Se7en Questions with Filmmaker
Mars Roberge
Who are some of the artists or some of the works
that inspired you to get started in your field? Of today’s current artists, who do you draw inspiration from?
Martin Scorsese and his movie After Hours was everything to me. It made me really get into examining eccentric people that I would run into so that I would have characters for future films. It also gave me such an appreciation to the mystery of a large city, that I have never left one since, wanting to know every nook and cranny that the average person doesn’t see during the day.
When I was a kid, The Breakfast Club also played a big role on me. It showed me you don’t need a budget or a ton of locations to make a great film. It showed me that character development is more important than plot. People can be more interesting to me than a spaceship getting chased between planets. People can change life, fix problems and answer questions in one sentence than it could take a plot-driven movie 13 episodes to point out.
So then, people might ask if I think that way why don’t I just write plays? Answer: I find plays to be pretentious. Many are done in a language that the common person cannot relate to, with only a few exceptions, such as John Osbourne’s Look Back In Anger.
I’m also fascinated with the film medium. Seeing an extreme close-up on someone’s skin can sometimes be as interesting as filming a national park. It all depends on how we see things.
Other than the reference I mentioned, when I started film school, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Harmony Korine were just starting to hit. They all played a role for me. Spike Lee showed me how to develop visual style, Tarantino made it cool to put Woody Allen-esque dialogue in an action film, and Harmony Korine showed me to never sway too far from my love of experimental films, that there are ways to include it in a narrative.
Also, being from Canada, the only filmmakers I relate there to are David Cronenberg, Bruce McDonald and Bruce LaBruce who basically said “F the Canadian film industry, do your own thing.” There are a couple of others I am forgetting but too many people up North succumb to making films that they think the boring grant people will accept, which to me is no way to make a movie. I’ve personally given up on Canadian grants. I do everything out of pocket now.
Looking around today, I appreciate guys who think outside of the box. I’m a big fan of Matthew Barney—you’ll catch me at a Matthew Barney exhibit long before you’ll see me at a Michael Bay film. I’ve been getting back to my experimental roots by watching people like Paul McCarthy or even the streets by continuing to watch films by Nick Zedd (who was also in my film, Scumbag).
I just spent the last four months watching every horror film anyone ever told me was great and was sadly disappointed. They are all missing something and I can understand why that genre isn’t taken too seriously, usually rated as B Movies. I plan to change that with my next film. Let’s just say I got a horror bug when I was watching shark movies from a pool in Sweden while attending Lund International Fantastic Film Festival last year.
What have thus far been some of the negatives of being an indie artist in your field?
Sitting back and watching some of the richest people in the world directly rip you off and not being able to do much about it. I guess that’s what karma (and voodoo dolls!) are for. Otherwise, not being able to pay people properly can cause a lot of tension. I also take on a million roles at once (Executive Producer, First AD, Location Scout, Casting, Editor, Assistant Editor, Sound Designer, Director, Writer, assistant wardrobe stylist, craft services, etc.). Sometimes it’s the only way to get things done but I hate myself after because I’m completely worn out.
I’m also at the point now that I might feel weird if I had more people help me as I’m a control freak. My crews are very small. As far as being an indie artist, imagine being a broke band member and times that by five. Making a movie is like making ten record albums by yourself using your own bank account.
Aside for her great talent, if my fiancé Debra Haden didn’t work with me, we might never see each other when I’m making a movie and I wouldn’t be able to physically explain all the crap I’m going through at any given time. It’s great she’s been there with me for the whole ride.
What have thus far been the positives of being an indie artist in your field?
I don’t have to listen to NO ONE! NO ONE! It’s a wonderful feeling. Every time I meet anyone in Hollywood, they always want contacts to meet this person, pitch to that person, stand in front of an audience and read their scripts for approval, take classes to make it, etc. They hate me when I say “if I want to make a movie, I make it, don’t wait around and never have to answer to anyone.” It’s that simple. THAT is the secret everyone comes to the West Coast for but you couldn’t drill it in their heads if you wanted to because everyone is trying so hard to follow some sort of model or, quite simply, they really want to be someone else who is famous, not happy with who they are. I only know how to be me and I’m going to make a film that is very me. So you can hate it or love it, I don’t care (honestly I don’t) but you cannot say it isn’t me. It’s like in life, I can get along with certain people but not everyone. That’s how my films go and I’ll be making them if I’m rich or poor, famous or unknown—what else is a 45-year old without kids supposed to do?!
What have been your favorite completed projects to work on up to this point? Can you tell us a little bit about them?
Definitely my two feature films: The Little House That Could and Scumbag. Yes, I’ve done a bunch of shorts back in the day but they were really projects for someone’s film festival that asked me to be involved or stuff I did in school. Music videos were fun too, but I get bored of music videos after a month.
So going back to my features, The Little House That Could is essentially a glorified home movie (shot in SD) that I made with the help of one guy, Bob Lesser, that we shot in NYC for 6 years. The movie took me from 2006-2012 to complete. I literally got to the secret world that makes NYC tick that NOBODY has ever covered before. That movie is now the Encyclopedia for cool in NYC and people are referencing it—everything since the 60’s and up, dealing with art, fashion and music. It’s also very touching for me because a lot of people in that movie are no longer with us but I was the last one to get their message on film. I had to live that movie and can proudly say I’m the only straight male member of The House of Field to ever exist—I was accepted.
Scumbag is my latest and greatest film so far (to me). 220 cast members with roles in the movie, shot in NYC and LA over a year, about a dark time I once lived in Toronto during the 90’s. Yes I got sick of the world of film and left to be a Goth dj but needed a day-job so I got into the world of telemarketing, in doing so, lost my mind (literally). Making this film was self-therapy for me of a lot of stuff that haunted me for decades. Now it is a comedy and somehow I managed to get all my old punk idols to be in the film, too (that I would have listened to when I lived the movie).
What projects are you currently working on or have planned for the near future?
After recently getting ripped off by a certain Hollywood blockbuster, I am taking a 1% Hells Angels approach to pre-production: I don’t say anything to the outside. All I can is I plan to shoot two feature films back-to-back in NYC. I’m doing this for two reasons: I’m a really great First AD who could have made another film if I had an extra week to shoot if my script is stripped down AND because I have built an LGBT and a PUNK audience whom I value. I don’t want to turn my back on any of my fans, so I plan to do two films that play to my audience. I’m loyal to my audience and appreciate everyone who gets me.
Where do you see yourself in a few years and what would it take for you to consider your career a success?
I’m a realist, so in a few years I’ll probably have a couple more successful films under my belt but still keeping my day job. Decades from now, I’ll probably be living in Paris because I might get sick of the craziness to come. Lol. I’ll still be making films though. Hmmm, as for career success, I guess I’ll consider it a good time when I can just make my films for a living and have a house (or castle!).
If you couldn’t do this anymore, what career path do you think you would have followed and why?
It’s funny you ask that because I started as a filmmaker coming out of school, then detoured to be a DJ and Musician for 25 years almost never coming back (in life). My making films now is me coming back to what I have my degree in and what I consider myself best at. There’s no turning back at this point. It would be called quitting life. I feel I’m too old to turn back now and start a new career. I’ve looked and everything is boring out there. Lol.
