Wild Rivers Film Radio: Robert Mann, from Thrills to Chills – A Filmmaker’s Journey

In this episode of Wild Rivers Film Radio, host Sue Wright sits down with writer, director, and producer Robert Mann, the creative force behind R BnB and The Pumpkin Karver—two spine-tingling films lighting up local screens this Halloween. Robert shares his journey from the comedy stages of Los Angeles to the world of independent filmmaking, […]

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Greetings, cinephiles.
I'm Sue Wright, and you're listening to Wild
Rivers Film Radio,
the official podcast of the Wild Rivers Film
Festival
on KCIW
one hundred point seven
FM.
And Beth Juday is here with me today.
Thank you. Thanks.
Today, we're sitting down with writer, director, and

(00:32):
producer Robert Mann,
the creative force behind the thrillers Pumpkin Carver
and RB and B,
both screening locally
this Halloween.
You can catch them in a double feature
at the Redwood Theatre on Thursday, October 30,
and Pumpkin Carver will also play at Porta
Pint South Beach

(00:53):
on Friday, October 31.
You're listening to Wild Rivers Film Radio. I'm
Sue Wright with Bev Juday.
And today, we're talking with filmmaker Robert Mann.
So, Robert, welcome to the show. Welcome. Thank
you. Thanks for having me. Alright.
So I've been fortunate enough to,

(01:14):
I got to have dinner with you last
night. Yes. You did. And it was delicious.
So in addition to being a great filmmaker,
Robert is also a wonderful chef. Thank you.
That's the key to being a good filmmaker.
You have to feed your crew.
Good food. Yes. You are extremely talented. Thank
you. And I would love to bring some
of that out for our audience to know

(01:35):
more about your background. Oh, I thought you
meant some of the food out. Well, I'd
like some of the food too.
But I think your background is just so
fascinating,
that you've had so many different careers,
and
the way you approached it, I think it
has something that will appeal to younger audiences
as well as older audiences.

(01:57):
So backing up just a little there. Backing
up to
the beginning.
The very beginning, when I got my first
camera beginning I've been a lucky person to
start. Okay. Yeah. So,
I kind of grew up in two business.
My father was a restauranteur,
and my mother was an actor.
And so I grew up on both of

(02:18):
those. That's why I cook and that's why
I do filmmaking.
But my mother was dating a director.
And of all things, he was a horror
director too.
And
so
she would come on
set,
and she would do her things, and I
would be invited, and I've got to watch
it. And I was just kinda fascinated
with everything. And so this director gave me

(02:41):
my first camera.
And as a kid, we just started making
all these different little films and everything.
And so that's kinda how I got started
with it.
I would read lines. My mom would have
rehearsed lines, and I'd read the script and
make sure she had her lines down.
And so I just kinda got sucked into
the magic of it all.
And,

(03:01):
can I get that's probably my mother's right
now Yeah? Calling from the very issue.
But,
she,
she brought me on set, and I would
get hooked into it. And then there was
what was called pickup shots. So after principal
photography was was all done and all the
actors were away,
there was one character,
that was around 22 years old. And at

(03:24):
the time, I was probably
12,
13 ish. Mhmm. And,
he wasn't there, but they had to do
some pickup shots with him. So the director
says, well, Robert, why don't you just put
on Stanley's clothes,
and put on his pants and his and
his, shirt, and we're gonna do some shots.
And I'm thinking,
they're they're gonna know it's not this guy.

(03:47):
They're gonna know it's it's me. And he
goes, no. Don't worry. Don't worry. So he
shot really tight. And one of the things
is he goes, can you throw left handed?
And I said, yeah. I think I can
throw left handed. So I had a beer
can. I was supposed to throw a beer
can at a at a sign.
So I walked through and throw the beer
can at the sign,
hits the sign, and that was it.

(04:07):
And okay. And I'm still thinking
they're gonna know it's me. Yes. And then
he goes, okay. We're gonna do another scene.
And, you and your mother are gonna she's
gonna portray another character, Stanley's girlfriend.
You're gonna be Stanley again. But this time
you're walking drunk to up to the front
door. So, okay.
Sure. Sure. So I do that. And when

(04:28):
I saw the movie, they had shot it
so tight. You just kinda saw, you know,
the shoulder and the of the then you
saw the beer can. And then they just
shot on the feet. So you really couldn't
see
anything else. And I just thought that was
the most
wonderful magic. That's movie magic, isn't it? That's
not even that's me. Those are my feet.
That's not even him.

(04:50):
So it's kinda like, magic.
You know? So that's how I got
started. And, then I went to school.
And when I was going to college, I
was a business major at first. And I
said, I really don't want to do this
all my life. So This is kind of
boring in college.
Yeah.
And, so I thought, what do I really,
really love? Oh, I love making movies.

(05:11):
So I became a drama major,
film minor,
and, went to a couple different colleges. I
ended up at at,
ACT,
doing the summer program, the American Conservatory Theater
in San Francisco.
From there,
LA and,
my buddy who also went to ACT, we

(05:32):
did a a little theater piece called In
by eight Out by nine. We invited industry
people out,
and we set up the improv on a
Monday night when it was dark.
And so we had maybe a 100 agents
and casting directors in, and they were all
at tables. And we had
fruit and grapes and cheeses for them and
wine. You get white wine or red wine.

(05:54):
And they watched an hour of theater, left.
And one agent said to us, she goes,
God, you guys work so well together. You
should be a comedy team. There's no comedy
teams anymore. And we said, oh, okay. We
knew nothing about stand up because we're a
theater background.
So we started doing some stuff at the
improv.
And then we went to The Comedy Store

(06:15):
with Mitzi Shore.
And somebody had said, yeah, you're really not
improv comics because we were characters. Mhmm. It
was the theater background. And we were called
Piper and Tupper. And we were like Simon
and Garfunkel, only 10 times groovier.
But we thought we were wonderful rock stars,
but we're stuck in the sixties.
And our parents were born supposedly at Woodstock.

(06:37):
Oh. And we talk
really groovy like this, real soft. It's like,
right on, man. Right on. Yeah. We dig
the sun.
We dig the
rain. Yeah. And we do that, and we
come on stage, take requests, we'd mess those
up.
And all the humor was based on us
being you'd laugh at us as opposed to
us cutting down other people and stuff. Right.

(07:00):
And it was musical and it was big.
We auditioned for Mitzi because she liked those
acts.
Come off stage and she she stops us
and she says,
you are wonderful. You're like a breath of
fresh air.
So she was, I want you as non
paid regulars.
And we're going Non paid. Right? Non paid.

(07:22):
So we were all happy, and we get
out into the hallway. We're going, well, wait.
What what's a non paid regular?
So we're talking to the other comics who
were, you know, regular comic store comics. And
we said, hey. What what's a non paid
regular? They well, you call in. You get
your spots like everybody else, but you just
don't get paid.
And we said, oh, okay.
Okay. Well, that's that's alright. And we go,

(07:42):
how long does that last? And they said,
well, some you know, about two to three
years.
And we go, two to three years.
Anyway, it took us about two months before
she made us paid regulars, four months before
we'd play in the main room, and about
six months before we played in Vegas.
And so from there,
I started doing
we did comedy comedy all around, and we

(08:04):
were also then I started writing more screenplays
and stuff,
and started doing both of those. And the
first film I did was called Trapped, and
that was in 2000,
basically,
and,
wrote, directed, and and acted in that one.
Yeah. And then that just led to other
films and other shorts and
Airbnb, and The Pumpkin Carver, and

(08:26):
here we are today. Here we are today.
There you go. So
your film, Airbnb,
screened at the twenty twenty three Wild Rivers
Film Festival,
our first year.
And I have to tell you, it kept
me on the edge of my seat. Good.
It was very good. It starts out with
this couple celebrating their anniversary

(08:47):
at a fairly isolated bed and breakfast, and
things get dark from there. Yes, it does.
Yes.
So,
I'm interested. What what,
inspired that story?
I could be really creative and tell you,
oh,
but I'm not. I'm gonna tell you the
truth. The truth of the matter was and

(09:08):
remember when we were doing,
the workshops,
and I think I was talking to some
of the students about you wanna work backwards.
So in other words, what resources do you
have?
How much money do you think you can
get? And what is your target audience? And
what Mhmm. Is the marketplace? What is that?
So in this one, I kind of worked

(09:28):
backwards.
I knew that I wanted I was trying
to make another feature. And I knew I
had x amount of money, not a lot.
And the house, the main house where the
Airbnb is,
I had gone there a couple years earlier
just to stay there. And we were shooting
in that area in in Upper New York
in Cold Spring.
And
the, lady said, listen, if you ever come

(09:50):
back here, you can use the house, the
property, and etcetera, etcetera. Which is a real
gift. When you're Huge. Yes. Very nice. When
you get your location. And you don't have
I don't know. Did you have to pay
for this? Yeah. I paid for it, but
very, very little, pennies on the dollar. And
we got to stay there. So not only
did I use the house for the for
the shoot, but we also got to stay

(10:10):
there. About four of us got to stay
there. And we cooked it there too. We
cooked the for catering.
Now sometimes there were kitchen sinks and when
we had the kitchen sinks, okay, Gloria, you
gotta get out. Can I get out? Because
Gloria, who was in it,
she was also the cater.
Okay. And she goes, Well, I still clean
you up. Okay. Clean up. Okay. Now we
gotta switch it now to
the shot.

(10:32):
So
worked backwards from that, and,
I knew what the target audience was going
to be, knew how much money, like I
said,
and,
wanted to do a thriller
and have minimal characters. And I thought that
location and everything that I could get, it
was perfect.
And so that's that's how it all came

(10:54):
about.
The creative aspect, once I knew that, I
said, okay. And I was reading about Airbnbs
and how a lot of people were being
spied on and stuff like that. Then I
said, oh, this is perfect because the location
is secluded like you had said.
And,
it was perfect. It's just all the pieces
fell in place. And I think a lot

(11:15):
of us
who use Airbnbs are always worried about that
camera in the bathroom. Ocean. The bedroom. Yes.
You get all those
crazy hot spots we all have when we
go someplace like that. Yeah. Yeah.
And I just read another article
last few months about another They found another
camera and another
Airbnb and something.

(11:37):
And you did some tricks with the lighting.
Do you wanna share any of that or
is that a trade secret for you? No.
It's not a trade secret. But what part
of the lighting is specific to your painting?
About how when we were in some of
the scenes that were darker, the lighting was
physically darker.
So while the content was
either negative or scarier. Right. I think you're

(11:59):
probably referring to the scene where the guy
walks into the the room, the darkroom, just
the computer screens are illuminated.
So in essence, very little lighting. A lot
of it was,
practical lighting coming from the computer screens. I
think we had a little bit of,
some diffusion,
but not a whole lot. And so the
elimination of the characters' faces would come from

(12:22):
the screens because we had a bunch of
different screens that he was going through.
So so that was it. And then I
think I colorized it just a little bit.
The film gets kind of,
well, it gets it gets a little darker
as it goes on. It starts out bright
and sunny. They come to this Airbnb. Everything's
sunny. And then it starts getting darker and

(12:43):
darker and darker.
And then we had the the rains and
stuff. So,
yeah, that's tricky. Yeah. Yeah. It set that
mood
as an audience member.
Yeah. It was almost
as though
I were really there. And I'm thinking about
the scene where the two ladies are sitting
in, I don't wanna give anything away here,

(13:04):
but they're sitting at the river together. Oh,
right. And
it gets darker and darker.
Like, physically, the light changed a little,
but it was,
it was like the scene around them got
a little blurrier.
Yeah. The, More intense. That scene, the, the
waterfall scene, we call it, and where,

(13:26):
Mia and Aubrey are are having their conversation.
We had a nice waterfall in the background.
That actually, we had to shoot it at
a certain time because there was tree growth
on one side, tree growth on the other,
and it was almost getting to be like
a canopy. So the river ran through it
or high stream, I should say.
And the waterfall was in the background, so
it was a beautiful shot. You know, you

(13:47):
have two subjects here, and you're shooting here,
the waterfall behind you. And we had to
wait for the sun to come up almost
where the gap was so we could illuminate
them.
And so we had it only a couple
hours to make sure we got those shots.
And then it does, like you said, would
get a little darker.
Yeah. But once they got home, then it
really that's when
everything hit the fan. Screens were the Yeah.

(14:09):
That's when all that started happening. Yeah. So
Pump and Carver predates
Airbnb for you, right?
Yes. So and it's a horror film. It
is. That is like a horror film.
Tell us what sets up a horror film.
What makes it a horror film as opposed
to a thriller like Airbnb?
I think the the horror films and my
knock on the on the pumpkin carver from

(14:30):
a lot of die hard horror fans
is that
there's not all this nudity in it. There's
not, you know, all these, you know, more
disgusting blood in it. I mean, I have
about four, five, six, whatever it is, killings
in it. You know? And but
that's one of it. A lot of blood,
a lot of guts,

(14:51):
sex,
you know, nudity.
And
so that's one of the thing. And then
slasher films are even more so. Slasher films
are just
all out there.
Thrillers are more, I think, psychological.
They keep you on the edge of your
seat. They're not as graphic
per se.
Whereas the horror fans now they cross over.

(15:13):
Some of them cross over a little bit.
Yes. But,
for the most part and when we're talking
What makes a good horror film for you?
I mean, going back to, like, Bella Lugosi
and, you know, I used to make my
younger brother stay up with me to watch
those old horror films in black and white,
and he would just be so scared, and
I think that was so funny. So, for

(15:35):
both of you, who are your favorite, like,
old time horror
films? Oh, really old ones. Yeah.
The classic
shower scene, Alfred Hitchcock. Oh, yeah. Psycho. Yes.
The Mummy.
The Mummy.
Yeah. I used to watch old, because when
I was in film school, I would watch,
Dracula, Bela Lugosi, you know, Frankenstein

(15:58):
with,
Boris Karloff. Yeah. Lon Chaney Jr, The Wolf
Man. So I kind of grew up seeing
all those. And then, of course, then you're
into
Psycho, then you get into The Screams,
and,
you know, Texas Chainsaw.
Oh, yeah. You know, all of those Halloween,
Halloween five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
twelve, 13, 13, 14, 15, you know, all

(16:18):
those.
But they've gotten much more graphic as they've
gotten older. But to get back,
what makes it a good one for me
is I like the character development. That's why
I like Psycho so much because that character,
Perkins,
you get to see his
transformation.
Yes. So I like horror films with a

(16:39):
strong,
character
and a strong story. In addition, you can
have all the the scares and and all
that other stuff in the blood if you
want. Mhmm. But I'm more character driven and
I'm more story driven,
than
effects driven.
Can you give us just a snippet about
Pumpkin Carver for our audience? Yeah. Pumpkin Carver

(17:02):
is about,
a guy
who,
is basically
he does this deed. I don't wanna give
the word way that Right. Anybody does this
deed, and he's haunted by this evil spirit
that in a way infuses
him. And all of a sudden,
these people,

(17:22):
are being killed at a Halloween party. It
all takes place on a on a Halloween
night.
Most of it, I should say. And, they're
at a Halloween party and all of a
sudden,
people start being killed, and their faces are
carved as jack o'-lanterns.
Oh.
And that's you know, and we stick candles
in their mouths, and they're dead, and, you
know, they're all carved up. The the poster,

(17:43):
First Look, who distributed the film. It's a
pretty gory poster.
Right.
The poster,
underneath it, you see the tagline, it says,
every face is a work of art. Uh-huh.
Oh, boy. And so that was it. And
that one stars Minka Kelly. So Minka
this was before she was a big star.
It was right before, I mean, literally right

(18:05):
before we were shooting it and then she
got Friday Night Lights and stuff. So our
audiences have lots of reasons to come out
and see these two films, including the fact
that you're going to be there to do
Q and A's, right? I'll be there Q
and A. I'm gonna be dressing up as
Dracula, Count Dracula. Oh, perfect.
And so, everybody's gotta come. They gotta dress
up. We got prizes, right? We got the
prizes. Right? Yeah. I want you to tell

(18:26):
our audience a little bit more about what
to expect at the Redwood on Thursday, October
30.
Well, with your guys' help, and we're doing
it with Wild Rivers,
and in conjunction with you guys and everything.
And so I think at 05:00, we start
our our Halloween costume contest. Right? Okay. So
we'll do the red carpet. We'll have all
that. And I think we all will be

(18:48):
judges,
and we'll figure out the top three.
Right. And I've got,
scripts that I'm going to be signing of
the pumpkin car our shooting script, our actual
shooting script that I have.
There's some DVDs for Airbnb,
some posters, I believe, of Airbnb that we're
gonna give away. Great prizes for our cinephiles
out there. Right? Yeah. Exactly.

(19:08):
So they should come
Sure.
Being very creative about their costuming.
The more creative, the better, the better they
can win. I went to a Halloween costume
one time, and I thought this was the
most incredible costume. Some person came
as the statue not Statue Of Liberty, as,
as the Empire State Building.
But it was all lit up. He had

(19:29):
the lights and it all teared, and he
had helicopters flying around and King Kong climbing
up. I love it. I go, That's a
great costume.
That's a really cool costume. So they don't
have to be scary. They don't have to
be slasher
characters. Whatever you want to do. Okay.
Yeah. So come on out. And it's a
double feature. And it's a double feature.

(19:50):
So you get if you get both double
features, if you if you pay for both
double features, we're really slashing, slashing, slashing.
We're slashing it folks.
Slashing the price, I think it's like $13.
If you get just wanna see one film,
you can see one film for the regular
price of $9.
Okay. But it's a bargain if you get
the double feature. Perfect. Yeah. And the $13

(20:13):
is Friday the thirteenth kind of thing. It
I guess it will. Yes. Very unlucky thirteenth.
Yeah. I guess it is. I never even
thought about that, but
good. Spooky. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. And then you're going to go the
next night.
The next night is Porta Pints, and that's
in Crescent City, correct? Yes. Yes. It is.
South Beach. South Beach.

(20:34):
Okay. Yes. So we're doing that. We're doing
a screening there
at, and you guys know more about that
than than me, the the actual location and
everything. I just visited it yesterday. Yes. It's
down in Crescent City,
and it's Porta Pines. They will have food
trucks there,
and most of the exciting things that always
happen at Porta Pines will be going on,

(20:55):
but after the show. So if someone wants
to throw an ax, it'll be after the
show. And they have music as well. And
they will have three or four different bands
will be playing that night, so it's really
gonna be a fun evening. You can come
in costume if you'd like.
There will be some door prizes and exciting
things like that,

(21:16):
and lots of libations.
Lots of libations. Yes. Mhmm. Yeah. And,
so we have the thirtieth at the Redwood.
Right. And we're doing the double feature thirtieth
at the Redwood for the costume contest and
Yes. All sorts of fun things. And then
the thirty first on Halloween,
we get drunk and throw axes at each
other. It's been a while. It's been a

(21:36):
while. It's been a while. It's been a
while. It's been a fun time there too.
But you're gonna get, you know, your ax
throwing lesson on the carver flick. Right. Yeah.
Perfect. You'll be prepared.
So before we go, I want to talk
just a little bit about your new project.
So you've done comedy, you've done horror, you've
done
thrillers, but your new project is none of

(21:58):
those. None of those. No. So what can
you tell us about Kissing Raindrops? Kissing Raindrops,
and
you've read the script. I have. So it's
wonderful. I don't think they have I don't
know what you wanna tell us about Kissing
Raindrops. Kissing Raindrops, it's a drama, and it
was inspired
by a feature of mine called Beloved Wife.
And Beloved Wife is about a guy. If

(22:20):
you ever, and Beloved Wife was inspired by
the Natalie Merchant song called Beloved Wife. So
I heard that song, and I went, oh,
God. This is just so
emotional and moving. You know, it'd make a
great screenplay.
So I From that I wrote Beloved Wife
and it's about a guy who loses his
wife after fifty years of marriage
and his struggles in dealing with that emotional

(22:42):
loss.
And,
so I wrote the screenplay.
And right now we're trying to get it
out to,
people like Russell Crowe,
Jeff Bridges. Our remember, we're trying to contact
him right now. Their agent has that. And
we're trying to get a a good star,
of that age attached to it.

(23:04):
And so what we're doing with Kissing Raindrops,
a director photographer friend of mine, Matt Espinciay,
came up to me, and he had just
bought a 16 millimeter camera. And he says,
Rob, you have a short that we can
shoot?
And I said, No.
And I said, But let me think about
something. So I thought, Hey, you know what?
If I condensed and changed Beloved Wife a

(23:26):
little bit, you'd make a nice little emotional
short
and changed a few little things. And that's
what we did. So going from,
let's say, a 115
page screenplay to a 23
page screenplay,
condensed it, changed a few things,
and that's how that came about. And so

(23:47):
I thought, God, this is gonna be a
really nice thing. And then I can use
that short
to help pitch Beloved Wife.
So when we start going in that direction
with investors and stuff like that, we can
say, hey, look. This is what Beloved Wife
is gonna look like. It's gonna have the
same emotional content, the same vibe and feel
of Kissing Raindrops. Now, you're dealing with some
pretty

(24:08):
strong issues
in Kissing Raindrops.
Yes.
One of them
is the right to die, in a sense,
assisted suicide.
And because you've got this person who's so
distraught,
and
he's partially paralyzed at this point in his

(24:29):
life.
And,
because of a situation
after his wife or fiance dies. And,
and he's just doesn't wanna live anymore. He
wants to be with her.
This character,
Francis, who I'm actually gonna play the lead
in this one, is just too good of
a role for an actor to pass up.

(24:49):
Yes. I really thought about It is a
good role. Yeah. I really thought about farming
it out
and just focus on that. But I said,
you know what? This is just a great
challenging role.
And so,
I thought, yeah, this would be great. And,
but he's very emotional. And,
he's in that place where his whole focus

(25:10):
has been about
this new love of his life that he
that he's found.
And,
in a way, it's a it's a one
dimensional character. The other character is much more
faceted.
But his
objective is just all about her and that's
the whole issue.
And I don't know if you've ever had
anybody that
you've loved a lot. I went through a

(25:31):
divorce and I kind of
felt the same way that Frances felt. Loss
and grief, right? Yeah. And, I was actually
in a forty eight hour lockdown
because it was really bad news for me.
But Wow. Yeah. It was just
really, you know, sad. Okay. And then
yeah. But but,
you know, I I know

(25:53):
where he's coming from. Mhmm. Because when you
do that, you don't you just think about
you just wanna be with that per that
you want to stop the pain. It's really
about the pain.
Okay. And so that's why it's so emotional.
We're waiting anxiously for it. So maybe at
the twenty twenty six Mild Rivers Film Festival.
That's what we're gearing for.

(26:13):
We're going to need to wrap it up
here. We're out of time. It's been awesome.
Wow.
For any of our audience that's just tuning
in, this is Wild Rivers Film Radio on
KCIW
one hundred point seven f FM. I'm Sue
Wright with Bev Juday, and we've been talking
with Robert Mann.

(26:34):
If you want to know more, you can
find us on wild rivers film festival dot
com or our Wild Rivers Film Festival verified
page on Facebook and Instagram.
See you next time. Thank you all very
much. Appreciate it. My pleasure.
Yes. It was fun, Rob. Yeah, it's great.
Just loved it.