An Interview with Writer/Director, Daniel Bogran
Roger Crow talks to the US screenwriter and filmmaker Daniel Bogran about his feature debut, The Killing Moon.
Daniel, congratulations on The Killing Moon, a great twisty-turny thriller. How did you come to make it?
Thanks. I had been working on this other script that I was struggling with. And in the process of that, I kind of put that down because I thought I wouldn’t even be able to really get it made if I perfected it, just due to budgetary reasons and resources and things like that. So I started trying to focus on trying to do something that was very, very pared down. I resisted this for a long time, honestly, because I just thought like, ‘Oh, it’s hard to make a good movie like that. There’s just no way that’s going to be possible’. And that kind of thing. But then I got this idea to do something with these three characters. And I just got all of it at once. It was really, really bizarre because I don’t want to say it came to me in a dream exactly. But I did wake up one morning and I had this idea. And I don’t know if it was actually during the dream or kind of that weird state after you’re waking up. You know, you’re a little foggy. And I just wrote down this idea and didn’t think much of it until I took a look again. It was like, ‘Oh, that’s actually pretty good. And maybe I’ll start writing something like this’. And it kind of went from there
“Good spirit”
Was it quite a leap from making short films to making a full-length feature?
Definitely. Yeah, for sure. The feature was a lot more exhausting. You know, it was like it was a whole other animal really. But it was an amazing time. Kind of it was difficult, too, though. You know, it’s a lot of days and a lot of sort of mental exhaustion. But a lot of fun, too. Yeah, it’s a completely different experience. At least it was for me.
And how did you keep the energy levels up on set, because I imagine that’s always quite tricky?
Definitely. Part of that had just had to do with hiring the right people around me; having people that just had a really good spirit. Like the entire cast and crew talked about it constantly on set. Usually, there’s really annoying people, but this time, it really worked out. Just the vibes were great with everybody. Yeah, I think that’s just a big part of it, is just having the right people around you for the project.
“Finding audiences”
Tell us a bit about the soundtrack and the sound itself, because I love that.
Yeah, that’s just again about hiring really amazing people around you. The score took some figuring out actually, because originally we tried going down this other path of a more conventional thriller sound, and more ‘Hitchcocky’ violins and things like that, and it just didn’t feel right. So after a while, we had this other idea of just like, ‘Why don’t we do something more percussive and more fitting with the environment?’. Then my friend, who was a composer on the film; he’s actually a high school friend, ended up sending me some stuff that I was just blown away by. That sounded fresh, it sounded different, and yeah, we just got really excited by it.
It’s a fantastic time to be a young filmmaker, especially with what’s happened in the last few weeks with films like Obsession and Backrooms. What’s your take on the YouTubers that seem to be taking over Hollywood?
It’s awesome. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for in a way. I’ve had discussions with other friends of mine that are filmmakers, and everybody’s pretty excited about it. And I just hope that things go more towards that direction and that kind of filmmaking. It’s great to see these low-budget movies that are creative, that are really finding audiences and capturing everybody. That’s really what you want to see, especially after the last decade or so of movies. We could stand something else, I think. So it’s great.
The full version of this interview can be found at podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nostalgiahhh
Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast
