Spotlight: I’m Not Jesus Mommy

  • Q & A with Vaughn Juares

    1. What inspired you to write this controversial screenplay?
    I’ve always wanted to adapt a best selling book but could never afford to option one so I figured, why not the Bible? It’s among the world’s best seller lists and it’s free. Revelations (or the Apocalypse for the Catholic folks) is a crazy story. It is fun to read and figure out and to interpret. I’m a fan of theology and have studied the Bible and Torah and I’m fascinated with saying, “what if this happened today?” and working from that premise. It’s especially fun to take a HUGE story with insane elements and boil it down to a child in a room with a dead mouse. As far as controversy, I wish it was even more controversial… I love a good argument.

    2. In this film, there is a unique depiction of the conflicting relationship between science and religion. What message are you intending to send to your audience regarding this controversial matter?
    The message is really more of a warning: don’t mess with God’s business. Science, which I’m a great supporter of, is among the most controversial and dynamic forces which mold our perception of our purpose and place in the Universe. When this happens we all start to question the beliefs which have dominated our history. The questions of human cloning challenges even the most intense supporters of scientific progress. This conflict is the source of obvious and an ongoing material for all forms of art.

    3. Clearly, the style and content of this film is sinister and dark. What has influenced your style of filmmaking, specifically this raw approach that you utilize in the film?
    I love simplicity. I grew up watching the Twilight Zone (the originals) and Hitchcock. My style comes from necessity and efficiency, we used only one 50mm prime lens for every single shot, for close ups we moved the camera in, for wide shots we moved the camera out. We shot the last two thirds of the film in an abandoned house in the upper midwest in the middle of winter with no heat and only a 1,000 watt generator. This meant we needed to shoot fast and simply and the subject matter just makes sense to be static and visually quiet, raw.

    4.The actors you used all contribute to the disturbing tone of the film. How did you find these particular actors and why did you cast them for each respective role?
    The child who plays David is the son of a friend of ours, Natalie Hale, who is a fantastic make up artist. She knew we were doing the project and sent over a creepy picture of him… we didn’t bother auditioning anyone else, he was it.

    Roger is played by Charles Hubbell who is an accomplished and dedicated actor who can put up with my fast and furious style and come prepared every day to crank it out. I do very few takes. Besides that, he’s got the ability to dig in and put out a very sinister vibe with few words.

    Kimberly is played by Bridget McGrath, the producer and my wife. Basically, she had no aspirations to be in the film, but after considering that I needed somebody who would not quit on me, be available for a quick second unit shot on the spur-of-the-moment, there was no better choice and I convinced her she could. She was very brave to do a scene, mostly nude, showing off her full-term baby bump to establish that the character’s pregnancy was successful. Bridget was really pregnant and gave birth only a few days after that scene was shot.

    5. What were some of the biggest challenges in making and completing I’m Not Jesus Mommy?
    One of the biggest challenges was making the film with a lead actress who started the film four months pregnant and working in a location without a bathroom, running water or power during the middle of a mid west winter. The scene where Kimberly (Bridget McGrath) is crawling across the floor towards the end of the film was shot when the outside temperature was -12F and, since we were filming that on the second floor of the building, the fake blood was turning to ice and her wardrobe was literally freezing to the floor. It was on that same night, the last night of filming, where our camera blew a circuit in the final hours of the shooting. Luckily we have some good friends, namely Jack Paar of Busy Boy Productions, who was able to take my call at 11 at night and bring over a replacement camera to get the final scenes of Kimberly and David.

    6. What was a highlight of the filmmaking process?
    Distribution is the highlight, to get the film in front of people and get reactions and thoughts. It’s the scariest part as well, very volnerable – putting a film in to the public is sort of like that dream everyone has where you’re at school in your underwear.

    7. This is your first feature film to date. What was a main difference you found between directing shorts or music videos and directing this film?
    I’ve produced features before, but directing one like this has very few parallels to doing a TV spot or music video. Commercials and short form projects are sprints where you have to be on your “A” game for a day or two or even a week, but to create a feature film with a crew of only a few people and rely on editing and doing the majority of work by yourself requires a lot of focus and sacrifice… endurance, like running a few marathons in a row when compared to doing a music video.

    8. The character of David Gabriel seems evocative of other iconic horror characters including Danny Torrance in The Shining and Damien Thorn in The Omen. Were you inspired by these characters while creating David or did you have an entirely different character in mind?
    Quiet children who tilt their heads down and glare at you one moment then smile the next are scary. Period. Rocco (who played David) knows those iconic films and images to some degree and that’s what he could relate to when he was being directed. The most interesting children are quiet and talk with their eyes, they are sweet and evil all in one package. That’s what all of these characters have in common and David is sort of an archetype based on the audience expectation which was set by films like the Omen (the original) and others.

    9. This film has been dubbed Rosemary’s Baby with a scientific cloning twist. How do you respond to this comparison? Was this resemblance your intention?
    There was no intention to make the film like Rosemary’s Baby, but that is a flattering comparison, perhaps one of the more accurate descriptions of the film that we’ve heard. People perceive the film as a horror, when it is really, at its heart, a sci-fi thriller, more psychological than a “slasher.” It’s a scary movie that is about something

    10. What are you immediate future career plans?
    FilmDemic, a company in which I am a partner, has developed and is launching a Facebook movie streaming application in early 2012 which uses Facebook profile information to recommend titles to users. We’re also planning to shoot one more film late in 2012. We’re deciding between two scripts right now, one is a very intense thriller which takes place in Italy and the other is a edgy drama about criminals in the San Fernando valley… I am sort of leaning towards an Italian vacation, but we’ll see which is ready and what the strategy needs to be when we cross that bridge.


    January 6th, 2012 | jwilka |

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