Dark Prism – Interview with Director Dylan Mars Greenberg and More!
Just when you think you’ve seen the trippiest of horror films, Dark Prism rises from the indie underground with enough weirdness to make Cronenberg blush.
The movie follows three women with mysterious pasts, a nerdy boy, a company man, and Jesus Christ, all of whom are plunged into an absurdist nightmare when a giant and magical prism descends upon planet Earth and warps reality.
Dark Prism is directed by Dylan Mars Greenberg, and features Lloyd Kaufman (or Troma Entertainment), Matt Katz-Bohen (of Blondie), and indie superstar Mac DeMarco. Dread Central recently met up with Greenberg, as well as the cast and crew of Dark Prism, for an in-depth interview about inspiration for the movie, challenges along the way, and how any filmmaker can realize their vision without a budget.
Dread Central: Okay, first off, tell me how all of you came together to make such a zany, brilliantly-screwed-up movie? Did you all know each other before this?
Yolpie Kaiser: Yeah actually! We did, we’ve all been friends for a few years. Some have known each other longer than others.
Max Husten: Yeah like basically the entire cast is friends.
Yolpie Kaiser: But Dylan has always made movies.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Yeah I knew most of these folks beforehand! Some of them hadn’t met each other but they all knew me somehow.
Sofe Cote: I met most of everyone here through Dark Prism so I’m more new to the friend group than most!
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Some of them were very surprised when I told them the roles I had envisioned for them I believe
Dread Central: Haha I bet!! Speaking of which, how much of it was improv and how much was written and rehearsed beforehand?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Most of it was improvised!
Sofe Cote: Nothing was rehearsed at all.
Max Husten: It was basically all ad-libbed.
Sofe Cote: Some was written but we only learned about it during the scene.
Yolpie Kaiser: There was like an outline of what we wanted to happen, but mostly all the lines were thought of on the spot. Sometimes by Dylan and sometimes the cast themselves.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: I don’t write scripts. I take my filmmaking style from Scot Shaw’s Zen Technique of filmmaking. I wrote a basic outline but for the 1st and 2nd acts I had 90 percent of everything in my head. I think Yolpie must remember on their first day of shooting the second act, there were a few minutes where I actually had to stand there and think up the next scene!
Dread Central: That sounds like both a relief and a burden! Was there any trouble piecing it all together in the end? How did you make everything work together?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: I think piecing it together was the easy part. I knew how everything would flow together. A lot of it came to me in dreams or visions. I get my best ideas not when I’m fully asleep but when I’m in the stage between sleep and waking life.
Dread Central: What were some of the difficulties you ran into?
Max Husten: Getting everybody to the filming location on time.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: The hardest part by far was locations. At the time I had no money to work with, and I’m talking zero. Not 10,000 dollars, not 1,000 dollars. Nothing. So, I couldn’t pay for locations. I had to basically beg people to let me shoot in their space.
Sofe Cote: Yeah, scheduling was our main issue for sure
Dread Central: Speaking of locations, I found it especially hilarious how you integrated Troma’s offices into the movie in a way that didnt’ call for much change to their routine set-up. How did you get the luxury of shooting there??
Dylan Mars Greenberg: The folks at Torus_porta were really helpful and gave me their performance venue to shoot whatever I wanted in. It came to a point where I actually ran out of locations to shoot in, so I would go into Torus_porta and re dress it with bedsheets and things. I also used my parents’ house for a lot because a lot of buildings fell through. There was a boxing match scene that we were supposed to shoot in this giant building, but they decided they didn’t want me there so I had to spend the day running around Brooklyn begging people to let me shoot there. I managed to get the back of an active flea market to shoot in. Some of the sellers at the market became extras. I got the luxury of shooting there because I am actually one of the in-house editors for Troma! I got hired while I was still in high school. I made the offices look slightly bigger by using an effect to look like the camera goes up a floor and you see a second floor. In reality that’s the same floor. There’s only one office floor, and then there’s a basement. Lloyd is always really cooperative and he really helped me out. He also thought it was funny that a teenager was his stuntman
Dread Central: I’ve got to say, I average about a movie a day, and very few movies I’ve seen come close to being as off-the-beaten-path as Dark Prism! What draws each of you to this sort of movie?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Well I grew up on weird shit. That’s all I was into as a kid. All I wanted to watch was obscure shit, the more obscure the better. I was 10 years old and I brought a movie into school called the wizard of speed and time. The kids all taunted me afterwards because they wanted to watch Harry Potter. One of my favorite movies growing up was also forbidden zone.
Sofe Cote: I’m a huge fan of anything Dylan does, and it was such a fun thing to get to shoot! I love the way she allows for creativity and I love anything weird or nonconformist.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: And John waters. My parents told me I wasn’t allowed to watch female trouble til I was 13 but I found it online and watched it when I was 11. They had a VHS of it and they thought if they hid it from me I wouldn’t find it, but they didn’t realize I was very good at streaming things.
Dread Central: Many people of the past who’ve worked for Troma have gone on to mainstream careers in film. Is this something you’re really interested in, or is “weird” cinema your calling?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: I want my career to go one of two ways: Either I am recognized by the art and indie world as an artist and as a specialty film director, and that becomes my work, to direct art films where I have the full creative control, and likely teach film classes as a professor, that’s how guy Maddin makes ends meet I believe, or I am seen as a genre filmmaker which I also am, and I am hired by companies like sci fi and the asylum to direct their films. I think I could do a good job either way. I really could take both sides of the film world and make them fun. That’s kind of self-assured but I really think I could bring something new to the art world and the genre film world. If Guy Maddin is reading this, please collaborate with me! It’s my dream!
Dread Central: Sofe, you’ve done both modelling and acting in the past–did any of that help prepare you for working with Dylan on Dark Prism? I mean, you get attacked by a giant monster dick puppet. That had to have been pretty…unique.
Sofe Cote: Definitely not! This was more strange and fun than any modeling work I’ve ever done, including the day that I spent 16 hours with a prosthetic bear nose on. Dylan is one of the most unique filmmakers I’ve ever met and I don’t think I’ll ever do anything again that compares to the way she shot dark prism.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: I made Sofe lie on the rocks in the cold for her dream sequence. It was freezing and raining when we shot that and I think she had to lie there for at least an hour.
Sofe Cote: That was so fun.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: In a masochistic sort of way. For both of us.I feel like there is definitely a masochistic element to enjoying acting in the realm of horror and this type of surreal film ~ there’s a lot of joy in it as well. Like fun masochism.
Sofe Cote: That’s my favorite type of masochism.
Dread Central: Which is part of what I loved about it–it’s risky, and risk isn’t something you find a lot of in movies anymore.
Amanda Flowers: Definitely, risk is a thing lacking in a lot of things these days, but through risk you can create some truly beautiful work you never expected to happen.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Tell me about it! When I shot the scene as Marllii in the boxing scene, I was sick with the flu, pinkeye, and a fever. When I pull my sunglasses off and you see my red eyes, that’s not special effects, I had pinkeye! I was wearing that leopard print jacket because I was freezing and it was the middle of summer.
Yolpie Kaiser: Dylan was a machine. She was so sick that day. I’ll never forget. I’ve never met someone with so much drive to make content in my life. And it’s AMAZING.
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Chandani did a great job as Jesus.
Chandini Smith: Superhuman capabilities. The entire process was so intense because Dylan was juggling like 10000 million people’s schedules. But pulled off an amazing project that I’m super proud to have been involved in.
Amanda Flowers: I just wanted to say that working with Dylan has been a truly invigorating experience. I don’t think there is anyone else like her in the world these days, and I’m really excited to see what she comes up with next, especially with her new movie the heart of Dr. West. Her movies just get better and more immersive and unique with each new addition to her creative endeavors. It’s amazing that she’s so young and has this drive and vision. I can’t wait for the future. Robert butcher said that she gives him hope for the world and I completely agree.
Dread Central: What’s next for this cast? You’ve all got such wonderful movie making chemistry; are there plans for a “part II,” or at least a sequel-in-spirit?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: If the movie ends up doing well I want to make a movie called PRISM 3D. I want to use a different method of 3D I’ve been experimenting with called pulfrich. All you need to use are a pair of sunglasses lying around the house. It’ll make the PRISM pop right out of the screen!
Dread Central: Hopefully that means more guitar solo throat slitting! haha that was kickass!
Yolpie Kaiser: I know I’ll be working with a lot of these people in the future because we just work so well together it’s something I could never abandon!
Dylan Mars Greenberg: Max got about two gallons of blood poured on him for that.
Max Husten: The part where me and Sofe are walking backwards into the bathroom was filmed backwards so it could look more awkward. It was so awkward but so funny.
Sofe Cote: Oh that was like the second time I ever met max too. Which made it even more awkward.
Dread Central: The awkward hand holding made me fall out of my seat!
Dylan Mars Greenberg: I deliberately chose two people I knew would have a very awkward chemistry.
Dread Central: I’m sure you’ve all gotten this before, but I’m damn impressed a group of such young film makers and actors pulled together to make something so divisive and new! This gives a lot of inspiration to younger film makers, and really raises the bar for what’s possibly with ZERO budget. What’s some advice each of you would give to readers who are aspiring film makers?
Yolpie Kaiser: You’d be surprised what you can make with no money. Make connections with people. And that can carry you a super duper long way. Most of us actually have a multitude of skills that we ended up using to make up for things that would cost money. Some of us have backgrounds in makeup and costume. Music production, stuff like that. People JUMPED at us to have their songs in the movie. It was super humbling. I was the person who actually drew Chandani’s beard
Max Husten: There aren’t rules do what you want.
Chandini Smith: Yes I love how much of this was entirely dependent on relationships, for locations and props and whatnot. Everyone did a part. I kinda hate the term grassroots.
Sofe Cote: Yeah, and a lot of the green screen stuff was actually shot at my home!
Dylan Mars Greenberg: My advice is the following, 1: don’t wait for money to come in. You’re not going to raise a million dollars on Kickstarter. If you have a camera and you have an editing system you can make a movie. 2: there aren’t rules if you don’t have to answer to anyone. You don’t need a script, you don’t need to block shit and you don’t need to storyboard. If that helps you, fine, but it also can slow things down. 3: Don’t be an asshole, ever, because that shit will never fly. 4: Annoy the shit out of anyone who can help you. I know that sort of contradicts the previous statement but it’s true. Two things can happen: one, they don’t help you and think you’re stupid, or two, they decide to help you. You have to be very nice, but you have to be pushy, and you have to hustle like crazy. A lot of times you get turned down but then you’ll find someone willing to help you when you least expect it.
Dread Central: Are there any closing remarks any of you would like to make?
Dylan Mars Greenberg: We have a new movie coming up called ReAgitator: A Parody. Most of the folks here are in it as well as Aurelio Voltaire Schooly, D. Alan Merrill, and Jurgen Munster as the Doctor. It’s a pop art parody of horror and I guarantee it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s like a Hammer Horror film on acid. Also, we made another movie since then called Amityville: Vanishing Point. That’s on amazon now. It’s very different than Dark Prism it’s a lot darker and David lynch inspired. Amityville like you’ve never seen it before!
Yolpie Kaiser: You’ll be seeing more of us!
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