BONE KEEPER Howard J. Ford writer director producer, career discussion

[Music] Oh, that is Radiohead with Bones because the movie I'm speaking about today is Bone Keeper, not the Bone Temple, not bones and all, which was also a pretty good romantic story, although this isn't a romance. Bone Keeper is a British independent film, action film, got some suspense, if you claustrophobic look out because the cave sets under the ground, real ones, on location, and sets are really well made and I think realistic. The cast, a terrific, I think the ensemble they've got together are really enthusiastic and go for it. And director Howard J Ford, who you're about to hear from, is very interesting indeed. He made a skate, which I think is terrific, if you haven't seen a skate, it takes a basic premise of trafficking, which isn't good, so it might make you a little uncomfortable, but it turns it around and just is a great film, really good movie, a skate. But we're here for Bone Keeper. Enjoy the trailer. [Music] The movie stars Sarah Alexandra Marx, Angela Dixon, she's good, Sophie Rankin, pops up in it, always like her, Louis James, he's good, and of course none other than Sophie Elini, and Serratique Cohen as well, like this cast is stacked and I only named a few. Remember, if you have claustrophobia, this is a movie you may want to avoid. And if you don't like tentacles, now I don't mean the tentacles from the 70s, the Italian Jaws ripoff movie, which I thought was okay, or the tentacles that you might remember from tremors in the early 90s, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, or even the tentacles from the 50s, which James Mason and Kirk Douglas fighting off and massive octopus underwater in 20,000 leagues under the sea. No, Bone Keeper has a different kind of tentacle. Life could be spread by meteorites, from one part of the universe to another. Whoa, check out that view. This is the site of the impact crater, several hundred thousand years ago. I'm just here, and you're here for the most. You must not go into those caves. Never come out alive. Okay, this is it. Ready? Yeah. Ladies first. Just kidding. Wheeler's footage made it out. That super eight film he took in 76. I processed it with my own hands. That's why I know it's real. This is what he saw. That whole thing shit was that, where did it come from? You really think it's a creature? Where is that? There are hundreds of caverns under there, and maybe thousands. We're lost Ethan. He's told this way. Those bones look human. Yeah. Fresh. Ethan? Nick, if that's you guys, this isn't. Oh my god. [Screams] Welcome to TikTok, you fat f- [Screams] Ah, yes, there are some references to, uh, what can I say, influences. And there was a voice in there you might have recognized, and I wanted to keep it a surprise. John Reese Davis. Oh, Davies. However, you want to pronounce it. He's part of it. Anyway, here is Howard J Ford. Great to meet you, mate. Great to meet you too, Shane. Thanks for having me here. So, bone keeper. Did you think of maybe changing the name, seeing there was bone temple coming out around the same time? Funny you mentioned that. I didn't know bone temple was coming out at the same time. Do you know the. When I was shooting the film, it was called "Dwell." Oh, that's. I think it was my dad that pointed out that the dwell was boring. So I looked. I looked for something else and I came up with a bunch of things and that seemed to be the one. And I knew there was a movie called "The Bone Collector," which is a fantastic movie, which I've seen a few times and I'm really. Yeah, it's your Washington and Angelina Jolly, right? I won. And it just works so well that movie. I mean, hey, they had more money than we did, but that's okay. That's okay. But I. No, I didn't know the bone temple thing. I saw that movie, but that's another story and I didn't know anything about it. I should have changed the name. It's too late. Yeah, no, that's fair enough. There was an Australian movie released last year too, called "Bone Lake." Oh! I did not know about that. So I should. So check my bones out before I get going. This is why you come to the movie analyst. Me, you know, I know all these things. I should have done that. I was just busy cracking it on with it. And titles are really weird because, you know, people. You know, there's obviously a lot of opinions on titles and what actually works. It's very hard to find the right balance. I'm not sure I'm ever fully comfortable with the title of the film in the end. Yeah, no, I totally agree. I mean, I don't mean to delve on this subject too long, but you're right. Titles are really important. They've got to be catchy and original and they can make and break a movie at times. I mean, people might discover it afterwards, but you want that first reaction and a title can really go a long way to help that. It's true. It's true. I'm going to keep it in mind. Yeah. Well, I like the start of your movie, though. It's like, what is it? I've got here 100, 400,000 years ago. It was like "Clan of the Cave" there, the end of the world. And I thought we were going to get a little bit more prehistoric action at the start. Maybe you can do a prequel. Could have done that. Yeah, you know, weirdly, the sales company wanted to cut that bit out. And I was like, "No, I'm sorry. I'll cut that out and I'll cut that out, but I'm keeping that." So I'm glad we did. And yeah, I like that stuff. And to be honest, I'm really interested in like. I know it's not a science fiction film. Bonekeeper is a horror, but I'm really interested in like, space and the vast distances of the universes and, you know, kind of galaxies and things. And I really wanted to do something that slightly edged into a little bit of sci-fi. And of course, we've got John Reese Davis in the movie, you know, The Rings and, you know, all that sort of thing. So I wanted to do a little bit of that as well. So I'm really glad you like that caveman opening. Yeah, I did. It was like the end of the world scenario. And I did think it was starting off with that science fiction edge. And it made it different. So that helped me. I'm glad it wasn't cut out. Fantastic. Well, that's a good sign. I'm glad we kept you seated. Yeah. Now, a group of friends, how did you come about selecting these actors? They all seemed to have pretty good chemistry. And they were very tightly knit in a lot of the movie. So they had to get on. Did you handpicks Sarah, you'll lead? And and pick them all really. That's the one thing about doing my independent films because Boeing keeps it one of my indie movies. So I'm producing it, directing it and kind of doing, wearing a lot of hats. So to speak. Yeah. So on those movies, I don't have to kind of seek permission to use this actor or that actor or I'm forced to use this person because their name's a little better, you know, they've got more value in quotes, whatever all that is. So I just wanted to go with the best actors I could go with who were also really adventurous people and were up for the challenge of going down these case. And I work with Sarah Alexandra Marx is in three of my movies. She's fantastic. Louis James Tiffany Hanem Daniels. These are people I've worked with a fair bit before, but everyone else, you know, Sophia Alini, Danny Raheem, Tyler Winchcream. Tyler was a little bit in escape. But so these are people that I just wanted to work with. And I thought, and I sort of thought these people, you know, I met with them, had a coffee, did that kind of sort of check that they'd be up for doing this stuff and they were they were well up for it. And fun enough, it was early on in the process. I'd met something actors for coffee. And it's a Louis James who's also been in to escape and river of blood my other films. I think doing this cave monster, he said, do it, do it, just do it. I promise me with, so I appreciate his energy from the beginning. And yeah, really fantastic. Sarah's a superstar. Yeah, she's not afraid to get dirty and get physical. You mentioned escape. That to me, besides the caller, I think she had that little role, that role in the caller, which was a little movie that more people should watch. This escapes a terrific movie. And I banged on about that when it was released here. And I have the DVD copy, which is pretty, I don't even have that. So if you know where I can get one, I'd really love to get one on DVD. Yes, no, escape was heaps of fun. And of course Tiffany Hannum Daniels was in that as well. - Yeah. - Tyler Winchkin, who's great too. He played a flashback and really abusive boyfriend in it. I don't know if he's in the skin. - Yeah. - And of course, either the movie who's catalyst for some horrific goings on. But he's a super nice guy in real life. And so I was able to work with him in a longer basis. So that's what I'm doing with my indie films. I'm trying to find people all the time, good people. And I work with them a little bit. If they're really good, then I'll say, okay, great. Let's bring them back for something else. And yeah, Johnnie's Davis, of course, who's amazing. And I'd work with him on a TV commercial, like a champagne commercial in France. - Oh really? I didn't know that. I'll have to check that champagne commercial out. I like champagne. - Good champagne as well. It was a fun shoot. I had to get bold at that, knocking around. And yeah, it was really good fun. And he was great in that. And so I really wanted to get him in a movie in, of course. Yeah. - Brogdon into this and he's brilliant. - Yeah, well, you've answered my question how you managed to get a legend like John in your movie being in the champagne commercial. That helps. Made the gittying in his champagne as well. - It was like, I think he was, we did with a fairly small crew. And he'd come from, you know, John's work with Spoolberg and several times. And everyone basically, I'd say, he comes. - He comes. - He sets for, they've got hundreds of people. And, you know, trucks of lights and everything else. And I think he was a little bit worried at first on this. We'd got a small crew together down in France. And we would just, you know, put in, and he was like, I mean, the room, this is all of you. It was like, I'm in it. But he was impressed with the shots. And I think that stayed in his mind. And we got on really well. But I could listen to that man's voice all day. He tells the story. He's lovely with it. He's so warm and welcoming. And the girls came to pick him up from the airport. And he sort of rocked up in a little, little fiat car, Sarah's car, and tiny little car. He's actually quite a giant man. Lord of the Regency was playing Gimli, who was, you know, a dwarf. But he's very tall in reality. And a lovely warm man. He would tell stories in the evening, you know, over a glass of wine at the cottage where we were filming. So, yeah. How do you direct someone like him? Do you direct him differently to other actors? Do you just give him like, does he act differently to other actors? Because he is so seasoned. It's a great question. And yeah, you're right. So, here's the funny thing. You are aware of each actor, what, you know, the experience, the ability. Yeah, all of that stuff. So, with John, the funny thing is about John. John, and he's a brilliant, he's an amazing actor. But he seems to be able to just do it with such ease. He doesn't seem to need to, apart from, okay, he's got to remember a lot of lines because I did, I did rather get him loads of dialogue. I noticed. And the helicopter scene as well. The helicopter scene, which we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it. I'm so glad we actually managed to do all of that. And because we only had him for a short amount of time, that was the other thing. And I was just trying to cram everything in there, you know, like we'll go from that to that and that to that. And I was thinking, you know, because you do that, because you only have names like that and for a short amount of time. But I found he was, yeah, he's really, he just needs, not very long, he just, once he's, you know, get the lines, but ready, okay, you're there, you're there. And let's have a crack at it. And then sometimes he'll go, sometimes he'll be in the shot and he'll say, no, no, I'm going to give you that line again. Here we go, here we go. And he'll give you that line again. And he's brilliant, he gives you your options. So he'll say like the line, he'll say it like three times. And he'll sort of give you these options, which is fantastic for the editing. So he knows exactly where he needs to be. He knows exactly if he feels like he stumbled something, which is very rare, but he'll, he'll, you know, we're all our own worst critics on it. He'll just go, yeah, give him that again. And he gives it in there. You'd have to cut the camera, you'd have to reset. He knows exactly what he's doing. And that was really good. So he's like, okay, I'm stoked that he's there and he makes a difference. The movie is entertaining and he just brings a bit of gravitas as well, which is, you know, really good to see you. Hopefully you'll work with him again. Oh, I would absolutely love to. I mean, maybe even won't keep it to you. But hey, let's, that's another story. But I really will look in forward to that. And his manager, Jeffries, a lovely man. I work with Tony Todd, the late Tony Todd, who. Oh, did you? Wow. Yeah. And the same manager. So, you know, we became friendly. When I did the champagne commercial, I didn't know John Resteavis had this same manager. So then all of a sudden, Jeffries message me saying, hey, I hit. And it was all, it's nice like that, you know. And really nice people who are supportive and I've been grateful for that too. Now, I noticed in the end credits that that cabin, which was a beautiful cabin, was a real cabin, like a real location, because it was beautiful. I'd love to go there. Do you know what? You can get us. So good. You've mentioned that. Because Rachel and Matt, who run Goetree Camping, is Goetree Camping Glamping. You can look it up. I hope people do. Oh, here's that. Honestly, you should really, really go there. Also, the great thing is, and I need to start mentioning this more, because you can stay in the cabin, where the characters camp in the cabin. And also the cottage is their house. So if you walk just up the hill, you can see the cottage where we shot all of those scenes. And also down the road is the pub. And I'm literally, it's a beautiful pub. And look, the interior of the house. I wanted a point. All right, it's a great place to do it. And the food's fantastic too. So the exterior of the pub is different from the interior. And I wanted to do that pub scene because I loved, you know, American well, for in London, things like that, where the classic pub scene, I wanted to nod my hat, tip my hat to that. The slaughtered lamb. Yes, the slaughtered lamb, which I've been to as well in real life. And unfortunately, it's nothing like it was. There's no atmosphere there now in the way that it was. Of course, it's changed. And someone got the idea to paint it white and everything else. So it's not the same anymore. But so I basically was looking for the slaughtered lamb. That's what I was doing in Bonyfield. And so we went around a whole bunch of pubs, found some lovely ones. And that's what we settled on in the end. So yeah, you can actually do the Bonykeeper tour. I need to put something together because you can go down the caves as well. We shot some sequences in a place called Clearwell caves, which has an element of public access. You can't access all of the caves, but you know, you can access some elements and some parts where we shot some of the scenes. And of course, we went into different caves. But there's some sort of Bonykeeper location tour, and I need to put together some Gladys Potty down. Yeah, now I'll check out that cabin. That's great. Yeah, yeah, it looks amazing. And I'll help promote it too if it's part of the movie. And Bonykeeper, too, sounds pretty good to me. Longs there's a few points involved. Oh, no, no, no, definitely there can be. And they could reach the amount that if you stay at the place, I mean, I don't want to promise something that they don't want to deliver every time. But of course, we all stayed there casting crew, we're saying they have various different cabins. We picked the most cinematic one. They have other super ones. And without giving too much away, there's a huge sort of tent thing towards the end of the movie, the big military thing. That's right. Too much about that is also one of the places you can stay in that very place. It's next, it's like about three minutes walk from the main cabin. And I'm too locked from the cottage. So there's a lot of places in one area, really nice. I'm glad that you found it. Was it a location scout? Did you find it yourself or did someone else find it for you? Yeah, we, there's a mixture because we found it ourselves, essentially. And we went up there, also, Luri, Sarah, Tiffany Hannum, Daniels, a couple of the other actors. Bunch of us went there. And we were looking for places. We would do a bit of a Google search as you do. Looking on accommodation sites and then that thing. And then we looked at one that looked great, but it was like it was three hours drive from where we were shooting. Yeah, six hours each, you know, they're in back. So we just rocked up at this place and we saw Rachel, who is one of the co-owners. And she was there, covered in muck trying to do some sort of Arctic. And she seemed like a really nice vibe. So you know, you want to work around and be around good people. That's one of my number one things. And so I just started chatting and said, "Would you be open to, you know, film shooting?" She said, "Ah, that sounds fun." And then we met Matt, the husband who was like up some tree thing. They've got this tree house and it was like, you know, it's amazing. And so they were like so open and so supportive. So we're going to start showing the movie up there. And like, like, we're actually going to do like cinema beer and burger. Like an outdoor screening or inside? Yeah, an outdoor sort of barn type screening type thing. So we're talking about doing that. There's a few sort of events like that. We're going to try and do so. Yeah. Could be fun times. Well, please let me know when and if that happens. I will do. I will do. Try and do my best to fly over. That would be great. Yeah, I will. I want to honestly keep you posted. Good. Thanks, mate. I love sound. Anyone who knows me knows I love sound and editing. Your sound in this movie was pretty good. I've got here. Was it Jo Vins? Jo Vins. Yeah, he was quality. Thank you. He'll love that and I'll tell him. In fact, I missed it him early because I brought his name up in one of the another interview that I've done. And he's a great guy. And I actually, I met Jo Vins. in a coffee shop in Brighton, town where I live. And he had not done a movie before. But he was doing sort of sound design for kind of like, I'm gonna say songs, but they're more like musical things he was doing. And I gave him his first job in the business, and he's done, I think he's done like 22 movies now. And he's one of these guys, I love it. If I find new people, I think this person's talented, whether they're an actor, a crew member, and I could see Tana in Joe. And now he's hard to book now, but I always love that. When they haven't done a job in a movie, and now they're hard to book. It's always a good sign. He did an awesome job of the sound design, and that's so crucial for a film like this, isn't it? - Well, long as he did, he's crucial. I find it is no matter what the budget of the film, but it's good that he'll probably remain loyal to you now, as well in the future. - Yeah, he'll do stuff like, if I message him, I say, "Ah, I've got like film markets tomorrow, Joe, would you mind?" I know it's like eight in the evening. I've got a lot tomorrow. We've got a remix, the singer out, and he'll do it, and he'll send it to me, and I'll look at the time, and it'll be like five in the morning, and I go, "Bless him, he's data." And David, the composer was fantastic as well. Those guys worked together. David did some, David Ingell, he did some amazing music for the film. So, I've been really, really lucky. And Joe was the sound recordist as well. So, Joe was on location, he was trying to, down in these caves, trying to boom up or eight, and in these tight spaces with drips coming down onto the muffler, all of that stuff, a fun time. - But you can go locations again. Any injuries, any dramas, anyone who-- - You know what? I actually thought there would be injuries. I don't know how we got on a way with this, because even movies like The Descent, which is one of my favorite movies. - Of course, yeah, of course. - No one beats The Descent. It stays in me. - I started thinking about The Descent as they were descending. - That's good. I even squeezed the word "descent" into the dialogue for John Rie's day, because I thought, "I have to do it." But apparently, they shot that in a studio, the whole thing. It's amazing, incredibly impressive. - I didn't know that, okay. - Yeah, apparently. I hope that's not our secret that it reminded me, given away. I've met Neil Marshall a couple of times, the director, super lovely guy, Rue, such an amazing talent. And I love that movie. I watched The Descent over and over again. And I wanted a little piece of that. But I sort of didn't want to do the person in a suit type thing, if you know what I mean. I like that. Or. - No. - He did it amazingly well with these incredible, it's so creepy that movie. Well, worse another watch. But I wanted the technology's got to that point now, where you can do these huge creatures and things and have the rocks smashed in. And I wanted to throw in as much as that. So I've kind of waited. I wanted to do a cave movie for a while, but I waited until I could do something like that. But locations themselves, we were filming, there was this huge sort of boulder that must have weighed several tons. And as the actors were coming up, and I heard, I saw, I heard sort of cracks and crumbly rock. And I was held on by a pebble and had this thing go on, it would have killed me instantly. And then it probably would have killed everyone else 'cause I record this thing with several tons. And it was just hanging on by this tiny little pebble and I was like, should we shoot this and get out quick? I think there's one moment we were all aware. Yeah. There was another moment when there was a hole in the ground that we were filming, we didn't realise it first. That was an ounce second. We shone the torch down. There was a human size hole, so you could fold down it. Shone the torch down, it went as far as light could see. Do you know what I mean? I was like, yeah, I find this down. Or down that. I mean, it's game over for anyone. So it was dodgy. I'm amazed. We were slipping over. We all sort of slipped and fell. I'm amazed that no one, honestly, no one broke anything just, I'm very grateful to whatever the power's to be. That helped you through these things. Yeah, that's true 'cause some locations can be whether related or stop production because of certain aspects, but you managed to get some really good scenes and realism of it all as well, which is big. Thank you. I wanted it to feel real. That's something that's really important to feel like this could be a real situation. And yes, I wanted to be cinematic. And I've probably cheated the cinematography a lot by putting the lights, you know, torches and, you know, flashlights and lights. Of course, yeah. My mind was thinking, yeah, they're I'm cinematography. The actors, you know, occasionally we'd be filming and I'd say, would someone turn quite a torch? No. And I've got that halfway through the shot. Sometimes, you know, you had to do it that way. Keep going. Now, we can spoil it a little bit if we have to, but the big element of this is the creatures, the design, how they come out. No, notice that not all of it was in darkness. See, a lot of small indie movies, but special effects like you used, obviously used darkness to hide things, but there was a lot of scenes that you had that were in the light, the bright light. So well done for that, but how did you design the creatures or did you come across some pictures or your brain thought of it? That would be a great question. Great question. And I'm going to cover both here because the lighting, I've realized when you went down to Caves, lighting caves is a nightmare because you can't light, hey, I wanted to see the caves. Yeah. So we had to put lights, but as soon as you lit it too much, you could see there was a light and it made no sense. So that was an art. I've learnt the art of cave lighting. Well, it works because I kept thinking we're going to be in the dark here for the next half an hour, but it wasn't like that. No, we kept putting these industrial lights, these almost workments lights, you could get these battery powered things and we were placing them everywhere, just the angles that made the cap shadow. So they were never front-ons, you know what I mean? They kept shadow, but so you had darkness, but it caught edges of rocks. So otherwise you couldn't see the environment. And we were in huge cavernous underground places. I wanted you to see it. So and also I've been warned because I told Greg from frightfest that we were shooting a cave movie. He said, "Oh, make sure it's not too dark." He said, "Someone else sent us a cave movie and it was too dark and it annoyed everyone." Anyway, I hope the makers of that movie are not out there. They're not watching. We're good. So Gio Dano, I hope I'm saying his name right. He's a lovely man, Italian man, and he is a designer and artist and painter. He probably sculpts, he does all these types of things now. Now, I wanted to do a sort of old school, almost lovecraft type thing and go back even to what they were doing with HR guide or type thing. Yeah, that came to mind. Bano, Bano and all this and stuff. So with Alien, and I'm going to do this. I had ideas on the creature. I've made some notes. I've got some references. And then, as it was Louis James, the actor, plays Ethan. And he said, "There's a guy that's already made a creature monster. It wasn't the monster we used." But I was like, "What? What are you talking about?" And he sent me his Instagram. And he was doing all these designs of like everything from zombies to creatures to whatever. And it was really incredible. There were very visceral and dripping. And they had so much texture. And he was designing them. He, you know, as he was paper designing them and then going to animate them and everything else. He had this troll in a cave. I didn't need a troll or whatever. But I messaged him and I said, "Hey, man, I love your work. Just really amazing. Please keep it up. It's incredible some of the best I've ever seen." Of course, he messaged back. It's a bit of a fishing exercise, really. God's horse. And I said, "Would you mind if I sent you a, you know, if that needed us, if sent you a few hundred euros, could you?" And I sent you some shots of my actors in a cave. Could you think you could put this tentacle creature that attacks them in there? Could you do things like that? How could you do it? How would you need from me? And we got talking, I sent him a bunch of things, sent him some shots and I was like, "Hey, you sent me some stuff out and I was thinking, that would have cost me a million dollars five years ago." What the hell is going on? And I said, "Can you keep doing this? If I want more creatures and I want a bigger creature and I want this tentacle bursting out of a wall and things." He was like, "Yeah, yeah, and in the end, I went out to Italy, stayed there and sat with him while all these creatures designs were made and animated." The bone, I don't know, I call it a bone temple, and I really screw myself with the title, but this inside the cave, they come across this-- Yeah, and looked great. It looked pretty good. I think all that together, the designing-- I'm sat there, we sat there with him while he was putting these and adding a skull and then getting a mobile phone and putting it in this gun, and that took hours and hours and hours of design. And then he gets animated. And then you can then control camera. It was stuff that I'd not really done before. And it's amazing what the traditional-- because I wanted to use human design. And we also use Raphael, who's based in-- where is he? South America somewhere. And so a combination of traditional effects, design, and then animating it with some of the new technology. It gave us stuff that I couldn't have dreamt of doing, honestly. Well, it combined the human aspect because they were getting engulfed. Again, we're doing a few spoilers. But you know, you have your human plus the tentacles and then everything else around it. So he did a good job and it was convincing. I liked it. Yeah. Thank you, Grail Pasteron. He's a great guy and he's already working on my next film. I've shot another film since Bunkie McCoolsey. - Oh, I have you. - I guess. Now, he's working away on that. So he's going to be another guy because he's not worked on a movie before. - Oh, well, keep him in your blackboard. - I'll tell you, yeah. He's keeping him a secret. But I've talked to him now. He's brilliant. He deserves all the success. I think he's got an amazing future. And I can't wait to work with him again as well. - Now you have wore a lot of hats in this, like you said earlier on. And it says it at the end and the credits, all everything that you did. Was there any time you were just stressed out and thought, "Oh, what am I doing here? This was a bad decision." - Every film I make has that moment. - Okay. - Thank you. Every single film I make has that moment. "What the hell am I doing?" You know, this is crazy. I could have been a florist. And that's everything. So I could have done something else in my life. But at Bonekeeper, I had a few moments like that. But because no one fell down a hole in no four-toned rock, crushes and killed us, it wasn't as bad as some shoots I've had. And because it was, you know, we had a, I used to kind of a small crew, fantastic crew, a small crew. We were really fast moving. So I just enjoyed the pace of it all. And I don't do many takes as a director. When I'm doing my indie films, I don't do many takes. When I'm doing a multi-million pound film that's got producers, they want me to do more takes as they more. - Oh, yeah. - I've really done many else. But I like to do like two at the most. And I was working with actors who really did have trust in me. And it really made it a pleasure. Because they didn't need a load of explanation. If I said, "I could click again, can we just stand there?" And then, "Do that, and spin your head around like you've heard something." There'd be no, "Well, I need more of my. " - "I can't complain since from actors, that's great." - I tell it to you, none, none. Everyone, everyone on this movie was fantastic on both sides of the camera. And in the evening, we went back to the places we were staying, these cabins and stuff. You know, we'd have a glass of wine, we'd have a beer, we'd make food together and watch the rushes. And it was just really fun like that. But the caves themselves, you came out and you would like. I mean, Aussie, you had to throw clothes away because if you went down there in any of your civilian clothes. - I'm really. - Just the dirt, you can't get it out. It's like weird. We found dead animals down there, obviously, they get, they go in the caves and they get lost and then. - They're lost. - Yeah, so I think one jawbone we use in the film, that's the real one. And of course, I did my little cameo as a wheeler at the beginning of the film. So I wore another hat, which I didn't even put on the credits. I drew the line and put myself in as an actor. But it was, but I had a little bit of trivia for you. - Okay. - Super great camera that I used is the camera that I very first started making films on when I was 13. So I went out and started making films on super great film with my brother, friends as actors I acted. So I wanted to go full circle and use that in the film. So that is the camera that I used at the beginning. And the young, that's my son is Felix, is brilliant actor as well. - Okay. - Plays the young, Henry Stavis. So we got to do, we shot those scenes kind of at the same time. You know, I mean filming him in my 1970s costume. And then, you know, it was nice. So, you know, it was a family affair as well. - I didn't realize like, that was like, I've taken notes during your movie and I was going to ask about a director's cameo, which you've answered. And the mini film projector as well. - Oh, right. Yes. Now that projector. - That was a really cool projector. I mean, yeah. - Yeah, that was cool. - Do you know what was annoying though? So little disasters. We just came to filming in the Baldwin. - Oh, no. - John's in the other, and John is getting his costume on. I was thinking, ah, he's about to come in and then we bloody light bulb doesn't even work. And Louie was like, ah, he was like, got us through everything. He said, yeah, have a look at it. He said, just, grab the torch. I said, when you click the button, let's just, I'll click the torch on. I was like, there we are. Sorted. No, they didn't need a big meeting about it. None of that. So that's how we got our way through the film. You know, don't let anything stop you. Just keep going. - That's a good mission statement to have. - That's it. Never stop and be scratching your head for more than five seconds. Do something else. Find another way. You've got to keep moving because you only have a short period of time within D movies. And, you know, if you don't get the shots, that's it. You won't have the film. Well, how does it make you feel that it's been released, you know, and that more people are going to see it now and appreciate it, hopefully, because you know, you put a lot of work into it and Sarah needs, needs that big break. I think she's got a huge career ahead of her. Thank you. I will tell her she does deserve it. And yeah, I'm really excited. We've got Bonekeeper. We've got the premiere off at frightfest glass. Go, which is on a huge like 55, 65. Oh, that's great. And it's, you know, it's all sold out, which is great. So we know we're going to have people there. We're not going to walk in. There's going to be three people in the middle. You know, it's going to be a full cinema. And I love seeing it with with with fans of the genre. And I feel like we're going to give people a good ride because the sound, although sound design and we've talked about when it punches through the right speakers. And that particular screen is a really super screen. You know, the jumps really, really jump. It makes such a magic. I can imagine. I'm seeing it on a laptop or something like that. I'm excited about that. Very excited about the release, which is 6th of. So we've got the premiere 6th of March. And the release on the 6th of April. So it's like one month after. And really, really excited about that. We do have an Australian deal as well. So it's been picked up in Australia. So I don't know what release date they're giving it, but I trust they're getting on to it. Reasonably soon. So really excited. I'll get on that for you and maybe let you know because I'll be covering it around the world basically everywhere I report. Amazing. That's thank you so much. And look, support from guys like yourself that makes the world a difference. Because how do we tell people about it? If we don't have 80 million to spend on marketing, you know what I mean? So, but I like bug. It's funny because I love my films. And Bunky was featured number 12 for me. I don't 13 now. Feature number 12. And, but and often, you know, there are things in films you go, it's just so not what I wanted. Yeah. I don't want to set myself up from a full here. But I really enjoy watching Bunky. But I actually sit there. And only I fall out of love with my own films long before it's before the process finishes. But I imagine. If what I wanted, what I set out to do is there. And that's kind of rare. And so I'm happy with it. Look, you could always do more and you can never please everyone. I'm so aware of that. But I feel like we're going to show people a good time. And that's what I want. Did you take a lot out of it? Did you have to edit my chat? Is there like a whole other, you know, half an hour missing or? It's three characters that are gone. Which you feel a bit worried about because. Because they actually did a really good job. And it's not to do with their acting or something like that. I sort of feel very guilty, but it. But it happens. So we had another thread in the film that. It actually took a lot of effort to shoot. And it had lightning and we did rain and. And we had all this special effects, which were, you know, and we had. We had some practices, some of the practical, you know, piece of practical piece of the bone. We had other things like that. And unfortunately, you show it to the company sales that you have the sales agent first. Now the sales agent comes along. They're the ones who have to sell it to markets so they have an opinion. You know, I do my best to respect that opinion. So we were then asked to cut that, cut that, cut that. And I was like, do I really have to cut that one of them was the cave man. Sorry. I, um, I will cut that and I will cut that. But I cannot cut that cave man scene. I think it really has a place at the beginning of the film. But we cut it in half. So what you, it's funny. You said it's you wanted it longer, right? It's half the length it was because it did get trimmed. So I compromised on a, I will trim it. I will cut it down. I'll make it a very quick thing. But there are pieces of it that we shot that are missing. It took more time and it had more detail. And it had a little bit more even of the attack. But anyway, look, it's there. And, uh, I understand the reasons, you know, they, they have their reasons. They wanted to hold back. I had another flashback. Carries. You know, Gio was working on the film as a camera assistant. He really was keen on acting and he did it really well. And he was great. And it's kind of these epic shots, I thought. But his character's gone. And we would, we would hold the monster for longer. And I get that now. When I sit back, I go fair enough. Yeah, that works. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, hold back the monster. And then later in the film without giving a spoiler, you know, bam. You can have it all. You know, you know, you know, so. You know, he's right. It probably writes, but there are, you know, some things are painful to cut when you've had a lot of effort. Well, I don't know. You're going to get on to your mate, uh, designs the creatures and do a prequel of the cave, the cave man era. Yeah. That's the fact that I could save. I could say I could say I can actually reuse on that footage for. That's what I'm saying. You know, that then I'll be out of watch, you know, watch a bit more of it. I just think it'll be a good concept because it's different. And you can have it as like a leading to what you've done already. Yeah, it's good point. Thank you. I will definitely keep that in mind to see if that flies and hope they don't get cut out a second time. But the fact sells people were with their fantastic and I love them and they mean well, absolutely. You know, it is hard, though, isn't it? When you've written something in you. made it and you've got actors and you've got to call them up and say, "I'm so sorry, you're not in it anymore." I hate that stuff. I really hate breaking the economy. - Can you imagine that actually? - The film is just breaks your heart over and over again. You've got to keep getting up going pretty good. - Well, I'm going to wrap it up pretty soon and I just want to say I like your movie. I hope it does really well at Fight Fest. I know it will. It's the right crowd and then. - Thank you. -. when it expands around the world. - Good luck. Not that I think you'll need it. But what's next? - You said you've already filming another movie. - Yeah, I've done it for 13. I've done a feature film number 13. That's called Zipwire. - Can you talk about it or not a little later? - Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it is. It's essentially about a lady stuck 1,500 foot in the air on a Zipwire. She's got secrets like medical secrets. Big pharma secrets. - Sure. - Some bad people are trying to get her off the Zipwire and get the secrets. - Is it Sarah? I mean, got C. - No, I'd like to have cast Sarah in it. I've got to be honest. It's not one of my indie films. So I had less choice on the casting. - Sure. - Don't get me wrong. It's got some fantastic actors. But there were not always the actors. I necessarily would have chosen. Rightly or wrongly. That's the great thing about my indie films is that I can cast anyone I want. I can walk down the street and if I like someone and I think they look right and I speak to them and say, "What do you mind just being in a film?" And that's happened. I like those things. I like random castings. But yeah, Zipwire, we're screening in Cannes at the Festival, the Camping Festival at the Market. So right now all the effects right now I hate you doing Zipwire instead of creatures. So that's the Giordano to get the film finished. And yeah, fingers crossed. You never know how it's going to be and that's from the same writer as River of Blood and the ledge. Other films that I've done in Tomboyle, who's written Zipwire as well. So we'll see. And there's another thing bubbling, possibly going to make the dead three with my brother. - Okay. - The dead one and two, first one in Africa, second one in India. This one, somewhere else exotic. Hopefully it doesn't kill us. Maybe Australia. You know what I mean? I'd love to do a film in Australia. - Have you been there? - I have never been. But my son who's in Bonekeeper, he wanted to watch the ashes. So we very nearly took a trip to watch the ashes. I just sat down and we did. So I think the Brits, we were out really quick. I hear we didn't do very well. - No. - So I love to come to Australia. I found my dad found a really good true story there that's. - Okay. - He's made booklipping about some people who got stuck on. They were in a dry riverbed and suddenly there was a flash flood and they were all stuck at the roof of their car. With a dog for three days or something. With no. - Yeah, that happens. - And crocodile dolls. I mean, come on. Is that not on movie plot? - It's trying to try to pull them out on me. - They call good ones. - Exactly. So look, there are things like that. I'd love to come to Australia and do a film. It looks so great. And you always seem so nice and also chilled out. - I don't know if that's the right expression. But there's a positive attitude to living life out there. I feel like. I don't know. We take things too seriously sometimes. - I don't think that's the case. - Oh, very exciting. - Probably the exciting. - Most British filmmaker and actor I speak to are all lovely people. And like yourself, they just are laid back like me and easygoing and talented. Not so much like me. - Oh, no, you are. - But. - To wrap it up speaking of Australia, there was a brief line about Errol Flynn in this movie. - Yes. - And I picked up on that. And it was very funny. Zero Flynn, you know, the Australian famous. I've always been a legend though, isn't it forever? And I remember growing up, it was, you know, a kid who would say, you know, you say, "In like Flynn." That expression, you know, "I was in like Flynn." I mean, because he had a reputation. And I'm good on him for that. - Thanks for putting that in. - Oh, no, no. It's an absolute pleasure. And I really enjoy that. I really enjoy that part. And then I feel like 50% of the audience. I mean, obviously everyone in, everyone knew Errol Flynn. However, the much younger generation may not know Errol Flynn. - Yes, that's right. - I don't know who Errol Flynn is. You know, influencer. No, you don't have any. So, yeah, let's keep his name alive, because he was an absolute legend. - Good to hear. Good to hear. - Yeah. So there you have it. How was the terrific guy to speak with as you heard? Yeah, well, we had a slight delay. So hopefully, you know, I didn't cut him off at any point. But just to hear about the cabin and some of the influences and the cast and what they went through and then going to market with the film and his career in general, terrific, great conversation. Really appreciate it. Yeah. So check it out. Bone Keeper. And his films in general are all pretty decent, including this one. My favorite. Escape. Okay, bye for now. And before I leave you with the Escape trailer, which is a movie you must see. Thank you very much for joining me. My name is Shane A. Bassett, your host, the movie analyst. You can find me at movie_analyst across the socials on radio, occasionally on television. And just think of me next time you're at the movies. Because the movies are my second home by for now. Appreciate everything. Especially movies. Tamzan, check this out. Wanna go for a dip? Do I? Girls all the way? No. This is that doll. That's what it has going out there. I had so beautiful. Just be careful. I will, Mom. I may have something for you. Maybe two. What do they want with us? It's an LARP, yes. Look at us all. There's nothing but four East Square miles of desert. The Omega's much more as you like. I can hear you. Whatever plan they have for us, we find a witness. The guys I've known have two weak points. Why does that ego? And I think we will know what the other one is. Do you know what? There's not much I wouldn't do right now for a swiggle to have that beer. Oh yeah? It's your time. Go, the stilters game! Go! Let's see what kind of a man you really are. Oh yeah? Get to work. Do what you're good for. An alternative title for that one could be a female fight back. Okay, cheers.