Posted at 12:30 p.m. - Tuesday, January 13
In a previous post I told you about an on-line film that was created by a couple of local film makers called The League:
Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel, creators of this kick-ass on-line superhero movie, were gracious enough to answer a handful of questions for Geek To Me:
GEEK TO ME: How long did production
of The League take?
KYLE HIGGINS: Too long.
ALEC SIEGEL: (laughs) It’s kind of weird to think that its finally done.
HIGGINS: I know. We started writing the film in the late spring
of 2007, while we were in Chicago. Alec was about to
graduate from college, and, at summer’s end, I was about to go into my final
year at Chapman.
SIEGEL: It was a pretty lengthy process. We started writing in May and
continued to write and re-write until production began in November.
HIGGINS: We filmed for two
weekends in November, a night in December, two nights in early February, and
then a day of pickups in late March. Oh,
and Michael Nie and I shot for two days in January, back in Chicago. And when I say “for two days,” I literally
mean it. I think we got about two hours
of sleep, in the back of a Suburban, parked outside the John Hancock
building. We rented an Arri SR-3, and
just went guerrilla all over the city, grabbing establishing shots and effects
plates wherever we could. All in the
snow, of course.
SIEGEL: I missed out on that part.
HIGGINS: You would have only slowed us down (laughs).
G2M: What made you decide to
create a superhero movie?
SIEGEL: Well, it started with a short story Kyle wrote at
Chapman. The short story doesn’t
resemble the film too much, but it really set the stage for things to come. Sometime after, Kyle approached me to co-write
the script for the short and we were off and running.
HIGGINS: I’ve spent most of my
life reading comics. I’ve kind of said
this before, but Richard Donner’s Superman
is what got me into filmmaking. So
when I was deciding what kind of project to do for my thesis film, I naturally
gravitated towards comics. And when I came
up with the concept, the market for superhero movies could not have been
better. Even now, after Dark Knight, the bubble hasn’t burst on
comic book films. So that played a
factor, too. Short films are tough. Other then film festivals and the occasional
European distribution deal, there isn’t much of a market for them. So with The League, the idea that I could
tell a story in a genre I love, and have there be an audience for it, made the
decision an easy one.
G2M: Comic fans will see a lot of familiar
archetypes in the film. From
where did you draw inspiration for the story and characters?
HIGGINS: Well, the characters are
obviously modeled after existing superheroes.
With it being a short film, and the amount of story we were trying to
convey, we decided early on that using some of the existing superhero archetypes
was a good starting point. And for most
people, they see “The Grey Raven and his kid sidekick Sparrow” on screen and
they immediately get the Batman and Robin connotation. There’s a general understanding of what the
relationship and dynamic is between those two characters, just by saying they
are “hero and sidekick.”
SIEGEL: It does a lot of work for
us and it gets the audience into the right mindset in a short amount of time.
G2M: What comics have you read
before? And what are you guys reading
now?
SIEGEL: To be
honest, I’m new to the comic book world. As a kid, I remember reading some of
Dark Horse's X-Wing series and I was
a big follower of Batman: The Animated Series, but that's about it. I've always
been a fan of comic book movies, however, so my comic book knowledge has formed
in a sort of backwards way, I guess. That being said, I just finished The Joker by
Azzarello and Bermejo and Watchmen and I’m working
through a big stack of books ranging from Batman, to Spider-man, to the Thunderbolts,
and Justice League.
HIGGINS: My taste has always been
a bit mainstream when it comes to comics.
I grew up a Marvel and DC guy.
And it was really only a couple years ago that I started reading comics
that didn’t have superheroes in them (laughs).
I grew up on Spider-Man and Batman, X-MEN and Daredevil. Watchmen, obviously, and V for Vendetta. Spawn was in there, too. Lately I’ve been reading Daredevil, Captain
America, Batman, Green Lantern, Nightwing, Action Comics, Criminal… the Joker hardcover
was really, really good.
G2M: Who has inspired your
cinematic style?
HIGGINS: That could be a long list (laughs). I’ll try and keep it short. I grew up watching Ridley Scott, James
Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Sydney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppolla… Sam Mendes had
a big effect on me when I was in high school.
The way he and Conrad Hall shot Road to Perdition… it’s one of my all
time favorite films. I’d say it’s about
as close to a perfect movie as you can get.
Bryan Singer’s earlier stuff—Usual Suspects and X-MEN 1, mostly.
But I would say first and foremost (I’m sure this is a popular answer
these days) is Christopher Nolan. I saw
Memento when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. I dabbled in “moviemaking” when I was really
young, shooting things with my dad and sister on our Hi-8 camera. But then I kind of got out of it in grade
school and junior high. I always loved
watching movies, but when I saw Memento, that’s when I decided I had to be a
director. And Nolan hasn’t made a movie
I didn’t like. Insomnia is probably his
weakest, but even that has some of the best acting Pacino has done in the last
decade. Nolan has such an interesting
voice. His work is so nuanced and
layered… It’s all very, very crafted. I hope I can get to that point someday.
And of course, I would have to say my dad. He’s been a photographer for almost 40
years. The landscapes and cityscapes
that he shoots are just incredible. He
just got back from hiking the Grand Canyon, so I’m looking forward to going home in a few weeks, just to see
the pictures.
SIEGEL: Yeah,
Steven Spielberg is certainly a big influence and probably the earliest for me,
but Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron, William Monahan, and Joss Whedon have all
had a big impact on me, certainly where writing is concerned. I'd also count
Ridley Scott, David Fincher, and Ron Howard as some of my favorite
filmmakers. And as far as truly crafting a film, I think Kyle is totally
right with Christopher Nolan. The Prestige is probably one of my favorite
movies of all time, both in story and visuals.
G2M: You
have an impressive cast in The League.
How difficult was it to get all the acting talent for the film?
HIGGINS: It wasn’t that tough,
actually.
SIEGEL: That might have been the
easiest part of making the film.
HIGGINS: You’re right. Definitely.
We had a really fantastic casting director named Jackie Sollitto who had
graduated a year before me at Chapman.
Originally I figured I was going to have to deal with casting, too, but
Michael Campbell (one of our producers) knew Jackie really well. Jackie sent out a casting notice on LA
Casting and Breakdown Express. With the
logline, the size of the project, and the fact we were shooting film, we had a
lot of interest. Hundreds and hundreds
of actors submitted themselves. I think
there were 200 or 300 for Grey Raven alone.
Jackie, Michael, Alec and I saw a lot of very good actors over the
course of two days in LA. And then I
went through the tapes and decided on a handful of people, who we brought down
to Chapman the following weekend to do chemistry readings.
G2M: You
guys have really pulled off something special which I’m sure is going to
inspire other aspiring filmmakers.
What advice would you give them?
HIGGINS: Attack it. Just go for it. I see a lot of people, especially while I was
at Chapman, who start making contingency plans, and start thinking about what
else they can do if film doesn’t work out for them—except they haven’t even
tried yet! I mean, look—it’s a super,
super hard industry to break into. You
have to have a plan. And I’m obviously
still hoping and praying things work out for me. But at the same time, you have to be hungry
for it. If you don’t have that killer
mentality, you won’t make it. You can
never settle. The second you settle at a
comfortable job that you’re making decent money at, you’ll lose a bit of that
hunger and that drive. You’ll take
longer to finish that script you’ve wanted to write, or you’ll tell yourself
you’re just going to work for a year two get on your feet—then you’ll tackle
that short film or that feature outline.
But that year turns into two years, and then three years, and pretty
soon you’re in your mid 30’s and you have nothing to show. That’s what I’m terrified of. I see a lot of people falling into that trap.
SIEGEL: The greatest successes are gained by taking the greatest risks.
Give it all you have, or you’ll find yourself wondering what might have been.
HIGGINS: So yeah.
You can’t be scared of failing. If
I had a dime for every person that told me not to make The League, or for every
person at Chapman that wasn’t into the film… well, I would have a lot of dimes
(laughs). And we’ll see what
happens. They may still be right. But you have to believe in yourself, and you
have to have confidence in your own talent (without being cocky). If you don’t believe in yourself, no studio
exec in the world is going to believe in you.
And above all else, you have to decide how important it is to
you. If you can think of other things that
you would be happy doing with your life—truly happy—then maybe film really
isn’t worth the pain and suffering. But
if it’s truly what you want (or you’re just masochistic), then turn it into a
mission. Attack it.
G2M: Any thing on the horizon
that fans should be on the lookout for?
HIGGINS: Well, there’s nothing
definite yet. We’ve got a lot of irons
in the fire, some things that we’re writing together and some that we’re
writing separate. I obviously want to
direct, too, and I just finalized my agent/manager. I do have a script that I’m attached to
direct, which was written by a friend of mine.
It’d be pretty low budget, but very, very cool. Comic fans would definitely be into it. We’ll see if we can get it set up somewhere. I’m trying to start writing comics, too.
SIEGEL: Yeah. There’s a list of
thing we both want to do, both together and separately. We’ll see how things
pan out. And then there’s The League.
HIGGINS: Ah yes. We have big plans for the world of The
League. We’re not sure where yet (laughs), but there are a
couple interesting options, including, of course, possibly doing it as a
graphic novel.
G2M: And
finally, do you consider
yourself to be a geek or a nerd?
HIGGINS: Probably more a
geek.
SIEGEL: You sure about that?
HIGGINS: I think so…
SIEGEL: I’d have to go with geek as well. My movie collection is a
pretty good indication of that. I have things that are more mainstream like Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, or Se7en, but there’s plenty of room for
things like Battlestar Galactica, Star
Wars, and The Lord of the Rings.
HIGGINS: Not that there’s anything wrong with being a nerd (laughs). You know, I’m a huge comic book fan, but actually,
I’ve always had a really diverse set of interests… everything from sports to music. I play basketball, I snowboard, I’ve been a
jazz trumpet player since I was 13… and I’m addicted to football. My entire week is structured around what time
the Bears play on Sunday.
At the same time, I couldn’t be happier that comics might be
responsible for helping start my career.
G2M: Thanks guys for taking the time to
share this with me!
