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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Road to Sundance 2013: Black Metal (short), directed by Kat Candler

Kat Candler



Black Metal Production Still


Black Metal Production Still


Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

Black Metal  - Narrative Shorts Competition
After a career spent mining his music from the shadows, one fan creates a chain reaction for the lead singer of a black metal band.

I’m fascinated by how an artist is blamed for a tragedy and how they deal with public blame.

What do you love about your film?

I love that it’s radically different from any other film I’ve made. I love that it was a huge challenge in researching and developing a world that was outside of myself. I loved shooting a black metal concert.

How long did it take you to make your film?

I’d been writing a feature about a heavy metal band for about a year. I wanted to shoot something last summer so decided to create a short out of the first act of the feature script. I wrote many drafts of that little 13-page short. Then in July of 2012 we shot for five days. Post-production lasted up until about mid-December.

How did you finance your film?

We financed through crowd funding, private equity and grants.

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

I think the most challenging part (which was also the most fun part) was the research in trying to get the world right-- especially one that’s pretty foreign to me. It’s a lot of time having coffee with folks in the metal community, interviewing them, watching concert footage, reading interviews, books, going to rock shows … trying to immerse yourself in a world so you can be as authentic and respectful on screen as possible.

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. 

We played our short film, Hellion, at Sundance in 2012. We weren’t expecting to get in at all so it was a complete and utter surprise and really out of the blue when we got the call. This year, we knew when the calls came and so for about a week or two leading up I was physically ill with anticipation. No lie. My husband almost made me go to the doctor he was so worried. It’s crazy the pressure we put on ourselves.

I had just gotten off a plane to head to my folks house when I got the call. I screamed. I cried. My dad was sitting next to me and I could tell how proud he was. That’s gold.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

Nope. I had an amazing crew and a fantastic cast. I wouldn’t have gained all the little lessons and mistakes and knowledge I learned without going through the process the way we did. With warts, flaws and all, it was magical.

What’s next for your film?

We’ll do the festival circuit and I’ll go back to the feature script with fresh eyes. I hope to make that after we make the feature version of Hellion this year.

Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

We don’t have distribution at this point. But it’ll be available during the ten days of Sundance through Sundance’s Screening Room on Youtube.

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?

Tell unique stories and create characters we’ve never seen on screen before. 



Black Metal Trailer (2013 Sundance Official Selection) from Jonny Mars on Vimeo.


WATCH BLACK METAL here: 

 

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