"BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT."

Jason Stephenson: Director

1. Tell us a little about your background, where are you from and when did you decide that you wanted to become a filmmaker? My name is Jason Stephenson and I’m head honcho of a small Independent horror film group out of St. Paul, Minnesota called NFTS (Not For The Squeamish) Productions that I run with my partner and very long time friend, Jon Warner... I’ve been married for 7 years to my wife Dina (who also helps in many ways with our movies) also have 2 crazy little boys (Tyler & Logan) and a 3rd on the way yet to be named, ha, ha! Sad but true, I’m a working stiff that’s been in the printing industry for roughly 14 years now. As a creative release I’ve been making my own low-budget horror movies with what little free time I have! I was tainted at an early age when my dad would take us to the drive in and let me watch great classics like "The Incredible Melting man", "Orca", "Alien", "The Boogens", "Jaws" and "Young Frankenstein"! What a great dad, I was corrupted!!! It wasn’t till high school that I really knew that I would some day make horror films of my own. I did a little horror fanzine, 50-100 copies at a time called "Lifestyles of the Bodily Dismembered" back in the early 90's! It lasted 5 years and 15 issues before I called it quits and settled down. In 2002 I said screw it, bought a digital camcorder and set out to make my mark in the in the booming Independent horror scene and haven’t thought twice about it since... Well maybe a couple times, but I typically finish what I start! 2. Who is your biggest influence? I guess before I really thought about it, it was my dad for letting me watch all of those great drive in classics! It’s hard to pin point 1 single influence. I enjoy all the great Italian horror, Japanese Horror, German splatterfest’s from Buttgeriet, Ittanbach & Schnaas are a riot plus Argento, Cronenberg, Tarantino, Romero, Henonlotter, Craven and too many others to list. But after the infection began and I became a horror addict... I think it was Mr. Sam Raimi who really showed me the way with his classic movie Evil Dead! 1 location, small cast, over the top scares, gore and camera angles that filmmakers are still trying to emulate to this day! I was hooked! 3. Tell us about directorial debut "Off The Beaten Path"? Off The Beaten Path was my 1st foray into something more than just a 5 minute short film with a bunch of friends and/or family... It taught me TONS of things I should never do and lots of things I could do waaaaaay better! The movie itself turned out better than I ever anticipated but it was definitely a learning experience to say the least! Hell, it’s even been called "A little Blair Witch, A little Evil Dead, but a whole lot cool" in one of the reviews we received!!! Actually, "Brain Damage Films" picked up world wide rights to it and should be receiving a direct to dvd release in Feb of this year! That’s 2006 for those that may still be recovering from partying too hard this past New Years Eve! Ha, ha! 4. Tell us about your latest project "Doomed to Consume". "Doomed To Consume"... AKA: Infected...! Is, was, and always will be the zombie film I wanted to make! George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead were always some of my faves after I became a horror film junkie... So with our latest movie I wanted my film group NFTS Productions to make an all out zombie gorefest! The project started in November of 2004 with a bright idea I had and commenced in April 2005. Script in hand me and my NFTS Productions partner Jon Warner set out to find local actors willing to stand the rigors of a 15 day shoot with very long days, intense action scenes and lot’s of blood spilling! Currently we are in post-production... It was the most challenging shoot to date! Working with more cast and crew members than all of our previous movies combined and the usual things that slow the whole filmmaking process down like shooting at night, VERY long days, sleeping on location and people just getting tired. Now that we are mid way through the editing process, things are looking far better than I had ever hoped for. Doomed To Consume is shaping up to be the best film yet from a bunch of self taught filmmakers from Minnesota! Keep an eye out for it when it hit’s the festival circuit! It’s going to be bloody good time! 5. From your experience, what do you think is the most important thing for a Director to bring to a set? A camera, lights and plenty of mini-dv tapes... No really... 1st and foremost a good group of people... Cast and crew alike with good attitudes and the perseverance to get things done! You can be the best Director in the world, walk onto a set with a complete vision of what you want, run a tight ship but without the right people who believe in what you are doing, you might as well forget about it! My approach to making movies seems to go against the norm. I/we skip the whole audition process and casually interview actors/actresses to see if their personalities jive with ours and what we are doing... You can be the best actor in the world or know how to light a set perfectly, but with a bad attitude things will probably never get done. Each and every project we’ve done has been with people that come across as genuine and not trying to just strut their stuff... Until I’m proven wrong, thus far it’s worked great for NFTS Productions! 6. What do you think makes a scary movie scary? Make the viewer expect the unexpected then throw something in their face they hadn’t even thought about... Boo! Got ya! Moody lighting, musical score and building tension helps too!

7. Any future projects in the works? Can you give us the scoop? I’ve got more project/movie idea’s than I will ever have time to do... After we get our latest movie "Doomed To Consume" wrapped up, I’d like to do a short ultraviolent splatterfest in 2006 then a feature length slasher film over the course of 2007! But who really knows what tomorrow will bring! 8. What is the biggest problem with Hollywood today? Remakes and spending way too much money on safe movies for the PG-13 crowd... I don’t mind all the remakes but they should really use no name actors to get the full effect sometimes! It’s tough to take some all too familiar faces serious! 9. Do you have any advice to aspiring filmmakers? Just do it... Don’t sit around thinking about it... Get out there and do something! Don’t wait for that magical scholarship to film school to come through. You can learn ton’s from the various Indie filmmaker sites right here at your fingertips on the internet. A good story, a few friends, your Uncles video camera and some homemade blood are all you need... Don’t expect to turn the world upside down right away and you’ll learn a lot and hopefully move on to something bigger and better with each project you do! Satisfy yourself before you worry about satisfying others and work hard at getting good at what you wanna do! Follow the dream and you never know where it may take you! 10. When all is said and done, what 3 things would you like for people to remember about you? I was good husband, a good father and made every attempt to treat others with the respect that I would want for myself... Not to say I wasn’t a rebellious punk back in the day, but fatherhood has taught me a lot! On a strictly movie maker level it would be... He really believed in what he was doing, he truly had a passion for horror films and my movies were the most memorable horror films to ever come out of the frozen tundra called Minnesota! Ha, ha 11. Here's where we give you a word or phrase and you give us the first thoughts that pop into your mind. Hollywood: Overpriced and Underpowered! Much like alot of cars that we're built in the 80's!!!! Toxic Shock TV: A+ supporters of the hard working Indie Filmmaker! Favorite Genre: Horror Biggest Regrets: Not making movies sooner! Biggest Prick: I’d tell you... But then I’d have to kill you... Ha, ha The funniest thing that has ever happened to you on a set: By far the funniest thing was when we we’re shooting a bar scene in "Off The Beaten Path"... Amidst a long dialog scene between 2 main actors and a supporting actor. A drunk biker chick walks over to me while I’m filming and asks point blank... Are you shooting a porno movie! We all nearly died laughing after that one! Everyone that was involved in the project still talks about it to this day when I see them! Ha, ha Your biggest "break-thru" moment: When Fangoria magazine "in print" mentioned my 1st feature film, "Off The Beaten Path" in their Video Chopping list and had a full color production still with a caption underneath it... I almost cried. Well, maybe not but it was an awesome feeling seeing a movie I made talked about in a magazine I’ve idolized for years! You can only watch three movies for the rest of your life, which three: Tough to narrow it down, but... EVIL DEAD, HENRY and THE WIZARD OF OZ, believe it or not! But if it’s got to be horror, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE would be number 3! You can only listen to three ALBUMS for the rest of your life, which three: Slayer: Reign In Blood, Terrorizer: World Downfall and Pantera: Vulgar Display of Power! A close 4th is the Smithereens: Blow Up if anyone really wanted to know! Their the only band that can sing about chicks and sour relationships every single time they write a song and get away with it! Ha, ha Too see 1st hand what we we’ve done, go to: www.nftsproductions.com