Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Oct 19, 2014 16:39:52 GMT -6
www.screenqueensland.com.au/news/onscreen-news/1547-qaa-with-director-mark-hartley-of-electric-boogaloo-the-wild-untold-story-of-cannon-films.html
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is a documentary about Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus - two movie-obsessed cousins from Israel who became Hollywood’s ultimate gate-crashers.
Following their own skewed version of the Great American Dream, they bought an already low-rent brand – Cannon Films – and ratcheted up its production to become so synonymous with schlock that the very sight of its iconic logo made audiences boo throughout the 1980s. And yet who could have foreseen how close they came to nearly taking over Hollywood and the UK film industry?
From 1979 to 1989 Golan and Globus ‘flushed’ out more than 120 films featuring ninjas, nudity, wooden action heroes, threadbare plots, unintentional humour and accidental moments of genius.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is not just a hilarious tale of scattergun movie making, but of two cousins whose passion for cinema changed the way movies were made and marketed, and how ultimately this passion would come between them and the company they built together. This is a one-of-a-kind story about two-of-a-kind men who (for better or worse) changed film forever.
Producer Veronica Fury of Wildbear Productions and director/writer Mark Hartley received an overwhelming positive reception at the world premiere screening of Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films on Saturday 2 August at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The film was supported by Screen Queensland, Film Victoria’s Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Screen Australia.
Mark Hartley caught up with Screen Queensland to talk about his latest genre documentary:
SQ: Did you always want to make documentaries and be a cinematic historian for exploitation (or as you coined in NQH) Ozploitation films? Why the fascination with genre cinema?
It has been a very strange path as I didn’t intend to have a career in documentaries at all. My background is music videos – and I always hoped that they would lead into narrative features. I did, however, want to tell the story of the Australian genre filmmakers who had been left out of our film history books - and so when Not Quite Hollywood got made and was well received, I was suddenly seen as the “doco guy”.
Quite honestly, as a film fan, the appeal of making these docs was to be able to meet my movie heroes. I grew up loving both local and international genre films and so to get to hang out with filmmakers whose work I adored - including John Landis (An American Werewolf In London, Trading Places), Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist), Allan Arkush (Rock’ n’ Roll High School) and local identities like George Miller (Mad Max), Brian Trenchard-Smith (The Man From Hong Kong) and the irrepressibly cheeky John Lamond (Sky Pirates) - was a great thrill. That some of these people are now good friends is an amazing bonus.
SQ: Are Australians becoming more fond of genre films – is there a growing market here?
It’s a sad truism - Australian audiences don’t go and see local genre films. It’s hard enough to get an audience to go and see an American horror film – and almost impossible to get them motivated to spend $20 on seeing a local one. There are lots of theories (we don’t have college towns, there are no more drive-ins… etc.) but I don’t think Australian audiences have ever truly embraced local genre films. There’s always been a snobbish attitude towards them and audiences seem to have been conditioned instead to embrace our more worthy film fare. There are two glaring exceptions – Mad Max and Wolf Creek. Maybe it’s because those two films were ahead of the curve, and introduced a new type of film that was quickly emulated across the globe – but I believe most local audiences think that our genre films can’t compete with the budget and polish of action, sci-fi and horror films from the major Hollywood studios. We certainly had to endure this attitude with the remake of Patrick. A lot of people assumed it was going to be absolutely terrible – and thankfully, a majority was pleasantly surprised by the film’s style and atmosphere.
SQ: Did you find any resistance from going from a “doco-maker” to making your first narrative feature – Patrick?
I think to some degree it made sense that “the guy who had written the book on Aussie genre film” was going to make one. I was lucky with Patrick that I had the full support of the film’s producer, Tony Ginnane. He was relentless in exploring all avenues of financing for that film – and managed to get it up burdened by a first time narrative filmmaker, a first time screen-writer and a creative team from music video land.
We set out to make an international film because we knew if the film had any chance of making money, it would be from overseas territories. But, I’ve always wanted to make films for the masses. Even though my docs explored niche subject matter, they strived to be as fun and entertaining as possible and appeal to a broad(ish) audience. We never let education get in the way of entertainment!
My latest (and last) doc, Electric Boogaloo is 100% an international story (the rise and fall of an American indie studio controlled by two Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus) with interviewees recruited from the US, UK, Italy, Spain, Israel and Thailand – but it has a core Australian crew and all the research, pre-production and post-production was divided between Queensland and Victoria.
For example, the grade and online took place at Brisbane’s The Post Lounge and the mix at Melbourne’s Soundfirm. It has a high profile US co-producer attached (Brett Ratner) and I think is a great example of an international project with international subject matter being able to be created and controlled totally within Australia.
SQ: Why do you choose Cannon Films?
I travelled to many festivals with the first two docs and was constantly getting hounded by genre fans to make one more. I decided that if I was going to relent, I would make a film that in some way chronicled the 80s – and the Cannon Films logo very much epitomizes the 80s cinema going experience for many people – mainly because Cannon made so many films (200+) that you couldn’t escape seeing it!
It was also a story that I felt a kinship with being Australian – it was about brash outsiders desperately wanting to be insiders.
SQ: Did you do all the research? How many interviews did you do?
I did all the research for Electric Boogaloo myself – but we recruited a couple of people with superior detective skills (Melissa Hines and Rosemary Long) to track down the Cannon survivors – a few of whom did not want to be found!
We ultimately interviewed 90 people for the film.
It was important that everyone that we spoke to had served time in “the Cannon trenches”. I didn’t want to populate the film with critics or gushing fans. Thankfully, everyone was honest and had an amazing story to tell – and in the process of the interviews the movie’s tone changed from being an “inspirational David vs Goliath story” into something much more personal and cautionary. It is frank, but it also strives to be irreverent and fun - and hopefully it is fair.
SQ: What was your Audience Plan? Are you making this for the fans? Are you making for mainstream – can you make for both?
I think die-hard Cannon fans may possibly find it a little too honest. One comment I received was that I had ruined someone’s childhood!
Even though it doesn’t pull punches, I think it still has a great affection for the company and their diverse output.
SQ: How many crew were involved with EB?
Four of us travelled the globe – Cinematographer Garry Richards, camera assistant Ange Sartore, sound recordist Jock Healey and myself.
Words can’t describe how tough the shoot was – the crew endured food poisoning, a collapsing studio roof and losing every one of their days off on a 30-day shoot due to last minute interviewees becoming available.
But we got to meet Bo Derek.
SQ: What is your distribution plan? Do you have a local distributor?
Electric Boogaloo has been lucky enough to be selected for Toronto International Film Festival and a few other upcoming festivals. Local audiences will hopefully get it see it when it has a very boutique theatrical release in October courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment. Ultimately, it’s in the hands of the exhibitors.
I keep telling people that this is my final doc – and no one believes me, but it is the truth.
I had such a wonderful and thrilling experience making Patrick that I really want to invest all my energies into narrative filmmaking.
I’m currently developing a few projects and I hope I’ll be lucky enough to walk onto a set again in the near future.
The incredible thing about having made these three genre docs is that I often meet movie lovers that tell me that these films have encouraged them to explore their own National cinema.
Job done.
To keep up to date with all the film’s news visit: www.facebook.com/ElectricBoogalooTheMovie/timeline
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is a documentary about Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus - two movie-obsessed cousins from Israel who became Hollywood’s ultimate gate-crashers.
Following their own skewed version of the Great American Dream, they bought an already low-rent brand – Cannon Films – and ratcheted up its production to become so synonymous with schlock that the very sight of its iconic logo made audiences boo throughout the 1980s. And yet who could have foreseen how close they came to nearly taking over Hollywood and the UK film industry?
From 1979 to 1989 Golan and Globus ‘flushed’ out more than 120 films featuring ninjas, nudity, wooden action heroes, threadbare plots, unintentional humour and accidental moments of genius.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is not just a hilarious tale of scattergun movie making, but of two cousins whose passion for cinema changed the way movies were made and marketed, and how ultimately this passion would come between them and the company they built together. This is a one-of-a-kind story about two-of-a-kind men who (for better or worse) changed film forever.
Producer Veronica Fury of Wildbear Productions and director/writer Mark Hartley received an overwhelming positive reception at the world premiere screening of Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films on Saturday 2 August at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The film was supported by Screen Queensland, Film Victoria’s Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Screen Australia.
Mark Hartley caught up with Screen Queensland to talk about his latest genre documentary:
SQ: Did you always want to make documentaries and be a cinematic historian for exploitation (or as you coined in NQH) Ozploitation films? Why the fascination with genre cinema?
It has been a very strange path as I didn’t intend to have a career in documentaries at all. My background is music videos – and I always hoped that they would lead into narrative features. I did, however, want to tell the story of the Australian genre filmmakers who had been left out of our film history books - and so when Not Quite Hollywood got made and was well received, I was suddenly seen as the “doco guy”.
Quite honestly, as a film fan, the appeal of making these docs was to be able to meet my movie heroes. I grew up loving both local and international genre films and so to get to hang out with filmmakers whose work I adored - including John Landis (An American Werewolf In London, Trading Places), Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins), Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist), Allan Arkush (Rock’ n’ Roll High School) and local identities like George Miller (Mad Max), Brian Trenchard-Smith (The Man From Hong Kong) and the irrepressibly cheeky John Lamond (Sky Pirates) - was a great thrill. That some of these people are now good friends is an amazing bonus.
SQ: Are Australians becoming more fond of genre films – is there a growing market here?
It’s a sad truism - Australian audiences don’t go and see local genre films. It’s hard enough to get an audience to go and see an American horror film – and almost impossible to get them motivated to spend $20 on seeing a local one. There are lots of theories (we don’t have college towns, there are no more drive-ins… etc.) but I don’t think Australian audiences have ever truly embraced local genre films. There’s always been a snobbish attitude towards them and audiences seem to have been conditioned instead to embrace our more worthy film fare. There are two glaring exceptions – Mad Max and Wolf Creek. Maybe it’s because those two films were ahead of the curve, and introduced a new type of film that was quickly emulated across the globe – but I believe most local audiences think that our genre films can’t compete with the budget and polish of action, sci-fi and horror films from the major Hollywood studios. We certainly had to endure this attitude with the remake of Patrick. A lot of people assumed it was going to be absolutely terrible – and thankfully, a majority was pleasantly surprised by the film’s style and atmosphere.
SQ: Did you find any resistance from going from a “doco-maker” to making your first narrative feature – Patrick?
I think to some degree it made sense that “the guy who had written the book on Aussie genre film” was going to make one. I was lucky with Patrick that I had the full support of the film’s producer, Tony Ginnane. He was relentless in exploring all avenues of financing for that film – and managed to get it up burdened by a first time narrative filmmaker, a first time screen-writer and a creative team from music video land.
We set out to make an international film because we knew if the film had any chance of making money, it would be from overseas territories. But, I’ve always wanted to make films for the masses. Even though my docs explored niche subject matter, they strived to be as fun and entertaining as possible and appeal to a broad(ish) audience. We never let education get in the way of entertainment!
My latest (and last) doc, Electric Boogaloo is 100% an international story (the rise and fall of an American indie studio controlled by two Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus) with interviewees recruited from the US, UK, Italy, Spain, Israel and Thailand – but it has a core Australian crew and all the research, pre-production and post-production was divided between Queensland and Victoria.
For example, the grade and online took place at Brisbane’s The Post Lounge and the mix at Melbourne’s Soundfirm. It has a high profile US co-producer attached (Brett Ratner) and I think is a great example of an international project with international subject matter being able to be created and controlled totally within Australia.
SQ: Why do you choose Cannon Films?
I travelled to many festivals with the first two docs and was constantly getting hounded by genre fans to make one more. I decided that if I was going to relent, I would make a film that in some way chronicled the 80s – and the Cannon Films logo very much epitomizes the 80s cinema going experience for many people – mainly because Cannon made so many films (200+) that you couldn’t escape seeing it!
It was also a story that I felt a kinship with being Australian – it was about brash outsiders desperately wanting to be insiders.
SQ: Did you do all the research? How many interviews did you do?
I did all the research for Electric Boogaloo myself – but we recruited a couple of people with superior detective skills (Melissa Hines and Rosemary Long) to track down the Cannon survivors – a few of whom did not want to be found!
We ultimately interviewed 90 people for the film.
It was important that everyone that we spoke to had served time in “the Cannon trenches”. I didn’t want to populate the film with critics or gushing fans. Thankfully, everyone was honest and had an amazing story to tell – and in the process of the interviews the movie’s tone changed from being an “inspirational David vs Goliath story” into something much more personal and cautionary. It is frank, but it also strives to be irreverent and fun - and hopefully it is fair.
SQ: What was your Audience Plan? Are you making this for the fans? Are you making for mainstream – can you make for both?
I think die-hard Cannon fans may possibly find it a little too honest. One comment I received was that I had ruined someone’s childhood!
Even though it doesn’t pull punches, I think it still has a great affection for the company and their diverse output.
SQ: How many crew were involved with EB?
Four of us travelled the globe – Cinematographer Garry Richards, camera assistant Ange Sartore, sound recordist Jock Healey and myself.
Words can’t describe how tough the shoot was – the crew endured food poisoning, a collapsing studio roof and losing every one of their days off on a 30-day shoot due to last minute interviewees becoming available.
But we got to meet Bo Derek.
SQ: What is your distribution plan? Do you have a local distributor?
Electric Boogaloo has been lucky enough to be selected for Toronto International Film Festival and a few other upcoming festivals. Local audiences will hopefully get it see it when it has a very boutique theatrical release in October courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment. Ultimately, it’s in the hands of the exhibitors.
I keep telling people that this is my final doc – and no one believes me, but it is the truth.
I had such a wonderful and thrilling experience making Patrick that I really want to invest all my energies into narrative filmmaking.
I’m currently developing a few projects and I hope I’ll be lucky enough to walk onto a set again in the near future.
The incredible thing about having made these three genre docs is that I often meet movie lovers that tell me that these films have encouraged them to explore their own National cinema.
Job done.
To keep up to date with all the film’s news visit: www.facebook.com/ElectricBoogalooTheMovie/timeline