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Ansel Faraj writes about making OLD FRIENDS:OLD FRIENDS is a strap yourself in roller coaster ride of a movie! An Action/Crime Thriller made by student filmmakers, it tells the story of Detective Adam Sera, and his relentless search for a psychotic killer known as 'The Eye Snatcher'. It all starts on a normal, everyday morning. On his way to work, Det. Sera (Mihran Konanyan) comes across Josh Briggs (Kevin Shayer), who has been mutilated by the Eye Snatcher.
What starts off as another routine investigation suddenly takes a turn for the bizarre, as the Eye Snatcher (Matthew Greene) begins to attack Det. Sera directly, first by leaving a warning message written on Josh's body, and then by kidnapping Sera's younger sister Emma (Vivian Brasch). Faced with only 24 hours to find her before she will be murdered by the Eye Snatcher, Sera and his boss, Sgt. Craig Hargroves (Linden Chiles) must gather clues from Josh in order to track down the Eye Snatcher's hiding place, to find Emma.
But when the Eye Snatcher orders Sera to meet him at the Santa Monica Pier, and new startling information is revealed to the stressed detective - Sera must use all his emotional strength and detective skills to find Emma before its too late!
The film was shot over a six-month period, beginning in February of 2010, and ending in late August. Using friends from college, Director Ansel Faraj fashioned a story in the old ticking time bomb style, and shot it guerilla style on locations, with just a few blue screen scenes, which were shot in the director's garage. "You can't go to the movies today without seeing a trailer for an action movie", says Director Faraj "they're just everywhere, and they keep getting more and more elaborate. So we decided to try to make an action movie on a limited budget - make it really tight and psychological and intense, and see if we could pull it off and have it be just as good as anything you would see at a multiplex, without being superficial and pretentious. It was really an experiment."
The film's hand held cinematography was designed to visualize the characters frenzied angst, and the color desaturated to a harsh white/blue "the color of dead skin" says Director Faraj. "There are a lot of elements in the film, there's a bit of noir, a bit of drama, and a lot of action. I wanted the film to constantly keep building on itself so that by the end of the film the audience is just as frantic as the characters on the screen. What really inspired the whole thing was the idea of the backstory behind a superhero and his archenemies, you know like who were they before their current predicament? Did they just happen to meet in action, or did they go way back together..? You think of Batman and the Joker, Superman and Lex Luthor, its all comic book lore, so what would happen in a real life setting? What would the superhero and super-villain be represented as? And then the answer is obvious - Detective and Serial Killer."
The film includes a cast of professionals and newcomers. Mihran Konanyan who plays the distressed detective has worked with Ansel Faraj previously on eight films over the years: "I was really hard on him, I kept making him rehearse and rehearse and do take after take after take, and make him jump up and down in between takes just to get him into a really agitated, frustrated mood. And he had a really tough job having to keep it balanced between over-the-top and natural, as well as having to go back to certain moods since we shot out of order off and on for six months. But I think he did a really good job."
Matthew Greene who plays Lucas Deschamp, the deranged killer had been friends with the director as far back as Junior High School: "Matthew is completely unlike his character in the film. In real life he's a timid nice guy, but in this he's bloodthirsty and just a thrill to watch! I gave him THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER to watch and he came in and did his stuff and was just fantastic. Also, he was shot at a separate time than the rest of the cast, so we used that as part of his character. We looked at him as a very isolated, very bitter man, with this long-term rage just boiling under the surface. And finally one day he acted on his rage and liked it, him killing someone is his release. So he did it again, and then when he found that Adam was the lead detective on his case, a plan formed in his mind. He's so creepy, he's psychotic, but so calm. It's totally unnerving - I never would have thought he would have it in him!".
As Sgt. Craig Hargroves, Director Faraj knew he needed someone very calm and rational and wise - character actor Linden Chiles fit the bill: "I knew Linden through a mutual friend, and we had just finished THREE SHADOWS together, and I said 'Hey Linden, have you ever done an action film?' and he said not really, so I gave him the script, and he liked it and that was pretty much that. He showed up on set, and we really didn't discuss the character much and I said 'Action!' and he shoved Mihran up against the wall and proceeded to berate him, and I knew he had it. He's the anchor that keeps everyone from completely loosing it - well, maybe".
The part of Josh Briggs was written with Kevin Shayer in mind: "We met at school, and became friends, and we then went off and made a Gothic Horror film, [THREE SHADOWS] together and during the time we were working on that, I was writing OLD FRIENDS and wrote him the part - I thought it would be interesting to see him as a helpless bystander that's caught up in this whirlwind of insanity - he's almost the voice of the audience in a way. The film opens with his being mutilated, and we as an audience experience that with him, so from then on throughout the rest of the film, we're constantly on edge, we don't know when something bad is going to happen, and we're helpless to do anything, and Josh represents all of this as a character, so you need a really good actor to represent this. Plus he's hopped up on meds, so he's out of it for the majority of the film, and yet he's able to provide Adam with all these clues, so it's a subtly challenging role. And Kevin did a great job of taking all of these elements and really forming them into a believable character.".
And as Emma - Director Ansel Faraj chose another old friend of his from high school: "Vivian was absolutely perfect for the role. She captures just the right amount of innocence that Emma has. The whole film, everyone is sort of painted in varying shades of gray, but she is completely white - she's the light in this dark fragmented world. And you can really believe that she and Mihran are brother and sister - they have that believable chemistry. You sit through the film, hoping along with the characters that Adam will find her in time, you feel frightened for her - she's perfect in the role, that's all I can say."
All in all, OLD FRIENDS is an exciting film to watch. Fast paced and intense, the film asks each member of the audience a disturbing question: When you reach your boiling point, how much blood will be on your hands? Whether it's a psychotic madman, a frustrated detective, or a terrified young woman, we all have the potential for darkness and rage hidden inside. It just takes a moment for it to come out, and in the end, every action has a consequence that everyone must face.
