Interview: David Hackl

While you might not know his name first hand, you have experienced his work. Working as the production designer for the previous Saw films, as well as Repo! The Genetic Opera, Jigsaw’s wonderfully wicked world (or has it been Darren Bousman’s?) might have been quite different if it wasn’t for David Hackl. For Saw V he switched titles and became the director, his first directorial film. With Saw V just recently hitting DVD and Blu Ray, Killer Film catches up with the busy David Hackl for a chat. Here’s our interview:

 

Jon: Hi, thanks for speaking with us at Killer Film today.

David Hackl: Hi, how are you?

Jon: Good! Outlander opened recently; can you talk briefly about that film, since you did the production design for it?

 

Hackl: Sure, yeah. Well, what do you want to know about Outlander? Let me tell you, it was an epic experience, that’s for sure. I loved working on it; it was like being a kid again. I got to build this amazing Viking village, it was pretty outrageous! We used more lumber than I have ever had to on a single set that I built in my entire career. It was probably as much lumber as all of my movies together and on top of that, getting to build a 50 foot Viking ship from scratch was just incredible. It was a dream, I always wanted to build a ship for myself and what was crazy was that ship actually sailed! Beautifully, I might add, and in fact, the sea captain from Nova Scotia, who was our main marine wrangler, said it was one of the nicest things he ever sailed! (laughs)

 

Jon: Prior to Saw V’s opening, I asked Darren Bousman what we could expect from you and he went on about how this film is your vision and not a carbon copy of his films. Was there anything purposely you wanted to do that was different or did the different approach come from what the script gave you?

 

Hackl: Mainly the thing I wanted to do was to play on the relationships, certainly with Hoffman and Jigsaw, you can see more of that in there. I also had to, uh; personally I get drawn into a film more by the dramatic moments. I don’t think any of us are that drawn into a movie, sucked into the suspension of disbelief more because of just a car chase. It’s the relationships. We get drawn into more of that car chase because of the people and the relationships. That’s why we’re drawn into a movie because of the human relationships. I wanted to do more of that and I also wanted to give the fans more back story of how this all happened. So even with myself, working on all of these movies for all of these years, I had questions myself. How does one develop and perpetrate these traps? You know, I wanted to answer that for myself just as much as anybody. I am probably one of the biggest fans of the franchise, I don’t know if that will help… (laughs)

 

Jon: How much input did you have in the development of the script with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan?

 

Hackl: Absolutely! I had done production design on Repo! The Genetic Opera and I had left the production about a week before they finished shooting to fly to Los Angeles to meet Patrick and Marcus and really hash out the story. Matter of fact, the day Saw IV came out in the theaters; we talked with the producers at Lions Gate and Twisted Pictures and presented the idea to them. It was great. They really responded well to it and that’s how the whole process began. We spent about a week coming up with the preliminary ideas and then it was non-stop until we finished shooting and editing. The Saw movies are kind of unique in that way, you don’t leave anything alone before sending it in the can and sending it off.

 

Jon: With the quick turnaround that this series has to get the next one out, was it hard to balance elements that set-up the next film and yet still tell a self-contained and satisfying story that was Saw V?

 

Hackl: One of the things I always hoped for was that V could be a self-contained film that wasn’t just there to fill in back story on all of the others or to just set-up for the next one. Truthfully, that isn’t what we had in mind; we really wanted to make the film a solid film on its own. I know for a lot of the die-hard fans it’s a film that does support the prior films and future ones, hopefully, future ones, it was a story that was watchable on its own and I think that does come through.

 

Jon: Getting to the DVD, fans get excited when they hear horror films are uncut. Saw V has uncut footage reinserted. Does this allow you to shoot freely knowing no matter what the MPAA requests for an R rating; the film will be seen as you envisioned it?

 

Hackl: A lot of that is the producers doing. You know, really, I think people find it’s a difficult negative process with the MPAA, but I didn’t find that at all. I found them to be very supportive. Their relationship with the Saw franchise is kind of unique in that it’s an on going story and I think they understand it’s important to tell the story. I remember getting comments from them a long the lines of “we’re not asking you to destroy the story in any way, we just want certain shots in context because that really makes a difference for how people feel about them” and so they were really great to work with. I found that it wasn’t something like they were trying to destroy the picture at all. They were pretty cool about it, so I found it to be a great process with them.

 

As far as the unrated director’s cut goes, I think the producers were so pleased with what they saw in the theatrical cut that they essentially let me do what I want for the director’s cut. They left me alone! After we got the initial story together, they saw the theatrical cut and walked away from it. I was really pleased that they were really happy with my work to allow me that type of freedom.

 

Jon: With Blu Ray creeping into the mainstream, is it exciting from a production designer’s as well as from a director’s standpoint to see your work in high def or is it more stressful to make sure everything is pitch perfect because the little details can be picked up?

 

Hackl: No, I think we had such a great production team on the Saw franchise, all together the carpenters, set decorators, scenic artists are pretty amazing and if you stand there on set to the naked eye it’s pretty impressive. I was just talking to Dan Heffner the executive producer yesterday who related a story to me on how Julie Benz was walking to the set for the final trap and then she became quite physically upset just before the time we starting filming the final scene. Because it was so real to her, that she became so emotional about it. To me, that’s an excellent compliment! (laughs)

 

 

Jon: Like you said, you also worked on Repo! for which you served as a production designer, again with Darren (Bousman). He’s excited Lions Gate Films put it out on Blu Ray mostly because of your work. Can you talk about designing that film and working with that Genesis camera?

 

Hackl: Yeah, well, it’s funny because of the debate about film versus HD. As far as that goes it’s more important to tell a good story. As the medium it lays down on is important and I think as any artist, you pick your palette and you pick your tools and that does have a relationship to what the final product will be. Given the choice of telling a story or not telling a story because of budget, I would always go for telling more of a story because you were allowed more time to dabble in more material in using HD versus film, rather than to tell not much of your story for simple budget reasons. Now, I don’t think we chose the Genesis camera for budget reasons, rather for the amount of visual effects we needed to do, for the entire process of making that film and what we needed. To establish that early on was great because were could adjust the lighting; adjust the colors of the set, to make it fantastical as possible.

 

Jon: It’s a really beautiful looking movie; I just picked it up on Blu Ray as well as Saw V…

 

Hackl: Well, thanks! Thank you. You know when Darren first came to me about that idea years ago, I was excited as it was something I felt I had to do. I really had to do that movie and it always stuck in my head from the first time he told me about it. So when the opportunity came up, I was thrilled to have it. I really felt like it was one of the most fun projects I had ever worked on.

 

Jon: I asked Darren this prior to Saw V, now I’ll ask you: What can we expect from Kevin Greutert’s take on Saw franchise as he helms Saw VI?

 

Hackl: I have nothing but respect for Kevin. I think he really has brought a unique quality to the editing of all of the Saw movies, mine included. I was so thrilled to have him as an editor on my movie, because he really just understands the story, he understands the energy of this kind of story, and I think his movie is going to be as strong as all of them, maybe even better in the final editing stage, as he might have something up his sleeve he’s been holding back from all of us. I wouldn’t blame him! It’s going to be great. Kevin’s a really creative guy too, he’s got a very dark side to his personality that I appreciate, and he’s a brilliant, brilliant man.

 

Jon: Thanks a lot David Hackl, for spending time talking to me and the fans at Killer Film, I appreciated it!

 

Hackl: Great! Thanks a lot!