We continue our series of interviews with young filmmakers and independent filmmakers with Gregory Sacre, director passionate and hyperactive at the origin of many projects.
Hello Greg, can you first introduce yourself ?
I called Gregory Sacred, I’m 30 years old and I live currently in Reims. I do a lot of things through my job (graphic designer, editor, motion design, etc) and through my association Varock Films that I lead as a director since 2004, I directed films, I do digital special effects, titling, posters… in Short : I don’t have time to get bored !
Why is the achievement ?
Since childhood my goal was to tell stories. Being a fan of video games for ages, I’ve always wanted to direct me in this area… And then I ended by telling me that the film was more the way I wanted to tell these stories. The problem is that the studies I have royally inflated and that I couldn’t go into a school, cinema or other. So I decided at 18 years to give up everything, to do menial jobs and to pay me a small camera. I’ve learned along the way, often to me, breaking the mouth ! First of all, I feel the need to tell stories that inspire me and that convey something when I talk about it around me. Whatever the means, once I start working on a project : I’m going to until the end. After I could go onto a long speech on the subject that I like to tackle and the ways to do it but I’ll try to limit myself ?
Precisely, this can be very interesting to go back to the themes and ways of doing things, you can let go of ?
At the beginning it was only a deep need : to show people the image that I have in the head, in my imagination. And then to force to achieve, to touch other areas, to learn, to grow old, little by little it changes ! I am now experiencing different needs when I start working on a project. I’m not talking about small short that I can do just to explore an idea, a joke, or a visual essay, but really big projects that I care about. I literally want to spend some of my obsessions such as the report that one with the food. I love to film food and see people eat, it is always something that fascinates me to the cinema and we see far too rarely, yet it gives to such or such character, a side of true : he does what everyone does ! The encounter between the real and the imaginary draws me, and mainly to introduce and give credibility to all this small world with the means I have available. This is not always easy. As a result, I want more to cover other subjects while keeping those that I care about. Trigger (see below) is a perfect example. And then behind all this there is the idea of doing delights to the people ! I’m pleased in making the film and I want it to feel ! This is why I love the making-of or is felt to this side and uninhibited “family” shooting, as hard and stressful as it can be. If a person laughs or is disgusted in seeing one of my films : I’ll be delighted !
Is this your only activity ?
No not at all ! As I said above, I work part-time in a box prod, Emergence Production, or I do graphic design, web and especially the video clips, commercial films, teasers, etc.) and the motion design. In the afternoon it is for my association that I’m active, whether it be for projects, characters, or performances. Besides, I am also an actor and a stage director of a theatre company (the company Without a Name) and… I never forget my family life that allows me to hold and be able to do what I do !
Can you please introduce your association, Varock films ?
This is a 1901 act association created in 2004. Its primary purpose is to assist in the audiovisual creation. We are a small quarantine of members who do a little bit of everything, some are in editing, in writing. We try to have a panel of talent. Everyone can get started on a project and we will do all that we can do to help him see the light of day by putting him at the disposal of the stuff and especially contacts. For the party budget on the other hand one is limited a lot, the association is in effect self-funded. We have never had the chance to benefit from subsidies, either for the operation or for a movie… so It’s a challenge every day ! But somewhere… it’s the file gniak ! It is now more than sixty projects mounted (counting our .2VU who are very short on a given theme).
You do genre films, is that it takes you additional stress ? If yes, which ones, and how to try you remedy it ?
I don’t see it as a producer of genre. Not exclusively. I’m curious, I like many things and I don’t want to become a director of horror movies or thriller only. Mostly I made the kind because it is what speaks to me the most, it is also much more flexible when one wants to learn things, try such and such technique. The or it leads to constraints it is more in terms of money and subsidies, the region or we do not see what “kind” of cinema with a good eye and if we do not do movies typically”French author” that does not happen often…
Can you tell us about the films that you have done up to now ?
I started with ZERO , which is a satire on the reality tv tour in subjective camera. I was just and I knew nothing of the video and to the methods, so I had to level a lot of things to not make it too cheap at the time. I quickly engaged with a diptych on a child which maintains a different relation with the nature, Root. This story was inspired by a long-that I wrote in 2003 and that I still carry in my heart. Besides, my wife is working on a literary version.
Then I realized Cloaca, survival that marks my first collaboration with the specialist in special effects David Scherer. “As a desire to be deaf…” which is my first very short on a man at the other end of the roll, and who is obsessed by noise. In 2006, the association started to take on a little scale and I could begin to work with other people, so I made a short film about the jungle speed Totem Carnage, comedy or battling the world champions in a match to death (and I do not lose hope in a sequel one day with more means). And then Trapped Inside Dolls, a horror movie about 4 people locked in a room murky and who are tortured by a mage voodoo.
It is, after all, it’s that it was proposed to me to carry a heap of fire series Terror Project 6. I suddenly realized chef’s Specialty which is a zombie flick, the story of a man who wakes up hanging from a string in a fridge in a chinese restaurant. I have been able to count on the precious help of Jérémy Caravita, a specialist in special effects, which allowed me to make the film this way. The film is released on DVD thanks to oh my gore production , and you can find it everywhere. After I made a few .2VU. I have been very involved in the projects of the other members, always trying to offer my help as a chief operator, editor, actor, etc and Then in 2010 I start working on another big project that is A rate of enfer, which is a medium-length film. Phew… I do a selection and I’m not talking about what I do in between, and after…
With A rhythm of hell, you blend the comedy and the fantastic. What is the most difficult to make credible according to you ?
The comedy is much more difficult than the fantastic. Make people laugh a person is not given to all and find the “right tone” is a puzzle. It is also one of the points that came to me these last few years, to make my movies credible in the eyes of others, that my characters exist in the world that I show them and who may never stain. The fantastic at the end is according to me more simple, since it is often through artifice that it is introduced. As soon as it shows a character that does not exist in our world, or a weird light and I could go on : one is immediately in this area. After that one believes in it or not is another pair of sleeves ! The hardest part in this short was just to find the right balance. But I really wanted the comedy takes over, that we may come to forget the side fantastic to better reintroduce it to the end !
And what will be your next film ?
The next is called the Trigger. This is my biggest film period, he made more than 40 min in the investment (this is a character I created a long time ago and who has not ceased to evolve), budget, in… everything ! It is a mass of work not possible !The team is also invested in the background and the experience has been hard for some but really formative. This film, it was necessary that I do so. In fact, it is a story of a long, called the Green Fudge, that speaks of an old cream dessert was withdrawn from the market because it gives the reactions weird to people who eat it. The character of Trigger, who is a living legend in the mid mafia, finds himself in the middle of a mess, not possible related to this custard dessert. This history we have worked for a number of months with the precious help of Fabien Ribaud, who is scriptwriter of COMICS and who has written A torrid Pace. As I saw the size it took : the aim was to make it a true and beautiful record of prod to present, and I said stop : Why not introduce the key characters and the concept of this cream in a movie that would be out of work ? A prequel to the long ? Just to support the folder of prod. We have all put in stand-by, we discussed some ideas for the front of a “Green Fudge” and once we had a frame, Fabien wrote the film. The strong point is that with all the work of background that we had done for long, our characters were only stronger ! I’m really happy and I really look forward to the show ! He is currently at the stage of digital effects and the music. In June we will start the post production sound of the film… It is long, but you can see the end ! (see the teaser below)
Are you also the author of some of your movies or simply a film director ?
At the beginning I wrote almost all of my scenarios. Then I saw that a good film project, it is the good amalgamation of a team, and the good that it could do to attract good people. This is why I prefer to bring ideas and re-work with a real screenwriter.
If you had to give one piece of advice to all filmmakers and lovers, what is according to you the most important to succeed ?
Several tips even. The first is to never give up and always show massively his work. you must know how to break the jaw to learn to walk. Not to see also at the top of the poster. The more you spoil yourself, do your work, more passion bursts out of your film. After… it’s the curiosity : Be curious about everything, all the stages of the design of a film, from the direction of the actors to how one makes a mix sound, everything is good to take !
Can you cite one of your favourite film-makers, and the reasons that will make you love his work ?
I could mention three especially : John Carpenter, Takashi Miike and Paul Verhoeven. But Big John is still the top ! The fact that he always incorporates in his profession is extraordinary. And it is this dough that it happens to have, the fact of having a plan in scope and three-note synth to say : hey, this is not John Carpenter is that true ? I find this is hell ! And then the fantastic cinema remains above all what made me love the film… and Carpenter is still the master !