GLOBAL VIEW PRODUCTIONS
Double Feature Premiere!
GLOBAL VIEW PRODUCTIONS is excited to announce that on Saturday May 17th, 2014, it will be premiering it’s latest films, “HELPLESS” and “REVENGE: A Love Story” BACK TO BACK!!!
This double feature will be shown at the VARSITY Theater across from Drake University in Des Moines (corner of University and 25th St). Together, these films are about two hours long and will be followed be a brief Q&A with the cast and crew.
Tickets go on sale Friday May 2nd online at the link below or at the Varsity theater box office. All tickets purchased before May 15th will be just $12. Tickets will be $15 on the day of the show. The show starts at 9:30 pm but come early for best seating. This event will sell out so get tickets early!
In The News
Interview with Thor Moreno by Mike Haberfelner
Your sources of inspiration when writing Helpless? The goal was to try to make a horror film with no real gore. Honestly, I wanted to see if I could scare people like Hitchcock used to.
You of course have to talk about the "haunted house" of your movie for a bit, how did you find it, and what were the advantages and challenges of filming there? Shawn Mcaninch was not only in the film as the deputy but he is really know for his reputation as a great location scout. He worked with some realtors in the midwest and found this old pig farm. It was a place where no one ever wanted to be alone. Weird things were happening all the time. It had a very eerie feel.
Of all the characters in the haunted house-sequence - the suicidal catatonic, the Sheriff, the deputy, the psychic, the writer, the cameraman - who do you identify with the most/the least, and why? What I think about is fun about all of these characters is that each one of them has a strange reason for being there. They all are motivated in unique ways and only after the shit hits the fan do we really start to understand how bad this really is. I can probably identify with everyone here for one reason or another.
Do talk about your key cast for a bit, and why exactly these people? This is a true ensemble cast. Ben Rollins is a seasoned actor. Annette Duffy is so good she makes actors around her better. Zack Williams never got out of character. He is amazing. Shawn Mcaninch is a guy that will do anything you ask without question. He is a very versatile actor. And Catherine Arabella is stellar. She is such a joy to work with. She is prepared and very focused. Lonnie Appleby and Becky Scholtec are amazing in this. And Jim Lukenbill is scary as hell.
The $64-question of course, when and where will Helpless be released onto the general public? It will be released in May 2014 as part of a Grindhouse style double feature. It's co-feature is the film I just finished called Revenge - A Love Story.
With your character being a psychic - to what extent could you relate you to that aspect of Wendy, and what did you draw upon to bring your character to life? I didn’t have anything personally to pull from for the psychic part of the character but her true concern for finding that lost child was something that I think every person can relate to. I did watch parts of Poltergeist to see Zelda Rubinstein’s approach to portraying a psychic.
How did you get hooked up with the project in the first place, and how did you end up on the production side of things as well? I have worked with Thor Moreno (writer/director of Helpless) [Thor Moreno interview - click here] on two other projects: Iowa, A Thor Moreno Film and ColorBurn, so he knew what I could do for the character he had in mind. As for the production side, I just retired as a project manager from a computer service and have been a theater stage manager multiple times, so the role of producer for an independent film fit pretty well. I also volunteered for the craft services role because I enjoy cooking. It was pretty cold filming in Iowa in December; so we wanted the actors to enjoy a hot meal on set.
What can you tell us about your director Thor Moreno [Thor Moreno interview - click here], and what was your collaboration like? And how did you two first hook up? I have worked with many directors and all of them have their unique talents, but Thor is by far the most patient and calm director of the group. He has an amazing ability to visualize the details of the shoot before even arriving at the set, which makes him very prepared. A prepared director makes for fewer shots and when it is cold outside, that’s wonderful. I have watched Thor work with actors to get the results he is after in such a positive way that the actor is never intimidated. Because of his calm demeanor and the fact that he is a dad himself, he also works very well with child actors. He can pull the best performance from an actor with both still smiling at the end. That’s also why actors love to work with Thor.
How did I first meet Thor? Someone saw me on stage and gave him my name, but they didn’t have my contact information, so he sent me a Facebook message. Pretty crazy start.
Do talk about the shoot as such for a bit, and the on-set atmosphere! The set of Helpless was an abandoned farm house and the farm’s out buildings (machine shed, pig stalls). So immediately it was spooky. It just seemed haunted. As soon as we were ready to begin shooting one sunny day, clouds started to roll in and it was very eerie. Everyone noticed the coincidence of the timing of the storm. It was not hard to get into character there. As for the actors, when it is cold – it is all business until back into a warm area. But once in the warm area, we were trying to see who could freak out whom with a scary story! It was a lot of fun.
Interview with Annette Duffy by Mike Haberfelner
Mike Haberfelner - April 2014
Your new movie Helpless - in a few words, what is it about? The film starts out with a small family traveling at night. There is car trouble and eventually while they are broke down, they are attacked by something. This is the first episode. From then on, the film turns into this creepy horror as the locals try to figure out what happened.
You have released the first segment of Helpless as a standalone short only a few months ago - was it always supposed to be part of the feature, and if yes, was the feature script already in place when you made your short? It was intended to be a feature. That being said, the final script was still being tweaked until the shooting started. I had collaborated with James Lukenbill and Adam Meirick quite a bit and we all had some very interesting concepts. Ultimately, I wanted to do the big twist at the end.
Mike Haberfelner - March 2014
Your new movie Helpless - in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your character in it? Helpless is a thriller centered around the hunt for a missing baby girl who was taken from a stranded couple after their car gets a flat tire. Who took the baby and killed the parents is unknown. My character, Wendy, is a psychic who inserts herself into the investigation. An investigation which takes a truly unforeseen turn toward the dark side.