Jodom In The News
One-on-One Interview with Writer/Director Mike Amato
Due to a complete lack of free publicity, the Director of "Kilroy Was Here" is forced to interview himself about his debut film.
Reporter: Is "Kilroy"
your first movie?
Mike Amato: What's your point?
Reporter: Had you ever written, directed
or produced anything prior to this?
Amato: This is my first screenplay,
although I've written some articles and stories. I've never directed or
produced before this, but how hard could it be? "Action! Cut! More nudity!
More gore! We need a fart joke here!" See how easy it is?
Reporter: So why start with a feature
length film? Why not start with something shorter?
Amato: Well, if Columbus had taken
that approach, he would have discovered Sicily.
Reporter: So you're comparing yourself
to Columbus, who got lost trying to find the Far East?
Amato: Hey, he had a much bigger budget
than we did. He could afford to get lost.
Reporter: As a first-time filmmaker,
what were some of the challenges you encountered?
Amato: After the third week, we finally
figured out that the lens cap has to be off in order to actually get any
images. For some reason, actors get really finicky about stuff like that.
Reporter: You're joking, of course.
Amato: As far as you know.
Reporter: Kilroy takes place primarily
in an office setting - a software company, in fact - and you have worked
for several software companies. Is this an autobiographical story, then?
Amato: Well the heart of the story
is autobiographical. I wasn't a software salesperson or anything slimy
like that, but I've seen first hand how cut-throat that business is. A
software company going public is one of the most stressful exercises you
can take on. That's one of the reasons I decided I'd rather make movies.
No pressure.
Reporter: But isn't there pressure
for your films to make a profit? And isn't the movie business one of the
most cut-throat businesses of all?
Amato: Not until you actually sell something.
Reporter: Um, ok. So what is "Kilroy's" message?
Amato: That life is too short to waste
time not pursuing your dream. You should do what you love, because you
never know how much time you'll have to do it.
Reporter: That explains why you waited
until now to start pursuing a filmmaking career.
Amato: Actually, it had always been
part of my plan to wait until my mid-life crisis had begun.
Reporter: Tell me something about
your cast.
Amato: Well, I worked with Lisa Barcelona, our lead actress,
at my day job. She introduced me to Kevin Vasconcelos, who played the
male lead. Lisa and Kevin had great chemistry together in the film, based
on some prior history. It really worked well for them on the sex scene
we did.
Reporter: What sex scene? There's no sex scene in this movie.
Amato: That's strange, they told me
it was part of the script. To think of all that money I spent on motor
oil and Thai baskets!
Reporter: How was Kevin to work with?
Amato: Kevin was a director's dream.
He always brought something unexpected to each scene, knew his lines cold,
and had great ideas for improving each scene. It takes a tremendous commitment
to be Lead Actor on a movie where you're not getting paid anything. Kevin
just picked the movie up and carried it on his shoulders. That's why he
walks that way now.
Reporter: How about Anthony Villa?
Amato:Alcoholic, Heavy drug user, pedophile. Got me great porn.
Reporter: I mean, how was he as an
actor? He won a Best Actor role, didn't he, despite having no prior experience?
Amato: Oh, that! Y'know, Anthony really
has a very natural charisma in front of the camera. He also has great
comedic timing. And since he won the award, his agent, publicist, manicurist,
and piss-boy all tell me that he's not going to let the success go to
his head.
Reporter: You cast your neighbor and friend Tom Sousa as the Sales VP from Hell?
Amato: Yeah, I know, it goes against
his personality type. The truth is that Tom is also a natural talent and
he's got a great presence on screen. And his performance in his last big
scene with Kevin was both surprising and emotional. You know, I don't
think Kevin even minded taping dialog to his own forehead for their scenes,
so that Tom could do his lines.
Reporter: Lisa played a dual role on the film?
Amato: Lisa really bailed us out, and
she was terrific in both roles. When another actress bailed out on us
at the last minute, Lisa stepped in and offered to don a wig and fake
breasts and take on the role of Brenda, the Office Assistant, in addition
to playing Kilroy's wife. I don't know what she was doing with the props
outside of the movie, but I did notice that whenever I needed change for
the soda machine she always had lots of ones on her.
Reporter: It was pretty cool of her
to let you film between her legs for a key physical gag in the film.
Amato: Yeah, that one took us hours
to do. Lots of takes, and not all of them pointing up at Lisa.
Reporter:
You also had your two sons act in the movie. What was it like directing
family members with no prior film experience?
Amato: Inexpensive.
Reporter: Any disciplinary problems?
Amato: They were great. Surprisingly
natural and at ease, for newcomers, and kids at that. I'm very proud of
them. The hardest scene was the football game at the end of the film.
It was filmed at the end of November when it was freezing cold, but both
kids were real troopers. As for disciplinary problems, the only real issue
we had was when they tried to build a Leggo city using one of Lisa's fake
breasts as the Capital Dome. I think they just confused Globule Village
with Global Village. Kids these days.
Reporter:
How about C.C. Chapman? It was a stroke of genius casting him as Charlie
Dillon.
Amato: C.C. works with my wife, and
of course, he is one of the founding members of Random Foo Pictures, who
helped produce the movie with us. C.C. handled most of the marketing of
the film, put us on Foo's website (www.randomfoo.com),
and provided general advice. He really kicked ass as Charlie, although
you can tell he is a real method actor.
Reporter: How so?
Amato: Let's just say that the bathroom
scene near the end was not pretty. I think I ruined a lens from the toxic
fumes.
Reporter: Tell me more about Jodom's
relationship with Random Foo.
Amato: I got the impetus to get going
after attending their Annual Foo Fest, a festival where they show a lot
of their short films. I was really impressed by what they had done, and
told them that I was planning to do a feature release.
Reporter: And their reaction?
Amato: Well, you need to look at it
from their perspective. Here's a group of talented folks that have made
60 short films, and a guy with no prior experience, whom they've never
heard of, announces casually that he's going to make a feature-length
motion picture! They definitely took a wait-and-see approach, which is
understandable, given the circumstances. But C.C. helped out quite a bit
on "Kilroy", with his tremendous acting and with public relations as well.
Jason Santo also appeared in a key cameo role on the film.
Reporter: Would you work with them
again?
Amato: Not only would I work with them,
we already are. Our next film, "After Midnight", has had much heavier
Foo involvement than "Kilroy" did. We have 4 Foobers in front of the camera,
and 2 of them behind it, so they are very well represented. They are a
great bunch of folks who also happen to make wonderful flicks.
Reporter: How did your wife feel
about you spending your weekends and nights making movies?
Amato: Well I did have to agree to
provide oral sex three times a week (most of it to her). In truth, she
is the main reason this movie got made. She helped out in ways I couldn't
even have fathomed beforehand. She was extremely patient with the demanding
schedule and with me in particular, as I moved from one panic attack to
the next. On the night of the premiere, she had silver stars laid out
for the entire cast and crew, and had all of them sign a poster that Anthony
had designed as a surprise. It was really cool! She's the balls! If I
had my choice of being with her, or running around in circles with one
foot nailed to the ground, I'd pick being with her.
Reporter: There's a scene in the
movie that challenges most religious interpretations of what God is like.
Are you religious?
Amato: Yes, I'm praying for grosses,
even as we speak. Actually, I do believe in God, although I'm not as religious
as I used to be. But I'd like to believe that he's just a regular guy
like us, only with superpowers. I'd like to think that if God came back
to earth on Judgement Day, he'd have a beer with everyone and maybe shoot
a game of pool before immolating us all in a fiery death.
Reporter: So what is your target
market for this film? You seem to have made an "R" rated Family Picture,
especially with the obscene, but hysterical outtakes at the end.
Amato: Yes, it's a film that the whole
family can enjoy, except that the kids have to go to bed first.
Reporter: "Kilroy" doesn't exactly
fit the mold of the typical amateur movie. And yet, despite that, the
movie seems to have generated some tremendous word of mouth. How do you
explain it?
Amato: I think people are really touched
by the simple message of the film. We are in a society where workaholism
is promoted over spending time with your family. Where people put their
dreams on hold so they can go make money doing something else. I think
many of us feel guilty because we don't spend enough time with our kids,
or doing the thing we love, but we don't say anything about it, because
society looks at us as wimps if we do. That's why "Kilroy's" got such
a universal appeal, whether you have kids or not. Oh, and the fake breasts
really helped sell a lot of copies, too. In our next movie, even the men
will be wearing them. After all, we've gotta put food on the table!
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