Many people will tell you lightning doesn’t strike twice. The fandom equivalent might be, “you never get to talk to one of your all time favorite genre performers twice (so make it good, if you get the chance.)

I was recently presented with the opportunity to do just that, when I interviewed Brad Dourif for a second time. I originally had the privilege of talking with Brad last October. This time, under the heading of, “Do it bigger, or don’t do it all,” I also interviewed Brian Metcalf, the creative force behind the story  in the forthcoming dark fantasy/horror film, Fading of the Cries dark fantasy; and the leading man in Fading, Jordan Matthews. We discussed the new trailer for the film; the creative magic behind the look and feel of Fading; and vampiric sock monkeys.

Geek Speak Blog is also honored to be one of the sites debuting the new, extended trailer.

Justine: Being a huge fan of the dark fantasy genre, I want to get my fan gyrl urges satisfied, first. I feel compelled to tell you that the new trailer for Fading of the Cries gave me geekbumps when I saw it. The original trailer was interesting and entertaining but the new trailer left me wanting much more. So I may have watched it again…six or seven times.

Brian: (laughs) Thanks for that! We’re hoping everyone else has that reaction.

Justine: The new trailer seemed to have more of the dark fantasy and “romance in the midst of the terror” elements highlighted. Is that a response to the amazing growth in popularity for teenaged paranormal stories, like the Twilight Saga?

Brian: Yes, it would be fair to say that; we are gearing towards that style with the new trailer.

Justine: The song playing during the video is a new element. it’s a great song.

Brian: We worked pretty hard to get that song. We had to deal with four record labels to get the rights to use it, but it’s perfect. It’s by Conjure One, and we owe thanks to Marie Claire for getting it.

Justine: The visual storytelling comes through really well in this new trailer, too. What did you do as the creative team, to add this element to the film so successfully?

Brad: The visuals are a very important element. There was a conscious effort on Brian’s part to make it look beautiful. There’s a scene with Jordan and Hallee, it’s very romantic. Brian added elements like a big full moon behind them, so there’s a romantic undertone to the whole scene.

Jordan: Brian put a lot of action in the movie. The action, it’s very intense, even right up to the last 30 minutes of the film, it’s nonstop action. But there’s a love story as well. The visuals in the movie give it all an epic feel.

Justine: Brian, how do you approach your direction, to bring the actors, story and visuals together, cohesively?

Brian: I think the first focus is always the story; then you want to visualize the coolest way to show a part of the story. For example the moon in the background when Jordan and Hallee are walking in the field,  adding the glowing full moon made it hugely dramatic.

Justine: I can see that you made a concerted effort to address the subtleties of the world, in addition to the bigger elements. I think it’s going to pay off when people see the film.

Obviously, a lot of those visual effects – big and small – were created in a computer. Does working in a fantasy world, filming in front of green screens, make the performance more difficult?

Jordan: When I studied acting, I studied the Adler technique. This means you do a lot of black box theatre so I just got used to working with my imagination.  So working on green screen sets was very comfortable for me. It lets you work with the director and just go with it. But it is interesting, because I did scenes where I’m just hitting the air, then Brian goes back and puts in lots of zombies or whatever I’m fighting in the scene.

Brad: Whatever’s there is behind you for the audience to see. I trained in the theatre, so I was used to it. A lot of people do that, work with their imagination. Green screen is a little weird just because everything is very green. It can be freeing or it can be very difficult. If you’re reacting to changes, and it’s not there, it can be difficult; then you’re really trying to get it across, anyway.

Justine: I know everyone has their own techniques and approaches to movie making at the end of the day, but for you, Brian, do you film your actors, first, and make the special effects work with the actors’ performances, or do you have the actors tailor their physical reactions and performances to your creations?

Brian: Once I do the filming, I edit the images, then I create digital environments for them, then match everything to them. For example, when Jordan is fighting zombies, they do time everything and match hits and swings to Jordan’s performance. But the actors, when they’re doing their scenes, when they’re fighting, they use green screen windows. Then they edit it, and bring it all together.

Justine: Where there any moments during filming that gave you that, “I nailed it!,” feeling; or scenes that put you in the, “if I never have to do that again, it’s too soon,” frame of mind?

Brad: There was never the latter, the “please don’t make me do this again” thing. I know of some of those cases. I know that Kubrick had to drag Scatman Crothers onto the scene for the 130^th time they had to shoot a scene in A Clockwork Orange, but that’s rare. I had some times where I’ve had less time to shoot. But we were pretty economical with time for Fading. Time is everything. Actors are under heavy duty levels of pressure to do the blocking, to do the performance so the camera can see it and record it.

Jordan: You hope for that “nailed it,” feeling. Professionally that’s the expectation but you have to go when they want you to go, so it’s not on your time table, it’s the director’s. When you’re containing extreme emotions dealing with a character, there can be a tendency to want to give in to the emotion, but you sit on those emotions until you need them. Sitting on rage is the worst one. But when they say action, you have to go.

Brad: I was working with this one guy who was doing a series. They’d do a take and he’d yell, Nailed it!” And there’s the director shaking his head,  and I’m thinking, “when did you nail it?” But when you’re working, isn’t there always something you think, “I could have done that better.”

Justine: Brian, you’ve brought together an impressive cast for the movie. But wasn’t Jordan sort of an unknown? Where’d you discover Jordan?

Brad: Just looked for the guy carrying the sword down the street. (laughs)

Brian: Jordan came from New York to audition for us.

Jordan: Yeah, we did 4 or 5 auditions and interviews over a few months. Then I got called because they’d cast me as Jacob. We shot the movie about 6 months later. Many times you get put on hold, or things don’t get greenlit, so it’s really amazing to be attached to something that worked.

Brian: Jordan was very hungry,  and he was willing to train hard for it. Both Jordan and Brad did a lot of training, a lot of sword fighting training.

Jordan: We did fight training and work with personal trainers.

Justine: So you guys do your own sword fights for the most part in the movie? That’s pretty impressive, because the snippets you see I the trailers shows some heavy duty sword play.

Brian: They do their own sword fights, yes. When Brad and Jordan faced off they used real metal swords, so if they’d missed it would’ve hurt. So we all took their training very seriously.

Brad: They were not sharp, but heavy. It was a lot of fun.

Justine: Did either of you shed any real blood?

Jordan: Luckily, no, we just had a lot of fun with it.

Justine: Are you still working towards a fall release? Do you have an exact release date, yet?

Brian: We don’t have a release date, yet.

Brad: There are a few things left to do. I don’t know what he’s (Brian) really doing. Is there really a film? I’ve seen tiny snippets here and there, but we haven’t seen it all. (laughs)

Brian will show me something, then say,“See this ray of light? See how it moves?” He’s working the details. Brian’s very detailed, he wants to make it as perfect as he can.

Justine: How do you recognize the, “stick a fork in it, it’s done,”  moment?

Brad: Eventually the investors will make him finish. Or they’ll take this thing down to their lab and just release it. (laughs)

Brian: We’re hoping to be done in September, this year.

Justine: Without giving away any spoilers, what do each of you hope viewers will take away from the movie, when they see it?

Jordan: I hope that it sticks in people’s minds and it gets a cult following. I think it’s the kind of a movie that could inspire that sort of devoted following. I was very hesitant about watching myself at first. I just don’t want to see myself that much. But Brian has done an amazing job of making me want to watch it over and over. So, if anything I want to see people enjoy every element of it. I think they will. I fell in love with it.

Brian: The highest compliment is that they go back and watch it again in theatres. (laughs) I hope it gives them something to really enjoy, to take away their normal stresses for a couple hours.

Brad: You can’t really work well unless you have something that is bigger than yourself that you connect to in the story, as an actor. There’s a certain thing every story deals with, that it’s sort of human under it all; that’s in every story, genre doesn’t matter. As an actor, you want to communicate it. Our responsibility is to bring that to life. In this case, there is something human that the story is infected with, that is the reason for everything that is happening. But hell yes, you want to be entertained, too. And this genre is much more about escape. You want to be transported into a very different world than the world we live in.

Justine: From what I’ve already seen, I think you’re cashing in on both goals – entertaining and telling a human story, under the fantastical trappings.

The story seems to be incorporating some traditional elements, but using them in a new way, creating an original story.

Jordan: That’s a great point. It is an original story. As much as it has elements of today’s themes, it’s its own thing. It’s not being reconfigured or re-envisioned, so I think it’s refreshing.

Brad: That’s our job, really, because who wants to watch cookie cutter stories?

Justine: It’s already clear that you’re all working well outside the cookie box, creating your own realities. I think many people, over the next few months, are going to be dying to hear the fading of the cries, after seeing the new trailer.

For more information:

Fading of the Cries website

Ratio Pictures – Production Company

IMDb Links:

Fading of the Cries

Brian Metcalf – writer/director/producer

Brad Dourif – Mathias

Jordan Matthews – Jacob

Hallee Hirsh – Sarah