Speaker 1: Oh, it's show tied. People say, good money to see
Speaker 1: this movie.
Speaker 2: When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas,
Speaker 2: hot popcorn, and no monsters.
Speaker 1: In the Protection Booth, everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring, don
Speaker 1: it off?
Speaker 3: So in what ways do you feel like your life
Speaker 3: has changed since learning of this new part.
Speaker 1: Of your past?
Speaker 3: I have a whole lot of questions. I love this
Speaker 3: and it makes sense to me. I'm gonna be visiting
Speaker 3: the library that you you stay away.
Speaker 1: From all that nonsense.
Speaker 4: Your grandmother was sick?
Speaker 3: Was she was nothing more stressful going on in her
Speaker 3: life that would make her lose it. She wasn't looney,
Speaker 3: and my grandma wasn't a witch.
Speaker 4: Well, what'd you think that was scary?
Speaker 2: I think you're scared me.
Speaker 3: Great names.
Speaker 4: Hey folks, Welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth.
Speaker 4: I'm your host, Mike White. On this episode, I'm talking
Speaker 4: with Danny Villanueyo, a junior, all about what happened to
Speaker 4: Dorothy Bell. It is the new film that he wrote
Speaker 4: and directed. It is making the rounds at festivals right now,
Speaker 4: including the Fantastic Fest. If you are a fan of
Speaker 4: horror movies, I would definitely keep an eye out for it.
Speaker 4: It is a found footage horror film that I actually
Speaker 4: really was very effective, kind of scared the but Jesus
Speaker 4: side of me a few times. Thanks so much for listening,
Speaker 4: and I hope you enjoyed the interview. I want to
Speaker 4: know a little bit more about you. How did you
Speaker 4: even get interested in filmmaking.
Speaker 1: It started when I would make skateboarding videos with my brother.
Speaker 1: Those turned into these like short spoof skits with friends
Speaker 1: and family, and as I got older, I started to
Speaker 1: learn what goes on behind the scenes and I was
Speaker 1: just fascinated and started to take it more serious and
Speaker 1: have been making films since then.
Speaker 4: Did you ever go to school for it or are
Speaker 4: you just all self taught?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did go to the Art Institute of Wisconsin
Speaker 1: for a short period of time. Most of my education
Speaker 1: was self taught on YouTube and online courses and stuff
Speaker 1: and just practicing.
Speaker 4: Tell me about some of the shorts that you've done
Speaker 4: in the past. I'm so curious about them.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 1: So one of them is called Don't Cry Papa. It
Speaker 1: was me and my good friend j Anthony Ramos, we
Speaker 1: went out to the woods. It originally started as just
Speaker 1: a camera test. I got a black magic Ersamini, and
Speaker 1: I just wrote this little monologue for him to recite,
Speaker 1: and then we just decided, let's turn this into a short.
Speaker 1: So like I had it a little bit and it
Speaker 1: was literally like me and him out there alone and
Speaker 1: I'm getting like this intimate performance. I was about a
Speaker 1: father who is basically interrogating the killer of his daughter,
Speaker 1: and we're in point of view of the killer, so
Speaker 1: he's speaking directly towards us. And then there's a really
Speaker 1: fun twist that happened. So it's out there on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Don't Cry, Papa, Tell me about your last film. I
Speaker 1: dreamt up a Psychopompa. That was an anthology that I
Speaker 1: shot over the course of three years. There's four segments.
Speaker 1: One of them's a wrap around, but it's about psycho pumps,
Speaker 1: which are soul guides. They help transition spirits stuck on
Speaker 1: Earth into the afterlife, and so we see different kinds
Speaker 1: of them throughout. There's a psychic medium. There's a man
Speaker 1: who's experienced grief from losing his wife and he's starting
Speaker 1: to see visions of her, and we even have a
Speaker 1: vampire story in there. But yeah, that was another really
Speaker 1: fun project, and it was my first feature, Like I
Speaker 1: set out to create it as one piece rather than
Speaker 1: short films and then deciding later to make a collection.
Speaker 4: Tell me about what happened to Dorothy Bell? How was
Speaker 4: it to move from shorter form into this longer form medium.
Speaker 1: I wanted to challenge myself in see can I do
Speaker 1: a film in such a short period of time? And
Speaker 1: I set a bit of a buying and yeah, it
Speaker 1: was I much more prefer this method. There was benefits
Speaker 1: to shooting different shorts over the course of a few
Speaker 1: years in terms of like budget. Obviously it's easier to
Speaker 1: take the time in between to try to raise more
Speaker 1: funds and then editing along the way, I'm able to
Speaker 1: take more time to figure out what is this film
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to tell, what kind of what is
Speaker 1: the style I want to convey, and things like that.
Speaker 1: But Dorothy Bell was just entirely different beasts. We shot
Speaker 1: it for twenty six k and nine days and it
Speaker 1: was Yeah, it was pretty intense and I loved every
Speaker 1: minute of the process.
Speaker 4: How did the idea come to you? So shooting a micro.
Speaker 1: Budget, you try to find what resources you have available,
Speaker 1: and there was this library in Kenoshoa, Skotton called the
Speaker 1: Gilbert Simmons Library, this beautiful old historic building, and they
Speaker 1: had ghost tours. They have ghost stories of their own
Speaker 1: and I took a tour and I just fell in
Speaker 1: love with it, and the staff was so welcoming, And
Speaker 1: it was then that I wrote a treatment before I
Speaker 1: approached them to ask about filming. I've always had a
Speaker 1: love or an association with libraries and ghost stories because
Speaker 1: anytime I would go to the library, I'd head right
Speaker 1: to that paranormal section. I would look at all the
Speaker 1: urban legends, the hauntings in my town. It was the
Speaker 1: easy thing to decide on it. Yeah, they were welcoming.
Speaker 1: We shot overnights, they were open during the days, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great experience.
Speaker 4: And tell me about your cast You've got some really
Speaker 4: strong performances in here.
Speaker 1: The most familiar people on our caste is Lisa Wilcox,
Speaker 1: who was the lead of a Nightmare and Olmstreet four
Speaker 1: and five. She played Alice Johnson. She plays Ozzie's therapist.
Speaker 1: Ozzie's the lead character of our film, played by Age
Speaker 1: of Meadows, wonderful Chicago actor. I'm in that area, so
Speaker 1: it was great to have somewhere local.
Speaker 4: I believe this is.
Speaker 1: Their first feature film. Super excited about having them, grateful.
Speaker 1: And then we have Michael Hargrove, who had recently played
Speaker 1: Sherman Fields a New candy Man in the Niada Costa
Speaker 1: and directed Candyman sequel. Yeah, and then a bunch of
Speaker 1: other local talent that was just so great to have.
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of everyone's work in the film.
Speaker 4: Yeah, everybody is just terrific. And I love that main performance.
Speaker 4: I think that actor is just phenomenal. And you must
Speaker 4: have had a real good working relationship because they're in
Speaker 4: almost every single shot of the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I knew going in that I needed to find someone
Speaker 1: I can trust to really carry the film and someone
Speaker 1: that fits the character to a t. And Asia brought
Speaker 1: this vulnerability but also incredible strength and just felt so
Speaker 1: human and that's what the role required. And I feel
Speaker 1: they nail every aspect and just yeah, really lucky to
Speaker 1: have found them.
Speaker 4: So much of a horror film for me, anyway, is
Speaker 4: the suspense, and you've got that going on so much
Speaker 4: in What Happened to Dorothy Bell. Tell me about the
Speaker 4: editing process and how you came up with when those
Speaker 4: beats would come in.
Speaker 1: My favorite kind of horror films are the ones that
Speaker 1: really hold back on the scares. You know, they just
Speaker 1: build and build until it's just that you pop with
Speaker 1: that's scarer, just find some kind of release. And I
Speaker 1: know that Found footage, especially those kind of films were
Speaker 1: the best for me. Or like I first found footage
Speaker 1: film experience was the Player which projects in the cinema
Speaker 1: when I was ten years old. I believed it was real,
Speaker 1: and looking back revisiting it, I'm just like paying attention
Speaker 1: to why it was scary, and it was like what
Speaker 1: you didn't see, and so much of it was like
Speaker 1: these restraint techniques that happened. So I really wanted to
Speaker 1: rely on that and just pull back as much as
Speaker 1: I can until I couldn't be longer.
Speaker 4: And then the other part of it, too is the
Speaker 4: sound design. Can you tell me a little bit about
Speaker 4: working with your sound producer.
Speaker 1: Because we're so restraint on the visuals and the story.
Speaker 1: Sound was incredibly important, and I worked with the same
Speaker 1: sound team as I did on Psycho Pump, so we
Speaker 1: had this great relationship that we established and we met
Speaker 1: before we started filming, so they weren't brought on after,
Speaker 1: and so there was tons of conversations about how can
Speaker 1: we create this atmosphere when we don't have score to
Speaker 1: rely on. So sound was even that more important, and
Speaker 1: so little things like the room tone, the ambiance of
Speaker 1: the room were able to create different feelings and personalities
Speaker 1: in the air, the things as subtle as that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just finding how to tell the story in the sound
Speaker 1: is best as can be with the sound off. I
Speaker 1: don't know how well the film works, even though so
Speaker 1: much of it is the silence, but the silence is
Speaker 1: sound for this film. Yeah, it was a great experience,
Speaker 1: and I learned a lot during this process that I'll
Speaker 1: probably carry on to my traditional films, not my non
Speaker 1: funne footage films, in the future.
Speaker 4: During the editing process, did you show this to other
Speaker 4: people or was this pretty closed door for you? I
Speaker 4: usually close the door.
Speaker 1: I'm the kind of person who if I'm in a
Speaker 1: coffee shop, I sit with my back against the wall
Speaker 1: like I'm just very you know, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is. I just don't want people to see the
Speaker 1: unfinished and miss out on the surprises and experience of
Speaker 1: watching the film in its entirety. So it wasn't until
Speaker 1: I had a full cut that I started showing it
Speaker 1: to close close crew members. Yeah, it was That's how
Speaker 1: I like to work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, have you seen this with an audience yet?
Speaker 1: No. I had a screening room of four people, but
Speaker 1: they all worked on it. It's not I don't know
Speaker 1: how other people see it. And I'm so close to it.
Speaker 1: I've been so close to the script the editing that
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. It's hard even for
Speaker 1: me to talk about it at this point, like I
Speaker 1: need a little bit of space of time to figure
Speaker 1: out what it was some distance, and I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: I haven't watched the film a couple months now, so
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that this Fantastic Fest screening opens my eyes
Speaker 1: a little bit. I could hopefully view it as an
Speaker 1: audience member in a way and then start to hear
Speaker 1: how others are interpreting it and responding to it.
Speaker 4: Are you going to Fantastic Fest to see it with
Speaker 4: the audience?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'll be there with a lot of our crew,
Speaker 1: Our main cast will be there to do It's all
Speaker 1: of our first time being there, so we're all super excited.
Speaker 4: I will tell you flat out, Danny, I am not
Speaker 4: a big horror guy, but I was on the edge
Speaker 4: of my seat the entire way through your film. It
Speaker 4: just got me so well, and I think you're right
Speaker 4: with those silences that just kept me on my edge.
Speaker 4: I love that it's good news. What were some of
Speaker 4: your biggest challenges making this.
Speaker 1: I think it had to be the fact that I
Speaker 1: self produced it, so line producer roles. Everything on the
Speaker 1: business side I did along with the creative, the writing,
Speaker 1: the directing. I took out a lot and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to sit around and wait for more morning to
Speaker 1: come in to hire those positions. I was ready to
Speaker 1: make it. And yeah, although it was a challenge, I
Speaker 1: was up for it. And so much of just the
Speaker 1: joy of filmmaking just overpowers any of that kind of
Speaker 1: stress that happens. And also I think like I had
Speaker 1: a lot that I learned along the way that I
Speaker 1: can carry on to future projects. Just communicating with producers
Speaker 1: and the other positions that I took on myself, I
Speaker 1: should have an easier turn with.
Speaker 4: The elber of the performances too. I'd say that you
Speaker 4: have a real knack for working with actors. I have
Speaker 4: no background in acting. I wasn't like a theater kid.
Speaker 4: But I just really enjoy that relationship with them and
Speaker 4: somewhat set so they kind of like understand what the
Speaker 4: film is. And also casting there's I could find a
Speaker 4: wonderful actor, but you know, if they don't understand like
Speaker 4: the tone of the performances, it's going to be hard,
Speaker 4: you know. So I'm making sure that I'm casting in
Speaker 4: line with what the film needs to be and then
Speaker 4: having a lot of conversations beforehand so we're when we're
Speaker 4: on set, it's much easier. You know, they can be
Speaker 4: free and just stay within those boundaries and just play
Speaker 4: in the middle of it. Do you always direct what
Speaker 4: you write or have you ever directed other people's work?
Speaker 1: So I've wrote everything or have been a co writer
Speaker 1: on other projects, but yeah, I've never had an experience
Speaker 1: of directing someone else's work. I'm interested in that to
Speaker 1: see what I can bring to someone else's story and
Speaker 1: step outside of what I know, So it could be interesting.
Speaker 4: Do you tend to work on one project at a
Speaker 4: time or do you have multiple things that you're working on.
Speaker 1: In terms of writing, I'm always writing. I have a
Speaker 1: couple of projects that I kind of loop around with,
Speaker 1: but with the actual pre production production, like to keep
Speaker 1: my focus on one thing at a time.
Speaker 4: I don't want to be overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: But I do have other creative outlets like between the films,
Speaker 1: like painting and things like that to just keep me
Speaker 1: busy in the downtimes.
Speaker 4: When did you actually shoot Dorothy Bell?
Speaker 1: So we shot it in twenty twenty two, in May of.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty two. Was that pretty close to what we're
Speaker 4: seeing now? Did you do have to do any reshoots
Speaker 4: or anything? No, we couldn't afford it.
Speaker 1: We had to get everything and there's nothing cut like
Speaker 1: whatever we shot it had to be in there like
Speaker 1: it's it was interesting. So yeah, it was like just
Speaker 1: making sure double checking the monitor that shots nots off
Speaker 1: or there's nothing wrong about it that we would have
Speaker 1: to return for. But we did add a day, like
Speaker 1: the library was welcoming to have us return. But it's
Speaker 1: not something that months later I discovered in the that
Speaker 1: that we need to go back is it'd be impossible,
Speaker 1: like with the budget we had.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see whatever you work on next. Do
Speaker 4: you already have something in mind?
Speaker 1: I do have two screenplays that feel most complete. I
Speaker 1: have a more full vision and then I have a
Speaker 1: couple of other projects that I'm writing book. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start to move forward on them and try and
Speaker 1: find funding and hopefully get the producer on board to
Speaker 1: make it happen.
Speaker 4: Mister Villa Nueva, I had a great time talking with you,
Speaker 4: and I really appreciate whatever happened to Dorothy Bell.
Speaker 1: You too, is a pleasure, and thank you for those words.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you have a great time at Fantastic Fest and
Speaker 4: I'm so excited for you to see this with an audience.
Speaker 1: Well do looking forward to it all. Thanks so much.
Speaker 5: I talked to myself, I found outward.
Speaker 2: I'm miss stalking my god, I'm not tuma say so
Speaker 2: matherous Jesus out you have this talking in the dog
Speaker 2: and the bucking and the fighting.
Speaker 5: Is talk like a little love talk like me love it.
Speaker 5: You're talking talking to some myself sound et.
Speaker 1: I bothering yourself, able.
Speaker 5: To hit myself.
Speaker 2: But it's so chancey and the passy. It was cat
Speaker 2: fancy meals talking you the doll houd com Me Cities
Speaker 2: gathers some big gas. We ask you, I'm miss stargeting
Speaker 2: the dobbry out you. I'm mis spoggler the dobbery out you.
Speaker 2: I am miss Spoggler, the dog out you. I am
Speaker 2: miss Stocking adoppy about you. I'm miss spogging