Interview: Brett Glassberg (Director of Derelicts (2020))

Working in the Texas indie scene, writer/director Brett Glassberg is poised to make waves with the general release of his debut feature Derelicts set to premiere online. In honor of that release, I talk with him about his inspiration and early days as a filmmaker as well as the shooting of the film.

Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get the urge to go into directing?

Brett Glassberg: The desire to tell stories started at an early age. I was always telling stories and writing. I was a sickly child growing up so I took a lot of solace in books and my VHS tapes.

Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?

BG: Around the age of nine, I saw John Carpenter’s Halloween, and more than anything I was excited by the fact that something could evoke that kind of reaction in me. That a visual could transmit fear into my brain. I wanted to understand how. To deconstruct the toaster so to speak and figure out where the wires go. I liked the idea of evoking a reaction. I enjoy the immediate satisfaction of an overt emotional response. You typically only get that in comedy and horror.

Me: Having worked on short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to feature-film projects?

BG: You learn the importance of being decisive. Sometimes it’s better to make the wrong decision at the moment as opposed to floundering around and doing nothing. You can always course correct, but it’s hard to get back momentum when you stall. It’s easier to deflate a balloon than to inflate it. Momentum matters when you’re dealing with a low budget.

Me: When writing a new project, what's the one fall back tactic that you're always able to draw inspiration from?

BG: You know your earliest ideas won’t necessarily be your best, in fact, often they are your worst. I like to get the gears moving by intentionally thinking up bad ideas. Get them out of the way. Sometimes it takes knowing what you don’t want to get at what you want. Films at any stage of the process are as much what you exclude as what you include.

Me: Upon learning you had been contacted for a short in the "ABCs of Death" franchise, how did you approach your short for the project?

BG: It started with finding out they were making ABCs of Death 2 and holding a competition for a slot in the film. It was almost kismet. I had the idea, then found out about the competition and realized it was perfect for this. More than anything I was looking for any justification to make something again. I had felt in a creative lull so when things line up like they did it felt like the world was telling me to get off my ass. I contacted my friend Jimmie Parker and he came on as co-producer and cinematographer.

After that things came together quickly. At the script stage, it already contained strong visual ideas and I knew it would work if I could land the follow-through. I wanted it to be a set-piece where we are limited to a single room, and then the reveal coming with the addition of a neighboring room. It lent itself to more dynamic movement than any of my previous work. I wanted to prove to myself that I could pull it off more than anything. I was going through a deep depression and felt I had a lot to prove in general.

We got so much farther in the competition than I could have imagined, but we didn’t win. Still, I was very glad to have pushed through with my wonderful crew and have made something I was proud of, probably the thing I was most proud of up until that point.

Then Drafthouse Films came to us with a new opportunity. They asked us and 25 other filmmakers to include our short in a completely different film. For me, that was a no-brainer. That film became ABCs of Death 2.5. It didn’t exactly light up my career but it felt like enough of a step forward. So, I took that energy into making my first feature.

Me: So, that brings us to your latest project 'Derelicts,' where did the inspiration for the film come from? Why settle on a Thanksgiving-based horror film?
BG: I got together with my co-writers, Clay Shirley and Andre Evrenos, and said it’s time to make a feature. We had known each other a long time at that point and knew we wanted to do something together at that level for forever. When you’ve worked creatively with people for that long, you start to form what can only be described as telepathy. We figured out we wanted to do a home invasion type thing together, but separately we came to the conclusion it should be a holiday film. We each had our reasons, but it was eerie how our thinking aligned so precisely. That happened a lot in the writing process.

Thanksgiving became a sensible choice. It wasn’t overused, it was uniquely American, and it was a perfect excuse to put conflicting personalities in a shared space. Family can be imprisoning like that.

Me: Is there anything from your childhood that helped to flesh out the characterizations?
BG: As fun as I remember holidays being, there was always a raw tension as well. There is so much expectation and planning and preparation. The payoff is a lovely time but the build-up is anxiety-inducing. To a certain extent, I think that plays out in the character dynamics, but even more, I feel the ‘derelicts’ of the title are the physical embodiment of that anxiety.

Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how'd you settle on the cast getting involved in the film?
BG: We had a long and extensive casting process going right up to when we needed rehearsals to begin. It’s, in many ways, an ensemble piece so the cast has to be perfect. I’m thankful we had Alexandria Walter, our casting agent, guiding that process because it was one of the more strenuous aspects of our pre-production. I find it amusing that actors are often so nervous, because, for me at least, I’m just as nervous on my end. It’s like speed dating on crack. You’re not just looking for talent, you’re looking for compatibility. People you can work with and people who can work together. We got very lucky with the cast we got. They were a godsend.

Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
BG: The set was fun but tense. Everyone was very down with the type of film we were making, but the type of shoot it was, was often as strenuous as anything happening in the film. It was July in Texas and we had the air conditioning turned off for the sake of our audio. The air itself felt thick and sticky. We were dealing with layers of make-up and fake blood and sweat. If you didn’t have to be right at that table you were as far away from it as you could get. I think it shows in the final product in a good way. The misery on their faces was sometimes all too real. Still, there was a lot of joy and comradery. We went to battle together and came out the other side.

Me: Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
BG: I recall at night we would turn the air conditioning all the way down to 45 degrees. I opted to not stay in the house but didn’t want to schlep to set every day. I wound up living in a tent in the backyard. It was a strange side to see every morning. Me emerging from slumber right onto the set with a pipe between my teeth, I looked a fright. I lost 70 lbs during the month of shooting. Wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world, but I won’t be doing things that way ever again.

Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
BG: I’ve been writing and creating while isolating during these plague times. Working on screenplays and painting in my garage. Also creating short silly videos for an art collective called Austin Sunset Public Programming. There is something to be said for the act of creating for its own sake.