An Interview With Filmmaker and Nightmares Film Festival Director Jason Tostevin
Jason Tostevin is an extremely busy individual. So when an opportunity came up to sit down and speak to him we couldn’t pass it up. We talked to him about the Nightmares Film Festival which is happening 20 – 23 October as well as his upcoming short, ‘Born Again’ and lots more horror related goodness…
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in filmmaking?
I came to it pretty late. I’m jealous of my friends, like Justin Russell (Deathstop Holocaust, The Sleeper) who knew when they were seven and made movies on their VHS recorder with little green army men.
My story is, I’d been a writer my whole life. I saw an ad in the paper for the 2009 48 Hour Film Project, and arrogantly proclaimed I could write a short script. So I put a team together, wrote it, acted in it and, when the director bowed out halfway through, took that over too. Afterward, I was flying higher than I ever had. It was like I’d been living in black and white and someone had turned the color on. As cliché as it sounds, I thought to myself: oh, this is what I’m supposed to be doing.
That is a great story. It goes to show that your never too old to start as long as you have passion for what you want to do.
What has your experiences been like making short films?
Fucking insane. Utterly wonderful. Exhausting. Exhilarating. Satisfying. Maddening. Generally, the best thing ever.
I started making shorts by default, because my first filmmaking experiences were in sprint contests. I stayed in them because I genuinely love them, and because I wanted to learn and hone the craft.
There’s something powerful in a successful short film. They have the same rhythm as a well-told joke: setup, setup, setup … punch line. But audiences don’t yet have the natural familiarity with them they do with features or television. So it’s much harder to hook and keep an audience in a short. When you do, it’s really satisfying.
We agree, short films can be such a powerful form of media when done correctly.
How have you found the film festival circuit?
Making the shorts was my first education. Touring them through the circuit was my second.
I really started on the circuit in 2013. At first, I found it completely impenetrable. Functionally, I started with zero knowledge of how they worked, which ones were which. I didn’t even understand how to submit, how to make a DVD.
The really nuts thing is, I’d been to Cannes with a short called Stones in 2011, after we won the 48 and made the top 10 internationally. So I’d been to the most influential festival in the world thanks to a contest, but didn’t have the first clue what to do there or how to get into others.
I can tell you, as a filmmaker, getting out on the circuit is like graduate school. You see so many styles and approaches, and you see just how high other filmmakers are reaching. It knocks perspective into you, and inspires you to do better.
It’s good to hear that festivals can help to inspire filmmakers. There is such a friendly and productive atmosphere at festivals.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the Nightmares film festival?
Nightmares Film Festival is a destination horror and genre festival at the world-renowned Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio, held the weekend before Halloween, October 20 to 23. We play a worldwide program of what we call #BetterHorror, and our purpose is to elevate horror filmmaking and inspire horror filmmakers to new heights.
It’s really going to be a bad-ass experience for audience members and filmmakers alike. We have several world premieres, visiting filmmakers, hundreds of people already RSVP’d. Screenings are all at GFC, which has a dedicated projectionist team to make everything look and sound terrific. It was named a top 20 art house on the continent by Sundance.
Nightmares film festival sounds like it is going to be awesome!
How did the festival start?
Chris Hamel, who is the president of the film center, and I have been working together for a couple of years, and we’re both heavily involved in the indie horror community. He’s a film programmer and I’m a filmmaker with a lot of festival experience, and we’re both just big fans. We have talked so many times about the movies we were seeing out there on the circuit, and how we wished there was one place that would gather them all together for the horror fans in Ohio. Finally, we decided to create that place, and Nightmares was formed.
How have you found running the festival?
I love it. It’s an unbelievable amount of work. I think you have to do it to really understand it. But the spirit of it is energizing. Having the chance to assemble a truly world-class program of horror, thriller and midnight movies at a modern venue in a city with such enthusiastic horror fans has been rewarding.
It’s also the final step in my education as a festival filmmaker. I’m finally seeing it completely from the other side.
You have definitely come full circle in a short space of time. I think it is fantastic how you have become so engrossed in the indie horror community and a great ambassador to all things horror.
What are the best and worst parts of running the festival?
The best parts are plenty. Seeing new films. Meeting filmmakers from around the world. Partnering with other festivals, like Jim Christopher’s Austin Revolution, Jason Hoover’s Jabb Pictures 48 Hour Fest at Days of the Dead, and Jason Hignite’s Horror Hound Film Festival. Hearing from people in the community that they can’t wait to come to the film center all weekend and watch horror movies. Getting to promote one of the best theaters in the world along the way. There’s a lot to love.
The work is pretty around the clock, but I enjoy it. The worst part is probably that, for a small percentage of the indie film community, festivals are a game, and they try to play it. There are people who just copy and paste their waiver request, change the festival name and send it out en masse. There are people who treat you like a corporate fat cat because you’re in the “festival director” seat. I have to remind people I’m a filmmaker like them, trying to help other filmmakers get seen and celebrated. It sometimes starts with a weird adversarial tone, which stinks.
I can imagine you are very busy the closer the festival gets. You have also included some excellent advice in there for filmmakers looking to submit the movies.
What can we expect from this years festival?
As a veteran film festival participant and a filmmaker, I’m a tough critic. My idea of a great fest is one that has a program that surprises and inspires me, brings out audience members who are supportive, and really celebrates the filmmakers as the stars. Nightmares Film Festival is going to do all of those things. It’s a party and a celebration of great horror and genre work. Audiences are going to love it. Filmmakers are going to find things that make them want to try something new and get even better.
We have several world premieres I can’t wait to present to the community, along with some of the top shorts and features from the circuit, and a bundle of surprise films I bet most people haven’t seen yet. And there are also some midnight movies that are just totally, completely gross, bonkers and bizarre.
The festival sounds like it is shaping up to be an amazing event.
What advice would you give someone who was thinking about submitting a film to the festival?
First I’d say, hurry! Submissions close on September 13. We don’t make selections until all submissions are in, so everyone has a chance. But the window is closing.
Second, I’d say, be a good member of the community. Support other filmmakers. When you submit, know that we’re trying to program you. We want as many people to get in as possible. It’s not a competition, though. One film doesn’t lose when another wins. We all win by lifting each other up.
Third, I’d say, whether it’s a feature or a short, make it as short as possible. With shorts, no opening credits. Cut the exposition. Drop us in mise en scene. Make your credits as fast as possible.
Thanks, that is some excellent advice that I am sure all our readers will appreciate.
Has horror always been a passion for you?
It really has been. I read horror books. Bought horror comics. Drew horror pictures. Wrote horror stories. Love it all.
I grew up in the era of picking VHS tapes from the shelves of the local rental place based on the cover art. I loved Troma and Cannon and learned from watching such a wide variety of movies that everything has something to offer. Not everything is made with a big budget, but almost everything is made with love and effort.
We miss the days of VHS rentals. There was always something special about going those stores and choosing a movie.
Do you have any filmmakers who you look up to or take inspiration from?
I try to learn from everything I watch. There are some filmmakers I come back to as inspiration, or whose movies I find I’m trying to live up to in what I make. From the past, it’s Carpenter, Craven and Romero.
We love John Carpenter!
From the current indies, I love Moorhead and Benson. Resolution, Spring – love them. Jason Trost’s skill and style on such limited budges is a big inspiration, and Jason Eisener’s aesthetic and stories I think are pretty much unbeatable. Rodney Ascher’s storytelling documentaries are immensely innovative and engrossing.
I think our two greatest living American directors are probably Martin Scorsese and David Fincher, and we’ve looked to them over the last couple thrillers we’ve made for camera placement and for an example of how every movement must be motivated.
What are your favourite horror movies?
The Ring terrified me. I think Alex Aja’s remake of The Hills Have Eyes is a close to a perfect horror film structure as we’ve seen. Texas Chainsaw Massacre for visceral feel. I’m a fan of the New French Extremity across the board.
I’m taken with films about broken people living out a pocket of their own unreality. Simon Killer is one of my favorites of the last five years. The Maniac remake. Excision.
I also have to plug the story of The Last of Us, which is a Playstation video game by Naughty Dog. I think it was one of the best horror movies of 2014, and it wasn’t a movie.
Yep, ‘The Last of Us’ was a great game, I think there is a lot of inspiration to be taken from that.
Are there any movies out there on the indie circuit that you would recommend to our readers (other than your own of course)?
If you’re a horror fan and somehow haven’t seen the feature Headless yet, see it immediately. It was an instant classic for me. Under the Shadow is this year’s best festival horror feature so far.
For shorts, two of the biggest phenoms on the circuit this year were AJ Briones’s The Smiling Man and Shant Hamassian’s Night of the Slasher. I fell totally in grotesque love with Brian Lonano’s Gwilliam at Josh Hope’s Twister Alley Film Festival.
What does the future hold for Jason Tostevin? Have you got any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
Ask Christy, my wife: I can’t slow down. Ever. So the future will be busy!
In the immediate, we just finished our new short, a horror comedy about bumbling Satanists called Born Again, so it’s time to get that to a few festivals. And Nightmares Film Festival will be a blast.
After that, we’ll shoot our next short, a dark drama about a hotel housekeeper trapped in a room with a maniac called Due Out. And after that, Randall Greenland and I and the rest of the Hands Off team will make our first feature.
You certainly have a lot going on! Thanks for speaking to us and good luck with your upcoming projects and the festival. It sounds as if it will be an amazing event.
To get more details on the Nightmares Film Festival CLICK HERE
What, no comments yet? This festival sounds awesome. I really hope to get up there for it! Enjoyed reading about Jason…everything he’s done, stuff he enjoys and plans to do next, also his ideas and suggestions for other film makers.
Great interview! thx