{"id":123106359,"date":"2023-05-24T12:30:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T12:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=123106359"},"modified":"2023-05-24T12:30:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T12:30:20","slug":"an-interview-with-abe-epperson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=123106359","title":{"rendered":"An Interview With Abe Epperson"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I fell at the party. \/ I’m still at the party.” – Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer, ‘Nice Hat. Thanks.’ <\/h2>

Listening to Abe Epperson talk about movies reminds me of the way I talk about music. I don\u2019t do a ton of music criticism, because so much of what I enjoy about music and what I talk about when I talk about music is based on nerdy, musician-type stuff, like weird chord progressions and surprising key changes and other stuff that most makes sense if you\u2019ve played music before. So I get shy, thinking no one will understand what I\u2019m saying, and rely on simple \u201cthe band rips\u201d or \u201cthe guitar here is sick.\u201d<\/p>

Abe Epperson, though\u2014one-half of the Small Beans<\/a> podcast network\/YouTube channel, former director at Cracked<\/a> Studios<\/a>, director of Those Aren\u2019t Muskets<\/a> if you wanna reach way back into the annals of internet sketch comedy\u2014Abe Epperson has the courage of his convictions when he talks about film. Listen to an episode of Directorpiece Theatre<\/a><\/em>, a Small Beans show he co-hosts with fellow director Adam Ganser, and you feel like you\u2019re getting downloadable upgrades to your film-watching brain. Personally, I still have a shaky grasp of what sight lines mean for the language of a shot, but I think<\/em> about sight lines more, thanks to Abe.<\/p>

Now, Abe and his homie\/writing partner\/fellow Small Beans founder Michael Swaim\u2014notable for his role of \u201cMichael Swaim\u201d in After Hours<\/a><\/em>, the best sketch show in the history of the internet\u2014are making a new film, Papa Bear<\/a><\/em>. The film is a heartwarming coming-of-age sex comedy about Trey, a high school senior whose father, Hank, comes out as a gay furry. I urge you to go check out their Seed & Spark<\/a> for a more in-depth description. The film sounds amazing and full of heart. Also laughs. Have I mentioned Abe and Swaim are hilarious? They made Cracked Studios. With a lot of other people, but still. Papa Bear<\/em> is about 44% funded as of this writing. Go ahead and buy a $15 ticket ahead of time and fund some art being made outside of capitalism\u2019s normal currents. <\/p>

Note: this interview was conducted over e-mail <\/em><\/p>

Chris Corlew: What is the most exciting aspect of making this film independently?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Abe Epperson: <\/strong>Absolutely the most exciting part of making a film yourself is that you fill the role of the studio. You are in control. And in my soul, I\u2019m a power-hungry monster. While it means you need to secure funding and work harder, there\u2019s something exhilarating about living in the bed you make. Being able to wake up every day and say \u201cokay, that reality is no longer on the table, let\u2019s create a new reality\u201d and really have no oversight other than the budget and the braintrust of the people who have built the story from scratch. It\u2019s terrifying and it\u2019s freeing and I love it. The way Hollywood films are headed, at this point I feel like I could find a home in independent cinema forever.<\/p>

\"Abe<\/figure>

CC: You\u2019re a musician and an appreciator of a good film and\/or T. Bone Burnett-curated soundtrack<\/a>. What\u2019s the most out-of-budget song\u2014we\u2019re talking \u201crights to <\/strong>Abbey Road<\/strong><\/em>\u201d here\u2014music do you wish you could get, and for what kind of movie?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

AE: I\u2019ve always thought it\u2019d be great to have a horrifying murder sequence set to \u201cGod Only Knows\u201d by the Beach Boys. Think American Psycho<\/em>: blood spraying everywhere, limbs lobbed off, the face of the killer splattered with blood as they smile in slow motion. It\u2019s such a pretty song, but it\u2019s also sad, as Brian Wilson is singing about the fear of losing his love. I think it\u2019d be fun to portray a serial killer needing his prey. It\u2019d probably be a memorable sequence at the least.\u00a0<\/p>

But we actually have a \u201creach\u201d track in Papa Bear.<\/em> We scripted a bit where \u201cFather of Mine\u201d by Everclear<\/a> keeps kind of haunting Trey. It keeps coming on the radio until he basically shouts \u201cwhy?!\u201d which we find hilarious. It\u2019d be great to have enough of a budget to secure that bit. Which you can help with by pledging at our Seed and Spark link this month<\/a> while we crowdfund the movie! Sorry, I can\u2019t help myself.<\/p>

\"Behind<\/figure>

CC: Has there ever been a scene\/score pairing you or Michael introduced that was a surprise to the other? Made you view a scene a different way?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

AE: You know that\u2019s the thing about Michael. We know each other so well our experiences working with each other have always felt effortless. We may disagree here and there about small things, but never the big things. And Michael is so deliberate and clear about what he\u2019s after that it\u2019s always been easy for me to see the point of a sequence and play with the possibilities. Is it a sad thing to say we don\u2019t often surprise each other? We\u2019re cinematic brothers at this point and it\u2019s always been a war between \u201cthe right choice\u201d and \u201cnot quite it yet.\u201d I guess the one I came up with after thinking about it was a featured sequence in a previous draft of Papa Bear<\/em> that featured \u201cNasty Habits\u201d by Oingo Boingo<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t really a surprise, it\u2019s a perfect song to play over a montage of the character Ahmed, a teen with a porn addiction, jerking off through the years. Basically, we show him find out that he can masturbate and then show how he fell into a situation where he can\u2019t really be sexually present with girls because he\u2019s in love with jerking off so much. It\u2019s such a wacky song and speaks to Michael\u2019s eclectic tastes in music I immediately was on board. Though, in a more recent draft, we re-wrote the sequence to be shorter and now it\u2019s \u201cThus Spoke Zarathustra\u201d<\/a> which is frankly a lot more efficient in showing Ahmed\u2019s profound love of pornography. Also, we plan to literally quote 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a><\/em>, but instead of the first men realizing the power of tools, it\u2019s Ahmed realizing he can touch his own dick. It needs to be said however, we\u2019re not showing dicks in this movie. It\u2019s played on his face. We\u2019re not monsters, just weirdos.<\/p>

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