Donny Broussard Hello Chris, first I’d like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to talk to Killer Film about your projects. Christopher Irvin Thanks, I appreciate you showing interest. Donny Broussard Can you start by telling us something about your background, like what got you into film, how long you’ve been at it and did you go to school for film? Christopher Irvin A little about my background. Hmmm I was born in Denver Colorado. I now live in East Lansing Michigan. I went to college at Michigan State University. I studied art. I had somewhat of a strange childhood. I owned a ton newts, and I loved to watch them and reorganize there tanks. I would draw them and makeup stories about them. The kind of amazing stories that only kids can make up, but. That’s as far back as I can remember about me being creative. By the way my newts died when I came to Michigan. I was sad. Never went to film school and I still don't really consider myself a filmmaker. I view film as another medium that I create art within. Donny Broussard What are some of your favorite flicks, and who are your biggest influences? Christopher Irvin My favorite flicks and influences...Wow that’s a hard one. I'll just list them: Terry Gilliam's - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Chan-Wook Park's - Old Boy & Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance Peter Chan's - Going Home J. Robert Wagoner's - Disco Godfather Wisit Sasanatieng's - Tears of the Black Tiger Isao Takahata's - Pom Poko Hayao Miyazaki's - Spirited Away Wong Kar Wai's - Fallen Angels Donny Broussard What about Dreamorphans, who’s involved with that and are you planning on venturing off into feature films? Christopher Irvin I started Dreamorphan Films with a friend of mine who was a painter. He decided film making wasn't for him so I became the sole owner of the company. I will definitely make a feature length film eventually. For now I want to work within the short film category. Not sure why just feels right. All films even feature length are just section out of the larger picture of our life. Maybe our life is that same thing as well. I do other art and I'd like to have time for that as well. Short films seem to provide this balance. Donny Broussard How do you find actors for your flicks? Christopher Irvin I use people that I live or work with. Sometimes it will be a friend of a friend that knows somebody who wants to act. I've also used mandy.com. Most of my short films have an actor from another short that I’ve try to suck the life out each actor. Leech style! Donny Broussard The costume design on “The Date�? looks amazing, did you do the masks and if so where did you learn to do that kind of traditional effects work. Christopher Irvin Yes I made the masks and costumes. The masks are a combination of hand made and bought pieces. I really in enjoy trying to use my other art skills within a film project. I usually try to find objects that will give me the base for my effect and then work off it from there. I hand glued all the feathers on the masks as well as created additional pieces so the mouths could move. Being creative when you need to accomplish an effect is great skill to have. Especially when you are the director and the fx guy. Recently I needed a fake knife handle to hang out an actors chest. I cast the original knife and then melt down glue sticks to fill in the mold. Painted it black and attach shoe laces to hold it on the actor. Instant knife in chest! I learned this through being poor. You learn to make things out of nothing. My personal favorite as a kid was the broom stick handle num chucks. They were always good at cracking nuts! Ha ha ha the internet is also a great place to find out how to make cheap fx. I go on forums and ask people questions. Now that I have a real job I am able to buy stuff like casting material and latex. I buy and then explore trough trial and error. Force friends to let me create wounds on them that sort of stuff. Donny Broussard Are you shooting your own flicks? Christopher Irvin Definitely! I started this company so I could be the man in my own crazy world. That means I choose what I do. I think that’s the beauty of being independent. You get to make your art and you decide what role you want to take within your project. I am an artist which means I want to create my art not create someone else's art. The other important part of doing it yourself is that all the processes in film making are intertwined. It’s important to have your hand in the full creative process. Most would call this a control issues, I agree! Ha ha ha, that seems to be the nature of most artists. Donny Broussard Tell us about the Dreamorphans film festival. Christopher Irvin It started so I would have an avenue to exhibit my films and art. Although there were many film festivals out there they all cost and the local community never get to enjoy the films. It was a way to say thanks to the people in the community that put up with me. Hacking a pigs head off with an Axe at 2am in the morning can't be good for community relationships. There were many other local artist that wanted the to do the same thing. I think that involving other artist helped it gain support and gave everyone exposure. It was also free of charge. I wanted people that normally wouldn't come see independent films and art to give it a chance at no cost to them. Donny Broussard How long does an average Dreamorphans shoot take, and what kind of budgets do you normally work with? Christopher Irvin An average shoot would be couple of weeks to a month. It depends how many fx shot we have. My latest film took two summers since we needed lots of rain shots. You only get good rain for about one or two moths during the summer. You have to be on stand by constantly. It usually only rains for about ten to twenty minutes each time, so you have to be ready as soon as it rains so you can see the dilemma we faced. Then there was that fact that my lead actor was being the man in his own world and so I had to wait for him to feel the character as he put it. I wanted to kill him! Now that shooting is over were cool again. I'm now a self taught weather man as well. I never work out a budget because it's usually coming for the same source, my bank account! I attack it more from the angle of what should I spend money on and what can I do without. If the prop is vital to the story or scene I'll come off the money. The keys to any good short are in the small details so I spend lots of money in those areas. I do this to make art. I feel as though my money is going into a piece of my art and that justifies almost any cost. Donny Broussard So what’s next for you and Dreamorphans? Christopher Irvin My latest film is called "Walter Watson". It's about the relationship of a large creature and a gifted mentally handicap guy who takes something from this creature. I plan to continue making art. I will continue to create short films with plans for a feature length at some point. I have a zombie script that I hope to complete by next winter. Eventually I would like to be able to do nothing else except produce art. Being an artist and having a full time job can be intense at times. I plan to head off to graduate school this year as well.