Exclusive: Director talks the serial killer film, JON
Playing in a select number of Texas theaters, is William Instone’s directorial debut, JON. Surely, the name is coincidental to me, Killer Film’s Senior Writer, but hey, JON is a serial killer film with my name, you damn right it piqued my curiosity. Joking aside, Killer Film catches up with writer/director William Instone and we chat about the independent film. Read on!
Jon: Can you explain the origins of JON?
William Instone: Yeah, that’s a good story man. It’s based off of a real character, a real friend of mine. Jon Sloan is the character’s name, and of course, a toilet is named a John and the name Sloan was came to me when I was taking a leak. The idea came from a short I wanted to do about a guy picking up a drag queen. It just grew from there, and as I was writing, all these ideas kept coming up. I didn’t leave my house until I had the script done.
Jon: Texas has always been known for their great independent movie scene from Tobe Hooper in the ‘70s to Rodriguez now, to even little Emily Haggins. Can you talk about how Jon was financed and made?
Instone: There’s was no financing. I had to do it 100% myself. I got my money from working in the strip club as the DJ. I had a donation jar up there and the strippers tipped me (laughs). I took me a year-and-a-half to raise the budget and a small donation from my dad. That was it. I didn’t get any support from the Texas film community here because I was an outsider. What happened was, when I had the script done and wanted to talk to possible financiers, they wanted to revise the script and have nothing to do with me. I turned them down because I wrote to direct.
Jon: Parker Dash plays Jon and you play his imaginary friend, Blackie. Can you explain the dynamic you two had?
Instone: He’s from Louisiana and I never met him. I basically got everyone off of Craigslist, with the exception of a few. He applied to the ad, and by then everyone I was looking at was too handsome or something, that wasn’t right for Jon. He could act, and he has some Youtube videos, I liked what I saw, and he said he’d drive to Texas. So I hired him on the spot. I was worried too, I didn’t audition this guy and I hope I had chemistry with him! We had about 70% of the script improvised.
Jon: The supporting cast is really interesting. Bill Johnson [Texas Chainsaw Massacre II], Lloyd Kaufman [Troma], so I imagine there was some good stories getting those guys involved.
Instone: Yeah! I had Lloyd first. He inspired me to make movies, since I had his book Make Your Own Damn Movies. He was screening Poultrygiest at the Alamo Drafthouse and I went there, talked to him, had him sign the book, and he said since he inspired me, he’d be in the movie. A year later, I ran back into him in Houston at a con and told him I was shooting soon, gave him the script, and he said yes. Talked to his people and got him in there.
Bill was sort of the same thing. I was at another con in Austin, and I love Texas II, so I went up to him and said “I got this part for a priest I thought you would be perfect for.” He said I’ll let you know after I read the script and I didn’t hear back from him for like a month. Out of the blue, he called me and loved the script and said he would be in it. Everything was magically falling into place, it was crazy man.
Jon: You said in another interview, that film school was by doing, can you explain the ups and downs of filming an independent movie?
Instone: (laughs) I liked to work small. The pros go in, set up, get their shots. I just like to go in and shoot, since even without permits, nobody messes with you down here. That’s the pros, the cons are that we were the crew, the lighting, the cleaners. There’s more pros than cons in my opinion, because it’s easier to fund, to film, less people to pay and feed. I’m still working on sound and if I was going to do it differently, I would’ve had a sound guy, for sure.
We’re cleaning up the sound, doing the festival thing for a few months, before I even look at DVD distribution, just so I can see how it plays and the reaction is to it.
Jon will be screening in Texas soon, with festival run to follow. Keep it here for more news!
