I sat down with Director/Actor, Jason Connery, in the tiny Burbank office of Unconditional Entertainment, the production company he runs with his producing partner, Ricki Masler, to discuss his feature directing debut, PANDEMIC.
 

Director, Jason Connery with lead actor, Alesha Clarke, discuss the script.

JMB

So, tell us a little something about PANDEMIC.

JASON

PANDEMIC is set in one of the smallest, least populated environs in New Mexico. A virus hits the small community and a local veterinary surgeon finds a horse with the virus initially and then it’s obviously spread to humans. They decide to call the CDC and immediately the army comes and closes the entire place down. There are a number of characters in the small town, one of them being a conspiracy theorist who’s not all that he says he is. The dilemma she (the vet) faces – is where does this virus come from? There are a number of different elements and places that it could have come from. There’s a number of twists and turns and by the end you find out… the problem. (Laughs.) Really good.

JMB

Really good. Stops just in time! Reveals nothing. How would you – if you were going to classify it --

JASON

I think there’s an element of horror because the virus in a sense is pretty horrific. But actually, it’s a thriller, an action thriller. There’s a considerable amount of running about and chasing things, but… you have to listen, you get the clues through who’s who and who might be involved.

JMB
So you shot this during a heat wave in Arizona?

JASON

Yeah, it was pretty hot in Arizona. I think the hottest it got ever was about 114 and we were inside. There was no air conditioning and yeah, that was hot. That was hot. The weird thing about it was – actually, to give him his due, Ray Weiss was quite extraordinary because he was wearing a full general’s outfit and we were all in sort of t-shirts and shorts. He was amazingly controlled. His sweating and his performance and he has considerable dialogue so he really stepped up, but everybody did.

I think what was really kind of weird for me was in the evening – when I saw we had night shoots, I was so excited about the fact that we would probably be in the low 70’s and maybe 80’s at most. But, unfortunately in the evening, it sort of never dipped under 100, even when it was pitch black. So, although, I have to say that there’s a positive to that because there was a snake that was lying right by my foot at one stage and had it been any colder, it probably would have decided to bite me. But because it was so hot, I just think it couldn’t be bothered. So there was a positive to the heat.

But, yeah, it was extraordinarily hot. When you were outside in the sun, we used to – as we came out of the trailer, we would always say that it was sort of stepping into Hades. Yeah. 7:00 in the morning 108 degrees was, like, not fair.

JMB

No. It’s not. It’s not human at all.

JASON

Although I hear it’s lovely in the winter. (Both laugh.) That’s for all you Phoenix people.

JMB

I think they say the summer is lovely in the North. In Alaska, they say you should come back in June, it’s beautiful here. So how did you get involved in the project? How did all that come about?

JASON

Well, there was originally a script called PANDEMIC, funnily enough, written by Aaron Pope and we were involved in acquiring the script from Aaron. And we bought the script. We made a number of changes, but it’s basically the same premise. And then we found ourselves talking to some people up in Arizona about a studio up there, Hollywood Phoenix Studios. And what was lovely about the idea of working with them is that you get a lot more bang for your buck with it being low budget at a studio because of the facilities that they have there.

JMB
So that’s how you ended up in Arizona.

JASON
That’s how we ended up in Arizona.

JMB
In Hell.

JASON

In Hell.

JMB
And what was your shooting schedule?

JASON

12 days. There’s a little bit of a cheat in there, but basically 12 days. We did do a pick-up day later, mainly to get shots of more of the town. When you have such a short shoot, very often you’ll get all the coverage of the people, but you don’t get those nice cut-aways and things. We had two units, although that was difficult too because it wasn’t a big cast. Because of the small budget, and so it was very difficult to – the girl, Alesha Clarke, was virtually in almost every scene. So that was difficult because she couldn’t be at two places. So we did have someone who looked actually very much like her. Who did some of the driving stuff, but, yeah, it was a really tight shoot. And we worked really hard.

JMB

And this is your feature directing debut?

JASON

Yeah, I’ve done some shorts. And I’d directed some plays, but I’d never done a feature, so it was – uh, you know, what was lovely was that we went out there and although we needed to use some people from the studio, we went out there with a really good core solid group.

JMB

I hear you had a really great first AD.

JASON
Great first AD. Just unbelievable. And that was really nice because I felt so – I was really supported in that sense. Miguel (Bunster, DP) just came out of the AFI, but I think he has a really good eye. And he’s great for me to personally work with, which is the most important thing, you know. When it’s serious, he knows. And when we can joke around a bit, he knows. And I felt like the feeling on the set was pretty good. You know, even given the heat. You know, a lot of the people from Arizona that stepped up – they were a little bit like other people from LA were coming up, they were thinking what’s this going to be like? And I think they realized that we were all there to make a good film and they were like, a lot of the lighting and a lot of the electricians, they all jumped on board, which was nice.

JMB

Now, what was it like for you making a transition from being an actor to being suddenly completely responsible for the entire thing?

JASON

Yeah, ‘cause I did see the actors all off talking, and I did think, “Actors, bloody hell!” (Laughs.) Slagging me off or slagging off the film or something. (more laughter) Always saying something bad.

It was interesting because it is interesting to be on the other side of the fence in that sense. What was nice is that I felt as though I had a contact with the actors where I felt pretty comfortable talking to them and what I was trying to get and stuff. But I’ve always, I think to my own detriment sometimes, I think that I always had a little bit of a – I guess I’m a little bit of a control freak. Or maybe I’m just a little bit nosey. And someone had a continuity thing happen. Even if it was nothing to do with me, another actor, I always, I felt I had to say something. I think a lot of actors are very, very self-centered, self-absorbed, in a way that I think that they have to be. But what I really enjoyed about directing was I could look at the big picture, literally. And it was so nice to talk with people. You know, there were some people who just did what they did and you had to say a few things to. And there were other people who needed you to talk to them quite a lot about what it was for them to get the idea. And you know, it’s really like being a choreographer. And hopefully, being able to get everyone to get their dance steps right so that the film happens.

JMB

And you mentioned your DP, Miguel Bunster. How was that? What was that relationship like? How did you guys prep?

JASON

Well, when I first met Miguel, it was through another Director/DP, Don FauntLeRoy. And he said to me that he felt Miguel was a really special lighting guy and that he was really someone to look at. So I met Miguel and Miguel’s from um… (long pause) Chile. I was thinking Sea Bass, Chilean Sea Bass… He’s from Chile and what I love about someone like Miguel is that thing of being completely committed to what he’s doing, sometimes to the point where you actually have to beat him about the head to stop him talking about it. But I always say you can’t buy enthusiasm. And he, you know, on a low budget film, he’s really the kind of guy that you need. You know, a guy who’s there, a guy who’s always ready to get it done.

And when we first started working, you know we were a bit tip-toeing around each other. And then, you know, we started doing storyboards and working on our shot list and everything like that. And I really felt like it was going to gel really well. And I felt like we got what I wanted. He understood that I was looking for high contrast. You know, that I wanted the darks really dark and I didn’t mind flare outs if we were passing into sunlight. And I wanted the second half of the film when the army arrives to be a bit twitchy, sort of hand-held. And my only thing with him was he was so in love with what he was shooting that sometimes he would follow people to keep the shot going all over the place. And I had to keep saying to him, “Let them leave frame.” And he really got what I was saying, having said that to him a couple of times. He would let people leave frame. But I understood what he was doing because he loves to follow whoever was in frame. I mean, he’s really, really talented. I would love to work with him again.

 

DP, Miguel Bunster and Director, Jason Connery, set up the opening shot, on location in Arizona.

JMB
What did you shoot on?

JASON
We shot on HD. We shot on the (Sony) F900. You know, it was a conscious decision that we could have gone to Super 16 or 35, I guess, but I never really… I’ve shot on much lower end HD or actually not even HD. And I was really impressed, I have to say. I mean, there were a couple of times where the camera overheated and we had to put, you know, a cold – dry ice through it with a blower. And there were a couple of times where setting the contrast and technical elements that had to be tweaked a little bit. But on the whole, I just thought it was really good – it never looked like video, never looked flat. It had really good depth, I think it really worked nicely. And Miguel lit it very much like a regular movie. I was pretty impressed.

JMB
And how was it when you got into post?

JASON

Well, post has been interesting. It’s lovely when you get it all downloaded onto a hard drive and converted. And then you can actually see it. And then, working with Andrew (Bentler), who – he’s a young editor who came on board and was very committed to the project. And after a few moments of it not being with us for a while, the film, because it was originally up in Arizona, we brought it down (to L.A.). Things then really started to move forward. I actually loved that process.

I think that’s where – because, you know, I teach acting sometimes. That’s where that side of being an actor, I think, was really helpful, because I just feel like you get an innate sense of timing and when things emotionally kind of gel. And it’s interesting, because you can see a scene and if it’s been cut in a very kind of non-specific way, the scene can be about nothing and you get no sense of drama, no sense of intention, no sense of action. And then you can change really only the timing of who you’re staying with when you cut back to the other person and it can change the whole feel. I mean, you’ve cut away to someone who’s looking in a different way and the audience gets a different sense of what they’re thinking. It can change the whole element of the film or of the scene.

And also, you know, adding all the elements of sound and music. Music is a huge part of a movie, especially in our culture. I mean, obviously also in life, except now of course as we’re listening to someone’s radio blaring outside. But we don’t – we’re not having a conversation in real life and music is playing. It can be incredibly either distracting or incredibly harmonious with the scene. Very lucky to have someone called Christian Ensign who is just actually nominated for an Ivan Novello award, which is a sort of musical Oscar for England. Really about to take off. And has already done. He did music for THE CLICK and he’s done a lot of – he’s got a film coming out actually called SEVERANCE. I don’t know if the film’s that great, but he always comes out with a really original soundtrack. A very, very talented man.

JMB
Now, did you find when you were in post-production - other than going oops - did you find any moments when you were like “I don’t know, I wish, If only…”

JASON

Yeah. I mean, there’s two sides to that. I’ve always felt like, when I’ve seen movies which were low budget, my big thing with them is that they don’t get the coverage. So I was very aware of trying to cover everything as much as possible so that I could always have something to cut away to if it didn’t work. And I think that’s a good adage for any film. I mean, I think, obviously, if you can come up with a very pretty single shot, but I think even if you do that, put something in it. Have a seagull flying past it, just so you can cut out of it if you wanted. But, yes, I definitely, there were moments when I went, “Oh, my God, I wish I got that.” And we went and did an extra day which was fantastic because I think we got a lot of really good stuff.

But the other side of that is, if you don’t have something, sometimes it leads you down a road where you try to think outside the box and you come up with something that’s actually more interesting, perhaps. I think if you have a huge budget and you have to have… For instance, there’s another film that follows similar lines to our story in some respects, which I won’t name, but it had an enormous amount of money and therefore they had the ability to have 30 or 40 helicopters flying all over the place at one time. And so when the army arrived, you really felt as though there was a huge army because you saw them. Whereas, in our film, we didn’t have the same budget, so our detail was, well, first of all the general says, “We don’t want to cause a panic… we’ll keep everything low profile, we don’t want to frighten the civilians.” And you get images that show what the army is doing and how they’re setting themselves up around the outskirts of the town.

JMB

I think that whole sequence, which I’ve seen, is particularly effective because I know that there’s only 5-20 soldiers, not even, but it looks like, you know, because of the way it’s framed and how it’s shot, and how it’s edited together, it looks like there’s this massive, massive presence. I think if you looked really closely, you’d see that, “Oh it’s the same soldier at the stop sign I just saw.”

JASON

I think that you pick your battles. And on a low budget, I think it’s a mistake to look bigger than you are. Because what happens is you can’t do it. I saw an incredibly effective film that was shot in India. And I know it was shot for a ridiculously low sum of money. And the film was about a woman who was basically persuaded to be a suicide bomber. And there was meant to be a huge scene at the end where a president or someone huge politically was arriving. And they did it so brilliantly because you heard the crowds, you saw colors, and you heard noises and flowers and people moving, but you didn’t see anything except for there’s a moment where he steps out of his car which is just the side of his suit. And she is going to put a wreath of flowers around his neck. And that’s when she’s meant to blow herself up. The whole film is about her.

So you saw these little tiny images. And it was incredibly effective because you were with her. I mean, I feel like in an overblown movie, you know, 60, 70, 80, 100 million dollars, we would have had the whole cavalcade. And, yes, it would have been effective, but this, in some respects, was so effective because it was so personal to her. And they used everything other than 5,000 people. And she eventually doesn’t push the – she can’t do it. And it’s a very good film and very simple in that way. And I remember that scene more than I would remember one where there were thousands of people.

JMB

Now, I want to ask you a little bit about the script and the development process. At what point did you feel like you were changing the script because you knew what the budget was and what the locations were going to be, that whole kind of reality…

JASON

Yeah.

JMB

Because that’s always an interesting challenge for this first film, low budget.

JASON

I think that – I’m not sure that the film changed that much as far as trying to push it into a budget, but we, this script lent itself, initially anyway, because it’s a small environment, an intimate environment. And the way you look at it is you go, well, we can’t have a cast, probably not a main cast anyway – bigger than about 10 people. And obviously that doesn’t include extras and people who come in for the day. And probably we were lucky because we were able to attain, for the budget we had, more locations because we were working in the studio. But very often, you know, for five or six locations there’s – every company move takes time and effort, and money and things, and you’re losing shooting time, which is the most important thing. I mean, in some respects, money buys you time in film.

And so there were certain things. I mean, for instance, there was, I think, in the original, there’s a whole scene where you know, the entire town is out and the army are ushering them into a place which we felt was not really needed because it was – we were getting what was happening to them without going into mass hysteria and people running around. It was more about the intimacies of each person rather than that. Obviously the whole thing that we said about the army. I mean, how many soldiers can you get? But, I mean, it’s lovely, because in all honesty, the Hummers that we did have. They were – the night before we used them – they were bright yellow with radio logos all over them and these guys stayed up all night and painted them green with this paint that washes off. So that’s the kind of stuff that on a low-budget film makes you feel like you’re really on a team.

JMB

And you knew that in Arizona there’d be no rain to wash it off.

JASON

True.

JMB

Because a lot of people who will come to this site will be people who have made a short or are looking to do a bigger project or make their first film or whatever. Now having survived your first feature, do you have any words of advice?

JASON

Well, there are a lot of people who will tell you that they can do a lot of things. And that’s a danger. So I would always be really aware of is what you’re being told is possible I mean, I don’t want to sound mean-spirited, but I think often it comes from people who would like to be able to do the things they say they can do but actually can’t. So you have to really find out about the people that you’re going to be working with so that you can – because, ultimately, the thing about a low budget film is that everyone has to step up because you’ve got limited time and if you leave your job to do someone else’s, there’s a domino effect and it can go (he makes a noise) very quickly.

And the other thing is, there’s always an alternative. You mustn’t get stuck with one ideal and that’s the only way it can be done. There’s always alternatives. There’s always going to be compromises. I mean, you walk into a set and you thought it was going to be one way and it isn’t and you can’t just say, “Well, I’m not doing it this way” and walk away because you don’t have the time. Maybe if you’re Steven Spielberg and 20 years down the line…

And I think the other thing is you have to be prepared. Like, the shooting should be the easiest part. If you’ve set up the structure so you know where you’re going to put the camera and everyone else does, that means the set can be dressed in that favorable position for the first shot. The lighting can be set up. And if you’ve set all that up and there’s change, then the change can be done without too much effort. And if there isn’t, then it’s all ready to go. But if you go in there, and I’ve worked on these movies with like, “Well, I’m not sure where I want to put the camera,” and “Let’s rehearse a bit first and then we’ll see,” and nobody knows what’s going on, then you waste an enormous amount of time. People think that structure makes things constrained or something, but actually, I think it lends itself to making things much more available.

JMB

Sets you free.

JASON

Yeah.

 

JMB

Anything else you want to say? Any good stories, last words?

JASON

Well, I should probably talk about my producing partner. Because she was very, very constructive in actually getting the film made at all. Because she was the one who found the financing and it’s always good to have someone who’s there to back you up and that’s the whole thing of finding a core team and putting them into it – and all working together.

JMB

Now you’re partners, right? And you’re also producer on the film.

JASON

Yeah, I was producer on the film. I, actually, once I started directing, I was mainly involved in that.

JMB
And your company is?

JASON

Unconditional Entertainment.

JMB

And your partner is?

JASON

Ricki Masler. And the company basically looks for projects that we can make. It’s as simple as that. And there are a lot of scripts out there. And there’s a lot of people who talk about making films but don’t actually do it. You know, we just got a script from a 20 year-old kid. And he wrote it and he is on it. I mean, he wants to get it – it’s called CODE OF THE WEST – and he wants to get this thing made. He’s going to fly to Ireland and find out about shooting there. He optioned the book and he’s just a really determined guy. I can tell. And in some respects, that’s what you have to be, sort of unstoppable.

JMB
Right. So that’s it from the unstoppable Jason Connery. Thank you very much.

JASON

You’re very welcome.

Dawn in the Arizona desert. 2^nd Unit Director, Leon Melas & DP, Miguel Bunster

Director, Jason Connery recently wrapped principal photography on his second feature, Ice 44, a supernatural thriller starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Winstone.

The producers are currently negotiating a distribution deal for Pandemic.

Interviewer and sometimes 1^st AD, JMB, is in pre-production for his own feature directing debut, UNCHARTED, which he also wrote. He will be interviewing himself soon for UrbanChillers.

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Keywords:  pandemic, connery,
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