UN: How did you initially get into film making? Was there a film in particular that made you want to direct?

Robert: I've always been a HUGE fan of films and the filmmaking process. When I was a kid, DVDs and Special Features weren't around yet. I acquired my entire movie set exposure by watching HBO's Behind the Scenes, which was a half-hour show dedicated to the making of a movie. I watched them all, always hoping one day to be on a movie set myself.

As for one specific film that made me want to direct. I'd have to say Alien. It was the first film I ever saw that really, truly scared me. I wouldn't say it was my biggest influence, but it's definitely up there.

UN: When did The Murder Game first begin to take shape? Have you been planning on making a slasher film for awhile now?

Robert: The Murder Game was conceived in May of 2004. That was when my co-producer, Jason Contino and I came up with the basic story idea and begin writing the script.

Though I love the slasher genre, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd always been planning on making one. In the case of TMG, we found the storage building location before an idea for any film was ever realized. I distinctly remember walking through thereit had many maze-like halls, multiple levels, pockets of darkness, just being there gave me the creeps. At one point I just stopped cold, gave another look around, then said right out loud, We gotta shoot something here. Sometime later, I brought Jason down to check it out. He was sold immediately. Over the next several months, many possible ideas were discussed. But in the end, we felt the place lent itself best to a slasher film.

UN: How long did the writing process take? Did you go through a lot of drafts? Was it intentional to have the movie be similar to the slasher films of the 80's even during the writing process?

Robert: The script took about two months to write. We probably had a total of four complete drafts. But, our writing process was a little unorthodox compared to most. We wrote the script around the location, when usually it's the other way around. The location gave us an excellent jumping off point. Basically, Jason and I started out by sitting down together and writing a loose outline of everything we wanted to happen to these characters. No specifics like dialog or actual kill scenes, just order of events and getting characters from A to B. Once finished with that, we went our separate ways and wrote our own scripts based on our collaborative outline. To be honest, when we finished, we thought our drafts would actually be quite different from each other. But, as it turned out, they were pretty similar. We then took the very best stuff from both scripts and created our final draft. As I said, it was an unconventional approach to writing a script. But, it worked for this film. Of course once production began, we went through a few more rewrites as we shot. So, there were a few more subsequent final drafts.

The 80's slasher theme was definitely intentional. Not just style, but more specifically the killers motivation. Jason and I had numerous discussions about how films these days had killers that always needed a reason to do what they do. Even in Scream, Skeet Ulrichs character quips about how it was never revealed why Hannibal Lechter like to eat people because it's scarier when theres no motive. Of course, then they went ahead and gave one of Scream's killers a motive. Go figure. But, before Billy Loomis revealed his secret, he was right. It IS scarier when there's no motive. Slashers of the 80's saw many killers that really didn't need a reason to kill (Jason, Freddy, etc.). We wanted to get back to that convention.

UN: The movie was shot and financed without any help. How did you come up with the funds for the movie? Did you do any fundraising or did the money mainly come right out of your pocket?

Robert: The money came 100% out of our own pockets. It wasn't easy and I don't know that I'd ever make a movie this way again. But, for such a small film, Jason and I thought we could swing it without going completely broke in the process. The advantage of making a film this way is that you don't have any third party investors to answer to. You have the freedom to make whatever movie you want. Of course, the budget is the downside. With no investors, you're only going to be able to do so much, unless you're independently wealthy, which (obviously) we're not.

Affording even a film this small was a major hardship for us. In fact, its one of the reasons it took us so long to complete the film. When we had the money, we shot. When we didn't, we didn't. It was that simple.

UN: How did the casting process work for the film? Did you have a long casting process? Were any of the roles writing for particular actors or actresses that you had already known?

Robert: We didn't have any actors in mind when we began the casting process. I wish we had too because casting was daunting, to say the least. But, when you're producing a low-budget indie film, that's usually how it goes. Since you're offering little to no money at all to your cast, it significantly narrows the field of actors who will be interested. However, our genre typically lends itself to younger cast members. This helps tremendously since young actors are usually eager to participate in a film, even without pay, for the sake of padding their resumes and getting some solid movie experience. Of course, as you can imagine, in dealing with so many aspiring, inexperienced young actors, you have to see quite a few to find the best ones. We looked at about a thousand headshots and auditioned well over 300 actors for the ensemble cast. It was a lot of work I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. But, luckily for us, it paid off. I think we managed to find some genuine, undiscovered talent for this film.

UN: The response to the film has been very favorable. Are you happy with how the film is being received by the horror community? Do the negative reviews bother you? There seems to be people who can't accept horror films that don't have a large budget, which is ridiculous as horror was pretty much started on shoe string budgets and some of the best films the genre has ever seen were made for peanuts.

Robert: I'm pretty satisfied with how the film is being received. I mean, just as there are people who like your work, there are always people who don't as well. I'm a film fan too and there are plenty of films I don't like that I'm sure others do. But you know what? Theres nothing wrong with that. Film is subjective. What one guy loves, another guy hates. That's just the way it goes. As such, I don't let negative reviews bother me. Granted, some people bash for the sake of bashing. To them, I have nothing to say. But, there are also those who criticize the film and actually back up their comments with specifics that justify their conclusions. I think that's great. That means people are being honest, but also analytical about my work. I appreciate that. In fact, I'll take a lot of that criticism and use it to my advantage on future projects.

As for those who can't accept low-budget horror I think that's debatable. Personally, I think people just expect competent movie-making, regardless of budget. Consumers go to the store, see a movie with a catchy title and some slick cover art, and plop down their money. Then, they get home and soon realize they just shelled out their hard-earned cash for a piece of shit made by a bunch of inept filmmaking wannabes. Why? It's because most low-budget horrors just plain suck. Consumers expect a certain amount of competence when they sit down to watch a movie. Sadly, the market is flooded with films that just don't have any qualities that remotely resemble what most consumers are used to seeing. Not because of budget, but because of execution. These days, EVERYBODY wants to make a movie. But, few REALLY know what it takes to achieve good storytelling, execution, pacing, mood, etc. These things aren't created by budget. They're created by good filmmakers who understand how a film is supposed to be made. The Blair Witch Project is a cheap film. But many, many horror fans like it. The reason they like it because it's a good story with a good idea that was well executed. Hell, Blair Witch 2 had like twenty times the budget..we all know how that turned out.

UN: The film has won quite a few awards at film festivals. Does it feel good to have the film win best feature at some of the festivals?

Robert: Absolutely. To be honest, just being accepted by a fest is a great feeling. On the independent level, a lot of time and money is spent (usually by just one or two people) to bring a film home through post-production. Its a long and thankless process. So, when your final product is accepted by a film festival, it makes you feel like all that time and hard work paid off. Winning an award is just icing on the cake.

UN: Was it important to have creative death scenes in the movie? It seemed like in the 80s each new movie would try to outdo the movie that came before it with different death scenes.

Robert: Definitely. Any slasher fan will tell you the death scenes are half of the fun (if not more). The appeal of these movies comes down to humor, gore and body-count. A little nudity never hurts either ;)

UN: From the gag reel it seems like everyone was having a lot of fun on set. Would you say that it was a rather light hearted shoot? I'm sure you guys took it seriously but I bet there was a lot of giggling.

Robert: Well, making movies isn't easy. Lord knows the entire cast and crew worked extremely hard on this film. And, as expected, some days were better than others. Hell, there are some days I'd like to forget all together. But, the subject matter allowed everyone to have some fun along the way. We made a point never to lose sight of what we were there to do: make a fun, entertaining film. Even after all the tough times, when we wrapped out, I like to think everyone left this production in high spirits. So, that's the mood I wanted to capture when cutting the gag reel together.

UN: What prompted the decision to include The Puzzle? I think it is a very effective short film.

Robert: The Puzzle was the first horror film Jason and I ever made together. As with TMG, Jason shot and I directed the short back in 1999 as a student film. Being that Murder Game was our first feature, we felt it might be cool to show viewers how far weve come since college. So, we threw it in as a special feature on the DVD.

UN: Was it a huge weight off your shoulders when the film finally had distribution through Lightyear and Warner Bros? It must have been pretty cool to see your first feature film on store shelves.

Robert: Well, it certainly felt good to get picked up for distribution. No doubt. But for me, it was really just another step in the long, arduous process of taking a film from script to screen.

But I have to admit, it was an interesting feeling to walk into a retail store like Walmart or Best Buy and find my movie on the shelf. It was very surreal. I asked my wife to pinch me the first time I saw it just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Sure enough though, there it was with a price tag and everything. Pretty wild.

UN: Aside from directing you have also edited a number of films. Do you enjoy this aspect of film making? Editing is pretty much the most important aspect of a film really and can make all the difference in the world.

Robert: I love editing. It's where your film really starts to take shape and you really begin to get a good look at what you have. I believe that good directors are naturally good editors too. Both jobs are very similar in that they deal with the construction of the film. When directing, you acquire all the pieces you're going to need to tell your story. When editing, you put them together in the best way possible to tell that story. For me, it's where the creative process REALLY begins.

UN: What's next for you and 500 Pieces? Have you started to write anything new yet or are you mainly working on promoting The Murder Game as much as humanly possible?

Robert: I have a few ideas in the works. But I haven't really put anything on paper yet. I'll likely be working on David A. Cross next film, Last Breath as assistant director and editor, just as I did on his previous films, GhostWatcher and GhostWatcher II. After that, I'll probably sit down and start writing something new. For right now, I'm working to get TMG distributed internationally. The process is a bit different than domestic distribution. But, I'm learning. I've recently retained representation and were hoping the film will begin popping up in other territories sometime over the next six months. So, for all you non-US/Canada movie-lovers out there, Murder Games coming soon. Hang in there.