Speaker 1: The Projection Booth podcast is sponsored by Scarecrow Video. Try
Speaker 1: out scarecrows rent by mail service. Choose from over one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand films and get blu rays, four
Speaker 1: ks and DVD's delivered directly to your door. Visit scarecrow
Speaker 1: dot com today.
Speaker 2: Oh gez, folks, it's showtime.
Speaker 3: People say good mighty to see this movie. When they
Speaker 3: go out to a theater, they want clod sodas, hot popcorn,
Speaker 3: and no monsters in the Projection Booth.
Speaker 1: Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring, cut.
Speaker 4: It off us anything anything.
Speaker 3: Say Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of The
Speaker 3: Projection Booth.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Mike White. On this episode, I am
Speaker 1: talking with Crispin Heley and Glover all about his new
Speaker 1: film and I better make sure that I get this
Speaker 1: title right No You're wrong or Spooky Action at a Distance.
Speaker 1: It is his latest directorial effort which stars him as
Speaker 1: well as his late father, Bruce Glover, and it is
Speaker 1: going to be touring around the country starting October two
Speaker 1: at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Be
Speaker 1: sure to check out his website Crispinheleyanglover dot com for
Speaker 1: more details and where you can see the film. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it will play around you, as he does not release
Speaker 1: his movies on DVD, Blu ray vhs, So if you're
Speaker 1: still waiting for what is it? And everything is fine,
Speaker 1: keep waiting. It's not coming out anytime soon. So maybe
Speaker 1: one of these days for a Moodie May we'll talk
Speaker 1: about one of his two other directorial films. But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, hopefully you'll be able to catch no, You're
Speaker 1: wrong or spooky action from a distance. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the interview.
Speaker 5: Mister Glovery. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate this.
Speaker 6: Yes, well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it
Speaker 6: as well. Yeah, we did an email interview, gosh, probably
Speaker 6: back in twenty eleven, so oh good, Okay, nice to
Speaker 6: actually be able to speak with you and via this medium. Yeah, well,
Speaker 6: zoom has really become a fascinating thing. What was the
Speaker 6: interview for, obviously I assumed for one of my films
Speaker 6: when I was touring by email.
Speaker 5: Well, it was for a magazine that I used to
Speaker 5: do called Cashrew's Decinemark had about ten questions for you,
Speaker 5: and yeah, you zipped those answers off over to me
Speaker 5: via email, So I really appreciated that.
Speaker 6: I remember, Yeah, it was for my film for both
Speaker 6: of what Is It? And Everything? That's Fine. In twenty eleven,
Speaker 6: you say, yeah, some both films. Yeah, oh great? Were
Speaker 6: you Did you get to see the films? Did you
Speaker 6: get to see the show?
Speaker 5: No, I still haven't. I don't know if you've done Detroit.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I did Detroit. But it was an interesting thing.
Speaker 6: It was a group that were real cinephile types and
Speaker 6: they had set up projectors in is I believe it
Speaker 6: was an old high school auditorium that somehow had been
Speaker 6: repurposed and they had their projector. It was really interesting
Speaker 6: and there was an interesting art scene, you know, because Detroit,
Speaker 6: of course had great structures and then had an economic collapse.
Speaker 6: But I could see that there are artistic types that
Speaker 6: were coming in and doing things. And it was actually
Speaker 6: a very interesting screening. Was in high tech, but I
Speaker 6: liked that it was passionate about film. I think that
Speaker 6: was the only time I showed in Detroit, and it
Speaker 6: was a good show. I liked it.
Speaker 5: I know we used to have screenings in an old
Speaker 5: high school auditorium, and it was through a group called that.
Speaker 5: Eventually they were called Cinema Detroit, but it might have
Speaker 5: been something else.
Speaker 6: At the time.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm excited that you have a new film coming out.
Speaker 5: Can you tell me a little bit more about the
Speaker 5: making of that and how that came to be. Well,
Speaker 5: I've been making it. I've been working on it for
Speaker 5: many years, a long time. I bought my property in
Speaker 5: the Czech Republic in two thousand and three. My first
Speaker 5: two films were shot on well, particularly the second one
Speaker 5: was entirely.
Speaker 6: Shot on sets. But I shot my first film one
Speaker 6: is that on both locations and sets that were built,
Speaker 6: and the second film was entirely shot on sets, and
Speaker 6: I prefer I like working on sets for a lot
Speaker 6: of different reasons post a location work. The sets that
Speaker 6: we had built for the second film unfortunately had to
Speaker 6: be destroyed fairly shortly after we shot. I was hoping
Speaker 6: that they could be re utilized for something. But I
Speaker 6: realized if I planned to continue shooting on sets because
Speaker 6: I paid for the sets, that really I needed to
Speaker 6: own the property where the sets would be built. And
Speaker 6: so I started looking for something and sort of an
Speaker 6: involved story but it ended up being that the Czech
Speaker 6: Republic was good place to buy a large property that
Speaker 6: had structures that I actually bought it in a couple
Speaker 6: of different stages, but I knew that the structures could
Speaker 6: be attained, which were former corner stables slash farm buildings
Speaker 6: for a chateau that had built it's been reconstructed in
Speaker 6: the sixteen hundreds, and so when we shot it, we
Speaker 6: shot the calfs and crew stayed in the chateau, which
Speaker 6: has multiple many bedrooms and bathrooms, and then we would
Speaker 6: walk next door and shoot in the sets that I
Speaker 6: had built in. It's about eighteen thousand square feet of
Speaker 6: what were these buildings not made for that purpose recently
Speaker 6: and now they are still filled with these various sets
Speaker 6: which I always knew I could reutilize later for subsequent productions,
Speaker 6: which is what I'm planning to do. So there's been
Speaker 6: multiple stages as to what how things are constructed and
Speaker 6: for what purposes, and even while I was structuring the
Speaker 6: script as to what kind of sets or scenes would
Speaker 6: be set in what kind of sets. So it was
Speaker 6: mult construc diructed at the same time, and it was
Speaker 6: developed for myself for my father to act in together.
Speaker 6: He and I had never acted in the film together.
Speaker 6: My father, Bruce Clover, who died earlier this year, was
Speaker 6: in films like China Town and Diamonds Are Forever and
Speaker 6: worked a lot, but we'd never acted together ever. So
Speaker 6: it was structured that way, or it was constructed that way,
Speaker 6: but then a lot of other things came into being.
Speaker 6: I changed things around this screenplay. The initial screenplay was
Speaker 6: shot over a period of three years. I believe in
Speaker 6: different production segments. There's different time periods in the film
Speaker 6: eighteen sixty eight, eighteen eighty eight, nineteen eighteen, nineteen forty
Speaker 6: eight in contemporary, which also ended up being a very
Speaker 6: large post production element in terms of color correction, I
Speaker 6: spent two years on color correction. I don't know if
Speaker 6: you're able to see the trailer that was said, yeah,
Speaker 6: you might be able to detect that there's certain scenes
Speaker 6: that have certain kinds of looks to it which are
Speaker 6: different from others. We spent literally two years or even
Speaker 6: more dealing with the film was shot on thirty five
Speaker 6: millimeter negatives, and then we did certain things with certain
Speaker 6: scenes with reshooting with a different film camera the original footage,
Speaker 6: but it was. There's a thirty five millimeter camera that
Speaker 6: was owned by one of the great Czech filmmakers named
Speaker 6: Carl Zemmon. Came from animation. If you've seen some of
Speaker 6: his films, you know how amazing he is. There's a
Speaker 6: not for profit organization that I began with a number
Speaker 6: of check fellows that has to do with the thirty
Speaker 6: five millimeter film processing laboratory that we have the equipment
Speaker 6: at my property. Most of the equipment is just there,
Speaker 6: it hasn't actually become working, but the I had a
Speaker 6: thirty five millimeter four K digital scanner that I shipped
Speaker 6: over from my body in Los Angeles and had it
Speaker 6: shipped over to check where that was reconstructed and function.
Speaker 6: We used that for scanning the film, but then we had.
Speaker 7: To shoot certain scenes. So the eighteen sixty eight and
Speaker 7: eighteen eighty eight stuff we shot with Carl Zemmon's hand
Speaker 7: crank camera that he had, which hand crank has a
Speaker 7: different quality.
Speaker 6: It's the older cameras that they used for silent filmmaking,
Speaker 6: and we wanted to get some of that quality. It
Speaker 6: wasn't what I initially had planned to do. Everything was
Speaker 6: shot thirty five millimeter color. Most of it was FUJIFILM.
Speaker 6: This will be the last film ever released that a
Speaker 6: majority of it was shot with Fuji. Some of it
Speaker 6: later on was shot with a Kodak, but that was
Speaker 6: more in the contemporary scenes that I added later, which
Speaker 6: I call the spooky action at a distance part of
Speaker 6: the film. The film became a film within a film.
Speaker 6: I don't want to stay too much. I'm very curious
Speaker 6: to see how people interpret things. The way the film
Speaker 6: is constructed will ideally, I believe, let people have interpretations
Speaker 6: about things. It's very specific to me, but I don't
Speaker 6: I don't want to dictate too much as to what
Speaker 6: people may may hopefully be able to interpret on their own.
Speaker 6: I'll be very interested to hear because October second, just
Speaker 6: a few days from now, when you assume of modern art,
Speaker 6: that's where the genuine premiere will be. This is the
Speaker 6: first time I'm sharing it to an audience. I've shown the
Speaker 6: to not too many people, some filmmaker types, and it
Speaker 6: is different when you show it to an audience than
Speaker 6: when you show it to individuals. So I've had positive
Speaker 6: reaction from filmmakers, but it's you know, filmmakers are looking
Speaker 6: at films differently than a general audience as well, So
Speaker 6: it will be a real premiere for me. I'm very
Speaker 6: interested to see what will happen.
Speaker 1: You always have such interesting casts in your films, and
Speaker 1: I was curious if you could tell me how the
Speaker 1: casts come about.
Speaker 6: It's such a long and involved story, even the way
Speaker 6: the film came about in conception. But the initial concept
Speaker 6: I had was that it was I had started doing
Speaker 6: a different screenplay that it was for an actress that
Speaker 6: I had dated, and she and I she was very
Speaker 6: good at playing characters. And I didn't up making that
Speaker 6: film a lot of for a lot of different reasons,
Speaker 6: but I still would have liked to make the film.
Speaker 6: It's it was actually an interesting concept. That concept, but
Speaker 6: I realized I wanted to I wanted to make a
Speaker 6: two person film that just because it would be a
Speaker 6: simpler production wise. So I started thinking, well, I can
Speaker 6: make I'll make a two person film with myself and
Speaker 6: my father. So the I had in the initial outline
Speaker 6: for the film, there were other characters that were written
Speaker 6: as shadow characters that that you would just see somebody
Speaker 6: in sililuette or on the telephone, and that would mainly
Speaker 6: be myself. But then I started writing. I was interested
Speaker 6: in a certain kind of classical heroes journey story structure
Speaker 6: that had romantic interest characters. And as soon as I
Speaker 6: started writing the female romantic interest characters, I realized, these
Speaker 6: can't be shadow characters. Those have to be fleshed and
Speaker 6: blood cast fleshill with people. So that took some doing it.
Speaker 6: It basically was with people that I knew in one
Speaker 6: way or another, or people that I knew that knew
Speaker 6: people that I knew. There's things on the IMDb right
Speaker 6: now that are incorrect. I hope you've got the because
Speaker 6: they even have incorrect casts. There's people that are listed
Speaker 6: on IMDb that aren't in the movie, and there's character
Speaker 6: names that are even the title they don't have correct
Speaker 6: on the IMDb. I didn't put input any of what's
Speaker 6: on the IMDb and the and there's other people that
Speaker 6: maybe worked on the crew cast that got bits and
Speaker 6: pieces of information and they type stuff in, but IMDb
Speaker 6: will not let me fix it. It's really and and
Speaker 6: the part of the clues of what the film is
Speaker 6: about have to do with the titles which are in
Speaker 6: the film. It was very carefully structured and the IMDb
Speaker 6: will not let me. I don't understand why it's like that,
Speaker 6: but I hope. I'm trying to get a resolved, but
Speaker 6: there's no way to even contact the IMDb.
Speaker 1: It's very very strange.
Speaker 6: But so that's why I hope you have it. There's
Speaker 6: a credit the end credit role should be forwarded, so
Speaker 6: if you list anything about who's in it or what
Speaker 6: the titles are, take it from that and not not
Speaker 6: from the IMDb, because that's hopefully it will be fixed.
Speaker 6: But I don't know. I've tried to fix certain things
Speaker 6: on my IMDb before, and it's it's it's not very forgiven.
Speaker 1: After all these years. How was it working with your
Speaker 1: father and acting against him?
Speaker 6: It was very interesting because when you act with somebody,
Speaker 6: When I act with somebody, I think this is true
Speaker 6: of most of the time when people are acting with
Speaker 6: each other, it's sort of well, you look into people's
Speaker 6: eyes more probably than you do in real life. I
Speaker 6: think we were very used to averting. I am looking
Speaker 6: away as we as we talk, but on camera, if
Speaker 6: you do that too much, you'll be fairly quickly cold
Speaker 6: by the DP that that's distracting. And I can understand
Speaker 6: it doesn't come off the same way as it comes
Speaker 6: off in reality on camera, and of course in a
Speaker 6: certain way. We're taught to function in the way we
Speaker 6: do in acting class on some level, but there really
Speaker 6: is something about looking in the person's eyes that is
Speaker 6: that you do that more or I do that more
Speaker 6: than I do in real life when I'm I'm working
Speaker 6: on camera, and so there's an energeetic element that transfers
Speaker 6: when you're acting with somebody, and you can feel certain
Speaker 6: energetic qualities. So I probably did have more a certain
Speaker 6: kind of energetic connection with my father than I would
Speaker 6: have by not having acted with him, which was interesting
Speaker 6: because my father was an actor, you know, my whole
Speaker 6: life I grew up around, so I had certain thoughts
Speaker 6: or critiques that I wouldn't say out loud just to
Speaker 6: myself about my father, how his acting start, or what
Speaker 6: have you. My father also taught acting, but I never
Speaker 6: formally studied with my father. I studied at other places.
Speaker 6: For me that would have been too much, but I'm
Speaker 6: sure I picked things up along the way. But it
Speaker 6: definitely made me appreciate qualities he has or had as
Speaker 6: an actor. And of course I had to direct him.
Speaker 6: I directed him in my second film, so I directed
Speaker 6: him before, which was very easy to do. He was
Speaker 6: easy for me to direct. I mean, in certain days
Speaker 6: I was able to have more positive facts some things
Speaker 6: which I ended up cutting out of the film. I
Speaker 6: didn't feel like I affected as positively, but I understood
Speaker 6: how to work and direct him, and he did respond
Speaker 6: to direction well. But he also was involved in the writing,
Speaker 6: which again IMDb doesn't have the correct writing credits on
Speaker 6: it either. But that was difficult. That was very very
Speaker 6: very very difficult. Had I had started working with a
Speaker 6: friend of mine who also has a writing credit on it,
Speaker 6: in Mike Cologi, and I want. I knew my father
Speaker 6: was going to want to get involved in the writing,
Speaker 6: and I wanted somebody that I liked, that I could
Speaker 6: work with, that was a good writer, and because I
Speaker 6: knew my father would get involved, and I would want
Speaker 6: to have somebody that I could talk to and not
Speaker 6: have a kind of issues with or about about the writing.
Speaker 6: And what I predicted was true that my father did
Speaker 6: yet envolved in the writing, and it was very very difficult,
Speaker 6: but he also did come up with things that are
Speaker 6: in the film that were different from what I initially had,
Speaker 6: that were good. So there was a and it affected
Speaker 6: the film changed in many different ways. There's two titles
Speaker 6: in the film. I don't want to say too much,
Speaker 6: but the second title came in later. The first title
Speaker 6: was there from early on and it's referenced within the film.
Speaker 6: Both of the titles are referenced within the film. But
Speaker 6: at the same time, I don't like things to become
Speaker 6: dictatorial as to how an audience should feel about things,
Speaker 6: so hopefully there's enough room that people can interpret things
Speaker 6: on their own. Now.
Speaker 1: It is the best place for people to keep up
Speaker 1: with where these screens are happening. Is that through your website.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I've had that website for years. And there's
Speaker 6: a thing where you can sign up for a newsletter,
Speaker 6: which is actually the best thing. Because I toured straight
Speaker 6: from the year two thousand and five through twenty twenty,
Speaker 6: at least once a year, all over the world. I
Speaker 6: traveled all over the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, New Zealand, Australia,
Speaker 6: and not all over the world, but those places, and
Speaker 6: for fifteen years straight until twenty twenty when the pandemic
Speaker 6: happened and then I couldn't tour, and I decided all right,
Speaker 6: well this natural pause. I was already in post production
Speaker 6: at that point. Little did I know the post production
Speaker 6: was going to take five years. More than five years.
Speaker 6: I'm still dealing with post production things right now, just
Speaker 6: days before of the actual premiere. So people when they
Speaker 6: sign up, I just sent out a big email of
Speaker 6: all the people that have signed up over the years,
Speaker 6: and it had a huge amount of engagement, which I'm
Speaker 6: happy of and happy for, and sold a huge amount
Speaker 6: of tickets for the premiere. And there are the other
Speaker 6: shows are listed at the the i f C. There's
Speaker 6: also a movie that I acted in that's playing. I'm
Speaker 6: doing a Q and a I think on the eighth
Speaker 6: and the ninth of the i f C and n
Speaker 6: i C. The premiere is at the Museum of Modern Art,
Speaker 6: which I'm very happy to be premiering the film. That's
Speaker 6: such a great that's my favorite place to those they're programming.
Speaker 6: Their film programming is my favorite programming in the world.
Speaker 6: I regularly go to see their program film programming. But
Speaker 6: that's where the location of the world premiere October second
Speaker 6: is than the i f C. There's a I think
Speaker 6: two as I think it's two nights eighth and ninth.
Speaker 6: There's where I'm doing a Q and A after the
Speaker 6: film i acted in called Mister K, which is in
Speaker 6: interesting movie that can have people could have multiple interpretations,
Speaker 6: and then my film. I'll be performing all of my shows,
Speaker 6: I perform what I call a slot. It's called Chrispin
Speaker 6: Hilling Clover's Big Slide Show. But there's different variations of
Speaker 6: it for the different films. This one, this variation have
Speaker 6: to make a bit shorter because the new film is
Speaker 6: a bit longer than my other films. I just and
Speaker 6: I just cut it. It was ninety minutes and then
Speaker 6: I cut it about three months ago to eighty five minutes,
Speaker 6: which doesn't sound like a lot, but five minutes is
Speaker 6: a lot. And I changed things around and I'm happy
Speaker 6: with the the edit and the and I physically edited
Speaker 6: the film. I edit my own films for the most
Speaker 6: but I've had people work on the second film, I
Speaker 6: had somebody that did a fair amount of the editing,
Speaker 6: but I was involved in the editing on that one.
Speaker 6: But this one, my first film, I physically added the
Speaker 6: whole film. There were little things here, and there were
Speaker 6: people did some assistant editing work, but in a certain way,
Speaker 6: it's my favorite part of the filmmaking process, and so anyhow,
Speaker 6: so I'm at the IFC for week with my live
Speaker 6: slide show, which is from books that I made a
Speaker 6: long time ago. We took old books from the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 6: reworked them, turned them into different books from what they
Speaker 6: originally were. They're profusely illustrated, and the images are projected
Speaker 6: as I dramatically narrate these different books. Then I introduced
Speaker 6: the film, then the film plays. I come out as
Speaker 6: the credits are ending. I asked if anybody has any questions,
Speaker 6: conduct the Q and A. And then at the different
Speaker 6: different venues I have books signings. Sometimes I have to
Speaker 6: have the books signing at a different venue, but IFC
Speaker 6: the that's what will happen for a solid week. Then
Speaker 6: I'll be in La I think it's the eighteenth and
Speaker 6: nineteenth at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, and then
Speaker 6: I can't remember the exact date, but a few days
Speaker 6: after that I'm they're also mister k is going to
Speaker 6: be at the Los Feelies three. Both of these theaters
Speaker 6: are programmed by the American Cinematech and that's who I've
Speaker 6: been with in Los Angeles since two thousand and five.
Speaker 6: I usually I had played at the Egyptian, but the
Speaker 6: Egyptian was recently purchased by Netflix. Well, I may still
Speaker 6: have to show at the Egyptian later, but first my
Speaker 6: shows are at the Era, which is in Santa Monica.
Speaker 6: Also very an excellent screen and you're in a nice
Speaker 6: older I believe it was built in the forties and
Speaker 6: then the lows feelies three. It was also a nice
Speaker 6: deco theater. That's where there'll be a Mister K screening.
Speaker 6: I'm forgetting the exact date, but a few day days
Speaker 6: after the Aero shows, and then I'll be in Chicago,
Speaker 6: and I'm forgetting the exact dates to that. But one night,
Speaker 6: the first night, I'm doing Q and A after Mister K.
Speaker 6: And then the next night I'm performing my show and
Speaker 6: showing no You're wrong or spooky action of distance, and
Speaker 6: then the Q and A and book signing and that
Speaker 6: The music boxes are great. That's a huge vent hered
Speaker 6: seven hundred seats. And I've been playing the Bear as
Speaker 6: well since two thousand and five, and the music box
Speaker 6: is great. Bright andre Atti, who runs it, It's always
Speaker 6: been very helpful and I appreciate it, and yeah, so
Speaker 6: I'm looking forward to all of this.
Speaker 5: Mister lover. Thank you so much for your time. This
Speaker 5: is such a pleasure talking with you.
Speaker 6: Well you too, I appreciate it. Thank you for getting
Speaker 6: to interview again. And I appreciate the help.
Speaker 1: I was walking on the ground.
Speaker 8: I didn't make a s and then I turned around
Speaker 8: and I saw a clown had.
Speaker 9: A brown and stood on a mound.
Speaker 8: And started barking like a hound. When I came to it,
Speaker 8: I found he showed me something that was brown.
Speaker 9: So he became great friends.
Speaker 6: And late in life got sick. I gave him some soup,
Speaker 6: but he.
Speaker 9: Got worse and asked for its purse. It got it,
Speaker 9: but it was empty, so it cried a plenty. I
Speaker 9: wondered what to do.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what to think, so I got a
Speaker 2: drink and then I showed it something that was round.
Speaker 2: Then it died, smiled, fell on the ground. Looking back
Speaker 2: about those days with the clown, I get.
Speaker 6: Teary eyed and really snip.
Speaker 2: A deep down.
Speaker 6: I hated that clown, but not as much as mister Farr.
Speaker 9: I'm gonna go smoke a cigar.
Speaker 1: I was walking on the ground.
Speaker 8: I didn't make a sound, and then I turned around.
Speaker 8: I saw a clown. Clown clowny, clown clown. I hate you, clown,
Speaker 8: your ugly frown, smiley lips.
Speaker 1: I think I clip your brass the nose.
Speaker 10: Clown with the cigar will get you a real far
Speaker 10: like mister Farr. Get it, mister Parr.
Speaker 8: Clown clown, see what his cigar will do, clown clown