00:00Hi, and welcome into EOM Presents. My name is Thomas Manning, senior interviewer for Elements of Madness, and recently I got a chance to chat with writer and director Francis Gallupi, talking about his directorial debut for feature films, The Last Stop in Yuma County.
00:15This is kind of a western, kind of a heist film, and the majority of it takes place in a single location. It really has a terrific cast. Jim Cummings, Jocelyn Donahue, Richard Brake, Faison Love, even folks like Gene Jones and Barbara Crampton, the pop-up.
00:32And I also got to talk to Francis about his work directing music videos for the indie rock band Mountain Joy, their band whose music I really appreciate.
00:44So I got a chance to talk with Francis about just, in his words, the cinematic style of their music and how he has appreciated kind of finding a way to visualize that in music videos.
00:57So once again, thank you to Francis Gallupi for a wonderful discussion, and thank you all so much for watching and listening.
01:04Once again, talking to Francis about The Last Stop in Yuma County. Hope you enjoy.
01:09So The Last Stop in Yuma County combines the western genre with the heist subgenre as well, and I'm a huge fan of both westerns and heist films, and I think many times there's an intrinsic connection between those.
01:24So I'd love to have you think back to your personal history with both of these genres as a film fan and then the evolution of that relationship into your career as a filmmaker.
01:35Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of on the same boat.
01:44I just, those are the heist movies westerns did.
01:48I fucking love it.
01:49I mean, I'm a huge, I'm a student of like Hitchcock, you know, I study the fuck out of Hitchcock.
01:56So like, I think, you know, what he does to build suspense is just, you know, I'm always asking myself, like, and when I'm, when I'm trying to write a, a suspenseful scene, I'm like, what would Hitchcock do, you know?
02:09And then in terms of westerns, like, yeah, I mean, Man Who Shot, Le Revalence, High Noon, Red River, some of my favorite movies.
02:19On top of like, you know, I kind of really looked at this, this story also as sort of a neo-noir.
02:26I love, I love film noir and kind of, I mean, I think there's even a, there's a reference in the movie to Rafifi.
02:33And, you know, the majority of the film is set in the single location, and you're using that rest stop as the central point of the entire narrative.
02:44So that definitely gives you some great opportunities to develop the tension and the really intriguing atmosphere.
02:52So what went into making that narrative choice, and what were some of your favorite aspects of the film that manifested as a result of that narrative decision?
03:01So the decision to shoot in the single location was like, originally, for budget reasons, I mean, I had all my short films, I was writing the stories for my short films based on locations we had access to.
03:20So, you know, whether it was my friend's desert house, or my friend's cabin in the woods, we had little to no money.
03:27So I was just writing around locations that we, that we had.
03:31So I came time to the feature.
03:33I knew we wouldn't have a lot of money.
03:35So I was like, I need to write something contained.
03:37And, and also, I'm just, I'm a huge fan of single location films like Rope and Dial Him for Murder and With Silence de la Mer.
03:46And like, so I wanted to tackle something like that.
03:49So I, I found the location, Four Aces and Lancaster, scouted it, and took a bunch of pictures, kind of drew an overhead of location, and then actually wrote the script, specifically to the location.
04:03And then from there, it was really just about like, trying to, trying to figure out a way to shoot this, the single room story and not make it feel like a stage play.
04:16So there was just a lot of thought that went into, you know, how do we shoot the fuck out of this room, we shoot every square inch of it and like, not make it feel like it's a stage play.
04:25But like, the audience is really trapped in that diner with these characters.
04:30And then to the second part of your question about like, anything that was like, fully realized that I'm really happy with, like, yeah, I personally like I love the scene where Bo, Richard Brake's character sits down Jim Cummings and Jocelyn Donahue and kind of lays down the, lays down everything.
04:53And I, you know, that was like a shot that my cinematographer and I like, planned really meticulously.
05:00And so when we actually were able to pull it off, it was, it was rewarding.
05:04And, and it was like, you know, it was also, it took the actors to put a lot of trust in me, because there's like, you know, Richard Brake has a whole fucking monologue that we're not on him, you know, we're not on his coverage at all.
05:16So I think once we, you know, after like, whatever it was, 20 takes or something, we finally got it, it was, that was really rewarding.
05:25So for some reason, that, that, that shot, that scene in particular comes to mind.
05:29And, you know, talking about the cast, you have just in this incredible range of actors and their characters all play very specifically to their individual strengths as actors.
05:43So can you discuss that casting process and the challenges of bringing together just the right actors for these roles?
05:52Yeah. I mean, yeah, I got really lucky. A lot of these actors, I mean, all of these actors, I'm a huge, I've been a huge fan of.
06:01So, and I had a lot of them in mind when I was writing the script.
06:06So when it came time to casting, I was just writing, I went down the list and wrote everybody letters and had a great casting director that was able to get the letters to all these actors.
06:18And then, you know, from there, I jumped on a zoom and convinced them to do the movie.
06:23And I got really lucky, you know?
06:26I mean, once we like half of it was casted with people that I love, like Jocelyn and Jim and Rich, we kind of just kept pushing our luck.
06:35Like we were like, well, what if we got Barbara Crampton to play the receptionist?
06:38Like, what if we got Alex Esso?
06:39And like, and it was kind of one of those things where it was like, okay, you have enough names.
06:44Like, let's just cast off tape.
06:45But I was like, fuck it, we're getting really lucky.
06:48Might as well keep trying, you know?
06:50And yeah, I ended up, you know, really being able to cast like my fucking, my dream cast.
06:57I had to, yeah, it was, it was pretty surreal being on set with them.
07:03And Gene Jones as well.
07:05I loved seeing him appear in this.
07:08Yeah, I love Gene.
07:09He's an incredible actor, incredible human being.
07:12He's so professional.
07:14I fucking love that guy.
07:15And I, it's, yeah, I feel like, I mean, every line he has, he just, he really brings it.
07:21He, everything he says in this movie cracks me up.
07:25Most definitely.
07:27And on this project, you're, you know, you're director, writer, and editor.
07:32And I know in other films, you've also taken on the role as a composer.
07:38So what do you, what do you appreciate about the challenge of balancing all those roles in production?
07:44And I guess the creative pathways that are opened up when you find yourself responsible for so many elements of the filmmaking.
07:50Yeah, I mean, you know, they all have.
07:58They all have, it's a whole like weird juxtaposition balancing all those positions where it's like you're in complete solidarity writing, you know, and you're not talking to anybody and you're in your own head.
08:11And, you know, I'll sit there for, I'll work on a script for a year and then you get into producing and it's just phone calls, phone calls, phone calls, doing this, doing that, putting things together.
08:20And then directing and, you know, you're interacting and with, with actors and crew and, and then, and then you just want to fucking break.
08:30And so editing is the perfect excuse for that where you're like, I'm going to go in the hole and turn my fucking phone off and just edit, you know, and then you just do the whole cycle again.
08:40It's this weird thing of solidarity and just being like having to be extremely social.
08:46Um, so I, I really enjoy, uh, every aspect of, you know, writing, directing, and editing.
08:54Like, I think I'll always want to edit my own movies.
08:57Um, I thought I've always wanted to score my own movies, but, um, in, as soon as, when I was getting ready to score last stop, I had a, our, my, uh, we had a baby and so I had to find a composer and it was just an amazing experience.
09:11Um, I, I, I don't think I'll ever score my own movies after, after working with a real composer like Matthew Compton.
09:19Um, he was just, it was, he's incredible, man.
09:24Well, I know we got to wrap things up here, but, uh, I wanted to get in quick question about your work with Mountain Joy.
09:30Um, I love, I just love their, I love their music.
09:34I actually saw them in concert a few months ago in, uh, Asheville, North Carolina.
09:38Um, so I just wanted to ask how your collaborative experience with Mountain Joy has continued to formulate your filmmaking voice and led to where you are now making your first feature film.
09:50Yeah, I can't say enough good things about Mountain Joy.
09:54I mean, they, uh, I couldn't ask for like a better client.
10:00They're fucking amazing.
10:02They, every time I've worked with them, it's like, cool, here's the song.
10:06I sent them a deck.
10:07They have no notes.
10:08They're like, go shoot it.
10:09They never want to be in the music videos, which is great.
10:12Cause like, they're not actors, you know what I mean?
10:15Uh, and you know, I, I do the thing, I cut it and I send it to them and they've never asked for a single note.
10:20But it's literally like, it's just been a fucking dream scenario working with Mountain Joy.
10:25They're all amazing people, amazing musicians.
10:28Um, you know, their music is like so cinematic that it's like, I really, you know, it, it's, it gives me an opportunity to do something like something actually narrative as in for a music video in terms of versus, you know, doing a music video to make a band look quote unquote cool.
10:49Um, they, they're actually more interested in telling a story, telling a narrative that sort of supports the, the music.
10:57Um, and I just, I fucking love that and respect the hell out of those guys.
11:03Well, Francis, again, I really do appreciate your time today and congrats on, uh, on the Yuma County.
11:09And I really do appreciate everything.
11:11And hopefully we get a chance to talk again in the future.
11:13Definitely, man.
11:14I appreciate you.
11:16Feel free to reach out anytime, man.
11:17I'm around.
11:18Awesome.
11:19We'll do have a good one.
11:20Cool.
11:21All right.
11:22You too, man.
11:23Take care.
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