Director's Cut

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The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

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Oh, boy. What the...

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What is this?

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What the #### is that? Hi, welcome to Director's Cut. I'm Pete Schwaba, and I'd like to welcome you to our Halloween special. Kicking off this festive night was a clip we just watched from our featured movie, The Field. The Field is creepy and chilling, and hopefully will become your worst nightmare thanks to PBS Wisconsin. Joining me tonight here in the studio under these strange global pandemic circumstances, adding yet another layer of eerie to the evening, is the director of The Field, Tate Bunker. Tate, welcome to Director's Cut. Hello, Pete. Thanks so much for having me, really grateful. Yeah, I was really looking forward to this, and we picked the perfect movie for tonight. For the Halloween special. It's very, that clip when I was watching it really freaked me out, and y'know, it's creepy. It's like the perfect clip to lead the show off with too. Tell us a little bit about what's going on there and where your inspiration to tell this story came from if you would. I basically, I like films to be kind of uncomfortable and to have an edge to them and make people feel creepy. But at the same time, you know, it's just a guy looking at a computer or just doing something rather common and there's no blood and guts sort of kind of scary. It's just like, wow, that's really uncomfortable. Where I got the idea was I found this photo. This guy in Scotland took a photo of his daughter and he took a bunch of portraits and then he got back, and then suddenly there was like this little spaceman in the background of one of the images. And he was like, "What, how did that, "where did that come from?" And so it was, like Kodak confirmed that it's a real negative and whether he staged it or not, it was this great mystery of like what was in this photo? And so that kind of, so that made me start searching and finding all these photos or images where people are finding ghosts in their photos or whatnot. There's a famous one called the Copper Falling photo. It's really kind of creepy. And I just thought, "Wow, this is such an interesting idea." And then the other thing is I work as a cinematographer, so, "Oh, wow, I could have a detective "use these cinematography skills or camera skills, "camera settings to kind of investigate and find this." So I felt like along with this sort of strobing, I felt like this was a good film to make. Tell us when we get back, we're gonna watch a clip, but tell us that image again so people can Google it and be really extra creeped out. Let's see another clip from The Field.

Scone. - Lydia

Mm-hmm. I brought you something else too. It's from Ben. That's you, Edith. That's you. No Edith. Junika. Junika. Junika. Not from here. I'm sorry? What do you mean you're not from here?

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Scone. - Lydia

I go home.

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Scone. - Lydia

Family waiting, my family. Junika. What's in the field? So, all right, I wanna ask you about that scene, but tell us, it was Copper something. Copper Falling photo. - Copper Falling photo. Okay, you can Google that and be extra creeped out tonight on Halloween, or the eve of Halloween. So let's talk about the actors in that scene, Tate. One of them is your wife, Kara, who's a great actress. I've seen her several times now in films. She's very talented. Was it strange working with your wife as your leading lady? No, it's an absolute joy. She's one of the most supportive and helpful individuals. It's an absolute joy and yes, she acted in the film, she's the lead actress, but she also did a lot of post-producing work and also kind of doing little like help throughout the entire film, so she... I am absolutely grateful to have had my wife on there. She's a fantastic filmmaker and the film would not have been as good without her, without a doubt. I'm sure that it helps too that she's also a filmmaker and understands the process from all aspects. And then I wanna ask you about Veronica Cartwright. What I love about being in show business is when you work with kind of these legendary actors and they have such great stories, and she was in The Birds, did you ever think you'd direct an actor that Hitchcock directed? Talk about that if you would. No, I still kind of, it amazes me that I got to work with an actress who was in the movie Alien, The Right Stuff, Witches of Eastwick, this legendary actress. And when my casting agent said, "Let's try for Veronica." And I was like, "All right, okay."

Pete

If you think so, whatever.

laughing

Pete

And I wrote this big letter to her about why I wanted her and everything and then we talked a little bit and she was like, "Yeah, let's do this." And I'm just so grateful to have her and Barry Bostwick as well, and Mark Metcalf. It was a fantastic cast and I'm just really thrilled to have Veronica. And she was such a team player. It's a low budget film and so a lot of these, we expected, who knows what she could be like, yet she never once complained. And she just was a trooper and just, it was amazing how wonderful she was. It's gotta be so refreshing too because you don't really know them until they get to the set. So they could be a headcase or, but when you're doing a low budget film and they just step up, that's gotta be such a relief to you as a director I would think. - Oh yeah. And at one point I was talking to Shelley Long from Cheers to try to get her to play the role and it didn't work out. And then when I talked to Veronica, who's friends with her, and basically everything that people were telling me was like yeah, that it would have been really difficult with Shelley Long. And it made me realize like, wow,

how lucky I got with Veronica. - Pete

Wow. She was just such a trooper. I'd be like, "Hey, could you walk out in the woods "for a while, for an hour?"

Pete laughing

how lucky I got with Veronica. - Pete

In the cold, like just do this, and she'd just keep doing it and keep doing it. And she was great. Our crew was working really well, so I got to improv some scenes and add some scenes. She'd be eating lunch or something and I'd break typical protocol if she was like, or just sitting down time. And I just said, "Hey, do you mind jumping in "in this scene real quick?" She's like, "Yeah, let's do it." She would just jump in and she was just fantastic. Let's see another clip from The Field.

door closing

Ben

Excuse me.

George

Mm-hmm. Are you the owner? Well, I own the building. Hi, I'm Ben Holland. Okay. - My background was cooking, but I have a real passion for nature photography... Uh-huh....moved out here and focus on my photography now. Good for you. Where did you move from? Chicago. I have some photos here I was hoping you would maybe consider one or two for your gallery. Well, this isn't a gallery. This is an artist co-op; you rent a stall

and you sell 'em yourself. - Ben

Ah. Oh, these are good. Yeah. I used to live in the city, New York. Oh, what'd you do out there? Advertising, photography. 25 years, jerking off clients, selling them sports cars, foot creams, and then viral marketing, I got the hell out. Came back home, teach a few classes. It's really nice, peaceful.

Ben

My wife and I just bought a farm. It's beautiful out here. It's Edith. What the... What the hell is this?

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Ben

You enjoy taking advantage of people? Well, no, I guess she's part of the land. Shut up! Do you think this is funny? Look, take this, get out. We're done here. Excuse me-- - No, we're done here. Do you want me to call Roy? Roy? - He's the sheriff. The sheriff? You mentioned Barry Bostwick, a great actor. And your leading man has a real kind of Paul Giamatti quality about him. He's real intense. You really hit a home run with your cast. Tate, at what point does the risk-reward aspect of your budget come into play? Like when you're trying to get these bigger actors, they're more expensive. They're willing to work, but at what point do you say "This isn't worth it," or "This is worth it," let's spend the money with a limited budget? Well, I think it's, I have a great machine here in Milwaukee. There's a great Milwaukee crew. My lead actors were local. Tim Higgins is phenomenal, again, he was in the scene with Barry. For us we just, we said, "Hey, let's try to devote "at least 1/3 of our budget to getting a few named actors." And the reason being, since I am gonna make a commercial film, I saw the value with my previous films of having some named actors in the film, getting it marketed, getting it seen. There's so much content online right now and you need every little bit of advantage to get seen. And so having some named actors, especially some legendary actors is gonna be really helpful. And so to me, I think the film has just been, it's less than a year that it's been online and available. So we're still waiting to see what the return will be, but it's already getting tons of attention and press just solely because of those named actors. So it's a necessity I think if you want to make a commercial film. When we spoke yesterday on the phone, you talked about finding the farm. Can you talk a little bit about that and tell our viewers how you found the farm and how that came into play? It's almost like a character, the setting. Oh, without a doubt, the farm was absolutely essential. I mean, if you look at it, the film with all the landscape photography and the variety of locations that I needed for a farm. Also, something that had all the things that I needed, a good creepy house, a nice creepy, a barn that had some space in it. And also people who owned, willing to leave their own house for two months and let me take over their place. That was really hard to find. And so a friend talked me into going to Manitowoc and there's a realtor there who knows everybody in Manitowoc. And she, Catherine Egger is her name. And she took me to like 10 different farms. And this was the very first farm she took me to. And it was just so perfect. I remember it was weird, like I'd already did storyboards and it was like I could just hold up the storyboard and there was the shot. The way everything was laid out was perfect and the owners were amazing. Joe and Judy Dondlinger is their name and they were just so helpful, but the farm had great variety. And we went and looked at so many other farms after that. And it was just never, nope, not as good as first, not as good as first. Nope, nope, nope. And so we, this right off, right next to Lake Michigan. And so we as a crew, Milwaukee crew, we stayed in a couple of Airbnbs just about less than a mile away, right on the lake. And so it was kind of like a studio, you could just get up each and every day, go there, shoot, and then push the lights in the barn and go home. It was a real luxury. It's great because you have the Making of a Murderer is well-known for, Manitowoc is known for that as well. So you've got this extra creepy thing going. It seemed like it fell right in your lap. It did fall in our lap, and we shot during Halloween, October, the fall colors. And we actually shot that right before Making of a Murderer came out. So we had the Manitowoc Police, they gave us uniforms, they were really helpful for us. And in my film there is a corrupt sheriff, there's search parties looking for this missing woman. There was a lot of similarities, but we did it all before Making a Murderer came out. It was just absolute... It seemed like there was some extras there maybe gift wrapped for you. - Yeah. We're gonna take another look at a clip from The Field. Good morning. - Morning, sheriff. Ben, ma'am. How are you doing? You folks have some real pretty dirt out here. Thinking about doing any farming? I doubt it. We just like the space. It's nice to be able to spread out. What made you consider Manitowoc County?

We just found the town to be-- - Lydia

Comfortable. Oh, can we do something for you, sheriff? Yeah, Ben, I got to ask you a question. What were you doing with Edith Mallard out there in that field the other day? I was just out there taking some photos and-- Yeah, George told me that. Kathy said you came in and talked to her, Charlotte Waite said you were in the library looking up all the old stories about her. Now, what's that all about? Well, I just heard things and I wanted to find out what the big deal was. Yeah, well, the big deal is Edith Malard spent most of her adult life in a sanitarium, all right, in Windy Ridge. Now she lives peaceful, quiet and safe in that little cottage by the edge of your property, back by the old field out there. And that's the way we like it. Everybody in town likes it that way. And we want to keep it that way. So don't come in here thinking you can publicize her story just to make a quick buck, all right? Are you accusing me of something? Listen, people in this town went through hell when that little girl disappeared. Some of those folks are still here and their kids and their grandkids. You've been warned, son. No more of this Edith Malard nonsense. Don't make me come back out here. I just took her picture. I... What I love about Mark Metcalf is he doesn't have to act. He's just, he's got the voice, the look, you get everything he's trying to say without him doing a shred of overacting. He was in your film Little Red as well. Talk about if you would, how you got connected with Mark and developed that relationship. Yeah, I met Mark through the Milwaukee Film Festival many years ago. He lived in Milwaukee for a short while, had a restaurant, and we did a couple of shorts together where he produced, I directed. And it was a wonderful working relationship. He's really great and wonderful person to work with. And so I decided to put him in Little Red and as soon as we started shooting, he was just kind of a monster, he was really difficult. But the second we were done shooting his last scene, he was just back to being this really sweet person.

Pete

Was he like that during The Field too? Yep, yep. - Is that just his process? Yeah, so this time I was like, "Okay, I know he's gonna be a jerk," and I was prepared.

Pete laughing

Pete

I think it's just his process, but he's just so good at what he does and he can, you know, we really understand each other. Y'know, he knows... I give him a lot of freedom and we kind of tweak it and work it on set. And he's just a wonderful level of creepiness. It's just great when an actor, I think that's the sign of really good actor is when they don't have to do anything and they're still interesting. And not a lot of actors are like that, but he definitely has that quality. I want to ask you about another Milwaukee legend you have in your film, who I've worked with as well and I'm a big fan of, Mark Borchardt. Was Mark, did he audition for this? Did you go after him? He seems to be showing up more in films, which is great. Yeah, he's a good friend of mine, Milwaukee filmmaker. And I just thought, you know, and he's got this, even in Wisconsin you have kind of different dialects

even around the state. - Pete

Yeah.

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even around the state. - Pete

And he just has Manitowoc down, like that's his way. And he's just so unique. And one of the first things he had said, he was like, "I don't do anything, I just be Mark Borchardt. "That's it; I don't do anything else." And so I was like, "Okay," so we just let him improvise. You can't direct him.

both laughing

even around the state. - Pete

You just let him go. We had takes that were like 15 minutes

of him just going and going. - Pete

Oh my gosh. And I just thought that he'd be a perfect kind of, kind of this weird general store guy. To me, it was this scene of him up on that truck, singing that sort of a song that was why I was like, "Okay, I want Mark." Get the arms going. - He is so great. We have about a minute to go to our next clip, Tate, but I want to ask you 'cause you said another thing yesterday. Talk, if you would please, about how difficult it is as a director when you're shooting someone who's shooting or someone watching computer imagery, is that a challenge as a director? Well, it's just, I don't find it interesting. I'm a teacher and I tell my students like, "No one cares to see someone on their phone," or "Don't do a conversation on a phone, do it in person." It's just not interesting. So here I am making a movie where someone's spending so much time on their computer and I just, I was like, "It's not gonna be interesting." So I decided to, "Oh, I'm just gonna put his little studio "right in the middle of the barn." And then that allowed me to have great freedom to try to make it look different. And I could have light coming through the barn itself and I could change nighttime, and just make it look interesting and use all these different angles and keep it fresh as opposed to just this computer up against a flat wall. You could make the background different maybe on the computer screen.

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of him just going and going. - Pete

We are gonna take a look at our final clip from The Field.

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gasps

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of him just going and going. - Pete

What the hell?

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of him just going and going. - Pete

Holy ####! -

screaming

of him just going and going. - Pete

Ben! Ben! Ben, come inside, come inside right now! Calm down. Come inside with me right now. I saw them, I saw them. - What did you see? Turn that off. Get it out of my face. - What did you see?

Lydia screaming

of him just going and going. - Pete

What is it?

Lydia

Lock the door. That's such a great scene. Your wife could get so much work in scary movies just from that scream. A scream is hard to do and make it look organic and not like it's forced. That was excellent. So I just want to ask you, that night you were filming that, can you just take us there? And say what that was like, you're on a farm, it's night, you're making this film you've tried to put together for years and you're filming this climactic, really cool scene. Take us there, can you? That was one of the things why I wanted to make the film was that scene right there. They had to be outside and to light like almost a football field at night would be really powerful and unique 'cause it's so hard to do. And it was really that strobing scene, like, the mechanics of the camera, like "I don't need a camera, "I can just strobe light "and I'll be able to see these things in front of me." And I just thought that would be so frightening. And so it was kind of, it was cold, there was some little fog naturally falling in. We had several night scenes. There was one scene where we needed a huge storm, and there was the storm.

It was amazing. - Pete

Movie magic. I got really lucky on weather, but that was a really interesting scene. It was a little tricky 'cause I knew what it had to look like. And I knew that this was the one scene that would be really unique to the genre and that I hadn't seen. And so if I was gonna make any headway, it was gonna be this scene. So I really put a lot of effort and time into it to really make sure it was good. And we'd actually shot it once and then I just looked at the dailies and felt like we needed more. I need more suspense and more timing. And so we went out and did an additional scene out nights. We actually did, shot it twice. Such a great scene. Where did you get the idea to have them appear at a certain frame rate? You said that was your original idea. How did you come up with that? - Well, it's just, I'm kind of a geek when it comes to camera and I teach it every semester. It's a passion of mine, I really love it. And again, that idea where, "Oh, the detective "could use these photographic settings and physics "to kind of figure out this sort of thing." And I kinda took it, okay, still photography, then I could do a high-speed camera. And then really, if you think about it, you don't need a camera. 'Cause the camera's only catching 1/1000 of a second. So I can set a strobe at 1/1000 of second. And so technically, these people are appearing 1/1000 of a second, which is too fast for our eyes to see, but with a digital camera or a high-speed camera, you could catch it. So the physics really is, at that point the conclusion's obvious, like I just need a strobe light. I don't need to get a camera and I can just walk around and see these figures standing right in front of me. It was so great. Tate, thank you so much for being here tonight. This is the perfect film for Halloween and I know people are gonna love it and I wish you a lot of luck with it. Thank you for being here under these weird circumstances. Yeah, well thank you again so much to be on your show. I really, really appreciate it. - My pleasure. I was looking forward to having you, so thanks again. And thank you for watching this special Halloween edition of Director's Cut. For more information on The Field, please go to pbswisconsin.org and click on Director's Cut. While you're there, send us an email or find out how to submit a film. Also, don't forget to like PBS Wisconsin on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. If we've learned one thing on this festive night, it's that when you buy a farm in the middle of nowhere and find out that at some point, a bunch of nude people performed satanic rituals, gut it out, okay? Don't be such a wuss. We'll see you next time on Director's Cut.

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It was amazing. - Pete

Hey! This isn't funny.

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It was amazing. - Pete

Hey! Where are you?