UN: How did the collaboration begin between you and Jay on The Recovered? Were you planning on making a horror film together for awhile now?

Mike: Jay and I have worked together on projects for a while now, but they've mostly been comedies. I lived in Arizona for 3 and a half years and made music videos and filmed concerts and Jay made a few comedy features in Milwaukee, but I think he sort of gave up after the last one was never completed. I think he started drinking a lot after that. Anyways, when I moved back to Chicago we talked about collaborating on a project and decided to do a horror film because were both fans of the genre, but never had attempted to shoot something remotely serious. Ever.

UN: Did you guys encounter any problems during the shoot or would you say it was a rather smooth sailing for the most part? How long did the filming process take?

Mike: It actually was pretty smooth for the most part thanks mainly to Jays schedule and Tina's ability to nail takes and remember her lines perfectly. The fact that things were sort of on schedule made the shoot a little less stressful and smooth. We shot the bulk of the film in 7 days and then other parts like the flashbacks and other picks ups and stuff on other days. We only had Tina for like maybe 6 days I think? I'd say the whole shooting was maybe 12 or so days total.

UN: Would you say that it was rather light hearted on set? The movie is indeed dark but if you watch the behind the scenes material it seems like you had a lot of fun of the set and laughing fits seemed quite regular.

Mike: I'd say the shoot was pretty lighthearted the whole time. Jay is generally a goofball and Im like a horrible sarcastic asshole, but when it comes down to it we knew exactly what it was we wanted and what kind of visuals we wanted to get. The only time we werent laughing, doing impressions, telling stories, or talking about food was when the camera was rolling. Tina could turn the serious dread and depression of her character on and off like a light switch so that helped too. There really was very little to no BS from her about anything.

UN: Did you guys have Tina in mind for the lead role right from the start? She has been in quite a few horror movies and did an excellent job with the film.

Mike: Pretty much. I had kind of sort of worked with Tina in a round-about sort of way so there was already an established connection so it wasn't like a cold contact. She fit the part pretty perfectly so it seemed like a natural fit.

UN: Would you say it is easier working with a small cast? Quite a lot of the movie is just Tina with one other character and she does a tremendous job of pushing the story forward.

Mike: Certainly easier for scheduling thats for sure!! We didn't want a big cast that's true. Being that we never tried to make something scary we didnt want to do a big production and just try to pull off something simple and hopefully effective. It was a very real possibility that this was going to end in some kind of horrible disaster and it was best to waste the time of as few people as possible. Also I hadn't made a film in a number of years and the last one I did starred talking vegetables. Plus I suck at working with people and talking to them in general. Wrangling together a large cast wasn't something I wanted to do at that time. Jay's films usually stared his friends so this was an embarrassingly late departure for both of us.

UN: I'm assuming the move had a small crew as well. Do you think having a close knit team is better than having a large group of people pulling in different directions? With a smaller crew you also probably weed out the people there just for a paycheck.

Mike: Technically the film had no crew. We had production assistants, but Jay primarily shot it and I held the boom. Wed switch off for shots that one of us wanted to get for whatever reason, push the dolly etc, but that was it. Our friends Lisa, Dixie, Ashley, Jays brother, and other people and family members would help where necessary, but no real technical people. Having no crew is fine with me for a flick like this. Money wise its less people to feed and travel around etc, but on the other end we could have reaaaaaaaly used a DP. Neither of us knows a lick about lighting and we just sort of had to wing that part. Having PAs to do little errands is always helpful. Asking someone with a specific technical skill to work for free is something I don't want to do so I'd rather just do it myself.

UN: Were there any ideas that you had to scrap due to budget restraints? Anything you would have added if you had more money to play around with?

Mike: Not really actually. We sort of crafted the idea around what limitations we had. I think if we had more time and money wed probably have expanded things more, but there wasnt really much from the original script that we cut out. The goal here was to try to make something real simple, but effective. Almost like an experiment in that.

UN: How did the idea for the film first come together? Was it a tough script to write? It is quite different than most psychological thrillers.

Mike: Jay penned the actual screenplay and I re-wrote some dialogue here and there. We worked out the details of the story together. We basically just wanted to do exactly what it ended up being, a simple story about a woman in a house sort of being haunted or hallucinating.

UN: How was the response to the film been? Has it been screening at any festivals?

Mike: I think all reviews have been positive and better than I personally expected. I'm really happy with the response so far! We had a screening premiere on a video projector outside in a backyard. People were encouraged to throw beer cans at the screen and we could all hardly see. It also played at the Full Moon Horror fest in Arkansas.

UN: With how well The Recovered turned out, can we expect the two of you to return to the horror genre in the future?

Mike: I'd love to do a bigger more elaborate horror film and I know Jay would too. We had fun making The Recovered and certainly have a lot more horror ideas. It depends on how well this movie does when it's released I suppose.

UN: While I have a screener copy of the film, has an official version been released on DVD yet?

Mike: We're in the process of looking for distribution.

UN: What do you hope someone to take away from the film? Are there certain emotions that you are trying to bring to the surface?

Mike: Well that's exactly the idea behind the movie! Bringing emotions and memories to the surface. I think we just wanted to make a movie that can creep people out as best as we can. I have a pretty specific taste when it comes to horror and what I really like. Generally it's not gore, or zombies, or torture, or cheep pop-out scares or anything like that. Its really the simple creepy visuals that stick in your head.