INTERVUE: Director Lonnie Martin, Women’s Studies

 

Director Lonnie Martin surrounded by Lady Killers!

For this edition of INTERVUE, we are interviewing director Lonnie Martin. A local director from Virginia who has won acclaim at 48 hour Film Festival for his work with Posti+ive (2007 Best Screenplay) and Under the Bed (2006 Best Sound Design). This time, he has taken on the challenge of his first feature length film, Women’s Studies. Mr. Martin has taken feminism to a new extreme never before encountered. I had the pleasure of seeing the film last April to amazing resullts. Not only did Mr. Martin made a horror thriller that I can actually enjoy, but he brings the true nature horror with his film.

TRR: Tell us about your origins as a filmmaker?

Lonnie Martin: I’ve always been a huge movie fan. At an early age I got involved with theatre which I went to major in once I reached college. I went to college thinking I was going to be an actor, but I fell in love with directing. This was the same time I started writing scripts as well. After school, I got involved with DC’s robust independent film scene both as an actor and crew member. The more I did it, the more I knew it was where my talents lie.

TRR: Excellent, going from acting to directing isn’t an easy task at best but I am glad that you pulled it off

LM: Well, I didn’t do much professional acting, but that background helps me build a rapport with my actors on set.

TRR: Who were the directors that has given you the inspiration to hone your craft? Who were the directors that have given you the inspiration to hone your craft?

LM: From a process standpoint, I’m actually a big Robert Altman fan. I like having the input for the actors, and try to achieve the kind of naturalism that Altman’s films have. On the Women’s Studies set there were a lot of Brian DePalma jokes because I wanted to use all these overhead shots. I’m a big fan of what DePalma does visually. However, as a director I don’t get too caught up in controlling the cinematography. That’s what a DP (Director of Photography) is for. I’m a big George A. Romero fan too. I like his independent spirit and blue collar production style. I could go on and on.

TRR: Fascinating, I have noticed the similar shots of DePalma styles in Women’s Studies. It brings more depth to the scenes.

LM: Success then! Thank you.

TRR: Your welcome! Speaking of WS, Can you tell us about the film? What is it all about?.

Graveyard of the Goddess

LM: It’s about a grad student and her friends who become “guests” at a women’s academy where the students and faculty take feminism to murderous extremes.

TRR: Oh, sounds intriguing! Where did you find such inspiration for writing the film?

Lonnie Martin: There’s a lot of influences. The 1975 version of The Stepford Wives is probably the biggest. I basically took that movie’s premise of men turning women into soulless, housecleaning sexbots and flipped it. I wrote the earliest version of the script in the fall of 2000 after reading a lot about women’s roles in horror films and feminism in horror. Carol Clover’s analytical book Men, Women, and Chainsaws had a lot of input on some of the ideas I wanted to explore. In all honesty though, I was commissioned to write a script “with lots of women that takes place on a college campus” and Women’s Studies is what I came up with. The original draft was only about forty pages. It was later that I extended and expanded it 

The Ladykillers

TRR: How did you go about casting the film?

LM: Well, the lead character Mary is played by Cindy Marie Martin who is not only the movie’s co-producer but also my wife. She actually lobbied for the role. I didn’t quite see her in it as the character was written differently in earlier drafts. But once I came around to Cindy as Mary I rewrote the role to suit her a bit more. Tara Garwood plays Judith, the yang to Mary’s yin. The role was written as a dark femme fatale, but Tara showed us a lot of zany energy in her audition and we thought it would add a different layer. Kelley Slagle is Judith’s silent Major Domo, Diane. She IS the perfect intimidating scary woman. It’s not much of an acting challenge for her. We cast Melisa Breiner-Sanders as Mary’s best friend Beth for similar reasons. Who Melisa is was who the character is. It just seemed the right fit.

TRR: I have noticed a classic horror face among the cast, Judith O’Dea from the original Night of the Living Dead. How did you get her to be part of your film?

LM: We talked a lot about getting a horror movie ‘name’ for the role of Senator Gayle Hamlin, who mentors the main character of Mary. At that time, I had recently seen Jason Paul Collum’s gay themed horror movie October Moon which featured Judith in a supporting role. I was struck by how good she was after all this time as well as wondering where the hell she’d been for forty years. I thought she’d be great for the role, so we wrangled up her agent’s info and sent her the script. The role interested her and so she came out to play with us for a week or so.

TRR: I am glad that she is in the movie. You’re right, she is one of the actors you would wondered what happened since that one role in her movie career.

LM: She went back to the theatre after a couple other film roles. She spent years acting for the stage.

TRR: Wow! That’s great she still has the talent after all these years. 

LM: I couldn’t agree more.

TRR: What was the atmosphere on the set?

LM: Ha! It depends on the day you were there.

TRR: Oh, really!?! Please elaborate.

LM: We tried to keep things pretty light. For so many days of ridiculously long hours, everybody stayed in pretty good spirits. There was the occasional tense or frustrating moment, but looking back I can’t remember the details of what they were and why they happened. I remember being exhausted all the time, and yet the excitement about what we were doing keep us moving We tried to keep things pretty light.

Director Lonnie Martin talking to Cindy Marie Martin for an upcoming scene

TRR: I heard that you love classic horror films. Can you tell us your favorites?

LM: Number one with a bullet is Night of the Living Dead. It just embodies everything that works in horror. It’s scary, it has heart, it’s shocking and it’s multi-layered. I love a lot of stuff from the 50s too. Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Thing From Another World, The Blob, I Was A Teenaged Werewolf . . . I don’t know if you’d call those classics, but I love them. More modern movies I love are Carpenter’s Halloween, An American Werewolf in London, 28 Days Later. In the past few years, I was struck by Let the Right One In, Trick ‘r Treat, and Session 9.

TRR: You picked some of my favorites. I love classics from the 50′s as well

LM: It was a different era so a lot of modern audiences have trouble getting into those movies, but I think they’re great. James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein are favorites too.

TRR: LOL. Good advice, coming from you!

TRR: Can you tell us about your upcoming project?

LM: I’m actually working on a pitch for a major company right now. I don’t want to talk about it lest I jinx it, but I’m excited by the possibilities. More personally, I’ve got a script close to my heart that I’m looking to get into production soon. It’s called “The Curse of Maynard Gordon.” It’s a quasi-anthology about a small town in West Virginia supposed “cursed” by the spirit of a murderer from the late 1800s. These “tales of Maynard” are all structured around the story of a sociologist who returns with her fiancee to his hometown after his sister dies suddenly.

TRR: Where can we find the Women’s Studies DVD?

LM: The DVD releases on JUNE 8 and is available for Pre-Order on Amazon. Go to the official website, AreYouALadyKiller.com, to see exclusive sneak-peeks. Thanks so much for the opportunity and support, Dean!

TRR: Your quite welcome!

If you want to know more about the Prentiss-Ross Academy, click over to AreYouALadyKiller.com and be sure to pick-up your copy of Women’s Studies when it hit Amazon on JUNE 8th. For The Rogers Revue, I’m Dean Rogers!