00:00We're alive, we're alive!
00:02Hello, I am Elements of Madness founder Douglas Davidson, and welcome to another episode of EOM Presents.
00:09On this episode, co-directors and co-writers Gene Gallarano and William Piscata join EOM contributor Joel Winstead to discuss
00:17their creature feature, The Yeti,
00:19a film the filmmakers describe as the revenant in a box.
00:23In this brief 10-minute interview, Gallarano and Piscata discuss the aesthetic and its evolution, the choices of practical effects
00:30in period, and the absolute commitment of the cast and crew to bring their vision to life.
00:35Experience the passion of these filmmakers in this interview right now, and then scout for The Yeti when it releases
00:41in theaters for a very brief run April 4th and April 8th before hitting digital on April 10th.
00:49Enjoy the conversation.
00:54Hi, how are you doing?
00:56Good, how are you?
00:57Look at that collection, brother. Look at that collection.
00:59Thank you. Yes, this is my retirement fund.
01:05Criteria collection in there. Yeah.
01:07Yeah, and I tried to highlight some creature features around here.
01:13So I saw it last night. I had a blast watching it.
01:17It absolutely felt kind of like a throwback to the creature features of the 50s and 60s.
01:22And, you know, that was definitely an aesthetic that you were going for.
01:25So can you kind of explain the commitment to that aesthetic and why it was important?
01:31Yeah, it was very important.
01:33The very first version of this movie, I wanted to look like a 50s newsreel in black and white.
01:40But as it evolved, we kind of wanted to keep the same tone, but less, you know, mono sound and
01:48newsreel look.
01:50It's always been very important.
01:51I just think this type of movie functions better when it doesn't feel super modern.
01:58It's like no iPhones, no, like, cars, stuff like that.
02:04It's very important.
02:06Every person we came across at some point inevitably said, you know, you could make it a contemporary movie and
02:13put it in the, put it just in the forest, no snow, which would arguably made it a lot easier.
02:18But it wouldn't have made the film in any capacity that we wanted to make.
02:23And they weren't wrong in terms of bringing up that, those possibilities.
02:28But of course, that would be a different kind of monster.
02:30It would not be a Yeti.
02:31And Will and I were adamant about sticking to the genre, sticking to the practical effects components, sticking to, you
02:42know, creating kind of a happening with this film and inviting a bunch of people, a bunch of mad, mad
02:48men and mad women along for the ride, you know.
02:51And we found a great, great team.
02:53It definitely comes across from, obviously, you shot this at a big studio in Buffalo, New York.
02:59Is that right?
03:00Correct.
03:00From the set decoration to the special effects, be it the snow or the gore or the severed arms.
03:09It seemed like everyone was kind of like the same driving force kind of moving forward.
03:12Was there anything that you, I kept getting tones of like King Kong, like the OG King Kong.
03:18Was there anything that you were referencing kind of in your head of what you wanted to look like?
03:22Or, I mean, Brittany is sporting that Hitchcock blonde wig.
03:26Thank you for bringing that up.
03:28Yeah.
03:29Bleached hair.
03:30Yeah.
03:31No wigs.
03:32I didn't want to.
03:33Oh, bleached hair.
03:34Excellent.
03:35Yeah.
03:35And she was so, she was so, Brittany Allen, she was so game.
03:38She totally got it.
03:40She was, she was leading the charge for us in so many amazing ways.
03:45Um, yeah, you have to fully commit to it.
03:48You can't, it just would have fallen apart if we had skipped any, any, any steps there.
03:54And what was really amazing about the, the team that we assembled is everyone, again, like everyone went along for
04:00the ride.
04:01They wanted to be a part of it.
04:02You know, it's, you have to convince people, talented people to come on the journey with you.
04:06You can convince, you can pay people, of course, and you can get less talented people, but truly talented people,
04:12they have work thrown at them.
04:13And you have to convince the truly talented ones to come on the journey.
04:17And a part of that for us was this, the fact that we're going to build the whole world and
04:22we're going to stick to it.
04:23And we're going to find like the, the craftspeople from sets and the deck and the, and the, um, and
04:29the props.
04:30All of these people were really, they were artists, you know, and they really did stuff.
04:35Like you talk about the creature being a handmade one of one sculpted piece, you know, it's nine feet.
04:41I don't know how much it weighs a ton.
04:43It's in massive crates to store.
04:46There was no going backwards at a certain point.
04:49And, and, and like that also, there's a commitment to that, that everyone gets behind, you know, in a way
04:54it's like shooting on film, right?
04:55Where you have to commit, you don't get endless takes.
04:58We never got endless takes because we didn't have the time, but, but we didn't have endless, you know, endless
05:03opportunities to go a different path once we started.
05:06And, and, and you, there are the, there are perfect, there are perfect, the perfect mad people out there that'll
05:12go along on journeys like this.
05:14If, if you look hard enough.
05:15Yeah.
05:16In terms of, in terms of references, we did look at King Kong a lot.
05:21We looked at Frankenstein a lot.
05:23The thing obviously was massive.
05:28Jaws behind you.
05:30Jaws.
05:31We, we looked at a bunch of movies also that, that just couldn't play for us.
05:35Like Tremors, Predator, you know, you're going through all the different versions of great, great, like kind of creature features
05:41and genre films.
05:42You're like, man, I really love this, but that's a totally different type and it's totally different tone.
05:47And you're like weighing all of the pros and cons of these things as well.
05:51And also it was like, does a Yeti make sense within that context, you know, Empire Strikes Back.
05:58Yeah.
05:59I watched the sequence with the, uh, Wampa.
06:02Wampa.
06:02Sure.
06:03Thousand times.
06:04We have, there's so many creature features.
06:06There's some that are very popular and widely known and some that are undersung and not widely seen.
06:11Um, there hasn't been a Yeti.
06:14There have been some, but nothing culturally, uh, no Yeti.
06:18Why do you think that is?
06:19And did you discover why as you were making the film?
06:23I, that is the genesis of this film is like, why can't I watch a bunch of movies about the
06:31Yeti?
06:31There's so few.
06:33And I really don't know.
06:35I think it's, I mean, I think it's cooler than Bigfoot, but there's like almost no Yeti movies.
06:42Well, like you said, did you, did we find out along the way?
06:45It's hard.
06:46It's cold.
06:47You know, you have to create the, you have to create an Arctic, um, environment of some sort, whether it's
06:53the mountains or a forest that that's not easy.
06:57You know, and right now we're, we're like, people are like shoot outdoors.
07:00Well, we could go somewhere really, really cold, but also you have to make sure that you have snow and
07:06the right kind of snow to shoot in.
07:07Then you have to keep everyone warm, you know, and all of these production resources need to come into play.
07:12Also, you can't guarantee there's snow anymore.
07:15What if you get too much?
07:17I mean, even in Buffalo, we hilariously had the Arctic inside.
07:21We got hit ice storm after ice storm being in Buffalo and then dumped on by a blizzard shooting.
07:26We shot one day outside for like the last scene of the movie and it was freezing.
07:33I mean, it was, it was absolutely terrifyingly freezing.
07:38And, you know, how are you going to be able to pull that off?
07:41You know, we always called this the Revenant in a box and, you know, I know the Revenant was shot
07:45outdoors, but man, they have a production system in place and it's very specific and you have immense support to
07:51be able to pull that off.
07:52You know, and some of the stuff that we wanted to do, man, a practical Yeti never would have made
07:58it outside in the snow, you know, would have been, it probably would have been falling apart in three days,
08:05you know, just from the elements in a way.
08:07I mean, while it was robust and amazing, it's also very delicate in a lot of ways, you know, and
08:12again, one of one, you don't get to, you can only mess it up so much.
08:16Right, right, right.
08:18One of the things that, I mean, just smiled the whole time.
08:21I love creature features.
08:22I'm a fan of the genre.
08:24If Jaws is out of the picture, I think my favorite creature feature would probably be the birds.
08:30What are some undersung creature features that you guys like that we can bring to the forefront while this movie
08:38is kind of doing its thing?
08:39We can bring more creature features to the front.
08:44I really like the movie Monster that A24 put out.
08:53The Scoot McNeary joint?
08:55I think so.
08:56Yeah.
08:57That was really good.
09:00I watched this movie called Frogman.
09:05That was a cool movie.
09:07I really like that.
09:08I think they did the practical frog.
09:12Sure.
09:16There's not a whole lot of them being made anymore.
09:18No, I know.
09:19It's unfortunate.
09:20I think they're remaking a couple.
09:21I saw Creature from Black Lagoon as being remade.
09:26I mean, again, like we referenced earlier, I'm a fan of Tremors.
09:31You know, I like some of those big or bold, almost action thrillers.
09:35You know, Predator.
09:36I mean, how many iterations of Predator have we seen?
09:40Tremors is great.
09:41You know, I look at all those movies also, though, and I think about all the characters
09:44and how a big component is not just the creature, which, you know, the Yeti creature is badass.
09:49But this is also about, you know, the Yeti is a catalyst in a lot of ways.
09:56And the story is like what happens to these people when there's nowhere left to hide, you know, environmentally within
10:01themselves from the creature, from the shadows of their parents and stuff.
10:06And the eyes of the eyes of the world in a lot of ways.
10:09Right.
10:10And I think all the best creature features have those components.
10:13I mean, Jaws, we talked about Jaws all the time.
10:16And probably 85% of the time we talked about the characters and the journeys the characters are on.
10:22And hopefully that the Yeti character goes on in our film.
10:25You know, hopefully it's got a little arc there as well.
10:29That's interesting.
10:31And, yeah.
10:32Perfect.
10:32Amazing.
10:33Well, you guys have been great.
10:34Thank you so much for your time.
10:35I really appreciate it.
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