Monday, April 25, 2011

Interview: Keith Hodder Disscusses 'Van Gore' Fake Trailer

Read our exclusive interview with director and writer Keith Hodder, who along with Peter Strauss and Jerrad Pulham, won the ‘Bobo With A Shotgun’ trailer contest for their fake trailer ‘Van Gore.’ The trailer, which is currently playing on youtube.com, follows the title character, an artist, as he kills people and uses them as part of his artwork. Hodder discusses with us, among other things, how he felt when he found out he won the contest and where he got the inspiration for the trailer. ‘Hobo With A Shotgun’ is currently available via Magnolia On-Demand, and hits select theaters May 6, 2011.

Written by: Karen Benardello


Shockya (SY): You won the ‘Hobo With A Shotgun’ fake trailer contest with ‘Van Gore.’ Why did you feel compelled to enter it?

Keith Hodder (KH): When I was growing up, I think it was when I was 17, was Jason Eisener released the original trailer for ‘Hobo With A Shotgun’ through the South by Southwest contest. When I saw that as a teen, I just really wanted to do the same kind of thing. I thought he did a fantastic job with it. It still holds up, even four years later. So when the chance came up, I told myself, no matter what, if something like this comes up, I gotta do it. When we heard about the contest, me and Peter Strauss and Jerrad Pulham, my co-writers, Peter’s my co-director, just hopped on it right away.

SY: Did you think you had any chance of winning the contest?

KH: We were confident in our skills as filmmakers. We were confident in the end what we were going to bring to the table. But we were certainly nervous once we submitted it and once we saw some of the entries. There were a lot of fantastic entries and a lot of talented filmmakers. We were confident in our piece, we were just nervous on how the votes were going to go and what the judges were going to think.

SY: How did you react when you found out you won?

KH: I didn’t know what to think. I was rather speechless. I was with one of my friends, and we were just finishing up a university class. I just didn’t know what to think. Jason called me later when I was at work, and what he told me, he said “You won, you son-of-a-bitch.” That took me right off-guard as a funny thing to say. I called Peter and Jerrad right away, and we were all very ecstatic. The funny thing was we learned on Friday that we won, but we had to keep it under wraps until it was announced on Monday.

SY: Jason directed the ‘Hobo With a Shotgun’ movie. How did it feel knowing that he had a part in picking your trailer?

KH: It was incredibly touching. It seems unreal, especially since him and (‘Hobo With A Shotgun’s) writer John Davies and producer Rob Cotterill (were judges). Then you had guest judges, Joe Dante, who (directed) ‘Piranha (1978)’ and ‘Gremlins’ and all that sort of stuff. They had a hand in it as well. It’s very touching. Sometimes I’m still pretty speechless about it. It’s great.

SY: Where did you get the inspiration for the trailer?

KH: It’s weird. Usually when I sit down and I have to think of film ideas, usually it will come to me that day or the next day. ‘Van Gore’ just literally popped into my head. We had a few elementary ideas, like when originally he was going to wear a mask, and he would have painted the expressions on the mask each time he killed someone. But we decided to leave that behind, because we had Garfield act, Garfield Andrews, who was a really talented actor who I’ve worked with a few times. But we wanted to make sure we saw his emotions. So it’s a fairly original idea that came up out of nowhere.


To read more of this interview, please visit:
http://www.shockya.com/news/2011/04/21/interview-keith-hodder-talks-van-gore/

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