Pontypool changes everything, including director Bruce McDonald

Filed under: Interviews

Bruce McDonald's career may have now spanned decades, but the nearly fifty year old film director's youthful appearance, friendliness and enthusiasm don't suggest any tiredness of the frustrations associated with independent filmmaking.

It's been twenty years since his first theatrical feature, Roadkill (1989), flickered across cinema screens in Canada. Since that time, audiences worldwide have been treated to a slew of fascinating and original Canadian films, including Highway 61 (1991), Dance Me Outside (1995) the cult punk rocker hit Hard Core Logo (1996).

Pontypool, McDonald's newest film, features a number of firsts for the director. Obviously, it's the first horror/thriller film that he's ever attempted. Based on the novel Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess, the movie stars charismatic Stephen McHattie as Mazzy Grant. Grant is an irascible, down-on-his luck radio morning show host gritting his teeth through another show during a snowstorm in the rural town of Pontypool, Ontario.

As various calls and reports come over his broadcast, it becomes apparent that a zombie-like virus, spread by infected words in the English language, is causing pandemonium among the population. Trapped in a radio station with his producer (Lisa Houle) and technician (Georgina Reilly) and surrounded by an angry mob of the infected, the characters struggle to find a solution and literally avoid saying the wrong words.

McDonald says he considered undertaking the film adaptation after reading the original book. "I loved the premise. It was the strangest, hilarious, most disturbing and weird thing. It really got my curiosity, so I made a point to meet the author. We kind of hit it off and he ended up writing the screenplay." The movie's budget (slightly over 1 million dollars) was
raised independently, leaving the filmmaker only fifteen days of shooting to capture his vision.

One helpful plus was the casting of the three lead characters. McHattie, an experienced character actor who has been featured prominently in A History of Violence, 300 and Watchmen, gets the opportunity to shine as a lead. "He was the first guy I thought of," McDonald explains. "Stephen really loved the material from a very early stage and became a part of the team. So I involved him in the casting of everybody else." Any worries about the cast gelling over such a short shooting period were quickly quelled after filling the role of the radio show's producer, Sydney. "We cast Lisa Houle, who in real life, coincidentally, was his (Stephen's) wife. There was some talk with the producers, who didn't want us to mention the fact that they're married. I'd worked with Lisa before. I though that it might even bring something interesting to the picture."

The project featured a number of other firsts for the experienced director. Most notably, it was the first Canadian film to be shot using the "Red One" HD Camera, which many within the industry feel will eventually replace the traditional 35mm film camera most productions still employ. And, unlike the majority of his previous sprawling works, this tale is set within the claustrophobic confines of one location.

"I'm used to having a pretty sprawling canvas. I've made two or three road movies. The nice thing about it is that you're always going somewhere. You're always being refreshed by the new location, or the new characters. Whereas, when you're in one location with the same people for the whole movie, it changes the playing field. I was a bit nervous because I'd never really done something like that before." Not that there hasn't been a tradition of films made in this cramped style, most notably the 1969 zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. "I knew many pictures that had been made that way, like Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden, or the Hitchcock films Lifeboat and Rope," McDonald confirms.

He heaps praise on his director of photography, Miroslaw Baszak, for helping him undertake that specific challenge. The film was ultimately separated into chapters, each with a specific look, to avoid the possible tedium of repetitious shots and angles normally associated with lesser efforts. The end result is visually arresting. A scene is filmed only in profile, another using only a wide angle lens and yet a further bit features the camera in constant motion. "When you're in one place, the details become very important and you start to pay attention to the tiniest things. We just made small and simple decisions. Suddenly, we realized that you can play with the framing, you can play with the lighting; very simple things that end up being quite powerful."

Filming in a single location also had its benefits, McDonald explained. The film was shot chronologically from beginning to end, a technique almost never employed on a production. "The location allowed us to do that and it was kind of a dream. You build on your consequences and you build on your accidents. It's a very pleasurable way to do it. I think in an invisible sort of way, it adds indefinable little things to the performance." The HD camera technology used was also helpful to both McDonald and his cast. "We wanted to have an actor friendly film. If they wanted to do twenty takes, we let them. We didn't have to worry about running out of film stock."

This is quite a change from McDonald's earliest days of independent filmmaking, one which the director embraces. "Everything was more physical. You had motion picture film, you had laboratories and giant editing machines that were only available from special companies. With digital technology, we can edit the film on a laptop on the kitchen table. The technology is amazing."

It's a wonder that in two short decades, a low-budget, independent film that once would have looked grainy and choppy could today appear so slick and polished. Not that McDonald has been comparing his latest effort with his older films. "I don't really watch them," he explains. "I just can't bear it. In a way, a film is never finished, it's just taken away. All I see is what could still be fixed, so it drives me nuts. But when I look at how handsome this film (Pontypool) is, it really takes the teamwork of a good director, a good writer, a good producer, good performers, a good production designer and costume designer. All those things add up to that beautiful image."

And as for advice to any young maverick independent moviemakers, McDonald always has suggestions. "It's a pretty amazing time to be making independent cinema, or any cinema. To buy the software necessary to make a feature film – you could probably do it for a couple grand, on the low end. It's become very within reach. But just because you make a film doesn't mean it's a good film, so I've always been a big story guy. I like to read. I like to work with writers and spend as much time as possible to make the script great. And because there are more films being made than ever, to stand out or to become noticed I think you're going to see more and more really fresh, original visions." If Bruce McDonald has his way, he will continue to produce more of his personal and occasionally grotesque visions in the foreseeable future.

For more information on Pontypool, visit www.pontypoolmovie.com.

Tags: Pontypool, Bruce McDonald, Stephen McHattie

Comments Posted ()

SBM on Social Media

ShowbizMonkeys.com on Facebook ShowbizMonkeys.com on Twitter ShowbizMonkeys.com on Instagram ShowbizMonkeys.com on YouTube