Se7en Questions with Shane Ryan

Ninja films and my dad started it all. My dad’s an editor and began showing me how to edit at the age of five. At the same time I was really falling in love with ninja and samurai films and found my first action hero in Shô Kosugi. That later introduced me to Jean-Claude Van Damme when they teamed up for the film Black Eagle. But it wasn’t until I saw Bloodsport that I instantly knew I wanted to be an actor.

I spent the next dozen years making my own films simply so that I could be in front of the camera, and in my early teens became thrilled by Oliver Stone‘s films igniting my desire to become a screenwriter, and then just before I turned 20 I saw Tim Roth‘s The War Zone which made me want to stay behind the camera as a director.

I just had no idea a film could make you become so emotional, so full of hate, anger, despair, and so motivated to want to make a difference. Ideally though, I want Clint Eastwood‘s career (I’d call him my idol, and Van Damme my hero); sometimes just act, sometimes just direct, and sometimes do both simultaneously, though I’m pretty exhausted from doing both at the moment, especially since as an underground filmmaker I don’t just direct but wear about twenty other hats in the filmmaking process. I’d like to perfect acting and directing individually a bit more before continuing to do both roles in a film.

I try not to be inspired by just certain artists. I want, and feel I have, my own voice. I’ve been honored to have had my work compared to everyone from Eli Roth to John Cassavetes, from Harmony Korine to George Romero, so I think it’s safe to say there’s no clear place to put my work, which as an artist is a good thing because that makes your work unique. Not to say I’m not inspired by others’ work, I most certainly am, but I could see a scene in a Stallone movie, and then a scene in a Chaplin movie, and be inspired by both in different, or possibly even in the same ways.

What keeps me motivated is hearing about major Hollywood filmmakers who work in the same way that I do, most in particular would be Terrence Malick. He just makes his movies with millions of dollars, big stars and crews, but otherwise, our methods are pretty identical. Tony Scott‘s frantic and stylized editing style was another, as is Nicolas Roeg‘s fractured stories, though they’ve now both passed, so I suppose they’re not quite current anymore.

What have thus far been some of the negatives of being an indie artist in your field?

Lots of stuff: Never getting paid, never having money, never having budgets. People flaking 99% of the time because you have no money, and now you’ve wasted the only nickles and dimes that you have due to said flakes. My work getting censored without my consent. My work getting banned, booted, blacklisted. Losing friends who disagree with my work. Pissing off family. Having to constantly bum off family. Living a life of solitude, emptiness, loneliness, just to get my work done. Taking advantage of bad situations to further your work. Or not taking advantage only to watch others do so and achieve success. Having to deal with some really awful people and personalities. Sometimes being an awful person. Waking up everyday wishing you had chosen a stable career and a normal life.

What have thus far been the positives of being an indie artist in your field?

Getting to walk into a major store and see your zero budget movie on the shelf next to Van Damme‘s new movie (back when we had stores). Hearing that a major rap group saw and dug your work (that would be Wu-Tang). Getting flown to Europe to present my films. Getting written about in books constantly. Getting to kill or be killed by all of my icons’ children on camera (I kill Oliver Stone‘s son in one film, while instantly being killed by Van Damme‘s daughter and then in another film I am killed by Clint Eastwood‘s daughter). Also getting to make out on screen with my idol’s daughter (Clint‘s daughter). Hearing that my 50 dollar movie was better than a lot of 50 million dollar movies. Getting to meet and collaborate with some really awesome people, including actors I grew up watching and admiring (Kevin Gage would be one of them).

What have been your favorite completed projects to work on up to this point? Can you tell us a little bit about them?

Probably My Name is ‘A’ by Anonymous (a feature), and Guerrilla (a short). ‘A’ took just four days to shoot, but it was the smoothest shoot I’ve ever had (I’ve had day shoots that felt like an eternity of hell). Everything just fell into place, it was easy days and was extremely collaborative without ever feeling compromised (aside from budget restraints, but even working on just a 300 dollar budget I didn’t feel too restrained financially).

Guerrilla was a short but took months of shooting a day here, a day there, and also took the longest time to edit. Also, Guerrilla cost more than three times as much as ‘A’ and was 77 minutes shorter. But the actual filming was super fun as were all of the actors, and because it took place in the 80s and I would have been about the age of the lead character. It just really brought back a good time in my life; a time of hope, wonder and dreams and made me feel like a kid again, making movies and just living the good film life.

What projects are you currently working on or have planned for the near future?

I’m working on way too many right now, actually. I can’t even keep track. The Ted Bundy Had a Son trilogy, The Owl in Echo Park (which I’ve been editing forever), some partial documentary films I’ve been shooting for years (God Got Ill and This Girl, This Boy), an experimental artsy horror film called Red Oedipal, and more.

Where do you see yourself in a few years and what would it take for you to consider your career a success?

I think actually having budgets for my films while maintaining enough artistic control to feel like I can call them my own and not being some director-for-hire, while at the same time making enough to eat and support myself, that would be a major success. I can only hope I am finally there in a few years. I remember when I turned 23 saying, “I’ve been doing this film shit nearly 20 years, it better finally start paying off this year or I’m done.” Well, that was nearly 16 years ago. I’m not a penny richer, but I’m still here, doing the same ‘ol shit, not giving up, apparently.

If you couldn’t do this anymore, what career path do you think you would have followed and why?

This is all I know, so who knows. That’s like asking a Vampire who got turned when he was three years old, and now after multiple lifetimes of sucking blood, he’s suddenly cured. What would he do now? Probably die. He knows nothing else.