Hey everybody, this is Less Drive. Yes, yes, I know aka
Survivor Man, and you're listening to Brian on Sasquatch Honesty. Hey there,
and welcome back to Sasquatch Honesty. Thank you so much for being with us
for the show. It is Friday. I hope you're having a great week.
We have an amazing show lined up for you. But as always,
I want to start by inviting you. If you've had an encounter and you'd
like to be on the show, shoot me an email you and get me
a Brian apparent on my World Productions dot com. Get over to the website
check it out, but come remember there and help support the show. As
promised, I got to sit down with the minds behind the new Sasquatch Sunset
movie. Wayne and I have talked about the trailer of the movie. I'm
sure most of you guys are familiar with it. If you haven't looked at
it, go and take a look at the trailer. I'll be honest with
you. It pissed me off when I first saw the trailer, so I
wanted to sit down with the minds behind this. And it's David and Nathan
Zelner, their brothers, they wrote, directed, and produced this film together.
Nathan actually starred in the film alongside Riley Kehoe Jesse Eisenberg. I reached
out to them because I wanted to know what the genesis of this project was,
why they did the movie. So I said down and had a conversation
with them a couple of days ago, and now I'm bringing it to you.
I'll just say this, I've screened the movie. I've watched the entire
thing. I went back and watched a couple of different parts of the movie
several times because I was scratching my head and asking myself, why would they
do this? Why would they portray this this way? I think you'll get
a better understanding after you hear this conversation with David and Nathan about why they
did some of the things that they did. Again, it's one of those
films I think, honestly, there's nothing else to say about it other than
you're either gonna love it or you're gonna hate it. I don't think there's
gonna be much in between here, and I think they're very much aware of
that. What I know after this conversation, they're very much aware of that.
I hope you enjoy it. I want to hear what you think about
it. Please let me know. Send me an email Brian at Panormal Worldproductions
dot com. You can send me a voicemail. The button is right here
in the show notes, or you can head over to Panormal Worldproductions dot com
and hit the contact us button right there. Let me know your thoughts about
the trailer, let me know your thoughts about this interview. And certainly the
movie's gonna come out on April twelfth in limited release, and it's gonna be
widespread release in theaters everywhere on April nineteenth. But enough of that. I
know you guys are ready to get into it, so I'm gonna stop talking.
All you have to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the
show. All right, folks, on a welcome O guest to the show.
So it is David and Nathan Zelner, the minds behind the new film
Sasquatch Sunset. Welcome to the show. Guys, Thank you, thanks for
having us. We are definitely glad to have you. So let's get right
into it. Let's talk about this film. I got to see the film.
I screened it a couple of days ago. I finished it up last
night. I went back and watched a couple of other parts of this,
and I'm very curious about your inspiration behind this film. Why Sasquatch Sunset?
Why now is this something that you guys have been into for a while,
Why this particular subject and why now? We've always loved Bigfoot since we were
kids. I think maybe a lot of people are age we're obsessed with this
show In search of Leonard me Mooy hosted, but each episode to us about
a different form of her normal phenomena or in one way or another, And
there was a Bigfoot episode and they focused on the Patterson Gimblin film. We
were just completely obsessed with it from then on, and then this time went
by, especially in the edge of the Internet when there would be other Sasquatch
videos on YouTube and whatnot. We would start off as a joke talking about
you're seeing the same thing. It's just Bigfoot. Wall can whether it looked
legit or it was clear that it was fake, it was always the same
kind of content. We're like, this is a complex animal, just like
every other animal. What else is it doing? So we started just for
to say she had our own curiosity. Initially just trying to think about what
was going on in the interior lives of sasquatches, and most films that have
been made or either like family films or horror films, they're always from a
human perspective, and we thought it was most interesting to approach it from their
perspective and try to get in their minds and see the world to their eyes
as much as possible. I love that perspective for sure, and I've taken
some questions from my audience. I posted about this upcoming interview and a couple
of people asked the same question in different variations. You mentioned the Patterson Gimlin
film. Is there anything that is stuck out? Maybe it is the PG
film, maybe it's some of the other stuff that's out there on the internet.
Is there anything that stuck out to you over the years that you've considered
to be evidence of possible sasquatch existing? Do you think that's a possibility.
Is that something that you've given credence to over the years. We want it
to be so bad. We're like skeptics by nature, but then we want
to be wrong. And I think the Patterson Gimblan film is so iconic it's
one of the most famous pieces of film in film history, or maybe the
most famous frame of film and film history. And there's a reason, whether
people are believers or not, why they connect to that, why it resonates
with so many people. And we've talked about the way, you know,
Bigfoot represents kind of the connection to humans and the natural world, or to
the gray area between human animal behavior, all of those things that there's the
need. It's not a casual thing. There's a reason why we are so
fascinated with it, and not just in America but all of the world.
How they have their different versions of Bigfoot. And this is probably probably to
your listeners as all obvious, but to us was really interesting to learn how
independently, all over the world, so many different cultures centuries ago, they
had their own versions of this in their own accounts. It was really interesting
to us. Yeah, I think that's most compelling evidence would be just like
the history of this legend and how you hear stories from the eighteen hundreds of
people going west and having encounters. And I think I heard the other day
that there was some reports in Lewis and Clark journals about Sasquatch or whatever.
So it's something that has been with us for so long, but even before
Europeans came to America, indigenous stories of the wild man of the woods and
whatnot. Yeah, I think that's so fascinating. Let's get into the film.
This is one of the questions that came from the audience, and it
was certainly on the forefront of my mind. I host several shows. I
have a co host of another podcast we do called that Bigfoot Podcast, and
Wayne wanted to ask this question as well. I'm totally immersed in this,
guys. Wayne had this question and it was something that several of the audience
members have asked me to ask you guys, and it was on the forefront
of my mind. Typically in movies, I was in law enforcement. I
worked with people that consulted on a lot of movies. Back in Atlanta,
it was a huge hub for making movies. Did you guys consult with or
reach out to any what would be considered mainstream sasquatch researchers and putting this film
together? How did you guys get the information on what you guys were going
to film and the behaviors of these creatures and those kind of things that we're
going to see in the film. It was a combination of things. We
wanted to go with some of the most familiar tropes people had in terms of
Bigfoot as an entry point because there's not one prevailing thought on every single aspect
that there's a lot of debate with it. Which is fascinating is we try
to stick with the most common traits in terms of their physicality as a baseline
and their demeanor. So that was a starting point with a lot of research
online. There's so much on YouTube people having videos of either hearing sounds or
or finding things like the sasquatched the nests they're building, or the glyphs or
the tree knocking. So taking those elements that a lot of people have had
different perspectives on in different accounts with and then adapting those to this story and
trying to be as true to the informations out there as we could, and
then beyond that, at a certain point, you have to fill in the
gaps with things that you know, we don't have any knowledge or exposure to,
and that was from was just reading about and studying a lot of like
primate behaviors and making an amalgamation of those that suited the story. Is there
any memorable moments that stuck out why you guys were filming. Was there any
anecdotes that you can share with us that you guys really enjoyed about the filming,
something maybe unexpected that happened during the filming. Yeah, Like, well,
one of the main things with the film is we really wanted to legitimize
these creatures and make the audience connect with them, and so it was really
important to film in their natural habitat, like we filmed up in Humble County
in primordial redwood forests. But along those lines, we also wanted to really
show their interaction with nature, especially animals, so we incorporated a lot of
them not talking, but interacting with different creatures like that they would find in
the forest or like this friends we called it the Friends of the Forest sort
of thing with this sasquatch, And it was fascinating, Like we were worried
about how some like how would a porcupine or a skunk or a ractoon react
to these large creatures and they were the most lawn Plus it was just like,
oh, it was like anything else, anything else of it. So
that felt like an interesting connection of oh, yeah, Bigfoot probably like they've
maybe seen this before. They were so like cool with the Bigfoot customs that
it felt their acceptance of the Bigfoot helped legitimize it as a viewer hopefully and
the hope because well, if the animals, if they feel real to the
animals, hopefully they feel real to the audience. So that's why we never
we didn't shoot on any sound stages. It was very difficult. Normally with
creature work like this, they're done on sound stages and very controlled environments with
very controlled lighting. To make this relatable and believable as much as possible,
we wanted to shoot on location in remote areas with natural light, kind of
a seventies feel in terms of the naturalism with it, because we thought that
was just important to make to give as much credence to these creatures as something
real. Yeah. I don't know if this is a spoiler alert or not,
but there's not any dialogue in this movie. Did you guys find it
difficult as writers, directors, producers making this film making these characters relatable without
the use of dialogue, Because that's one of the most powerful things in filmmaking
is obviously the dialogue. The written word, and then what we experienced with
the soundtrack. How did you guys approach that? Was it something that you
found difficult when you were making the movie to create this connection because the actors,
in my personal opinion, do a phenomenal job creating that connection. I
felt connected to these characters after I went through this movie. So how did
you guys approach that as filmmakers? Did you find it difficult going into it
and did you have to adjust while you were making the film? We definitely
had to it just I'd say it was both difficult and then also liberating.
They had to rewire our brain in a certain way for how to tell a
story because we've done some movies that are very dialogue driven, and so you
don't have the shorthand of that free, easy exposition. But I think because
so much of this film is about basic needs of these creatures and their intentions
are pretty straightforward and very relatable just on a universe, it's easy enough to
follow the plot. And I think as we were making it realizing how much
even though they communicate with grunts, there's no subtitles or anything like that,
but it's very clear what their intentions and needs are and through the way we
chose to shoot it, through their physicality and through their facial expressions, particularly
through their eyes. We felt very comfortable and liberated and giving information that way.
Tuss It felt like maybe the way silent films were made, where it's
like you have to tell the story, find other ways to tell the story
and make it clear. But by doing that through the body language and through
the facial expression, it helps you connect them on an emotional level more directly,
which was one of the most important things to us with this, because
if you didn't care about these creatures, the movie would feel like a gimmick
and get boring in ten minutes. We wanted as it went on to become
more and more invested in them and find this connection to them, which,
like I was saying before, is one of the big things that I think
white people are obsessed with Bigfoot. If people are into big Foot, it's
not like a passive thing. It's a deep love and fascination. And I
think it's because there's some element of their existence that we have a connection to.
The movie definitely blends elements of adventure, discovery, loss, but there's
clearly this tongue in cheap element that permeates throughout the film. How did you
guys balance that to create this cohesive narrative that's going to resonate with wide spread
audiences. And were there challenges that you guys faced when you were putting the
film together and doing that, and how did you overcome As everything we do
tends to not intentionally it ends up being a mix of kind of comedy and
pathos and just an intuitive process which way we never enforce it one way or
the other. Whatever feels like the most real moment in it that we've all
seen movies where you see that it's something as like a false note just feels
bullshit, And so for us, it's never forcing it. So if something
it's just what feels relatable on a human level. So if something even if
on the page it was a little more dramatic, we're doing it is no
in real life. This is a very funny as in terms of like human
folly or whatever. This is something that is inherently funny. Let's embrace it.
And then if it's something that's at this moment is truly sad, and
let's not pull the ploy punches with it. Let's embrace the full spectrum of
existence on this world with both the comedy and tragedy, and everyday life is
comedy and tragedy, and these are heightened elements in this film, but we
wanted to be open to the full spectrum. Let's talk a little bit about
the casting process. There's a small cast in this movie. That had to
be an important thing. When you're putting this together, you have to seek
out people who are going to be able to pull this off. The prosthetics,
the makeup, the things that they're working around and working through, the
lack of dialogue, all of these things. What was the casting process like
for you guys going into this and could you talk a little bit about the
selection of the actors and how that came about. Yeah, we wanted to
work with actors who were good at both comedy and drama, but also just
got the tone that we were going for and have the same sensibility that we
were treating this project with a lot of respect, and it's not something that's
done with a wink or the slight Like David was saying, some of these
situations are really funny, but the creatures themselves, you know, like very
serious. It's the dire circum dire circus in Life or Death. Yeah,
and so you know, we have Jesse Eisenberg in it, and we've known
him for a while, we have had the opportunity to work with him before,
but we sent him the script and he read it and instantly loved the
opportunity to play this type of creature and to disappear and do something that was
out of his you know, comfort zone and things that he was known for,
and just saw the humanity in this project and the and the humor.
And Riley was the same way. She's done a lot of really daring roles
and this was just something that felt very original and fresh to her. And
they every everyone involved really took the characters and just elevated them to be real.
Uh. I almost wanted to say real people, but real creatures.
Do you like to really identify with him that word? Yeah, And both
of them, you know what, we'd like to have them. They're both
able to do comedy and drama, and they're both very adventurous in there in
the roles they choose. So I think that speaks to what drew them to
this. And then Riley had spent a lot of her time growing up in
Oregon, and her dad's from there, and when he was young had a
big fit encounter that he told us over the phone, and it really resonated
with us. It's a pretty good one. Were there other films or directors
that inspired you to create this film? Were there things, frankly that you
saw on other films that you wanted to steer clear of and make sure that
you didn't do with this film when you guys set out to start the process.
I think the most common thing just growing up watching lots of primate documentaries,
nature documentaries in general, but particularly primates. In terms of movies,
I think the most influential one to us is that Dona Mann sequence from two
thousand and one, which is so spectacular to us, we've watched over and
over again. It's really profound, So I think that was a big influence.
Indirectly. I don't know the first couple of Planet of the Apes movies
in the seventies and just not quite as literal of a connection. But I
think anything related to any kind of ape like creature that is different from what
we're familiar with, I think it's a mix of all of those things.
I think the reason why we want to do this. The most big Foot
movies are either their family films or the horror films, or like a spoof
or something, and they're from a human perspective, And so we really wanted
to do it through the eyes of the Sasquatch, even though there's moments of
absurdity. We wanted to treat the creatures with a certain sense of reference instead
of this kind of like Boogeyman in the distance. We really wanted to be
in the world, just out of our love for the creatures. Yeah,
and in this movie there are some encroaching human elements, but to the Sasquatch,
the human is more like the Boogeyman or the mystery. And so it's
turning the script on that in that regards like we don't show any humans,
we would just show the evidence of them. It's similar to how like a
lot of people's experiences with Bigfoot, but there are less interested in the humans
are more actually feeling the impact of humanity on their environment and their life.
And in an effort to do everything we could there were talking about to add
a certain legitimacy to them and to make normalize or naturalize them. We know
part of that was having them be azomically correct, which is completely absurd when
you first see it, but then I hope then normalized quickly in the way
that people don't freak out when they see a dog or a cat or a
cow walking around without clothes off. Its like that what an animal looks like,
and so we wanted to design them as that we were real animals.
That was a really important part of the process. And you mentioned this earlier.
I just want to circle back to filming outside, not filming on a
sound stage. I thought that was really impressive. Did you find it challenging
to do the cinematography that way in the elements outside? Was there anything that
you didn't anticipate or maybe came up during the filming that you found difficult to
do this kind of film or was it completely natural as it appears to be
in the movie. Technically it was a huge challenge just because of the elements
and these suits. They're pretty heavy and made of foam and covered in fur,
and they get a little water logged with the rain and stuff like that,
with sweat, with sweat. Yeah, technically we just rolled with whatever
the elements gave us because we were out there to be in that environment.
It was rainy or sunny, or if you had crazy looking clouds and fog,
or if you had a spectacular sun rays, we just embraced whatever was
there. Yeah, So I think that was a challenge too, because,
like David said, these suits are normally on sound stages and we just wanted
to shoot in natural light. So it's really a testament to the creature team
of how hard they worked to keep the prosthetics in place in the third place,
in between takes when it was rainy. But I think it made it
just made everything feel that much more authentic because we did it that way.
I guess the final question before we get to where people can see it and
how they can see it, is what do you want people to take away
from this film? If you had just a elevator pitch of why you made
the film, what you want people to experience, what they will experience,
and what you want to take away to be from Sasquatch Sunset from the audience
perspective. If you guys want to take that individually, that'd be awesome for
me and I think we feel similarly just everything we do the art that we're
inspired and then in terms of what we like to see and then the work
that we attempt to make. We never like to be didactic or force a
message or an idea how people's throat, because just as a viewer, it's
it's kin almost a condescending because it's I'm being told what to think, And
I think it also really limits the boundaries of what that piece of art can
be, whether it's a movie or music or painting or whatever. You're like
put in a box and this is what it is, and it's nothing more
than that. For us, we like something that ideally works on different levels
and creates a dialogue. It respects the audience and creates a dialogue with them
where they can bring some of their own thoughts to it. We really like
the idea of this working on different levels. We're on the surface level.
If it's just a wild time at the movies, then if people want to
joint in the out level, that's great by us. But if they want
to look at some deeper layers to it and what it says about our connection
to the natural world and what that means to us individually, then that's fantastic
too. Yeah, And I would say I'm curious is to specifically for this
podcast, like what the Bigfoot community people who are obsessed with it the same
way we are, what they think of our interpretation of some of the theories,
and how I feel like they'll really enjoy it because I feel like it's
we're treating them with the respect the big Foot, with the respect that it
deserves, and not like making it the butt of s Yeah. Yeah,
so we hope, you know, different people have different views on the specifics
of Saspat's behavior, but we tried our best to have something that felt find
out a certain truthfulness and legitimacy and respect for in the combination of traits that
we, you know, we put together with them. Yeah, We've done
like a whole range of types of interviews, but we're you know, very
much looking forward to with the actual Sasquards podcast. I can tell you I
know that there's some people pissed off by the trailer. I can tell you.
I don't know how many people guess know, but I was talking to
Renee Holland she was on Finding big Foot. We were talking before we did
the interview, and Renee, yeah, people were pissed off about that.
I get it, and I was one of those people honestly in the beginning,
and then I watched the film and I'm like, okay, this makes
sense. And now there was a couple of moments I was like what the
yeah, but the rest of it I was able to get into, and
by the time it was over, I was like, holy shit, I
felt connected to those characters. I thought it was interesting. I think people
are going to love it or hate it. Yeah, I think it's a
movie that's for people who aren't familiar with it. But and I just enter
it from with some some of the more absurdest comedy, and then I think
people who are really into Sasquatch and really are into studying it will pick up
on all the nuances. Yeah, but hopefully they'll give it a shot.
I think there's no single movie or book or anything that can please an entire
Bigfoot audience because everyone's too absoluteist in their views, and so we knew that
going into it we weren't going to please everyone, so we would just try
to do something as honest as we could, and then hopefully people could respect
it in different ways on that level. So, yeah, hopefully they'll give
it a chance. Regardless of if people love or hate it. I hope.
It's got to be clear that our love for Sasquatch and respect and reverence
for it, which I think is very different from a lot of other films
out there where they just treat it as just a horror trope or something very
good. Gentlemen, I appreciate it very much, and I'm looking forward to
getting people's reactions when it comes out. I can't wait. Yeah, and
we're curious too. Yeah, hope hopefully people give it a shot. The
question of the hour for everybody they've been blowing up my inbox and my social
media since I posted about this is when and where and how can they see
this film? When a Sasquatch Sunset going to be out there for the masses?
It comes out. Limited release is April twelfth, which will be in
New York, La, Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, and then
April nineteenth, it'll be nationwide. And it's not a beauty think. It's
a strictli in theaters, and we really made this to be seen on the
big screen. We wanted to feel like an epic in these giant, thousand
year old redwood forests and everything we made it. People will be watching all
kinds of different ways eventually, but we really made it to be seen big
and this is a great film, I think seeing in a communal aspect with
a group of people all experiencing it together. So yeah. Oh. In
a quick side note, I thought it was funny we had our premiere last
night and this is a deep cut for bigfoot fans. But the drink we
had at the after party was called the powder Some Gimlet, which I thought
was a really good drink name. Yeah. Yeah, you always get the
inside scoop here on Sasquatch Hot to see David Nathan, thank you guys so
much for your time. I know you're busy doing a lot of press,
and we really appreciate you stopping by and talking about the film. Everybody go
check out Sasquatch Sunset. It's gonna be in theaters April twelfth, limited release
April nineteenth for everybody else. You guys, go check it out. It
is definitely worth watching. Thank you guys again so much. I really appreciate
it. Thanks Brian, thanks for Ray, thanks for having us excellent guys.
Enjoy the rest of your day. They say you don't gotta go home,
but you can't stay I don't want to be out step child, this
child, that child everything. Can you ride back right back? Joy from
me? Enjoy staying right, you come it right away? Still stay steps,
do do do do don knocking do do do do DOSSSSTSSTS and Thames uss