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| Josh Becker Interview | Page 1 : 2 |
| Kain: One of our staff members
recently stumbled upon a bootleg tape with some old shorts on it. Included
on this tape is the pilot for Waders of the lost Park called
"Cleveland Smith Bounty Hunter", the Blind Waiter, and Torro,
Torro, Torro!, and Stryker's War. What did you think of these
films you were involved in? Josh: They’re my early films, I like them a lot. I think The Blind Waiter and Cleveland Smith are both pretty funny little films, and there are things I like about “Stryker’s War” much better than TSNKE, like the fact that Bruce campbell stars in it. Kain: In Torro, Torro, Torro!, how did you guys pull off the scene where the gardener (who looks like you) is being pulled on top of the fence? Josh: That is Scott Spiegel, co-writer/co-producer/co-director of “Torro, Torro, Torro!” and co-writer of “Evil Dead 2.” I simply set up the shot and Bart Pierce, who did the animation effects, moved Scott down the fence, point by point, each time saying when he had Scott in position, “Hold your breath, grit your teeth and shoot it” and I’d fire off a frame. Kain: During the filming of Evil Dead, did you do anything else besides 2nd unit lighting and sound? Josh: Well, as I said earlier, there wasn’t a 2nd unit, so the credit is misleading. I started off as a production assistant, basically helping to rebuild the cabin. While we were shooting I was assisting with the special effects (I was the number one blood-blower, which meant that I filled my mouth with fake blood and spit it through a tube at the appropriate moments. Then, six weeks into the shoot the sound man quit and I took over both the recording and the booming. Soon thereafter the cameraman left and I took over the lighting. I continued to do the lighting throughout most of the many pick-up shoots. I guess I lit about half of the film. I did all of the stuff with Bruce going nuts by himself, most of the stuff in the workshed, a lot of the stuff in the graveyard, most of the vine rape scene, a bunch of the stuff in the cellar. I conceived and built the last shot, meaning I hinged the middle door on the floor and I personally kicked it open from above, as well as sawing the last door in two pieces and putting back together again and rigging it on ropes so it would fly apart. Kain: What prompted you to keep a journal during the filming of the Evil Dead? Josh: I always keep a journal, and I have since I was fifteen years old. Kain: Do you have any intresting stories that didn't make it into the journal? Josh: Yes, a lot of shit didn’t make it into the journal. About a week before the end of shooting I stepped on a nail that went right through my sneaker deep into my foot. During the final week, when there was a ton to do, my foot hurt so bad that I was hobbling and my body began to curl up into fetal position. At one point during the last couple of weeks of shooting, we returned to the house where we were staying in the middle of the night for our lunch break. We each ate a big bowl of chili, then we all collapsed under the table, unable to move. We were convinced that David Goodman, the cook, had poisoned us and was now going to sodomize us as we lay helpless under the table. Thank God, he didn’t. Kain: You've had a pretty successful career since the Evil Dead, what has been your favorite project? Josh: Successful by whose definition? I’ve never made ten cents profit on a movie yet. I had a great time doing “Running Time” and “Hammer.” I also had a swell time shooting the pilot for “Jack of All Trades.” Kain: The film industry has been going downhill lately with the films they put out. What is your opinion the state of film is currently? Josh: I think the film industry is artistically at the lowest state it’s ever been in. Hollywood can’t even make straight entertainment pictures anymore, let alone anything brighter than that. If a decent film should get made, then it won’t get released. When I was a kid all I wanted in life was to make Hollywood films. Now I don’t care at all about making Hollywood films; the entire process is a demeaning bore. I’ll just make my indie films and I’ll be fine. The ONLY place on the Net you are guaranteed 100% pure Josh Becker all the time, everytime! |
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