Jason R. Miller, producer of Hatchet II and Frozen, spikes the goosebumps this January. In the tradition of Nightcrawler and Se7en, Blood Hound premieres on DVD and Digital January 7 from High Octane Pictures. He spoke with him about the project and here’s what he had say.
Beautiful looking film – what do you film it on?
Jason R. Miller: We shot on the Sony A7S. I knew I wanted to shoot in low light in order to get that real Los Angeles at night feeling so the camera and the lighting were very planned out by myself and my cinematographer Dustin Pearlman.
Was it important to you that the film have as much substance as it did style?
JM: Yes for sure. In my mind the main characters of this film are Abel, Jim, and Los Angeles. In that order. So character came first. I wanted to design this quirky guy that’s goofy but may or may not be a genius as well. It’s up to the audience to decide if he’s bullshitting his way through life or if he’s an adept detective and on the money with every word that comes out of his mouth. And through the stylized Los Angeles we are following that journey.
One can only imagine that some classic serial killer films might have played muse to the script?
JM: NIGHTCRAWLER was major influence, but also 8MM and DRIVE have their mark all over BLOODHOUND. I really was affected by the sleaziness of 8MM. It always stuck with me and I wanted to channel some of that here.
How has Adam Green – who you’ve worked with for years – helped? Did he inspire anything on the film?
JM: While I did enjoy my time working with ArieScope Pictures; I haven’t worked with Adam in 10 years. So no, He had nothing to do with BLOODHOUND.
Was it easy to get financing without the names?
JM: Of course not. It’s not easy to get financing WITH names. It takes a long time to get money for a production. It’s a lot of hard work and negotiating and you never get enough money to do the things you need to do. It’s the hardest part of filmmaking by far because if you don’t have the money up front then getting to the finish line in a timely manner is next to impossible.
It definitely adds something to the film that we have fresh faces here- do you agree?
JM: Yes I think a film like this would not get made if it had big names involved. It’s not meant to be a big Hollywood film. My intention with Blood Hound was to create a noir thriller with a cool stylized story. I also wouldn’t have been able to move as fast I could if I didn’t have a small cast and crew who were ALL IN. It takes balls to walk down the streets of Los Angeles and stay in character. Ed and Dave were always ready to take the extra step to get the shot. And speaking for BALLS, Silvia Moore had the biggest! When I met with her for the role I told her that the character of Maria only works if Silvia is all in. She has to be very vulnerable and very powerful so I knew I needed an actress who would GO THERE and Silvia completely went there and I think her performance is amazing in the film.
How hard is it to write scares into a script?
JM: I didn’t go into this script thinking about where to insert scares. I don’t think that’s how anyone should write. The scares are built in the blocking on set. With this film specifically I only had scares where it made sense. The story needs to come first. The scares are a bonus.
And was it hard balancing the humor with the harder stuff – how hard is that to tackle?
JM: Humor actually comes natural to me so I always have to do a pass on my scripts where I take out some humor or else all of stories would be parodies of themselves. And on set I’m always catching myself going for the extra take where it’s over the top just to get the cast and crew to laugh.
Blood Hound premieres on DVD and Digital January 7 from High Octane Pictures.