Burtonite Filmmaker Interviews, part II: Michael Smith (The Martian Ambassador)

An Interview with Michael Smith
Edited by Kevin Schreck
October 7th, 2007

Michael Smith (a.k.a, The Martian Ambassador, on the Tim Burton Collective) has worked on a variety of films. El Chupacabra, his film from last year, was a Golden Borton Award winner, and he is near completing another new film, entitled Two Left. In this interview, the filmmaker talks about themes he sees in his numerous and very different films, his earliest projects, and how to use an idea in a very low-budget, independent movie…

Kevin Schreck: What made you want to get into filmmaking?

Michael Smith: When I was eleven, my parents bought a DV camcorder, and my older brother and I started making these little movies. Evan, my brother, kinda moved on after a while, but I just kept making them. Eventually I realized it was something I'd like to do for a living.

KS: Were there any particular films and/or filmmakers that inspired you early on?

MS: Well, my first movie that I made all on my own, a stop-animation short done with LEGOs called Dino Island, was basically a parody of the Jurassic Park films with spoofs of scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring cut in, so I guess Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Even now, I'd like to make the sort of movies they do.

KS: How would you define or describe those movies they do?

MS: I feel like I'm simplifying their work by lumping their films into one category, but action/adventure films. Stuff like the Indiana Jones movies or Jackson's King Kong, movies that are just fun to watch and still push the limits of filmmaking.

KS: You've certainly done a wide range of film genres and styles: El Chupacabra, The Bus, Rasputin: The Death of the Mad Monk, etc. What do you think those films have in common?

MS: It’s weird, because I just said that I'd like to make action/adventure films, but I really haven't done that many, except for maybe The Bus and Wrong Address. Most of my movies start off with something general that I like, like cryptozoology, or dinosaurs, or Grigori Rasputin. Then I try and find a way to work that into a plot I can film. I guess one of the main things they all have in common, though, is that they don't take themselves seriously at all. They're all pretty lighthearted.

KS: Where did you come up with the idea for El Chupacabra?

MS: William Palacio, who co-writes, co-produces, and acts in most of my films, and I were talking one night and decided we needed to make a really bad, corny horror movie, and immediately chose the chupacabra to be the antagonist. However, like the majority of films we talk about making, it got forgotten as other stuff came up. Then, later that year, in Spanish class at school, our teacher told us that we would have to write and act out a short skit in Spanish. William and I recognized this as our chance to use our chupacabra idea and we convinced our teacher to let us make a movie. When we began writing, though, the style was completely different from what we had originally envisioned.

From Left to Right: Gabe Fry, Michael Smith, William Palacio, and Andrew Jefferson on the set of El Chupacabra (2006).

KS: How was it different from your original conception?

MS: We had first imagined it as an over-the-top splatter-fest with a lot of slapstick. But we ended up writing a much more subtle, noir-ish sort of story.

KS: Your most recent film is called Two Left. What's that about?

MS: It's about three friends who go camping and unwillingly release a demon who's been imprisoned for hundreds of years. The demon, a serial killer in his human life, was sent to Hell, but made a deal with the Devil. If he can harvest six hundred and sixty-six souls within half a century, he'll be free to roam the Earth forever, killing as he pleases. When we meet up with him, he already has six hundred and sixty-four souls, leaving only two left, so it's up to the friends to stop him before he can pay his debt.

KS: What was the origin of this concept?

MS: Well, about a month ago, I got a job at a Halloween store. Most of the time in there it's just standing around (though it's getting much busier now as Halloween approaches). So, I'm walking around the store for hours at a time, looking at all the masks and costumes and thinking, "How could I use these in a movie?" I had the basic plot and most of the dialogue in my head by the end of one workday.

Gage Rollo as Mulo in Two Left (2007).

KS: As of this interview, Two Left is still in production. Which of the two would you say was a more challenging film to make, Chupacabra or Two Left?

MS: Right now I feel Two Left is more difficult, but that might change a few months from now when I can look back on both of them. But Gabe Fry and William, who play the two main characters in Two Left, are on the soccer team now, so they practice every day after school until five. That gives us about an hour to film before it gets too dark, so we really don't have time to do anything other than film. If someone flubs a line or trips walking into a scene, we don't even have time to laugh, we have to pull ourselves together immediately and keep going.

KS: Are you still considering to make sequels of El Chupacabra?

MS: That's a tough question. William and I planned out a trilogy after the first film was completed, and I really like the story we came up with. It explained some of the stranger things from the first film and made the chupacraba into a threat to the whole world. However, I don't really see it happening--I've done the chupacabra, I think I'd rather devote my energy to something else.

KS: Are you planning on any future projects?

MS: I had a holiday movie planned and half-written, but that was before I started Two Left, and I don't know if I'll be able to finish them both by Christmas, which is when I'd like to have the holiday movie completed. It's called Getting into the Spirit, and it's about two elves trying to force a Jewish man to celebrate Christmas.

KS: Where did that idea come from?

MS: I'm not sure, actually. A few months ago Gabe, William, and I showed Wrong Address at our old middle school, and they mentioned that we should try and make something for this Christmas assembly they have every year. I guess that's when I started thinking about it, but I don't know where that specific plot came from.

KS: You have certainly kept yourself busy with a lot of films. What would you suggest to aspiring independent filmmakers?

MS: Don't let a lack of resources stop you from making whatever you want. As long as you have a camera and creativity, there's really nothing you can't do. It may not look exactly how you want it, a CGI giant squid might look better than a the cardboard miniature one you made, but it's all practice for the future. Just have fun with it.

KS: Wise words. Thank you very much, Michael.

MS: And thank you.