I believed in them and I knew they would be something, who knew it would be something this quick, but we stuck with them and they stuck with us and me and Antonio revisited the script and took an approach the focused on the character and the main characters’ dilemma.
We stripped down a lot of the bigger genre convention and the bigger set pieces that had to do with the drug operation - but it worked because it was a great lesson in storytelling and economically because we found what was really important for this movie.
We ended up making the movie for $1 million and my mother came in for 10% and Danny came in for 10% and then we had an investor who was coming in for close to half the money - a few other investors got involved before one of the producers, Jen Gatien, brought the last piece.
So it was about six private equity investors, including my mother and one of the producers, so it was a real home spun situation and it paid off. It has been a rewarding film I think for anyone.
It was a struggle and then economic climate hit in October 2008, that was when we were trying to raise all of the money, so it was crazy but we did what we had to do to get the movie made. We had the commitment of these great actors but it was life or death for me to do this.
* You shot the film in January 2009, two years after Eisenberg first attached himself to the movie, how difficult was it to keep him with the project?
I like to say that it was easy because working with Jesse is so easy and so enjoyable but I always felt the pressure personally on keeping his focus and interest in the project and trying to encourage him to make the film his own as much as it was mine - he is the leading man; he is every moment of Holy Rollers.
I wanted him to feel that responsibility and enjoy it and he did and we have gone on to become good friends and have spent a lot of time together working on the material making it stronger and more specific to out voices. He became a real partner in making this movie - he was an awesome collaborator.
* The movie is very much told through the perspective of Sam so what influenced the decision to tell the story in first person?
Well I love telling films from point of view and I love telling films through the perspective of character - for me as a director it tells with everything; where to go with the story, where to go with the scenes, where to go with the tone and the visualisation of the film.
It certainly may be something that I grow away from but my next film is that and the best of films are really from one character’s perspective.
So it was a personal choice of mine but at the same time it was the way to do this film on such a low budget that captures such a big world.
If I could always find where Sam was emotionally then I could keep the story economical and it would never feel too small because it would feel honest for the character - it’s like a cheat in a way.
* You shot predominately in New York and on a very tight timescale so what kind of difficulties did this pose?
(Laughs) I would do anything for more days - just like the economic of storytelling it’s the economic of shooting - everyday I had to reduce my shot list by 80% at least with my cinematographer as we reproached what we had worked on for months.
We made many scenes work in just one shot or just two shots - if I got two shots then my second shot would always be on Jesse; if I was able to focus in on Sam’s story then I am able to cut away. Some of the other actors were questioning why I wasn’t getting close ups of them… I couldn’t.
* Holy Rollers is your first feature length debut so how have you found the transition from producer and filming shorts to this?
Everything was about doing this one thing for me; everything was in training to do a feature film of this type. So all of that stuff was part of that journey for me to get to this place of telling stories this place and at this level.
* How have you found the response to the movie?
Oh it’s been brilliant, it really has. There have been some wonderful reviews and I think people walk away from it and want to talk about it and feel something from it - those are my favourite movies so if people got that from Holy Rollers then that is amazing. I have taken this movie to so many places in the world and it seems to translate really well.
* Finally what’s next for you?
I’m working on this film called Great Neck, which is a teenage Great Gatsby; it’s inspired by the Great Gatsby and set in the 1980’s.
Great Neck is a town that I grew up in in New York, and it’s where F.Scott Fitzgerald lived and wrote about in the 1920’s, so I have this personal connection to it and have always wanted to tell my version of it.
But it’s by no ways an adaptation it’s my own personal take - Antonio and I have written it and it’s inspired by true events, this book and our childhoods.
Holy Rollers is released 8th July.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw