"I’m Jack. I’ve been roaming around the place for 23 years now, currently residing in glorious Northampton, shoes used to be big here. They’re not so big now. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but whatever did happen, happened, and here we are.…I used to spend most of my time moving from town to town in a friends car making short quick blasts of noise at people for kicks and reactions; these experiments normally ended with bad reactions at me in the form of kicks. Painful. So I retreated from the live environment into that of a hermit’s one; I reside in the cellar of my home making films. Some people might call me a cellar dwelling film maker, I’m not sure how I’d feel about that…"
1. Can you describe your style to the uninitiated?
Colourful and noisy to the point of sometimes being a little nauseating. Think exploitation animation focused on horror.
2. What themes interest you and inspire your work?
Sociopolitical themes interest me. Submerging myself amongst the filth and seeing what’s stuck to me afterwards. I’m interested in dreams, alternative realities, personal stories, and the domesticated side of horror. The oppurtunity to tell a story with a sense of purpose, and the chance to manipulate peoples sensations and provoke a reaction through imagery. Mediums and materials also inspire me, I care greatly about textures and colours, so I allow space for improvisation within the materials. I try to treat the film set the same as I would a paint canvas.
3. What filmmakers and artists inspire you?
Im a huge David Lynch fan, David Cronenberg, Jan Svankmajer, Phil Mulloy, PTA, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam… ,but I also use paintings as a source of inspiration for works, in particular the work of Dana Schutz, and others such as Francis Bacon and Edward Hopper. I'm interested, statically, in the stillness of what appear to be heightened tension within personal or domestic situations. Whenever im working im also using sounds, sometimes I’ll animate to soundtracks, music or atmospherics. I like the score work of Clint Mansell, Howard Shore or Michael Nyman, I also like Kubricks and Carpenters soundtracks. I also listen to a lot of My Cat is an Alien.
4. What gear are you currently using? Please talk about your studio also…
My studio is a moulding cellar. There’s nothing quite like it. I’ve worked in three cellars now, and the one I'm currently residing in may well be my best. For sets I use anything I can get my hands on, I’d say my ethics are relativly D.I.Y, props are shifted from one aniamtion to another, and I’ve had the same set of walls for the last four animations, albeit altered slightly. I create my beings from kiddy putty, latex, the scalps of young ladies and NHS prosthetics. In terms of cameras, I favour the Nikon d80 to make up most of my shots, and a canon xl1 for bits and pieces. In terms of editing, about 4 months ago my laptop blew up in my face, but the lovely people at Threshold Studios offered me a workstation so I’ve been lucky enough to edit there.
5. What sort of projects have you been working on lately?
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of post work on Itch Dear Wil, but in the meantime I have written the next film and began making sets and people – my main focus will be the development of this piece, as well as working towards a documentary with Neon Mussolini.
6. What is your best film yet in your opinion?
To say I’ve made a film that I’ve been satisfied with as yet would be……lying. Elements of my films have worked really well for me, but pieces as whole, thus far, haven’t completely came together for me as I’d have liked. ‘Itch Dear Wil’ feels the most complete, but I’m aware of the holes within the film. I’d like to put a bet on the fact that there will be a momentary sense of achievement when the next one is complete, but I’d also like to follow that bet with their later being an overwhelming sense of disappointment and self loathing.
7. You’re also heavily involved with the musical composition accompanying your work; do you have any musical plans for the future?
I have big plans for the next animations sound, I think collaborating with Neon Mussolini was the best possible direction for the sound to take within my work, and as a result we should definatly be collaborating again on the next film. In terms of general music, I’ve been writing some sleazy disco songs with Neon, as well as some work with Lee Whiteaway of Frisco Farr/Aotea tour driver fame.
8. What do you find frustrating about the world of film (and/or art)?
I have an endless amount of frustrations attached to the medium, I think given my personality, if I didn’t I wouldn’t be making films. I find inspiration within frustration, the two go hand in hand for me, so I could write an endless list of things but I’ll narrow them down to the sad state of affairs modern day horror currently finds itself in. Most recently we, as an audience, have been subjected to a self indulgent, shallow and meaningless onslaught of torture porn films. Americans are relying on casting young teen nobodies, and showing as much of their bodies as they can, and relying on well placed loud noises for scares. There’s no longer a sense of subtlety or subtext. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a horror film made that has surpassed the genre, and became an entity within itself; a film celebrated outside of the context of horror. When you think of a horror classic, I think of things like Don’t Look Now, The Shining or The Exorcist, these have essentially been horror films regarded as cinematic classics. And the reason why is a good story, with a good strong subtext, a strong cast and a strong director at the helm. I don’t want to see Eli Roth destroying the body of a young teenage girl for no reason (if you search for Eli Roth attempting to justify his films you’ll find a multitude of conflicting, dumb and ill explained answers – if your film means nothing then don’t pretend it does to give yourself more credibility) I want to see William Freidkin directing Ellen Burstyn through a struggle against the up rise of youth. That’s not to say a good horror film needs a well known cast or massive budget, Tobe Hooper made the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre which a bunch of nobodies, but he had a strong idea, remarkably avant garde forward thinking sound structure and the perseverance to provoke these unknowns into giving strong and realistic performances. TCM didn’t fall back on gratuitous nudity or even violence. All violence was implied, the only detailed use of violence upon humans is Leatherfaces misuse of his chainsaw on his own leg. So basically, I’ve not seen an amazing horror film in years, roll on the day PTA gets a horror script in his hands. Unfortuanetly, big studios give budgets to directors who are willing to allow the story to make way for gratuity – whatever gets the audience in seats. Either that or hand them a film from 30 years ago and ask them to ‘reimagine’ the movie in todays terms. Fucking ridiculous. Horrors are quick fix cash cows. There’s no longer a sense of creativity or imagination within these films. I find that a massive issue within films today.
9. What can we expect from the future from Jack James?
Expect the unexpected. Anything can happen tomorrow. Jehovah’s Witnesses are calling every other day and I’m getting pestered by the Jesus Army on a regular basis also, they’re views and arguments are engrossing, so chances are I’ll either join them or kill them. Church or prison beckons…
www.myspace.com/jackohblivion
www.youtube.com/user/jjjaotea
