Interview with Theodore Trout, Director

Another honour for me at this year’s International Vampire Film & Arts Festival (ivfaf) was to meet Theodore Trout, humble director, actor, scriptwriter and lover of all things animated! Find out more about him below.

When you were young, what did you want to be ‘when you grew up’? 

Dracula!

Tell us about your film-making background. How did you get into it?
I graduated from the Vancouver Film School Classical Animation Program and worked on Saturday morning cartoons for various companies (International Rocketship, a.k.a. cartoons, etc.) in Vancouver prior to my aneurysm in 1997. The resultant Traumatic Brain Injury forced me into early retirement. Bored one day, I answered an ad in the Victoria Entertainment Weekly for “Vampire Mods and Werewolf Rockers” to appear in a locally made low-budget horror film. I appeared subsequently in four direct-to-disc features directed by Brian Clement:

 Exhumed (2003) 
 The Dead Inside (2005) 
Meat Market 3 (2006) 
and Dark Paradox (2007) 

before Clement absconded to Toronto where he now authors sci-fi novels.

Why did you decide to make a vampire movie and why Dracula?
Clement and I had discussed making a Dracula film together, but with him suddenly out of the picture I was forced to take up the reins myself.
I had been fascinated with the character since being traumatized by Norman Welsh and Christopher Lee as a child, and following my experiences with death and resurrection (I basically died of a brain hemorrhage and was resuscitated as something less than my original self), I felt the story was fertile ground for my own personal allegory. I felt that despite my lack of professional acting credentials that I could bring a credibility to the role that no-one without a hole drilled in their skull could ever hope to.

How does a story go from idea to the screen? (And how long did Dracula Lord of the Damned take to make?) 

It took seven years from start to finish. Ian Case helped me edit my original rambling script into something more succinct and coherent, then I storyboarded every inch of the thing and shot it all for about $20,000 (CAN) on the cheapest camera I could find, hoping to emulate the primitive look of ‘Nosferatu’. This succeeded all too well, giving much of my film an almost unwatchably grainy quality, with much of the picture definition being unexpectedly lost in the ‘capture’ process.
I then spent several years laboriously treating every sequence with glow levels and After Effects to try to render it more watchable.
The final result is pretty unique looking, even if it’s not quite what I originally envisioned.

What was your role in the movie?
Script, storyboard, costume and production design, location scout.
Director, cameraman, driver, swamper, roadie, stuntman, actor.
Editing, post-production, animation, audio production and mixing.

Tell us about your character(s).
My Dracula is built on the idea that he’s a shape-changer and so mood-swingy that you can’t ever get a handle on who or what he really is.
He’s aristocratic, he’s psychotic, he’s inflamed, he’s aloof, all in the space of a few minutes. He is in total denial about his own vampirism and can’t look in the mirror, lest the Truth confront him. He has rationalised his immortality and ability to raise people from the dead as being Divine rather than Satanic in origin, and considers himself on a Holy Mission to bring the Gift of Eternal Life to Victorian London, like some kind of Undead Messiah. 

What was the biggest challenge and greatest joy in the movie-making process?
My own blissful ignorance.
The parts I enjoyed the most were all the field trips I made gathering location footage of trains and caves and waterfalls. Seeing the mountains up around Zeballos was a real high point.
The enthusiasm of the other participants in the process was often quite affecting.

Your movie was shown at the IVFAF 2017. How did that make you feel? 
Thoroughly validated as a film maker.
Not just another tepid reaction from a roomful of bemused onlookers; when I went to Transylvania, people GOT me.
It was great to be able to put it in front of an audience that genuinely appreciated what I had done, probably the most meaningful round of applause I’ll get for it.                         
                         See the latest trailer of Dracula: Lord of the Damned here.

Tell us your impressions of Transylvania. 
Like a dream come true, and I mean that literally. I loved the place and would love to return again next year, hopefully it will be possible for me. The people were great, the food was great, the medieval citadel of Sighisoara was fascinating and the view from Poenari was breath-taking.

Checking out the Dead in Sighisoara Cemetery

How do you feel now you've seen the real locations (as replicated in your film)?

Poenari held the most personal significance for me; I had created an imaginary ascent of the 1500 stairs as the opening of my film, based on the pictures I’d seen on the web of the castle on the crag overlooking the Arges River. This was a peak moment for me. I’d originally seen pictures of Poenari and had fantasized about someday seeing it for myself since I was doing research for my Dracula script, maybe ten years ago or so now. Many times in life I have daydreamed or visualized some future self attaining some impossible goal, but to find myself actually standing in Poenari after having had the wonderful experience I had at the festival, it really can’t be described: what an intense feeling of fulfillment it was. That, and I was buzzing on adrenaline due to the very real possibility of encountering hostile European brown bears at any moment.

Poenari Castle (Vlad Tepes Woz 'Ere). Source: http://touristinromania.net

What next for Dracula Lord of the Damned?
I guess I’ll keep promoting it on facebook through Halloween, then take a break for a month or so. I’m not getting much in the way of promotion from the distribution company, so it’s pretty much up to me to get it out there, I think I’ve got a year and a half to run on the contract.
After that, I guess it’ll just go up on YouTube. There have been rumblings from some quarters about reshooting it as a ‘real movie’, but so far nothing concrete. Holding my breath with fingers crossed!

Will you make more movies? What genre?
I’ve been trying to launch an animated stoner comedy for several years now. It’s based on the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics by Gilbert Shelton. Shelton has approved my script, and I’m storyboarding it out, but so far have been unable to raise the money to buy the option on the rights. Anybody with any spare change to contribute to such a project is invited to contact me!
I’m also working on a script for another gothic horror film that could be shot here in the Canadian Gulf Islands.

If you could be a vampire, what kind would you be?
Cruel, ruthless, aloof and brooding.

"The Unholy Three" - Vampariah director Matthew Abaya (see interview here), me, and Theodore Trout
at the International Vampire Film & Arts Festival 2017