Today I´m speaking with Mike O'Mahony, writer, director and cinematographer of Deadly Detour (2011) , Sloppy the Psychotic (2012) and I.B.S. (2013) .
J.L: How did you get into film making?
M.O: I was just a big movie fan that one day said "I think I'll make one too." I read some how-to books got a bunch of friends together to help and started to make them.
JL: What are some of your favorite films?
M.O: My favorites change often. But I like anything that's bold, controversial or boundary pushing. Movies like cannibal holocost, eraserhead, pink flamingos, Texas chainsaw, etc. all the classics.
J.L: Who are some of your influences?
M.O: Usually the directors that started out like me. With a camera and maybe a little help... David Lynch, John Waters, etc
J.L: Which films and what inspired you in the creation of I.B.S.?
M.O: I don't know that any specific films inspired IBS. I think that was more inspired by having to travel with James Costa. His irritable bowel syndrome mixed with my sense of humor came up with that.
J.L: What kind of reception has I.B.S. been getting?
M.O: Very positive. Most are saying its my best movie yet. Some are saying that its about even with Sloppy. But so far all positive. What can you possibly say bad about a movie about a serial killer with diarrhea? That its shitty?!?
J.L: What kind of budget were you working with on I.B.S.?
M.O: Pocket change as usual. A few thousand dollars.
J.L: How did the shooting go for I.B.S.?
M.O: Pretty smooth. We shot on weekends. There was one month long holdup when our star got mono but besides that it was smooth sailing.
J.L: Which films and what inspired you in the creation of Sloppy the Psychotic?
M.O: Again, no specific films. It was more of a situation where we wanted to make something that was better than deadly detour and had a limited amount of funds so we wrote around what we had available. That's part of the reason why I played Sloppy.
J.L: What kind of budget were you working with on Sloppy the Psychotic?
M.O: Same as ibs. I personally funded all my movies.
J.L: How did you raise the funds?
M.O: By doing terrible terrible things.
J.L: How did the shooting go for Sloppy the Psychotic?
M.O: Smooth sailing. There was one incident where the cops busted up one of our shoots but mostly smooth sailing.
J.L: How was it working on Deadly Detour?
M.O: Hot and fun. It was everyone's first time doing anything like that so it was exciting... Until we saw all of the mistakes that we made. But it was still fun, and sweltering hot.
J.L: Which films and what inspired you in the creation of Deadly Detour?
M.O: Every horror film there is. I think we have every horror cliche in that movie... Kids lost in woods, stoners, drunks, naked couple dies, virgin girl that makes it to the end, pregnant woman getting fetus stomped out of her, etc.
J.L: What kind of budget were you working with on of Deadly Detour and how did you you raise the funds?
M.O: Slightly more than my newer movies and I raised the funds by maxing out my credit cards.
J.L: How different are the final versions from earlier drafts?
M.O: Extremely different. Things are always changing on a shoot and a lot of time you have to roll with the punches. Besides ibs all my movies changed a lot during production.
J.L: What lessons did you learn while making respective film?
M.O: Deadly detour I learned a lot. I learned most of the technical stuff by screwing it up on that movie and a lot of the other do's and dont's in indie filmmaking. In sloppy I learned not to cast myself as the lead and in ibs I learned to always cast James costa as the lead.
J.L: Were there any scenes that didn´t make it to the final films?
M.O: Yup. The ending you see in deadly detour isn't the original ending. We cut out the first boring ending. With Sloppy there wasn't much left out but ibs had a few scenes trimmed, nothing major though.
J.L: Is there a date for the region 1 DVD release of I.B.S.?
M.O: Early 2014.
J.L: What advice can you give someone looking to get into the industry?
M.O: Don't be motivated by money and just do it.
J.L: So where do you see yourself heading?
M.O: To the bar.
I´d like to thank Mike O'Mahony for taking the time off to answer my questions.
/JL
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