Josephina Sykes already had already been involved in quite a few movies prior to the production of the independent sci-fi horror film Plaguers (2008) but as the legendary producer admits in this exclusive interview, Plaguers – which has just been re-released in a 10th anniversary edition – changed everything.
What a career you’ve had Josephina. How long have you been in this crazy game for now?
Josephina Sykes: About 20 years, although I had some professional gigs even when I was in film school, so I’m still very young, right?
And when did you and Brad start making movies together?
JS: We worked together on a few scripts and produced a movie together right after my move to LA in 2001. But our first official movie produced through Nightfall Pictures, our production company, happened in 2005. That was “Within the Woods”, the 3rd part of Brad’s “Camp Blood” series, a movie that will always have a special place in my heart for this reason.
Plaguers. Now who gets the credit for that idea?
JS: It was Brad’s idea, he came up with the title, the concept of plaguers (kinda like zombies) in space. He poured his love and references for many cool B-movies he grew up with into that script. I loved the concept from the beginning, I thought it was very original and had many cool female characters, including the lead, so I was on board fast.
And how far into your respective careers were you and Brad when you made the movie?
JS: By 2006 when we shot “Plaguers”, I’d produced 4 movies and worked on several as screenwriter, production manager, assistant director. All these after my move to LA in 2001 (I made shorts in Romania and worked in production before coming to US). I only worked on independent movies, a great film school for me, after film school. They gave me the chance to learn fast while working and move up the ladder quicker. As a foreigner and a woman, I felt at home working on indie features and later on producing them.
JS: Brad has written and directed over 15 features before making “Plaguers”, some cult movies like “Camp Blood” series, “Death Factory”, “Goth”, “Demon’s Kiss” among many. He started making movies in his early ’20-s after many shorts and video features he started to do with friends since high-school. So, we were prepared for the challenge of making “Plaguers”, our experience in making low-budget indie horror convinced our investors who visited some of sets of our previous movies.
Is it a highlight for you?
JS: Absolutely. Highest budget we had to work with and a wonderful shooting experience. Besides that, the movie played many festivals, won some awards and was released all over the world, including in my home country of Romania. On top, nothing beats watching the movie with an audience in various places – from a coastal town in Spain at a swanky festival to a multiplex in US and witness people’s reactions. It’s the best feeling. And now, it’s coming out again in a cool package for our 10th anniversary edition from Wild Eye Releasing infecting the stores all over US.
Can you talk about some of the difficulties you had in getting it done at the time?
JS: It’s always difficult to raise the budget, we were planning on getting a bit more money to shoot it on 35mm and have a longer shooting schedule. But once we gathered the money (less that I initially budgeted for) we wanted to move forward and make the movie. Waiting isn’t a good plan for us. So I had to figure out how to make the movie without cutting anything that it was in the script which was very ambitious for the budget. The solution was to shoot in HD and cut some days off the schedule. But isn’t that always the case? Luckily there were good HD cameras at the time, in our rental price range and we got the look we wanted.
Also, I remember, after we got the money to make the movie, the stages we had to shoot at (because they had standing sets that Brad wrote the script around) weren’t available till the end of the year. And this was spring 2016. We had to make the movie that year so after many phone calls with the office manager I was able to book it for October. I was competing with various major TV channels that were placing holds on those stages and I was paying the indie rate.
Once I booked the stages, we started the pre-production. With every indie movie, the lack of finances can be compensated by a very serious preparation, I strongly believe in that. Especially with a movie like “Plaguers” where you create a world from scratch : costumes, special props, miniatures, extra set construction, special FX, pre-production is so important.
And what about during production, being a genre movie was there anything a little hard to pull off?
JS: Production went pretty smooth. No big drama, as you might expect. But we did have to interview at least 8 people for the production designer position, we needed somebody talented who could build a few extra sets that matched the ones at the stages. When we met Scott Enge, we knew right then and there that he was the perfect person for the job. Scott and his crew didn’t have a lot of construction time before the shoot started so some sets were build while we were shooting and they had to stop while we were rolling.
I was concerned about the safety of the actors because they had to do their own stunts, and sometimes wearing make-up and contacts that were hard to see through. But no one got injured. We also had a stunt coordinator, Randy, recommended by Steve Railsback who helped the actresses train and rehearse for various scenes. Especially the long fight scene between Hollaway (the captain) and Kyra (the chief pirate) took a long time to rehearse. Randy, Brad and the actresses went to a gym with a boxing ring to figure out the choreography. Then, they did more rehearsals on the actual sets a few days before we started shooting. So, everything went smoothly, except maybe a punch or two that did hurt, they were real and we left them in the actual movie, so look for them.
A major challenge was not only creating the plaguers FX make-up, but also keeping track of the stages the plaguers were going through. Each plaguer was going through at least 2-3 stages of make-up (poor Nola had the most stages, actress Stephanie Skewes who played her was a trouper). so we had to keep track of that for continuity, we had charts in the make-up room and a few people were in charge of keeping track of that, myself included. Not an easy task, because we were shooting fast and not in sequence. We did realize that Mason was in the wrong stage during a certain shot so we re-shot that, but that’s about it. Overall, the shoot was smooth and not very eventful, just a lot of hard work.
Looking back on it now, would you change anything about it?
JS: I always look back at every movie I did to see what I could have done better. I think it’s normal, if you think that everything you do is perfect, that you never made mistakes, then there’s no room for improvement, for growing and learning for you. You always learn when making movies, continuously.
Of course, I wish I had more money, more shooting days, but that’s always the case. I wish we would have had more time and money for casting, search more and get more experienced actors for certain parts. I also wish we had Adam Lima from the beginning as our Special FX Supervisor, it would have made our lives easier and the whole process smoother. The initial guy was impossible to work with and had to be replaced.
But, for the money we had and certain circumstances to work with, I know we did the best we could and created the movie we envisioned. Brad and I were always happy with the photography, Scott Spears and his gaffer Stan Eng (and their team) did a great job lighting the same sets all over again and make them look like other parts of the ship. They read our minds and got our references.
Brad Jacques, the editor was very patient with our long post-production process, he’s a longtime collaborator. So is the composer, Terry Huud, who always gets Brad’s vision and creates wonderful themes. When you can work with the same people is great because you know them well, and they know your taste so because of that you have less drama and looking back, less regrets because some things went really well.
What kind of things do you talk about in the audio commentary?
JS: Usually things that are unique to making that particular movie, stories that are funny, also challenges and difficulties we had so others can learn from the filmmaking process. We go over everything, how the movie came about, storywise, how we got it off the ground, to casting, pre-production, the actual shoot, post-production. Every movie is different and has its own life.
Brad and I do the commentaries together, so it’s more fun, one might remember certain things more and it’s more conversational. It’s great to get other people involved if it’s possible. On our most recent movie, “Hi-Death”, a horror anthology, we were able to put a commentary track together with all 5 directors involved, all located in various states in US. It was a bit hard to coordinate, but not impossible and our Supervising Editor Chris Lorusso blended it together technically. As a general rule, we’re always honest when we do commentaries and also try to share funny stories that we remember from that particular shoot since making movies is an adventure.
Were you essentially able to discuss whatever you wanted on the track?
JS: Sometimes, you might forget something, it can happen. Or it might not be enough time, believe it or not. This time around, with “Plaguers” we have 2 commentary tracks, one when we are joined by Steve Railsback, so everyone gets to hear some insights about the actor’s method and laboratory, Steve’s creative process. Steve is fun in general, so our commentary with him it’s not pretentious, it’s loose and casual.
Also, we did a second commentary, revisiting “Plaguers” alongside editor Brad Jacques, so you get insights about the complicated post-production process we had, since we had to create a world from scratch, with sound effects, visual effects and so on.
Even doing 2 commentaries, on a movie like “Plaguers” where you have so many stories from, you might still forget a couple of things to share. But there’s always another chance, an interview like this one to impart a special story, right?
Plaguers 2 coming anytime soon?
JS: There’s always a chance for “Plaguers 2” in the near future, Brad has a few cool concepts. Maybe next time the action will take place on Earth since the infection is headed that way?