Latest / WASD and Beyond / IT CAME FROM SCREAMBOX: An interview with Anthony Cousins, all about FROGMAN!

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IT CAME FROM SCREAMBOX: An interview with Anthony Cousins, all about FROGMAN! · WASD and Beyond

0:00
Hey everybody, Nick from It Came from Screenbox.
0:01
Just want to say thank you all for checking out this interview
0:03
we did with Anthony Cousins, director of Frogman and Frogman
0:07
2. Frogman Returns.
0:09
Please check out our sponsors, Screenbox and Final Boss.
0:12
Check out the Spawn Camp Network.
0:13
That's it came from Screenbox, WASD and Beyond, and roll for
0:16
deceptionpleaseemailuswasdbyond@gmail.com. Again, that's WASD,
0:22
beyond@gmail.com. And now on to the show.
0:45
Welcome back. Everybody came from Screen Box.
0:48
We are your host, Nick, Noah and Alex.
0:50
And this week we are accompanied by Anthony Cousins.
0:53
Anthony, what's going on, dude? What's up?
0:55
Thanks for having me. Oh thanks for being worse.
0:58
I put my radio voice on for the intro.
1:00
We were just talking for the last 6 minutes and then, you
1:02
know, had to do the radio voice thing.
1:04
Let's skip all that cool shit. Anthony, can you please tell
1:06
everyone who exactly you are and like what you're working on or
1:10
what you have worked on rather? Yeah, on screen Box I made
1:16
Frogman and now we're wrapping up Frogman 2, which will be
1:22
screening this spring, hopefully playing some festivals or
1:27
regardless of that will be sent up a bunch of theatrical
1:30
screenings around around the US and then releasing some point
1:35
next year, maybe in maybe in the spring or summer.
1:38
Umm also directed a couple of segments in the scare package
1:43
movies. Umm, those are on Shutter.
1:46
I don't know if we can mention Shutter on the Screen Box
1:48
podcast. That's where those are very.
1:51
Cool. Uh, Frogman for us, people have
1:54
been around since the beginning. Frogman is the first movie that
1:57
we picked on screen box to watch, so it's always, always
2:00
definitely holding a special place in all of our hearts.
2:04
That's awesome. Thank.
2:05
You one of one of the things we talked about, like I'm a huge
2:08
sucker for the found footage thing.
2:10
So one of the first things I wanted to ask is when you set
2:13
out with Frogman, did you always have the idea that it was going
2:17
to be found footage or did that come later on?
2:19
Yeah, that was that was kind of part of like the initial idea
2:24
because to me, like cryptids and found footage just go so well
2:28
together. You know, the video and photo
2:30
evidence of cryptids is always, it has the essence of like what
2:34
you want from a found footage movie in it.
2:36
I think that's why we we like that stuff so much, you know,
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and like UFO sightings and stuff like that.
2:42
So it just felt like if you're going to make a movie about
2:44
people looking for a Cryptid, it would be like through the lens
2:48
of found footage. But yeah, that I never done
2:51
found. I love found footage, but I'd
2:53
never attempted it before, which was like kind of crazy to go
2:57
from only making shorts to then making my first feature and then
3:01
giving myself the task of it being a genre I've never tried
3:05
before. But yeah, it was terrifying day
3:08
one. Like after we wrapped day one, I
3:11
was like, I think this is not going to work at all.
3:13
I don't know what the hell we just did.
3:14
We just shot for an entire day on, you know, half the day on an
3:19
iPhone, half the day on a high camera.
3:21
Like, what are we doing? You know, it was kind of crazy.
3:25
But I guess that's kind of true of making anything you're you
3:31
you really have you have an idea of like a cool movie in your
3:34
head and you just have to like ride the that maybe that's
3:39
waiting for you with the finish line, but you have no fucking
3:41
idea what you're doing the entire time you're on on the
3:44
road trying to get there. Yeah, that's kind of scary.
3:48
So you had to trust the process a little bit there.
3:51
Yeah, yeah. If you had to pick like what
3:54
what is your what would be like your go to found footage movie
3:57
as somebody was like, I've never really been into it, but I want
4:00
to, I want to watch one. I want to try one.
4:03
I mean, probably Blair Witch, the first Blair witch.
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It's kind of a boring answer, but I mean, that's because I'm,
4:10
I'm like, you know, if it's if someone's ever watched found
4:12
footage before, maybe you show them like as above, so below or
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Cloverfield, something that's like more Hollywood feeling or
4:19
more, you know, like a traditional movie.
4:22
But I still think both of those are great found footage movies.
4:24
But like, I mean Blair witch, there's there's a reason it's,
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you know, part of the culture so much.
4:31
I mean, it, it did it the best. I think it's it has everything
4:34
you want from found footage. Yeah, Blair.
4:36
Yeah, kind of. Yeah.
4:37
Go on, off. No, you go ahead.
4:38
No, Blair Witch is one of those movies when it came out, it
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literally shifted what a found. I mean it really was like the
4:44
found footage film. There was other movies prior to
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it for sure, but this was like, OK, this can work.
4:50
This can lead you to a career in this and that is to yeah, it is
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like the proto answer, right? Like well, Blair Witch, but it
4:57
makes the most sense, especially when you are making movie about
5:00
a Cryptid as well, right? Like with Frog Man, it's
5:02
interesting that that's the Cryptid you went for, because
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the easy answer to make a movie with about a Cryptid would be
5:09
something akin to like Mothman, Bigfoot, any of like the big
5:13
hitters. But you chose Frogman.
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Why did you choose Frogman? Why did you choose Loveland,
5:17
OH's sweetheart? Mostly because I just think it's
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funny. Yeah.
5:24
And, you know, I mean, Bigfoot, Bigfoot's been done.
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I love Bigfoot, and if there's a new cool Bigfoot movie out, I
5:30
want to see it. But you know, like Speaking of
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fountain footage, like Willow Creek I think is a great
5:35
fountain footage movie. I love that movie.
5:38
Bobcat got away with not showing Bigfoot.
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I think because everybody knows who Bigfoot is.
5:44
There's not a single person on this earth that hasn't heard of
5:45
Bigfoot or Sasquatch. And they have like some image in
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their mind. But you know, like we're talking
5:51
about before we started, A lot of people think we created
5:55
Frogman and that's not true. Frogman has been a legend in
5:58
Loveland, OH since 1955. But like the the notoriety of
6:03
him is so low that I think that was part of the interest of
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doing a movie is like, let's put a spotlight on a cool Cryptid
6:11
that most people don't know about.
6:14
But then we got to show that Cryptid, you know, like Bigfoot,
6:18
Mothman, you can make a Bigfoot movie, Mothman movie and just
6:21
like hinted them and show, you know, like blurry images or
6:24
whatever. But Frogman, it felt like we
6:26
were kind of making, like, I guess we were kind of
6:29
introducing him to the world a little bit on some level.
6:34
But yeah, mostly I think he's funny.
6:36
It's just so dumb. And he has a wand, which I think
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is awesome. Most cryptids don't have wands
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or weapons. And I mean, I really like, I
6:45
appreciate that like this sort of ownership you've taken over
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Frogman. I feel like the the movie you
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made is sort of the perfect introduction to that character
6:54
because it is so unique with him having a wand and some sort of
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like magical element I like. I think you guys really did
7:02
Frogman a huge favor. Yeah.
7:04
Thank you. Yeah, I don't know, Maybe it's
7:07
kind of like how because in in Frogman 2 we have a lot more
7:12
cryptids, but they're all like the other weirder ones.
7:17
Because I still, I don't know, I mean, I'm, I'm talk about
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Mothman, I think it'd be super fun do a Mothman movie, but I
7:24
just think there's so many like really, really cool cryptids
7:27
that that need a little more of a spotlight.
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So I don't, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's kind of great that
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the first one did as well as it did.
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And people responded to Frogman as much as they did because,
7:40
yeah, like you say, it would more sense to start with
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something a little more known. It's.
7:45
I honestly, I think it's better that it's the route you took is
7:49
the better route because it just LED people to frogman.
7:52
Like I didn't know about frog man.
7:54
I knew about like the what is it the Ohio grass man?
7:57
So you have the Ohio grass man and up in Michigan we have the
8:00
skunk ape, we have the dog man and apparently we have a
8:03
Wendigo. But I I didn't know we had a fun
8:05
until we watched that. Yeah, the Wendigo.
8:07
Wendigo lives in the EUP. Yeah.
8:09
That's also from a trauma film, but I but you know, it's fine.
8:12
It's fucking it's fine. But no.
8:13
It's cool though. I mean the document.
8:16
Well, the what? That movie was a documentary,
8:18
right it? Wasn't a fucking documentary.
8:20
It was real. It's.
8:21
A trauma film. Well, anything trauma's real
8:23
anyways. What did the people of Loveland
8:25
like think of you doing this for like because that's like their
8:28
thing. It's like if you go anywhere
8:30
else and like they have their Cryptid, it's like they people
8:33
like almost hold it tight somewhere up in the UP.
8:35
Like I said, there's like a town that is like super about like
8:38
the skunk Cape. I got to figure out what it is,
8:40
but like that is like they hold that near and dear to this.
8:42
So like, how did the people of Loveland, OH like feel about?
8:46
Oh, when you figure out what that skunk Cape Town is, let me
8:48
know I want to visit there. That that was The funny thing
8:53
about it was I before we started shoot, we kind of, we wrote, we
8:58
did a little bit of research on Loveland before we started
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writing the first one, but not a whole lot.
9:03
But before we started shooting, I, I really wanted to visit
9:06
Loveland. I couldn't do that, but I looked
9:08
up a lot of photos. I did research into like, does
9:11
this town embrace frogman? Is there any, you know, is there
9:14
a statue? Is there a store or anything?
9:18
And there wasn't at the time. There was like nothing.
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And even my sound guy on the 1st frogman was dating a woman at
9:27
the time from Loveland, OH who had never heard of frogman.
9:31
So like, that's just that's telling of like how much this
9:36
one doesn't embrace him. And so it felt like, well, OK, I
9:40
guess we're good to just do whatever we want.
9:42
Apparently there's not going to be anyone that's like holding us
9:45
to a high standard to, you know, do the town justice or anything.
9:50
So we shot it in Stillwater, MN because that's where I'm from
9:53
and that's where we all were, you know, and it just would have
9:57
been way too much money to go to Ohio and Ohio, Minnesota, they
10:01
don't look that different. And then the, you know, a few
10:05
months after we'd we'd wrapped production, the first official
10:10
Frogman Festival is held in Loveland, OH.
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And like thousands of people come out for it.
10:16
It was like a massive, like surprise hit in the cryptic
10:19
community. And we're like, oh, shit, OK,
10:22
there are people that are going to care.
10:24
Like there's actually a lot of people that are going to care.
10:28
And so it was like a little, I wouldn't say I was worried, but
10:31
I was like, nervous to see what the reception would be.
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But then the Frogman Festival invited us to Loveland the the
10:37
next year to screen the movie. And we screened it.
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And I mean, like, I it, it was so insane because it was like
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getting to go to a horror convention where you've already
10:50
made a horror icon, if that makes sense.
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Yeah. But like, nobody has seen the
10:54
movie yet, you know? It's like, it's like getting to
10:56
go to like a horror convention and you're the guy that made
10:59
Terrifier, you know? And there's already Terrifier
11:01
one and two and everyone loves your character.
11:05
But we were getting that before our movie was even out because
11:08
we got to go to a festival about the creature that we made a
11:10
movie about. It was like, really, really
11:13
bizarre and crazy. And I wonder if anyone's ever
11:15
had an experience like that before.
11:17
But yeah, it's it was it was a huge relief that the town
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embraced it. And, and a lot of locals said
11:23
that, you know, even though we shot in Minnesota, we did a good
11:25
job finding a replacement Loveland.
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Did it feel a little bit like you showed up to screen your
11:31
movie at a festival they were having for you?
11:34
Kind of honestly, like, I mean, it was, you know, I didn't know
11:38
what to expect. I didn't know if people were
11:40
going to be excited about it or not or like what other kind of
11:45
vendors were going to be at this thing.
11:47
And I mean, people were just like our, I mean, I brought a
11:51
bunch of DVDs and, and shirts and posters to sell and we were
11:56
like cleaned out in a in like the first couple hours.
12:00
And I was like, fuck, I should have brought like triple what I
12:02
brought, which is amazing. You know, we went back last year
12:08
for for the second time and we'll be back there in March,
12:10
you know, screening the new movie.
12:12
So yes, I mean, you know, I just wanted make a movie.
12:17
That's all I wanted to do. And now, like, I think going to,
12:20
you know, something like Frogman Festival is probably going to be
12:23
a part of my life for a long time.
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You know, like an annual, the trek I have to make, which is
12:29
amazing. It's so cool.
12:30
That's, that's, that's fucking awesome when you get to do
12:32
something this creative and just like you did it cuz you wanted
12:35
to do it. And that's what like when we're
12:36
watching like movies, especially like like indie, we're really
12:39
watching to see like, is this something this person wanted to
12:42
do? You can feel it in the movie
12:43
being made. You can see it from the cast,
12:45
like, are they having a good time?
12:46
Like are people enjoying their time on set?
12:49
And you can see it in this movie.
12:50
Like there's certain scenes around.
12:51
Like if he told me to go do that, I'd say fucking no.
12:54
I'm not dipping myself in that shit, but you can see and that's
12:58
super important. With that being said, what were
13:00
the challenges though of making this film?
13:03
Cuz you guys, did we ever learn the budget or did we not find
13:06
the budget? I thought we.
13:07
Don't think it. I don't think it was public.
13:09
OK. Yeah.
13:10
I don't know what the budget is, but I can't imagine that this
13:13
was probably like what like micro budget then?
13:15
Or was it lesser than that? I'd say lesser than micro.
13:19
I mean, it was real. It was real.
13:21
Well, the challenge I think came from first of all, making my
13:27
first feature, which the thing I'd say, the thing that has
13:31
always scared me about that most is like every, you know, short
13:34
film is like a three day shoot, 4 day shoot.
13:38
It's really easy to find the tone and keep the tone
13:42
consistent because you're shooting the entire thing in
13:44
like 3 to 4 days. Whereas what, what I've always
13:47
found scary about a feature is you'll shoot scenes on day one
13:51
or day 2 or day three that take place in the third act of the
13:54
movie, just because of logistics of like what order you have to
13:57
shoot in. And I'm just like, how does that
14:00
work? I mean, what if, what if you
14:02
shoot something and then, you know, as production goes on and
14:06
you start shooting, you know, the first act of the movie, you
14:09
like you've, you discover things that then like ripple through
14:12
the story. That was my biggest fear.
14:16
And then the found footage thing was really scary because you
14:20
know, you never know what you're making when you're making a
14:22
movie, but like when you're at least trying to make a movie
14:25
look good and you're looking at a monitor, you can go, this
14:28
looks like a movie. I think this is going to cut and
14:30
it's going to be cool. Where is like we're making
14:33
something that most of the time intentionally looks really
14:36
rough, like shit and it's just scary.
14:39
You don't know if it's going to work and you and you shoot a
14:41
scene where you don't have another camera rolling.
14:43
So like, you can't cut, you can't edit, like what you're
14:46
shooting is going to be what it is.
14:48
And it's like a 4 minute scene and you just have to hope that
14:52
it works. And you know, actually there's
14:55
like two or three other, you know, like 4 to 8 minute scenes
14:59
that like took place in like one shot basically that we cut out
15:03
of the movie. Cuz it was just like, how many
15:05
times are we gonna do this? Where like the cameras just
15:07
rolling. So that that was a lesson that
15:10
was a huge challenge. And we actually, we ended up
15:12
rebooting some things like 3 times over, like not not on the
15:18
same day, but like coming back after cutting it into the movie
15:20
and going, fuck, this doesn't work.
15:21
And we really need this story be we got to like shoot it again.
15:25
Umm. So on the second movie I worked
15:28
in that there's always 2 cameras rolling so that there's always a
15:32
way to cut and shorten a scene or we rework a scene because
15:36
that just was really, really difficult on the first one.
15:39
But just one camera most of the time.
15:41
Is umm is the sequel found footage as well?
15:44
It is. It's umm through a different,
15:48
you know, I'd say like the first movie, you know, Blair Witch
15:51
Project and Willow Creek were kind of the big inspirations.
15:56
And on this one it's more like Troll hunter, maybe, maybe a
16:01
little bit of like Cloverfield. I don't know.
16:03
Not that we have anywhere remotely close to like the
16:06
budget those movies were made for, but like, Troll Hunter in
16:10
particular is a movie that like from front to back feels like a
16:13
found footage movie to me. I never questioned that.
16:16
But it also feels like a big movie.
16:18
It feels like a Hollywood movie. And on our very low budget, we
16:22
wanted to try and capture that as much as possible because I
16:26
think the first Frogman ends with so much craziness.
16:30
And I didn't want to do another slow burn, slow build in the
16:35
second one. I would I just wanted to be
16:38
crazy from the beginning. So it's more of like a sci-fi
16:43
action movie then, you know, like the slow horror of the
16:48
first one. And we shot it on a nice camera.
16:50
It's like it's it's still found footage but it's like this is a
16:54
professional documentary crew this time instead of you know,
16:58
someone behind a high 8 camera that doesn't actually think this
17:00
is going to be worth the shit like Scotty was in the first
17:04
one. Yeah, super cool.
17:06
I think it works. For the first.
17:07
Movie though, like how that first movie was shot, it works
17:11
to that movie's aesthetic and it works to make that movie.
17:14
Yeah, even with the pace and all that, it helps with all of that
17:18
because it just adds to it. You're like holy shit, dude,
17:20
like where is it going? And then it when it gets to
17:22
where it has to go out there, there's a bit of A twist in the
17:25
movie, right? So I mean, if you haven't seen
17:28
it, go check it out. It's on screen box right now.
17:30
But the cult angle, it gets there and I'm like, holy fuck,
17:33
this works 10 times more now that we're here because that's
17:36
just it's grainy. It's fucking where you guys are
17:38
at. It's so gross and it's picked up
17:40
so well on those cameras. It's yeah, it's it's impacted.
17:43
Fucking awesome. Sorry to interrupt though I had.
17:44
Yeah, thank. Thank you.
17:46
That was the one shit that. Yeah.
17:48
Thing that was the one thing I really wanted to know if you
17:50
actually filmed with the camcorder and really glad you
17:54
did because it works so well and it looks great.
17:57
Oh, thank you. Yeah, that was not.
17:59
I mean, it was always intended to look like Hi 8, but the
18:02
original no plan because I was I was told, and so I believe like
18:07
you can't shoot a movie on high 8 that's going to make any money
18:10
or that's going to get like, you know, like a big release or
18:12
anything. Not that we ever thought this
18:13
was going to like get a theatrical release or anything,
18:16
but like wanted to be a movie that got out there and people
18:19
were like, you can't shoot on high 8 Then.
18:21
So day one of filming, we shot every scene twice.
18:26
We'd shoot it on like a black magic, a nice 4K camera and then
18:30
we would shoot it on a high a camera for reference of like
18:34
this is what we're gonna make the footage look like.
18:36
And I had so much more fun cuz I, I camera operated on the 1st
18:40
movie. I had so much more fun operating
18:43
the high camera and it looked exactly like I wanted the movie
18:46
to look. I was like, this is crazy.
18:48
We can't do this for 10 days. Like why don't we just shoot on
18:52
the camera that it's supposed to be shot on?
18:54
That looks so good. And now we're on like we're on
18:58
screw box and we're in like like our Blu rays in Walmart, which I
19:01
think is insane. I think I don't know if a movie
19:04
shot on a height like an actual high camera has ever been in
19:07
Walmart before. It still blows my mind.
19:10
But yeah, we did really shoot on that camera.
19:12
It was actually my my dad's camera that he would like shoot
19:15
our family vacations on and stuff every summer.
19:19
That that's the, so which is the way Frogman opens is like
19:24
completely inspired by like my experience as a kid where my dad
19:28
would bring this high camera on our vacations, shoot us goofing
19:32
around, doing whatever. And then all of a sudden, like
19:35
when we're watching this footage back, all of a sudden it's like
19:38
quiet and a new angle. And like clearly one of us kids
19:41
is operating and we're trying to figure out which one of us kids
19:44
is operating. We're just like wandering
19:46
through the woods or doing something weird or getting shots
19:48
of the parents now, so it was like kind of fun to actually
19:52
shoot it on that camera. It's good that you stuck to your
19:55
guns with that. Well, the the idea to do it with
19:57
two different cameras then to go well, I'm sticking with that
19:59
like this is what it is. So that's that's great.
20:02
That's awesome. The.
20:03
The cult angle, we all, we were watching it.
20:06
It definitely threw us for a loop and we all love that part.
20:10
That part of it is all you guys like that's all you're writing.
20:14
What's was there anything specific?
20:16
Were you trying to like set up some other plot line with that,
20:20
or did that sort of just come right come up at the end?
20:22
Um, it's mostly from my obsession with the shadow over
20:27
in Smith. It's just like one of my
20:28
favorite stories of all time. And I kind of like, I worked it
20:33
into a lot of scripts that I want to make and Frogman's one
20:37
of them. And I just thought it would be
20:39
really fun if this town was like hiding the creature in plain
20:46
sight, you know, with like, kind of masking it with the
20:50
kitchiness of like, Oh yeah, we are the home of Frogman and, you
20:54
know, buy some frog slime and, you know, whatever, a shitty
20:57
shirt. And it's just real the whole
21:00
time. I just like, I really like that
21:02
idea. That's kind of what started it.
21:04
Yeah, I think it would be really, it's really funny idea
21:06
because you have like, like you're just saying like you're
21:08
going and you're like, oh, look, it's the frog man's wand.
21:11
And they're like, but no, it is actually though.
21:13
It's the real one, dude. I was when you were saying like
21:17
before the movie even released, like the frog man fest wasn't
21:21
even a thing. So that almost plays into the
21:23
cult thing. That's fucked.
21:25
It's like they were trying to hide the frog man the entire
21:27
time. The movie breaks out and we're
21:29
like well fuck let's just embrace it dude, that'd be sick
21:32
of that town was actually all fucked.
21:33
Up imagine they could have gone the other way.
21:36
Those people could have been like, is this guy saying we're
21:38
all a cult? What's happening here?
21:40
Or maybe they were like, oh, we should start, we should start a
21:43
group for this. We should start this cult up for
21:46
real. When they do the frogman chant,
21:48
it reminded me it was it was dope, but it reminded me so much
21:52
of the Easter episode of South Park, the Hippatus Hopatus
21:55
episode. I was like, yeah, this.
21:58
Fucking riffs. I think one of the coolest
22:01
aspects that we also discovered from this film was a band that
22:05
Alex got. We all got pretty obsessed with
22:08
the band, but Alex, I think you got, you were pretty, pretty
22:11
hard into him. Frog Lord.
22:12
Frog Lord. Yeah, dude, that.
22:13
Dude, I didn't know. About Frog Lord until this movie
22:16
and I was like, dude, these guys rock.
22:19
Where did you find Frog Lord? Yeah, Frog Lords.
22:21
Fucking badass. I've got a buddy in Minnesota
22:25
who he did the sound. He was production sound on
22:29
Frogman returns. Just a good friend of mine who
22:33
just knows super deep, bizarre music and and sends me weird
22:37
stuff every once in a while. And like before I started making
22:41
frog man, when we started writing it, I started just like
22:44
posting a lot of frog shit on Instagram.
22:47
I was just like getting really into frogs and I guess kind of
22:50
almost like building my own lore that I'm going to make a frog
22:53
movies someday, like years before, because I and I don't
22:58
know, I was just doing it because I was like thinking
22:59
about frogs a lot. And then I thought, be super
23:02
funny if like, I don't even talk about the fact that we're
23:05
working on this frogman movie. And they're like, Oh my God,
23:07
Anthony, that guy that posts frog memes all the time made a
23:10
movie called Frogman. But because because I was
23:14
posting frog stuff all the time, Owen sent me Frog Lord to listen
23:19
to and I really did love it. It's just a great, great doom
23:23
metal. So I reached out to him.
23:27
Just message him on Instagram. Told him we were making a movie
23:30
called Frogman and asked if he'd want to do a song for it or no.
23:34
I asked him if we could use one of his songs, and he was like,
23:37
yeah, of course. And also if you like, need an
23:38
original, I'd be so happy to do it for you.
23:41
And I was like, Oh my God, what? Are you serious?
23:43
Yeah, yeah. Do our credit song then you
23:45
think? And yeah.
23:46
And so now he's just kind of become a buddy.
23:48
He did a song for the new one. Fuck yeah dude, I feel like we
23:51
need Frog Lord to, you know, to headline the festival one of
23:55
these years. God, I wish.
23:57
Yeah, they're, well, they're based in Bristol.
23:58
You and they've never done any US shows yet that would be but
24:04
they've got a new album coming out.
24:06
I know you know what's crazy is like he liked the movie so much
24:09
he set up a screening of Frogman again shot on a high 8 camera
24:13
480P. He set up a screening in
24:16
Bristol, UK of Frogman on an iMac screen and did a live show
24:22
before the movie played. That's so.
24:24
Fun I I wish I could go over there.
24:27
That's so bad. That is fucking sweet that
24:31
that's gotta feel great man like dude, create this and then have
24:34
it just First off go across the pond and then frog Lord is
24:37
playing a fucking show before the opening in Bristol to your
24:41
that's that's wild dude fucking. It's really like it's, it's
24:45
really great. I mean, we knew Frogman was like
24:47
special as a found footage micro budget type thing, but to, to
24:52
now hear about all this, like the impact that it's had is
24:55
just, it adds just so much to the whole thing.
24:58
Yeah, it's it's nuts. I really hope, I don't know.
25:01
I'm it released the second one and see what happened.
25:04
We've made a very different movie, something I think is
25:07
maybe a little more accessible. I don't know.
25:10
I thought what I, what I realized when we finished sound
25:13
was like, I think if you like the first frogman, you should
25:16
see frogman too. And also if you hated the first
25:19
frogman, you should see frogman too.
25:21
I think we did a really good job of like continuing that story if
25:25
you did like it, but also doing something very, very different
25:28
if you liked some of it but didn't really like that, the
25:32
height thing or the slow burn thing or you know.
25:35
In the new Frogman, do you guys learn more into the practical?
25:38
Because that was one of our favorite things about Frogman
25:41
was especially Noah and I'll let him go deeper in those much and
25:45
I promise I will Noah with the practical effects for Frogman.
25:48
So do you guys learn more into that?
25:50
Are you guys using CGI in this instance or no?
25:53
There there's there's not a single shot that doesn't have at
25:58
least a practical base to it. So there's still like there's
26:03
other there's other creatures this besides frogman.
26:06
All of them are are puppets and pretty much all of them have
26:11
some CG augmentation to them. I think the first Frogman we had
26:16
maybe like 4 VFX shots and in this one I think we're like it
26:21
like 130 or maybe a little bit more.
26:24
It's insane. But The thing is is like we made
26:27
the whole first movie without having the wand in it.
26:32
Long story, but I just thought like maybe we don't do the wand
26:36
and then, you know, when we started to get into filming the
26:39
third act, it was like we gotta have the wand.
26:40
That's like that's part of our favorite thing about frogman.
26:43
Why, why would we not have the wand?
26:44
So we like added it in there late.
26:47
Um, but now, you know, we jump into the second movie.
26:50
The wand is part of the I mean, the wand is like the crux of the
26:53
whole second movie. So there's like basically magic
26:56
present the entire time. So there's like lots of crazy
26:59
shit going on, lots of effects, but lots of puppets.
27:01
Yes, sorry. We we love no, you're that's
27:05
perfect. We love, we love a puppet.
27:07
One of the things that's always important to us that we do a
27:11
little bit of research or we might ask somebody if there is
27:14
like a hero puppet for a movie. Do you still have it?
27:18
Is it still around or was it destroyed in the in the
27:21
filmmaking process or what? The whereabouts of the original
27:26
Frogman. Yeah, it's at the from the first
27:30
movie. That suit is in rough shape.
27:33
I think the head's still mostly OK, but we made a whole because,
27:38
you know, they made that suit. I told, I told my SFX team we're
27:42
shooting on a high 8 camera. Every time Frogman shows up,
27:45
there's going to be like, you know, glitching and whatever.
27:49
Don't break the bank making this suit, you know, make something
27:53
serviceable basically. And then when we made the second
27:56
movie, I was like, look, now we're going to shoot on these
27:58
nice cameras. Frogman is going to be more of a
28:01
character, not just popping in and out.
28:04
We're going to get a really good look at him.
28:05
So this suit has to like deliver.
28:07
We got to be able to like look at this suit.
28:10
There's also like way less glitching in this one.
28:14
So they made a brand new suit that I, I can't wait for
28:17
everyone to see. I think it's so, so cool.
28:20
But yeah, all those puppets, all those suits are still at the SFX
28:24
shop waiting. Waiting for another Frogman
28:27
movie. Dude waiting for his return.
28:30
Yeah, we love getting like the history of like all the you
28:34
know, special effects, physical practical effects, cuz I for
28:37
like what for crack Coon Noah, you discovered what was it crack
28:40
Coon or what movie was it that the actual puppet got destroyed
28:44
and we were like super. Bummed but yeah it was it was
28:47
thanks killing. He said that the yeah the career
28:49
said like the original 1 is destroyed but he still has the
28:53
head. And that's it.
28:54
It's like damn dude, that's. Yeah, I mean, and we had other,
28:57
we had other movie props that like the the dummy from Magic
29:01
that we were trying to figure out where he was.
29:04
And then it was at this like Magic store in New York and now
29:06
it's just gone. I just don't know where he is.
29:09
Someone ganked it dude. That's.
29:12
It sitting in somebody's house. Yeah, that stuff, unfortunately,
29:15
that stuff is hard to make to last, you know?
29:18
Yeah. And and it gets put in.
29:21
It gets put through the ringer on set, so it doesn't hold up.
29:25
Surprised. Yeah, I can always.
29:26
Or like, keep it as like a trophy, almost like like frogman
29:29
head on your wall with the wand next to it.
29:32
You know what I'm saying? That'd be safe.
29:33
Be some cool decor, man. Be a good conversation piece, at
29:35
least for people walking. Cool.
29:37
My yeah, Ryan that that you know, one of the FX people on
29:44
Frogman one and two, he started making I think he didn't know.
29:47
Yeah, he didn't He make one frog wall mounted head that he
29:53
brought to Frogman Festival last year and sold that was that was
29:56
made from the mold of the the head from the suit.
30:00
That's so sick. That's that's so fucking.
30:02
Sweet God, what I wouldn't give to have a frogman head next to
30:05
my cowboy Kermit. That's three more sales right
30:08
there, yeah. There's.
30:10
More frogman heads. They're all going to end up in
30:12
our houses for absolute sure. What do you want people to know?
30:16
Because we're kind of hitting that mark where we are going to
30:19
set you free so you don't have to be bothered by us anymore.
30:22
Do you want people to know about the next Frog Band movie?
30:26
Like just like really get from thinking about it.
30:29
I'd say my, my favorite sequels are the ones that like go balls
30:34
to the wall crazy and try to do something really different.
30:38
And that's what we did. Like, to me, this is this is
30:43
Evil Dead to to Frog Man's Evil Dead.
30:46
It is a continuation. It's in the spirit of the first
30:49
one, but it's like absolutely bonkers and just like a very,
30:53
very different tone, a way more playful tone.
30:57
Yeah. Like I said, kind of more sci-fi
30:59
action, comedy bigger for sure. And I just saw Army of Darkness
31:06
last night here in LA. The American Cinematech screened
31:11
it. And that is, that's what I want
31:13
Frogman 3 to be if we get to make a third one.
31:18
So for me it definitely goes Evil Dead 2 army darkness evil.
31:21
I love the first evil bed, but I loved when Raimi really was
31:25
like, all right, we're going for that slapstick 3 stooges.
31:27
Just good time horror, especially with Bruce Campbell
31:30
at the helm of that. And I've got Bruce right there.
31:33
Proud Michigander. I love Evil Dead fucking love
31:37
and the Kandarian dagger but but I wanted to ask you a not
31:39
frogman question and I wanted to ask you about fat fleshy.
31:42
Fingers. Oh man.
31:44
I just. Learned about this.
31:45
And I was reading the synopsis you So what?
31:49
OK, it's inspired by new. It's this.
31:51
It's a it's this movie, but it was inspired by.
31:54
Neutral but over this. Yeah, a little bit.
31:58
I guess the the titles, at least for the sick as an anthology and
32:02
each segment is like a song title or or at least a lyric
32:07
from from that album. OK, is this was somebody else.
32:11
So there's there's a festival in Florida in Orlando called
32:14
Bizarro land. It used to be called Sick and
32:17
wrong Film Fest and I had some shorts played there and there
32:22
was some of my race year shorts, like ones were like egg sacks
32:25
are getting birthed out of people's Dicks and super gross
32:29
going on. And so so this guy hit me up and
32:33
he's like, I'm assembling a team of sick and wrong veterans to
32:37
make like a sick and wrong movie.
32:39
And he's like, you know, I'll send you like 1000 bucks or
32:43
something like that. And this like little worm dildo
32:46
character and just make a segment.
32:49
And I was like, OK, and I really took the liberty of like making
32:53
something way grosser than I usually would because of those
32:57
parameters. So it's like the most disgusting
33:01
thing I've ever made. It's fucking rank.
33:06
And I don't know where you can see it.
33:08
I don't know if it's if it's released yet or or not.
33:11
But yeah, I shot that like 3-4 years ago now.
33:14
I have no idea. I saw that it was like a
33:16
neutral. It says it's like a neutral Milk
33:18
Hotel thing. And I was like, oh, I like I I I
33:20
like Neutral Milk Hotel. Oh, Calmly is an insane fucking
33:23
song. I was like, oh cool, I'll ask
33:24
him about that. And you're like, yeah, it's
33:26
yeah, it's kind of sort of this, but it's also fucked, so.
33:30
I'm here. Yeah, it's the I still I
33:32
actually have not seen the whole thing put together, but I know a
33:35
lot of the other film makers that that did other segments and
33:39
and they're people I'm I'm really excited to like see what
33:41
they did with it. But yeah, I was basically just
33:43
like, I'm gonna send you this little dildo worm character,
33:47
make a story about it. It's basically it's a sex
33:49
parasite. Like that's kind of the through
33:51
line is like this parasitic worm gets passed from segment to
33:55
segment. So like, do whatever you want
33:58
with it. Yeah, I don't know.
34:01
I hope you get to see it at some point.
34:03
I am very, I dude, I I'd be stoked to see that.
34:06
There's I I'm, I'm a weird fucking dude.
34:08
I love like the bizarre crazy, like horror movies that are made
34:12
by not studios. I got indie, I guess, right.
34:15
But like, this is like a little beyond indie is what this sounds
34:18
like. It's like super gorilla and
34:20
super in your face, which is also fun.
34:22
Yeah. It's not like unearthed though.
34:24
Like, I don't know. Do you know what unearthed film?
34:26
Like all the Guinea pig, American Guinea pig and all
34:28
that. Like.
34:29
Yeah, those are the unearthed films, dudes.
34:31
It's not like that. I'm assuming No, it's more, it's
34:34
more fun and comedic and playful than that.
34:37
Yeah, those aren't those. There's nothing like our
34:39
segment. It's Dallas Dad from the
34:43
beginning of the first frog man, because he's so he's so funny.
34:48
He's such a funny actor. And so it's him getting this
34:51
parasite and basically like abusing the shit out of it.
34:54
And he's just like that. That was the concept we went
34:57
with was like, what if this guy is a worse parasite than the
35:01
parasite and like the parasite wants to get away from him.
35:06
Yeah, I don't know. He's like melting and shit.
35:09
It's gross. And now I kind of wonder if he
35:10
wants it. I forgot about.
35:12
That I kind of need to see this one day.
35:14
Hopefully we will get to see it. But yeah, we got to hunt this
35:16
down. One day, dude, man, thank you so
35:19
much for hopping on. I know you got some stuff to do,
35:21
but we do appreciate you being on our show and talking to us
35:25
about Frogman and Frogman 2 again.
35:27
That was our first movie that was like what kicked this show
35:30
off was Frogman on screen box. So to have you on is super cool
35:34
and especially in the new year, like reigning in a new year.
35:36
Why not reigning in, right? March 7th is the Frog Man
35:40
Festival and you'll be there, right?
35:42
You said you'll be there. I'll be there.
35:43
Yeah, we're gonna. We're still figuring out the
35:45
logistics, but we're gonna do a double feature of Frogman one
35:49
and two either the night before or the night after the the
35:54
seventh Well. You can expect to see the IT
35:56
came from screen box boys down there.
35:58
We are super pumped for this. We finally will do our trip that
36:02
we promised we were gonna do in March.
36:04
So awesome. Thanks for having us.
36:06
Is there anything else you wanted to tell the audience
36:07
before we let you go? No, thank you guys for having
36:10
me. I'm excited to meet you in
36:11
March. Let's do this again.
36:14
We'll see the second one. Yeah, absolutely, dude.
36:17
Sure. Really appreciate you coming on.
36:19
It was really great to talk to you.
36:20
Yeah, you too. Thanks guys.