll act like we hate each other. “That fucker asked me the wrong questions!”
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