Interview with Nacho Cerda
 You had problems finding the perfect location to film Genesis so you had six gigantic rooms built in a warehouse to house the visuals you were after. Can you elaborate on the set of Genesis? One of the things I did different from Aftermath is that, in Aftermath, I had the location already - every shot was thought out after getting the location. It was a film (that was) much more realistic. With this one the geography had to be very specific, and something real, so I didn't have to build any sets. Genesis was a completely different story, I was making the shot-list and imagining the spaces in my mind, the spaces of course didn't exist at that time. I thought 'well - we have two ways of going about it, either find a location that suits what's in mind or build it from scratch'. Of course, that was the most expensive option but then again it was the best one to shoot a film in. The conditions of a studio are much better than with shooting on location. That's why we had to invest about $35,000 on making these huge sets and, to tell you the truth, I went completely over budget cause of that reason... Than again we gained a lot of this atmosphere I was looking for and it made me shoot exactly what I had in my mind... probably the best thing for any filmmaker. We spent about a month and half building and designing those sets and once built we needed to fill them with a lot of props and things we asked for from different studios, artists and sculpturers. The tools the artist Pep Todsar (actor) is using are real and borrowed from someone else. I was very grateful and thankful to the many people that helped to give some of their equipment to help fill this huge warehouse. I thought the special effects were kept at a minimum on Genesis... was this done on purpose? How many hours did makeup take and who was the artist you worked with? The special effects on Genesis were really important as well. Like you say it was not the main part of the story, I wanted to have some sort of main plug showing human feelings, rather than just technique and infrastructure - something that was very human and not technological. Still Genesis needed some prosthetics, which I was never really happy about, to tell you the truth. I was really happy with all the statues and all the sets and props that were used for the film. But when it came to the makeup effects I tried to keep them minimal because we were not getting the look I wanted so I tired as little as possible of that, the special effects were done by a Spanish company... For Genesis I used a company based out of Madrid called RHK. Those guys were really hard workers but what we really needed was more money and probably more people to accomplish what I really had in mind in terms of make-up effects. For the next project I'm trying to keep it as minimal as possible cause of the problem we have here in Spain, you have a limited amount of companies that can really do make-up effects, so it just makes things easier for production. Yourself being an independent filmmaker - having control over your own project is very important. I was wondering if a big studio offered you money to make a film for them would you do it? The reason I ask this, is because I've heard you'd love to make a full length Gothic horror picture in the style of The Haunting which I'd love to see! 
Thank you very much for your confidence. I'd really like to make a bigger movie but I don't know about the studio mentality. I never really dealt with these people so I can't tell you what my impressions would be. Of course, I know there's so much money involved with these projects that (there must be) some sort of control, I mean that's something you'll have to lose in a way... Iím pretty sure. Like making a commercial, when you make a commercial where the agency, the production company and all these people are up your ass all of the time telling you what to do... So in a studio, I don't know, I'll have to see. If someone comes up to me I'll study the project and if it's great I'll probably do it. Everyone approached by a big studio should consider it, you never know. There are big studio movies like Se7en that's really fucking amazing and some other films like Jaws. Lots of them that have been financed big time have been really good. In any case, yeah my interest in Gothic horror movies is really huge so I'd like to make a few of them... As long as I live I won't be able to make everything I want in terms of the horror genre. The Haunting for instance, I haven't seen the movie that was released about a month ago. I really want to see it, I'm a big fan of Hell House. I've never seen the original Haunting (shame on you Nacho - CR) but I have it on video, which I'll have to check out soon. I was a very big fan of Hell House, I don't know if you ever saw it? It's great! It's a movie from 1973 I believe... That's something Iíd liked to do... some kind of possessed horror...haunted house film. We'll see, probably have to wait as a director friend of mine who directed Open Your Eyes is making a movie like this starring, I think, Nicole Kidman...
As mentioned earlier, your films include no dialogue so sound and music play an important role in your films. Do you listen to a lot of music to find what best suites a film of particular scene. Do you compose your own music? What kinds of music (artists) do you enjoy? Any plans on releasing the music of your films? In fact every time I design a shot list I always listen to music. Music is very inspiring to the pace of the movie, to the pictures, and also the feelings. I did that for Aftermath and Genesis, as a matter of fact some of the music recorded in Genesis was used for me writing and planning shot lists which I ended up using. For instance the opening music for Genesis was completely thought out before the closing credits, not the closing credits I mean the dawn sequence when the sun rises - the music was chosen way before shooting the scene. That's why it seems the music was composed for the movie, I mean for that scene. In fact it was the other way around, the scene was composed to the music. The reason why I used so much classical music was because, again, it was a case of money. I don't have the money to hire a composer and write music for this film so I ended up using the library from a friend of mine who owns the rights. He said we could give them to you for free because it was a short film, I was totally grateful for that. In terms of film music I really enjoy Hans Zimmer and John Williams, of course, the master for everything. Other composers I like are Howard Shore, the guy (who commonly works with) Cronenberg. I have a big collection of soundtrack CDs. Is Genesis available on video yet? Nope, not yet. I've been offered (the chance) to release it on DVD in the states and also in Spain. It's something I'll probably do, or would like to do, because it's the only way to appreciate the movie in itís original format because it was recorded in Dolby digital... also Aftermath was recorded in that system too. So, I guess I'll release both films both films on DVD soon, though how and when I have no idea. It's something I'd really like to do. By the way, in terms of music you were asking about the music of my films on CD. They're already on CD, all I did was take classical themes from authors and used them the way I needed. Maybe one day I will do that - ask for the rights to a CD compilation. Funny, you're not the only one to ask about that, so I'd really like to do it. On the Aftermath special edition Jorg Buttgereit conducted an interview with you. How did this come about. Are you friends and are you a fan of his films? The Jorg Buttgereit story is very interesting. I called him before I released Aftermath. I called Jorg Buttgereitís producer Manfred Helniski and I said I had this film. I know they were releasing short films on video in Germany. I thought they might be interested in doing something with me on this film Aftermath. So, yeah, I called them up and they said 'send us a tape and we'll take a look' and so I did... and after a month they called me and said 'yeah, we want to do this, we'd like to release it'. They suggested this interview with Jorg Buttgereit and it was interesting because his films, and my film Aftermath, were a little bit similar in subject. His approach was completely different, of course, than mine but that's how things came about. We were not friends at that moment but became friends after that. I spent the weekend at Manfredís place shooting the interview and preparing the release, which was done in Spain. After that, we got all the German subtitles and got some of the footage from Corpse Fucking Art (Note: This was a document of the Nekromantik films - CR). So we took all of that material and did the Aftermath special edition which in the end was a good seller in Europe and, as I can see, in the States. It's been distributed all over the place. In fact it's been bootlegged all over the place, which is bad for me but good for publicity. When filming the "rape" scene in Aftermath did you think: 'Oh my God, what will people think, is this going too far?' The rape scene in Aftermath was the highlight. It was really hard for me to do in that environment. Eight days down there (in the morgue) shooting in a real morgue, the whole thing was very sick. I thought, 'Jesus - I might be doing something wrong, someone's going to punish me for doing this'. I was very honest with it anyway. I wanted to be very objective. It was very hard for the actor, he was even asking me not to do more than one take because he was completely fed up. That shot was done at the end of the week and everyone was tired and there was no time for fooling around. You can see this on the making of video - the actor almost threw up after the rape scene. What are your thoughts and feelings on Aftermath today? My feelings on Aftermath... it's like 'wow'! Every time I see it now I see so many flaws. It's completely impossible to see a film you've done without thinking about the story behind every shot. I know how hard it was to get that, and how the actor fucked up here, and how the actor fucked up there. You can't be completely detached from your own film. It's quite sad, you enjoy watching and making movies but when you actually make one, it becomes something else. It's not a movie to you anymore. It's really strange. Aftermath, I think, was a testimony of a certain period of time in my life, some five years ago. I'm still very satisfied about making this film because it opened so many doors. I cannot believe it. I would never make a movie like that again, at least now. I still really enjoy it, with people who haven't seen it, in fact I was in Brussels in March of '99 and I watched it with Genesis and The Awakening, all three together. I thought to myself 'what an evolution' - there's eight years in between those films, from the first one to the last one. Jesus, what an evolution in style and technique and the way I tell the stories. Aftermath was filmed in a real Autopsy room, giving the film the authenticity it needed. If you filmed it on a make shift set how do think the film would of turned out? Aftermath needed a real location - to be realistic as possible. I think, like you said, a set would not give the same atmosphere and, most importantly, not the same feelings for my crew. You have to take into account being in a "real" place affected the crew and the way they worked. I was really lucky, I got the morgue for free. They let me shoot in there for nine days. I never showed them the script - they had no idea what the movie was about. I said I was shooting a documentary.  |
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