An accomplished writer and director on the heels of several notable short films, Monte Light is preparing to step into the feature-length world with his debut feature Blood Covered Chocolate. Now, in honor of its release, I talk with him about his early interest in filmmaking, starting work in the industry, and the making of the film.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
Monte Light: My first experience with film and filmmaking was when I was five, as an actor in front of the camera. That was the moment I fell in love. Knew I wanted to work in this crazy industry. Growing up, I watched any and all kinds of films, all genres, from every era. It became my obsession, and still is. Horror and thrillers took center stage pretty discreetly, at first. I was always attracted to the darker stories. I find them far more psychologically complex. I also have a love for surrealist art, and horror is a modern bent on that. Fantasia, fable, dream theory, all of that is explored in horror films. The first horror movie I ever watched was Jack Clayton’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, and it was the perfect gateway for a small kid. It was spooky, macabre, fantastically acted, asking the tough questions about the price of happiness, and it had Pam Grier. I couldn’t shake that film, and I fell in love with the fact that I couldn’t shake it.
Me: Where did you get the urge to go into directing? What aspect of this industry appeals to you?
ML: I kept coming back around to the storytelling aspect. It was a quick and natural evolution, realizing that my true passion was in bringing my own stories to the screen, and putting my own thoughts and emotions out there. But it’s not just textual. That’s only a part of the brilliance of movies. It’s a multi-faceted medium, encompassing everything from graphic design to choreography. That makes it the perfect art form, in my opinion, which is why so many people around the world love movies. And, it’s a visual medium, with its own distinct language. Movies weren’t invented with words in mind. That’s important to remember. They tap into something primal, universal. I love the universality of the visual language, so I knew my ultimate place was as a director.
Me: When you entered the University of Northern Colorado for your studies, was there any kind of push towards a specific style or format? What have you taken that is still employed on shoots today?
ML: My degree from school was in acting and theater. That education was invaluable because it taught me how to talk to actors. At the end of the day, movies are nothing without the depth of emotion captured in a person’s face. If movies are like dreams, the characters in the movies are the dreamers. An audience has to see themselves in those dreamers, otherwise, there’s no reason to take the ride. I also fell in love with the great playwrights in college. Shakespeare, definitely. That man made so many horror stories; witches in Macbeth, ghosts in Hamlet, and wizards in The Tempest. Also, Samuel Beckett and David Mamet taught me so much about the human condition, and the various absurdities of our lot in life. Another kind of horror story, really. Theatricality is still important to me, using techniques distinct to filmmaking. And horror is the most theatrical genre in movies. People love that about it. Look at the history of the genre. Horror brings people into the theater because the nature of horror justifies itself on the big screen.
Me: With plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to future film projects?
ML: The only real way to become a filmmaker is to make films. It’s that simple. So I picked up my first camera, which I got for Christmas when I was fifteen, and just started filming things. Started working with my high school friends. We learned effective and efficient ways to express ourselves. Tried anything and everything we could think of. I remember in my first short film, I wanted the effect of someone traveling down a spinning hallway. Very expressionistic, but how to get it? We used the old camcorder’s night vision, while the camera filmed itself on an old tube TV, that we hooked up using those classic three-pins. The repeated image looked exactly like a lighted hallway, with the night vision obscuring the shape of the camera itself. Then we spun the camera three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, while the actor reached his hand out to the TV in the foreground. We then did a slow zoom on our lens and converted the whole image to black-and-white in post. And that experimentation has never changed over the last twenty-some years. I’m still learning new ways to use the camera, every time.
Me: Comparing your work in these projects to now, how would you say your skill and style has evolved over time?
ML: When I started making short films, digital technology was only just making its way into the hands of independent filmmakers. Since then, there's been an explosion, not just in the capabilities of the technology, but also in the cost. Once I shot a short on the FILMiC Pro iPhone for the first time, (shooting in 4K), I realized the modern aesthetic had truly arrived. Since then, I've been interested in how our 21st Century-version of voyeurism, (government surveillance, social media, YouTube), affects our perception of reality. I love expressing the existential crisis inherent in modern telecommunication. That DNA is in Blood Covered Chocolate. There is a sequence that utilizes both color and black-and-white on a video conference call, reflecting how we perceive the reality we've created in the digital space as colorful, essentially more "real" than the reality we live in, which in this case is a stark, gritty black-and-white.
Me: That brings us to your latest film, "Blood Covered Chocolate." What can you tell us about the project Where did the inspiration for the film come from? Were there any unique stories about its conception?
ML: Blood Covered Chocolate began from a personal place. One was a huge shift in my personal life, where I finally admitted I was powerless against alcohol. This was the first movie I made completely sober, and I wanted to explore the dark depths you fall into when dealing with an overpowering addiction. The most interesting metaphor I thought of for addiction is vampirism, and its inherent psychological ramifications of syphoning life off another person in order to feed your habit, so to speak. Classically speaking, vampires have the ability to shape-shift, sometimes assuming pleasing or manipulative forms to get what they want. Again, another metaphor for the mind games an addict plays to justify their dependency. Vampirism. It became the right aesthetic and theme I wanted to explore. This is the most personal film I’ve ever made. Exploring the theme of addiction through vampirism gave me a chance to work through some stuff through. That’s part of why film is powerful and horror is so necessary. It shows us the darkest parts of ourselves and lets us fight our internal monsters.
Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how'd you settle on the cast getting involved in the film? What were you looking for to help flesh out the characterizations you envisioned?
ML: I had a distinct idea in my head about the type of actor needed for each character. I was floored by the incredible work of our lead, Michael Klug, playing the protagonist Massimo. He was cast very close to our shoot, with only six days to prepare, and he was in every scene. The man brought it. He is stunning in the film, and he's the one who makes it all resonate. Everyone in the cast is incredible. Meghan Deanna Smith, Christine Nguyen, Helene Udy, Debra Lamb, Joe Altieri, Jamie Tran, and Mike Ferguson, they all embodied these complex characters so completely. It made telling this psychologically dark story a pleasure, and we were all having fun being horrible, so to speak. These actors have faces that sing for black-and-white, that have a very kitchen-sink realism air about them. That kind of lived in detail makes the supernatural aspects of the story feel more real for the audience, helping them connect to an otherwise surreal narrative.
Me: With the film being shot in black-and-white and featuring a heavy influence from the classic “Nosferatu,” how did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
ML: They were so excited to go on an unusual journey. It's interesting. I remember the first meeting I ever had with the wonderful actress Meghan Deanna Smith, who plays the female vampire Sofia in the film. I remember telling her the movie would be like “Nosferatu for the digital age” with tints of red, blue, and sometimes color along with the black-and-white, and explaining my subjective camera and continuous shot ideas, all the while flipping through page after page of the storyboards I had drawn for the movie. She just smiled and said something along the lines of “I’m all for working on a movie with a director who actually thinking about making a good movie.” That was a tremendously satisfying moment when the other person connects to the vision in your head.
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
ML: I was constantly in awe of the depth of talent in my cast and crew. My producing partner and cinematographer on the film, Neal Tyler, was so meticulous and in sync with my vision. Sometimes we would be setting up shots, and we would need to figure out how we wanted to approach the lighting. We would just look at each other and say something like, "Black Cat," [referencing the Japanese movie Kuroneko from 1968], and we would just immediately be on the same page regarding what we needed to do. The cast would sometimes joke that we were speaking a foreign language around them. Guess that’s kinda true.
Me: What are you most looking forward to in getting the film released and out to the masses?
ML: I'm excited to see how people react to the movie. I've always considered myself a pretty experimental guy who loves surreal stories about monsters, misfits, and criminals. There are hidden layers to this film, which I've seen people pick up on from our premiere and festival screenings we've taken it to. And there's an emotional intelligence quality to it that I think springs from the personal headspace I was in dealing with my recovery. I love the fact that the film is expressionistic, but audiences are still "getting" the story, because there's a heart to it, at the end of the day. If it helps people realize they can overcome the vampires of the modern world, that makes me happy.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
ML: I’m about to shoot my next feature in a few weeks! I can’t share any details but stay tuned because you’ll be seeing more of me soon!
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