An Interview with Director Zack Parker

Even though he's a Hoosier and makes his home in Indiana, don't call Richmond native Zack Parker a "local filmmaker." He honed his craft in LA, and came home to embrace his roots and make some movies.

Zack's second feature, the goth horror/drama "Quench," is part of the Indianapolis International Film Festival, screening Saturday night at 10:15 p.m.

I caught up with Zack to discuss living in LA, coming home, and the challenges of making a movie.

JS: So how is the festival coming along? Is everything going okay? ZP: Yeah, everything is going well, we have the screening time has been confirmed, we're just working on press and exposure to get everything. We also have been invited to another festival that takes place in Seattle in June. So that is exciting."

JS: Let's start talking about "Quench." Where did the idea for this movie start? ZP: I saw a documentary on HBO in the late 90s called "The Vampire Murders," and it was about this gothic vampire cult, which some of the members killed the parents of one of the other members. I think it happened in Florida. That culture is not something I'm a part of, but it's not something we've never really seen portrayed honestly before.

JS: How did you approach making the film? ZP: It wasn't until "Inexchange" came out that it was a good time to start looking for financing for a new film. That's basically what I did. I spent some time going around production companies in LA, and hired a casting director for awhile trying to get some names attached. We had some recognizable actors interested in it, but we needed the production companies to go along with it, and that's what was really tough. We did have one familiar actor we were really close with. He really liked the script, but then at the last minute financing came through for a Gus Van Sant movie he was attached to for awhile, so he had to that, and there was that deal. So I decided I wanted to maintain some control over it, and for it to be the movie I wanted it to be I had to raise money privately for it, and that's what I did. We ended up shooting it in October 2006, and it was always important for this film to be shot in the autumn. I think it complemented the subject matter.

JS: That's the thing, right? If they buy it in Hollywood, it's shot in Vancouver or LA. ZP: Yeah. A lot of people out there asked me "why shoot in Indiana?" I told them, well, it's going to look a lot better. There weren't a lot of people crazy about that idea. They're generally kind of afraid of the competency levels of the crews and such. They think that all of the talent is in LA. They say they can't fly everyone from LA.

JS: How about getting the cast? ZP: We brought in a casting director, who was actually the lead actor in "Inexchange," he was teaching acting at a school in LA. He posted all the breakdowns on a casting web site. The idea was we were going to cast the lead four actors. For "Inexchange," I cast the lead two actors and I thought that worked out really well. Plus they had that flexibility of schedule. An actor in LA is much more likely to be able to take out a month or two months out of their lives to do this. In Indiana it's much more difficult to find that. We ended up getting 3,000 submissions for these four roles. We whittled that down to about 50 people, and we did a casting call and ran auditions out there videotaped them all and sent me the DVD. I talked to people I liked, and went out there a second time. We cast the first lead but couldn't find the other two.

JS: The lighting was something that was really strong. You used it well to set the mood. How involved in that were you? ZP: I hired a director of photography, Jim Timperman, who is based out of Indianapolis, but works primarily out of Los Angeles. I knew how visually I wanted it to look. I'm kind of a stickler when it comes to the angles and composition of the film. But Jim had a fantastic collection of equipment he'd been accruing over the years, and he was able to get the look I was going for with the lighting. And for our outdoor stuff we wanted to make sure we got the sunlight as much as possible, take advantage of those blue skies, and really get the lushness of the golden fields from that time. We worked in pretty close collaboration. I think it was fun for him to DP. You usually have a director who is more focused either on visuals or on the acting. You know, I try to be both, but the visuals are really where I get excited.

JS: You mentioned the blue skies, and they really contrasted with the night sequences, and the reds and the blood. ZP: I like to take advantage of color in a movie, to establish that tone. There were sequences where the colors are motivated. That comes a lot from Italian horror. It gives it that lushness, that tone, the visual aesthetic.

JS: Let's talk about some of the challenges of being an indepenendent filmmaker. ZP: Being an independent filmmaker in Indiana, when I tell people what I do, they think maybe it's almost a hobby, and they wonder what my day job is. A lot of people think it isn't real, or it's some student project or something like that. So that can get a little frustrating. You know, this is where I'm from, this is where my family lives, and I've spent enough time in L.A. where I don't have to live there any more. I prefer to live here.