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| Tom Sullivan Interview | Page 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 |
| (Tom Sullivan Continued...) Also there was concern that it does not look like "bad" animation. As I recall Bart and I were having a loud disagreement as to whether it was Stop Motion. No. Live action, Stop Motion, etc. when it dawned on me to use split screens and combine Stop Motion and live action. Lots of Goo and hair dropping off as a supernatural rotting of "Evil Dead" flesh via stop motion. Just like the Reese's Piece's commercial and everybody was happy. All this was in front of Sam and the cast and crew on the pick up shoot. We had everybody's attention. Just like the Reese's Piece's commercial and everybody was happy. All this was in front of Sam and the cast and crew on the pick up shoot. We had everybody's attention. But as soon as it clicked, we were all buddies again. We both cared about what we were doing and wanted this to be powerful, serving the audience as well as kick starting our SPFX careers. Bart and I both enjoyed the technical challenge of the sequence and quickly became good friends. In the first week in Aug. 1980 I had to leave my wife Penny again, living away an average of six days a week, enjoying a cot in the basement at Bart Pierce's home. Bart and I were in sync and having a blast developing the meltdown. Sam and Rob were away in New York in post, so Bart and I started our planning in Detroit. We expanded the sequence from the eight original drawings to about thirty storyboards that I drew. We had control over the action and camera movement, lighting and the solutions to the SPFX. That's why it works, we we're left alone and allowed to go nuts. Later Sam added some inspired close ups of Bruce and viola! Genius. I had previously commuted to Bart's Basement studio and we shot a test of the Animation/Split screen effect, which was incredibly gross and a smashing success. At the same time we shot a bit of film to project onto Bruce before the projector explodes in the basement in "Evil Dead." I poured the fake blood onto a white board and Bart shot it. So with lots of confidence we plunged ahead. Soon we were able to keep working on the meltdown animation with bile tubes, falling hair, live action arms, and critters and such until we had a sequence. There are at least two shots that Bart and I did that were excised as too gross. Too bad because they were the most complicated. There are photos that I shot during the meltdown production that Ren. Pics. should have, that show the behind the scenes stuff I shot. Speaking of photos there was a great loss of the photographs I took during the making of "The Evil Dead," nine rolls of 36 exposures, everything going on during my seven weeks. The production, the effects, the sets, the actor's, Rob and Sam at work, the crew, at rest, at dinner, in make up, fricking everything I could shoot, I shot. The only problem was that I couldn't afford that much film on my salary so Ren. Pics. paid for the film. The deal was I'd shoot them using my camera and could buy a copy when they were developed. However as show business goes, my photo documentary of the production was left for the summer in the trunk of some executive's car, undeveloped. So that, upon processing, they had a large but fruitless processing bill. Sigh . . . all that work, all those publicity photos, lost. I'm goonnnaa bbbbeee sick! CLIFF: Where did you get the idea of putting roaches and snakes in the decomposing bodies? TOM SULLIVAN: That was mine. The inspiration for the snake and cockroach idea was that the "evil dead" rotted the possessed bodies and corrupted them in the most disgusting way possible. We got the cockroaches from Michigan State and they go great on salads. CLIFF: How about the Linda mistake in ED 2 when Ash sticks the chainsaw in her neck, black blood comes out, but when he cuts her in the head red blood comes out? TOM SULLIVAN: Of course, continuity is impossible and unnecessary in an Evil Dead film. The poor French woman who was in charge of continuity on ED2 was frantic. On Evil Dead, we were aware of all the mistakes but thought the fans would love it. On ED2 it was a struggle, but, with the same ultimate Evil Dead maxim "Impossible and Unnecessary." I believe that it might have been an intentional choice because a constant changing of bile colors goes back to my stuff on ED1. So in that respect it isn't a mistake. What ever is inside the possessed is constantly changing. So Sam could get away with murder. He called it "torturing" the audience. CLIFF: Why did you use different colors of blood throughout the films? TOM SULLIVAN: I was concerned about the level of violence in Evil Dead (then Book of the Dead) as I didn't want to assault the audience, kind of a hopeless position in this film. I suggested to Sam that the Deadites could spew and bleed a variety of colors. Another thought was that since the characters were being possessed by some supernatural force and that it was corrupting their bodies in unspeakable ways, it made sense to keep things changing. Although I don't remember specifically, it's possible the Exorcist's split pea soup had some influence as well. In her stabbing scene the white stuff that Linda (Betsy Baker) hurls is milk. CLIFF: I was leafing through Josh Becker's journal and he paints you as a weird, kind of weasily character, especially when he says you left them during the filming with a whole bunch of effects still left to do. TOM SULLIVAN: Gee, I thought Josh's Journal made me look like a vastly multi-talented artistic genius, that brought a unique look and incredible production value for practically no money to this ambitious first film. I was flattered. I just said hello to Josh at his site. And it never occurred to me to bring the Evil Dead Journal up. It might have come off like that in the excerpt that was used, but Josh and I got along very well, as did everybody on the shoot, despite the awful strain of shooting. It's been a while since we'd talked and I'd forgotten about the amazing, in depth, (for me at least) conversation's that Josh and I would have on into the wee dawn as we worked on our projects at the dining table. He might be the most talented of the Detroit group, certainly the most brilliant. And he certainly has his opinions. Check out his site http://www.beckerfilms.com. Also I don't think anybody who knows me would describe me as weasily and I'm sure Josh feels that way. I'm very charming, funny, full of energy, and a hard worker. I just reread "The Evil Dead Journal" Wow! What a flashback. "Actual demons," "Actual sea serpents," Man, I must have been fried. I was always curious why whoever designed the pamphlet would include an entry about a contract that I had with Ren. Pics. in an "Evil Dead" video promotional booklet. Of course its Josh's duty as a Journalist to include his thoughts. But there must have been another interesting episode in his diary that the Journal designers might have selected. For example, how I did a particular special effect. Or maybe about the transient we all killed and ate in a fit of madness. Why publish something personal about me taken out of context? I don't get it. And I was a little confused because at no time did I ever quit the production. By your question, the entry may have seemed to imply I had. I always planned to finish the effects. I just couldn't in Tennessee. It was clear to everybody concerned that I was going to complete the work back in Michigan. With so much shooting left, it was clear, fairly early on that everything would not be finished in Tennessee. I made a contract, as reported in Josh's diary, to stay another week for a total of seven weeks. I got a bonus for that in 1986, when everyone's bonuses from Evil Dead came in. CLIFF: Tell us your history with the Evil Dead Productions. TOM SULLIVAN: Unfortunately, the excerpt from Josh's diary does not begin to explain the situation. But I'll try. Ever since I met the Detroit filmmakers of Michigan State--Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel, Josh Becker, Mike Ditz, and John Cameron--I knew they were going Somewhere, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of films they had made. They are all equally talented in film making, with their own interests, specialties and personalities, and they are the greatest group of friends I'd seen. |
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