SuperMarcey.com is proud to be able to present to you an interview between Super Marcey and John Fallon ‘The Arrow’! John Fallon has embarked on his journey with his first directorial feature length film THE SHELTER, and we have been following the progress closely.
John Fallon is perhaps best known as The Arrow of Arrow In The Head, he’s an incredible personality and he’s living his dream. His story can inspire others to go out there and make their dreams in this industry come true.
We would like to express our deepest thanks to John for taking the time out to have this talk with us.
Super Marcey: You have been working on your big directorial feature film THE SHELTER for some time, how did this project come about for you? Has the idea been something you’ve had for awhile?
John Fallon: Directing a feature was always my dream, my holy grail if you will. I came close with two films that I wrote Trance and Billy Trigger, but they wound up being directed by other people. But once The Shelter started brewing in my head, I knew it would be the one. The initial idea for The Shelter actually came from a real life moment. I was walking back home from a hockey game in winter. I passed by a vagrant, who was sitting on the ground begging for some change while freezing his butt off.
After giving him a couple of bucks, I walked back home, thinking of that man. Who is he? How the hell did he get there? And where will he go next? By the time I got home, I had the basic premise for The Shelter. I then built upon it, got my first and last act down but got stuck on the second act. It took 3 years, in between other projects, to crack it. It was a tough script to finish, and an odd one to write (every time I would work on it, really weird things would happen around me) but I never gave up on it for some reason. It was special to me and still is.
Marcey: What can you tell us about the premise without giving too much away?
John: After 5 years of wandering the country, broken man Thomas Jacobs (Michael Pare) a once successful business man who is now homeless returns to his hometown. Once there he revisits his old stomping grounds and as the night falls he takes shelter for the night in a seemingly abandoned house. He quickly finds out that the house won’t let him leave.
Marcey: What inspired you in terms of your approach to the film?
John: The work of Polanski, Kubrick and Lynch were definitely an inspiration. I also wanted to echo films from the 1970’s in the sense that The Shelter plays by its own rules for better and for worse. The way I saw it, if you can’t try different things with a movie in the low budget realm…where else are you going to do it? The Shelter takes a lot of chances; time will tell if they pay off.
Marcey: The film found some funding through Crowd Funding, was this decision that felt natural for you? What sort of a process is it?
John: Although I really appreciated everybody who did contribute to our crowd funding campaign, at the end of it all, it was a failure. We were asking for $100,000 and got $5000. Once IndieGoGo took its cut and I then had all the prizes made and shipped out and tagged on the marketing fees, I pretty much broke even. So I can’t say that crowd funding worked for me and I doubt I’ll ever do it again
Marcey: One of the stars of the film is the great Michael Pare, how did he come on board?
John: When I wrote the script, the character in my head looked like Michael Pare. I had met Mike in 2008 on the set of 100 Feet and we kept in contact after that. When it came time for casting, my producer Donny Broussard pushed me to send the script to Mike. I was hesitant as I was leaning on getting a no-name actor to keep the cost low. But I sent it and Mike came back to us saying he loved the script and that he wanted in. So we then met up in LA and we talked it out and eventually he signed on.
And now that we shot the film, I am so happy that we went with him as opposed to a no-name. He is such a strong and instinctive actor, one that you can’t take your eyes off of. And being that he’s in pretty much every frame of the film, we needed that. He nailed it and elevated it. Looking back, it is kind of cool; I got the actor that I had in mind when I wrote the script to be the lead in my film. It was meant to be in my book. I believe in that stuff ☺
Marcey: How difficult was it for you (if at all) to find the crew and cast for the film that felt right?
John: For the cast we held auditions and found our people fairly easily. As for the crew, all of the credit goes to producer Donny Broussard who put together quite the team for the film in Louisiana while I was doing my prep in Canada. For me, the Director of Photography was the most important position to fill. And once I saw some of Bobby Holbrook’s work and we got to sit down and talk about the project, I realized that I had found my guy. And I didn’t regret my decision. Bobby did a fantastic job as DP on this film and I am enjoying editing the picture with him as well. We have similar work ethics.
Marcey: Has the film been finished? Has anyone seen it yet?
John: We presently have a rough of the first 25 minute done and are now working on the middle block. Some of my close friends and some industry folks that I trust have seen that first 25 minutes and loved it. So that is a good sign.
Marcey: What is next for you? Will you be hoping to get the film in festivals and do you have anything on the horizon?
John: We have a couple of Festivals lined up for when The Shelter is completed, with Sundance being my top priority. I’m going to shoot high and work my way down. The film is presently being shopped at Cannes, with the teaser trailer alone. I call it “planting seeds” and who know what could happen. I anticipate the film getting released by mid 2015. Other than that, Dead Shadows a film I acted in just got released on Blu-Ray via Scream Factory, another film that I wrote and acted in called American Muscle (directed by Ravi Dhar) will be released in the fall.
I am also setting up my next directorial effort The Shadowing as we speak with Christopher White (VHS Viral) who is producing with me and I just nabbed a new screenwriting gig, one that I will talk about when I am allowed to. Finally I am working on a spec script, a fun romp from an idea that my bud Deke Richards and I had. Gore, sex, laughs and horror. The opposite of The Shelter which is fairly morose. Other than that, I just try to enjoy life! 🙂 Thanks for having me!
Thanks again John for your time!
You can read our interview with John about DARK SHADOWS right here – supermarcey.com/2013/07/16/interview-john-fallon-dead-shadows/
Be sure to follow all the updates from THE SHELTER at their FB Page – www.facebook.com/thesheltermovie
Follow John Fallon on Twitter – twitter.com/johnhfallon
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