UN: I was doing a bit of research for the interview and I found out that you, Sara, Curtis and Jovan all worked together at Disneyland. Two questions, what did you guys do at Disneyland and how did you go from Disneyland to making a low budget horror film? Did you guys talk about horror while wearing mouse ears?

Jeff: Sara, Curtis, Jovan and I all worked in Entertainment at Disneyland. One of us still has ties to the theme park so I can't tell you exactly what we did. Ill just say that Sara was very good friends with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, Curtis used to spend a lot of time with Pluto and Jovan and I were very familiar with Goofy and Captain Hook. When you work in Entertainment, theres a lot of down time in your day so we would talk about movies and how we wanted to make one. That led to a Hi-8 party movie that I co-wrote and co-directed with Drew Hayashida, another former Disneyland employee, that starred just about everyone we knew from the theme park including Jovan, Curtis and Sara (in a very small cameo). It took about three years to finish and it wasnt that great but it was a wonderfull learning experience. Thats the project where I discovered what a great actor Jovan is and it made me want to do something with him as the lead. Picturing Jovan in a haunted house where he had to step up and kick ass was really the starting point for what became Stupid Teenagers Must Die!

UN: How did the initial start to the project come about? Were you planning on making a horror film for awhile now?

Jeff: After we finished the Hi-8 party movie, Drew and I would hang out and talk about a bunch of different movie ideas. We had a super hero movie idea, a geeks falling in love with the devil idea, and then the Jovan In A Haunted House idea that we called Blood & Guts. Every once in a while Curtis would come over and wed talk about our ideas and he really liked the idea of doing a horror movie. Curtis is usually the type that gets excited about something and then it wears off after a week but he kept talking about Blood & Guts and how we should really make it. Drew was busy with his job and couldn't work on the script so Curtis and I would bounce ideas off one another for a few months. I wasn't really in that big of a rush to finish the script because we had no funding anywhere in sight but Curtis kept saying that we would make this movie. And then one night he called me to let me know that he talked his sister's father in law into giving us a very small but very appreciated sum of money and we were going into pre-production right away. And thats when I thought Uh-oh, I've got to finish this script fast! So while Curtis and Sara started working out things like auditions and location scouting, I took the basic framework of the script that we had and started adding all of the things like the possessions and zombies and all that stuff that's in the movie now.

UN: When the writing process started did you know right from the start that you wanted this to be a funny and almost parody like take on the slasher genre? It is indeed one of my favorite types of movies but Im not oblivious to the fact that it is almost entirely based on clichs at this point in time.

Jeff: From the initial let's put Jovan in a haunted house idea, I always intended for this movie be a funny homage to 80's horror movies. During the writing process, Curtis and I had different ideas of what the tone of the movie was going to be. He wanted to do a full-on horror movie that had some comic moments in it but when we would talk about our favorite scenes from Friday The 13th or Night Of The Demons, we would always end up laughing about the cliches. Those movies aren't really scary anymore but they're very entertaining. So I decided to not worry about trying to scare anyone and just do an entertaining 80's horror movie style flick and concentrate more on the humor.

UN: Would you consider the pre-production for the movie as sort of a crash course in film making? From the bonus features on the DVD it seemed like you guys hit a lot of road blocks along the way but finally came out on top. Would you say it was harder or easier than you had initially assumed to get the movie done?

Jeff: One thing I learned from our pre-production on Stupid Teenagers Must Die! is that on the next movie, we'll have twice as much time to do pre-production. I don't think any of us knew how much time we'd need on pre-production. From casting to finding the house to costumes to finishing the scriptplus the fact that there were only three of us doing everythingit was tough. So next movie: more pre-production time and a crew to do my bidding!

UN: Also in the bonus features of the DVD you mention that when you first started filming the lighting was making everything look like shit I believe you said. Was it tough making the film look good on a small budget?

Jeff: Some would argue that we didn't make the film look good on a small budget! We shot the thing on DV which was all we could afford. So we knew from the start that STMD! wasn't going to look like the type of movies that most filmgoers are used to and if you read some our reviews on Netflix, a lot of people just cant get over the fact that we shot the movie on DV. But we decided to work with what we had and we ended up degrading the image even more so now it really looks like the movies been dragged in the mud. It's very grainy, very dark in a lot of scenes, the colors are muted and it's all on purpose, some people like it, some don't. I think the movie looks cool.

UN: The film was originally going to be called Blood & Guts but was of course later switched to Stupid Teenagers Must Die! Do you think the newer title is much more fitting? Blood & Guts might make people expect a ridiculous amount of gore.

Jeff: The title was changed because I did think people would expect a ridiculous amount of gore. We've got some gore but it's not ridiculous. I'd say we've got a crazy amount of gore. But anyway, that was the main reason and also because a lot of people didn't get the humor of the title Blood & Guts. I thought it was funny but people took it seriously. So I thought we needed something a little more over the top to clue people in that we weren't taking ourselves seriously. After some brainstorming with producer Sara and some voting from the members of the cast we went with Stupid Teenagers Must Die! which I think is a lot better than Blood & Guts.

UN: Seeing as though the actresses probably weren't getting paid very much, was it hard to get them to take off their clothes? There is a lot of nudity in the movie so I would sort of assume that none of the girls are what you would consider shy.

Jeff: Everyone that auditioned for the rolls of Tiffany, Jamie and Sissy knew that there was nudity involved so there were no surprises. I was actually shyer than the girls when it came time for them to take their tops off. I remember when we were shooting the scene where the lesbians are making out (yeah, it's that kind of movie, kids!), I got one master shot and then said Okay, we're good! just because I wanted it to be over. Producer Sara was the one that made me shoot more coverage of the ladies kissing and fondling. So thank you Sara for demanding more lesbian kissing and fondling the movie is better for it.

UN: Aside from the initial screening which showed an incomplete version of the film, when the film was finished and shown for the first time did you feel a sense of accomplishment? Was it exciting to watch the film with an audience?

Jeff: The first screening of the movie was awful because we had booked a location for the premiere before we even started post production. Just like pre-production, a lot of things took longer than we expected and by the time the premiere date came along, the movie wasn't anywhere near where it needed to be. We showed the thing anyway and that place was dead silent through out the entire movie. It sucked. I got a lot of better luck next time looks from the people as they filed out. There was even a gentleman that told Jovan you're lucky no one will ever see this. So after a day or two of mourning, I sat back down to the computer and started working on the movie again for about seven months. Then we had the real premiere where we invited all of the cast to come back and see the new movie. And this time they cheered, they laughed, it was awesome. We even recorded the audience audio for a special feature on the DVD. Lindsay, who plays Tiffany, told me afterwards That's the movie I signed on for. So that was a good night.

UN: Is it exciting to see the film playing at different film festivals? Are you surprised by the response the film has been getting and some of the awards it is winning? That's not to say that it doesn't deserve it, I'm just assuming you didn't really make the movie to get recognition from film festivals.

Jeff: It's very nice! We were submitting to different festivals for a couple of months and werent having any luck. We did screen at a festival in Las Vegas where about twelve people showed up for the entire two day event and the festival director allegedly punched out the only representative from a distribution company that bothered to show up. Our first real festival screening was at the Backseat Film Festival in Philadelphia. They call themselves The Drinking Mans Film Festival so we knew we were right up their alley. Thats where we won Best Title and Lindsay won the prestigious Best Breasts award (and rightly so.) After we screened at Backseat, we started receiving e-mails from other festivals asking us to send the movie to them. We met our international sales rep through our screening at the Dark Carnival Film Festival. So, yeah, we like festivals.

UN: When did Vanguard Cinema come into play with the DVD release? With the movie not having a theatrical run it must be very cool to have the movie out on DVD. Were you giddy when you first saw the film on a store shelf?

Jeff: Sara did a lot of research and created a list of distributors that might be interested in STMD! From there, she started contacting them one by one asking them if they wanted a screener of the movie. We had a couple of different offers but we went with Vanguard. Seeing the DVD on a store shelf for the first time was very, very cool. The store didn't give the disc a great placement, though, so I took the liberty of adjusting their display so our DVD was more prominent.

UN: Do you think this is the type of film that really finds its audience on DVD? The name certainly stands out and many people out there, myself included, tend to pick up newer horror films based on the name and cover art alone when renting or buying films.

Jeff: I certainly hope the film finds its audience on DVD because other than the occasional film festival, that's the only place to find us! We took a lot of time with our initial poster art to make sure the tone of the movie was there in the artwork as well. Our friend, Dean Ethington, worked on a few different designs and came up with something we all really like. Vanguard did change a few things for the DVD. Originally, our tag line was Excessive Violence, Gratuitous Nudity, Zero Budget but Vanguard didn't get the humor of us proudly announcing that were a low budget movie. So they changed it to Warning: Excessive Violence and Gratuitous Nudity which, to me, makes it sound like Faces Of Death meets Girls Gone Wild. We're hoping to change the tag line or just go without one altogether for future pressings.

UN: So like any great slasher film, the chance for a sequel is always there. Do you think we will ever see a sequel to STMD!? Have you given it much thought?

Jeff: I have outlines of a Part II and Part III sitting right here in my computer waiting for someone to say Here's some money! Go make it! And spend some more time on pre-production this time, you amateur!

UN: Aside from being a rookie director, you are also in Raymond and Scum. What can you tell us about the comedy rock band? Does it take up a lot of your time or would you consider it more of a hobby?

Jeff: Wow, look at you and your research! Yeah, I'm in a comedy band called Raymond And Scum with my friend, Matthew Dunn. Weve got two albums and a song that runs over the end credits of a great movie you may have heard of called Stupid Teenagers Must Die! You can buy our CDs or talk smack on our message board over at www.RaymondAndScum.com With STMD!, I havent had a lot of time to do R&S stuff but I've been shooting footage for a documentary on the little-known world of underground comedy musicians. They're a strange bunch, those that choose to be novelty music artists! And the fans are just as interesting. So I want to share this funny little world with the rest of society. Some could call that project my next horror movie.

Official Stupid Teenagers Must Die! Webpage