The Independent Film Corner: Roger A. Scheck Interview

Roger A. Scheck is a first time feature film director that has directed one of the best horror films that I’ve seen this year. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Filmmaking before making this film. Today, he currently resides in Hollywood, California. Roger A. Scheck is here today to talk about his “Nobody Loves Alice".




1) Tell me about yourself and how you got into directing?

I started in high school with black and white still photography. A friend of mine introduced me to the idea of being a filmmaker after he saw my photography. He gave me the film True Romance, which I watch 3 or 4 times that night. I thought to myself, “I have to do this”. Shortly after that he gave me The Last House on the Left, which I watch 3 or 4 time that evening. I thought to myself, “I can do this”. I started reading every film book I could find. I even began failing my high school classes because I was reading those books instead of my course books. That summer I was accepted into the Oklahoma Summer Art Institute were I met Dale Pollock and Robert Collins. They were industry professionals that were teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts. They invited me to look at their school, which I did, and I knew that I had to be a part of their program. That summer I made my first short and I just never stopped.

2) Your film, Nobody Loves Alice, is truly one of the best horror films that I've seen this year. Tell me what the film is about to those, who haven't heard of this fine film?

Nobody Loves Alice is a psychological thriller about a girl who has wanted a fairytale romance all her life. In her inability to make that happen she begins trying to force men to love her. Abigail, her coworker, gets Alice to act as a pawn in a scheme to test her soon to be fiancé’s fidelity. When the boyfriend goes missing, Abigail is left to figure out the mystery behind his disappearance.

3) How did the creation of this film come about?

I had written four feature films prior to Nobody Loves Alice, all of which I couldn’t afford to produce. I was working at a restaurant at the time. One night while there I was standing by the phone when my boss answered a call. The woman on the phone talked about having been in the earlier that day and that he was so sweet and cute that she had to see him outside of the restaurant. Being in charge of guest satisfaction, he said thank you and to come in and have a drink on the restaurant, but he had a girlfriend. Not two minutes after that call the phone rang again. This time it was his girlfriend saying that the last caller was her friend and she was testing him to see if he’d cheat on her. In that instance I know what Nobody Loves Alice was going to be. I went home and began writing.

4) What movie influences did you use when creating and writing the screenplay for the film, if you used any?

At the time I had just discovered Asian horror films, especially anything by Takashi Miike.

5) How did you managed to assemble this very talented cast here, as I really think that this is one of the best-acted horror films this year?

I actually worked with Nitzan Mager (Alice) on a short film in college called Motherhood. You can see that on my Myspace, http://www.myspace.com/alicefilm. I was cinematographer on a film that Phillip Ward acted in. I really wrote the film for both of them. Knowing their abilities It was easy to formulate these characters. Phillip was attending Elon University at the time. He really served as casting director on the film because be brought me pretty much everyone else from their program.

6) What was the mood like onset for you and your actors?

The actors and I had a good relationship. I have a very loose style of directing. I like to give them a lot of room to experiment and make the character and words their own. I learned a long time ago not to commit to much before you shoot. Things change, and some of the best moments in the film are there because I gave the actor freedom to play. I love watching great actors work.

7) What was the shoot for this film like?

It was professional. We weren’t just kids making a movie. We were filmmakers making a film. Everyone that was involved gave up their winter break to be a part of this project. We only had 12 days to film the whole thing so we had to move quickly. Actors knew their lines and the crew knew the shots. It was intense but because were all committed to it went smooth. The last day was the worst because I lost my fight choreographer so Dave Martin, the cinematographer, and I had to figure out how to stage the final fight scene. That was the only day we went over 12 hours…18 and a half to be exact.

8) Do you have any fun stories from the set that you want to share with us?

I think the funniest thing about the whole experience is that Amanda Taylor (Abigail) was a virgin, and I had no clue. Phillip and her had apparently discussed it but not with me. As I was watching the scene, I was convinced by her performance, so the thought never crossed my mind. There was another instance were I was talking to Nitzan about Amanda’s performance. Amanda had give this amazing

9) Recently, I was on Myspace and read one of your bulletins that you were forced to change your official Myspace page for your film and turn it into a director's profile page. Tell my readers about that and your thoughts on Myspace.

MySpace has definitely been an important marketing tool for a filmmaker like me to promote a micro-budget film with NO advertising budget. I am relying on publicity, reviews, and word of mouth to help let people know about me and Nobody Loves Alice. Unfortunately, I may have been too successful at promoting on MySpace because they saw that I had over 26,000 friends and assumed that my Nobody Loves Alice MySpace page was set up and run by a big studio! When, in fact, it was ALL ME. I was contacted and told that I had to pay them a minimum of $50,000 to keep my film page up since it obviously (in their eyes) had to be a studio page since it was so successful. Ultimately, I convinced them it was me and only me, and they quieted down for two weeks. Then I got a courtesy call from a marketing lady over at MySpace who called me and told me that they (the powers-that-be) were going to pull the plug on my page and delete my account, but she convinced them to let me make the changes and make it a filmmaker page, per their instructions, ie: removing links to Amazon, etc to sell the DVD. Indie-Pictures, the company releasing the DVD, is focusing their efforts on sales to retail outlets and their publicist is focusing on getting reviews and editorial coverage for me. Everything else is my responsibility and I thought MySpace would be the most effective use of my time and efforts, and it has been a great marketing tool, however if it wasn’t for that one person in marketing who was my advocate, my page would have been shut down with no remedy available to me. THAT is a scary prospect—considering the HUNDREDS of hours I spent building my relationships on MySpace, just to have had them unilaterally delete my account. I learned that I should not put all of my eggs in one basket. Immediately, I will definitely be spreading out my efforts over several social networking sites. I am working with my publicist to start a social networking site for indie-filmmakers to promote their projects on www.ning.com, which gives you much more freedom and access to your friends.

10) Any upcoming projects that you are currently involved in that you want to share?

I have four other scripts that I’m working on funding for. They rage from all budgets and genres. Most likely, my next project is going to be the sequel to Nobody Loves Alice, Somebody Loves Alice.

Bonus Question

11) I really want my readers to see your film, so tell my readers where you can find "Nobody Loves Alice"?

Nobody loves Alice is available for about $10 on our website, http://www.nobodylovesalice.com/. On July 25th at 11:45PM we will have a world premiere at the Dances With Film Film Festival. That will be at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles. You can buy tickets here: https://www.readyticket.net/webticket/webticket2.asp?WCI=BuyTicket&WCE=DWF%2B-%2BNOBODY%2BLOVES%2BALICE,072520082345,6,35, .

I want to thank you for your time and good luck with Nobody Loves Alice, which is in stores now from Indie-Pictures and on your future projects.

Nobody Loves Alice is in stores now. For my review of the film, you can go to: http://www.filmarcade.net/2008/05/nobody-loves-alice-review-by-anthony.html

Also, you can visit the film’s website at http://www.nobodylovesalice.com

In the next edition of Ten Questions, I will be talking to Director Hal Masonberg on his fight to have his version of “The Plague” released.

My name is Anthony Thurber and that’s Ten Questions.