Warren F. Disbrow, Director # 4

         Movie Maker "Warren Disbrow"

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      Warren F. Disbrow, completely defines the term Independant Movie Maker and he is old school filmaking at its finest. A veteran of the classic B -movie making era and a true Artist in every sense of the word, a writer, sculptor, painter, a film school student and graduate in the media Arts , Mr. Disbrow stills shoots like he just stepped from a 1970's Roger Corman movie set.  However he has stepped up a notch and is now shooting in HD,  doing his own marketing  and distribution with his own media company, "Visual Experiences Motion Picture Co.LLC " and his newest movie's   "Hate’s Haunted Slay Ride"(2010) is about to be released on DVD,  and is packed with a directors cut and  interviews,  "Hate’s Haunted Slay Ride" (2010)  "Dark Beginnings" is also being released to DVD  which is another of  Warren's newest films.

  "All Photos Copyright (C) 2010  Visual Experiences Motion Picture Co.LLC, all rights reserved

 

Name or stage name?  Warren F. Disbrow

Place Born ?  Neptune, New Jersey, not far from where Jack Nicholson was born. I think Danny Devito was from nearby too. A lot of Hollywood over the years has been relocated NJ/NY it seems.

Place Grew Up?  Neptune, NJ. You can get a lot of information about me and my movies at www.warrenfdisbrow.com. And you can see trailers and interviews from my movies on You Tube by doing a video search for my name. You can also Google my name.

What’s your favorite Place to Visit?  England, because I haven’t had the chance to vacation there yet but almost everyone I know has and they all said they loved it there.

Your Favorite Color?  Aqua Blue. I’m a 60’s kid. I love vibrant colors.

Favorite Sport?  I don’t like sports. I played a little football and Soccer in high school because it was required, that’s all.

Your Eye Color? Blue.

Whats your favorite kind of Music?

I like different kinds: Alice Cooper, Marilyn Mansion, some Elton John, The Beatles, Judas Priest, head bangers stuff. I like rock and heavy metal. I also collect movie soundtracks; some classical too - depends on my mood.

Are you married or Single?  I’m not married but in a relationship.

 Warren working on a Mask                Warren working on an actor       Warren detailing a creature mask

Where did you attend School?  I graduated from Jersey City University, in Jersey City NJ. They had a separate Media Arts building for Film and Television and were fully equipped. If the assignment was just to expose 2 minutes and 47 seconds of Tri-X or Plus-X stock using a Bolex Rx 5 or Auricon Pro 600 and just get an image, I’d shoot a short film instead or in the case of "Kiss of Medusa" (1982) a 26 minute 16mm sound color film that ended up being shown at the Hoboken Art Festival in 1982.

Whats your favorite Movie(s) ?

I love lots of movies. I love mostly horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies. "Creature from the Black Lagoon"(1954) would be near the top; I became friends with Ben Chapmen who was in the Gill Man suit. "The Wolf Man" (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr and the Peter Cushing movie "The Skull" (1965) are great movies. I loved the Sam Raimi Spider-man movies and Robert Downey Jr in "Iron Man".  I just saw "Iron Man 2" and loved it.

What’s your Favorite TV Show?

I love lots of TV shows from the 1960s. "The Prisoner" with Patrick McGoohan from 1968 was great. The original "Star Trek" series had some excellent episodes. The 1960s had the best TV shows, which is why Hollywood keeps remaking them into movies. I don’t watch much TV anymore except for "House" which is the best of the current batch of shows and I find it funny that it’s story is set here in New Jersey.

Did you study to become a filmmaker? If so what School?

I started making small movies outside of a school situation during my high school years. I went to Trinity Christian School and Bible Baptist Church before going to Brookdale Community College and finally graduating from Jersey City University. Brookdale was just Super 8 film classes, while Jersey City was an upgrade to 16mm film production. Now we have Hi-Def 24 frame progressive cameras and can transfer the digitally shot feature film to 35mm film stock using it just a theater release format.

Who are your Idols?  And why are they your idols?

I admire a lot of creative people. I guess the one I patterned my career after, being an independent filmmaker, was George A. Romero. His most successful film was "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). He is a fantastic filmmaker and I love his editing style. I corresponded with him in the 1970s, met him a few times over the last 34 years and am currently in contact with him again about possibly doing something together.

 Warren and Ben Chapman(creature from black lagoon), Warren and George Romero

As an Award winning filmmaker, what did you win Awards for?  Which Movie(s)? And from where did　you receive your Awards? What year(s)?

I won a few Awards over the years but the last one was for Best New Jersey Feature Film from Rutgers University. That was in 2009. I never really bothered chasing after awards from film festivals. My focus has been on making the best feature films I can, for the time and money available, and hoping to score in the "Movie Business". I seek commercial success with feature films.

How long have you been filming movies? What motivated or influenced you to become a filmmaker? How did you get your start making films? How old were you when you made your first feature film? And what was the Title of that film?

When I was five years old in the early 60s I saw "Creature from the Black Lagoon" on TV and fell in love with that wonderful monster suit. I became a horror/ sci-fi fan at that moment and started reading Famous Monsters of Film land Magazine by Forry Ackerman (Who years later appeared in my feature "Scarlet Moon" along with Michael Bruce of the Alice Cooper Group). In my early teens I started making little horror films in Super 8 and at college moved up to 16mm shorts and features. My first professional feature film job was in 1987 when I was hired by Sam Sherman of Independent-International Pictures and got involved in Americanizing a German produced Klaus Kinski film called "Creature with a Blue Hand", which was re-titled "The Bloody Dead" for home video release. On that picture we worked with Special Effects Artist Ed French, who did the "Tales from the Darkside" TV series, and movies like "C.H.U.D." and "Creep show 2".

My first film as Writer/Director was originally titled "A Taste for Flesh and Blood" but it was re-titled by the distributors as "Flesh Eaters from Outer Space" (1989). It’s currently available on DVD as a box set with its sequel, "Invasion for Flesh and Blood" (1991) on the Troma label. "Invasion for Flesh and Blood" was higher quality with more effects and scope and we had Marilyn Ghigliotti from "Clerks" in it ( Kevin Smith, I’m told, gave her the part in "Clerks" after seeing her in "Invasion for Flesh and Blood".) My movies got world-wide distribution and some very good reviews and I was in the NY TIMES twice because of them. They were even used in books training critics how to review independent movies in colleges like "Reviewing the Arts" by Campbell Titchener.

How many feature films have you already completed? What Genres? And what were the Titles?

"The Bloody Dead", "Flesh Eaters from Outer Space", "Invasion for Flesh and Blood", "Scarlet Moon"(2006), "Haunted Hay Ride: The Movie"(2009), "Dark Beginnings"(2010) and our brand new 2 hour feature film "Hate’s Haunted Slay Ride"(2010). I also contributed to a documentary "Drive-in Madness" (1987) which was filled with people like George Romero, Forry Ackerman, Tom Savini and Jack Russo.

How many films have you worked on, besides your own films? Have you worked with any other Directors and if so how was the experience? Who has been the most notable person so far to work with? and　for what reasons?

I only did two productions for other people – "The Bloody Dead" and "Drive-In Madness". "Drive-In Madness" and "Bloody Dead" are both available on DVD. Sam Sherman directed and wrote the new USA sequences for "The Bloody Dead". Tim Ferrante of "Fangoria" magazine wrote and directed "Drive-In Madness". It was by doing "Drive-in Madness" and impressing Sam Sherman with our expertise that Sam hired me and my crew to shoot "The Bloody Dead". On "Bloody Dead" I helped recreate the German sets, found matching costumes, handled the camera work and lighting. I also arranged the studio and supplied actors. When it was put out on DVD they compared my recreation of the sets to "Silence of the Lambs" and Sam talked about my contributions on the commentary track. Most of these DVDs are available at Amazon.com, Ebay.com, our own web site www.warrenfdisbrow.com, as well as Blockbuster, Best Buy and Borders, places like that.

Ed French handled the gore effects on "The Bloody Dead". He made lots of movies here on the East Coast and earned a name for himself as both an actor and Special Effects Artist and it was a pleasure working with him. He moved on to LA and kept working in movies. Guy Camilleri also worked with us as an actor in both "Scarlet Moon" and "Dark Beginnings" and moved on to LA to appear in "House" and "Crossing Jordan". All the people involved in front of the camera in "Drive-In Madness" were already established sci-fi horror celebrities when I met and worked with them. George Romero I first communicated with him back in the mid 70s just before "Dawn of the Dead" came out as a major hit.

As an Award winning Director, what’s your take on working with Actors? Have you worked with any known stars? If so how was the experience? Who were the stars?  All the celebrities I already noted and a few others. I’m not in Hollywood, I’m in New Jersey. On this coast most celebrities think in terms of working in New York, not New Jersey. But we’ve had lots of people get their first experiences with us before relocating to LA. And when famous people visit the New York/ New Jersey area I contact them to see if they want to be in one of my movies.

Which Directors have influenced you the most,  and why did they influence you? What Actors have influenced you the most? and for what reasons?

Actors: Peter Cushing, Patrick McGoohan, Christopher Lee, Lon Chaney Jr, Bogart, Vincent Price, Karloff, etc. There are plenty of other actors who I like.

Directors: George Romero, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Roman Polansaki, George Waggner, Freddie Francis, Terence Fisher, James Whale, Fellini, Roger Corman, etc. Again, there are plenty of others too when it comes to movie directors.

 

Can you tell us what makes Jim the man tick? (what makes you want to be a filmmaker? and why? and what do you enjoy doing when not making films?
I love making movies. When I’m not making movies I’m watching movies and collecting on them. I love being able to create movies myself. It’s what I live for. I guess I’m an artist because I’m driven to create stuff. I paint, write, sculpt, and make movies. It’s a need. It’s an obsession. Sometimes it does seem like an addiction!

How has the audience　reacted to your films and Style of filmmaking? How about the Media? Are you an activist? If so what organizations do you work with?

Some critics love what I do and call me a genius and auteur. Other critics don’t care for the movies. I guess that’s pretty normal in The Arts. Whatever art you do – painting, writing, sculpting, music, performing, or making movies – some people will love what you create, some will hate what you create and the rest won’t give a damn you made it. And it seems that just by making something for public display people feel the need to judge it.

The internet has lowered the quality of movie reviews because ANYBODY can claim to be a film critic and create a web site. You get a lot of novices and uneducated idiots running around trashing artists today. In the past when film critics were hired by major TV stations, professional magazines and newspapers, there was a screening process to weed out the know-nothing critic wannabes. Not today. Thank God most of the critics who have reviewed my movies have been professionals. I say "most" but not all. Before you except the critical judgment of an internet critic, check him out to see if he’s qualified or just some loser poser ego-tripping at a creative person’s expense.

As a Filmmaker which genres of film do you prefer to work in the most? What’s your own take of the filmmaking process? What do you enjoy most about making films?

I love creating characters in exciting stories and than making those characters and stories come alive in movies. It’s a weird trip really – you are by yourself daydreaming about characters and situations and writing it down, then you talk about what you wrote down to various people and suddenly actors are bringing your characters to life and you are recreating your daydreams in our physical world and recording them and editing them into a coherent whole. I do love horror movies, but there are other kinds of movies I’d love to make too. I’d love to be able to make movies like "Iron Man" and "Spider Man". I think they’re great.

As an accomplished Independant Movie Maker  how has it been to find Distribution for your films? Do you currently have any films signed with major or minor Distributors? What’s your take on the whole process of Distribution?  Every movie I’ve made got world wide distribution but I’ve never felt I got properly compensated by the distributors. All distribution contracts are "trust me" situations and after many years of dissatisfaction with sales reports and seeing my movies popping up in countries not agreed to in contracts, I said enough. We established Crystal Visions Entertainment LLC to solve that problem. We are now a distribution company ourselves. We both make and distribute our own movies now. We would like to eventually expand and start releasing movies made by other filmmakers as well.

Mr. Disbrow, as an Award winning Independant Movie Maker can you give any advice to the upcoming Directors trying to scratch out their own way into the Media Spotlight? Any advice for them starting up? Working with actors? Advice on the process of making a feature film, thru your own experiences? and can you give any advice　to the Actors working with Directors? I’d tell young filmmakers to jump right in and make movies. Try to do features, not shorts. There is no meaningful market for shorts. Volunteer on bigger movies. Learn everything. Try to impress them with how fast you learn and how reliable you are. When I started out I worked for free and yet I worked as if I was the highest paid person on the set. The result was I got offered the pay gigs. It’s the same with actors – you can almost predict the ones who have a fighting chance at success. They are the actors who say "Well, this is a low budget movie and has a lot of unimpressive things in it but one of them isn’t going to be me". Quality actors see every job as a chance to impress an audience and get a fan base. Stupid actors let the situation affect their performance and it hurts their careers; wherever in the world the movie is shown they are looked at as bad actors because they didn’t give 100%.

Lastly Warren, where do you see yourself ten years from now as a filmmaker? Still making movies? Do you have any new films in the works? And just as a journalistic curve ball, What’s your take on Western films?

I still want to be making horror, fantasy and sci-fi movies, only with bigger budgets and better crews and with some names attached. And we are going to start shooting another two hour feature horror drama tentatively titled "Demons Among Us" as soon as the promotion for "Slay Ride" runs its course. The new film is going to be shot Hi-Def 24 Frame Progressive for transfer to 35mm film for theater release like George Lucas and others are now doing. My background is 16mm, Super 16 and 35mm film production but I’m starting to enjoy the digital age as well.

As for westerns I’m not a big fan but I did like the Clint Eastwood Italian westerns from the 60s. I’m not a fan of musicals or westerns.

For more information visit www.warrenfdisbrow.com and watch the interviews and trailers on You Tube.