Interviews
HoH Exclusive Interview: RJ Hannigan
By John Marrone
May 9, 2006, 01:12

Today we're here with RJ Hannigan, an up and coming filmmaker with a lot of skills in graphic artistry.  RJ has graduated the New York Film Academy, has personally produced and directed a few horror shorts - including Suffer the Little Children, which filmed at the 2005 New York Horror Film Festival - and is at this time working for VH1 doing graphic animations for Celebrity Eye Candy.  At this moment, RJ is preparing to shoot his biggest project ever, a horror film called Death's Sickle - which he hopes to have done in time for the 2006 NYCHFF.  HoH sat down with RJ, who was kind enough to answer some personal questions regarding his career and taste in films.

HOH  -  Most people who read interviews with young filmmakers are most interested in how they've taken the dream and turned it into a reality.  Could you give us some insight as to when you first decided to follow this path and in general, how you got to where you are...

RJ  - Well I’ve been making movies since I was a kid using my father’s video camera.  I always played the killer and my sister and cousins were the victims.  That was way back in the eighties.  Didn’t really start making them again till I went to film school.  Right after college, or actually during, I interned at a place called Team Services.  We did a lot of direct mail work for the WWF.  It was my first real job in graphic design and I knew right then that I wanted to do that as a career - or something related to it.  To actually get paid for something that I considered fun to do was my dream, isn’t it everyone’s?  From there I worked for numerous different ad agencies doing print work throughout the years.  Then I got a job at News 12 Long Island - it was when I worked there that I had just started playing around with After Effects. 

Hannigan does fantastic graphic imagery from a home studio in Astoria, Long Island...

Having little cheesy animations on TV that I made was pretty cool, and my parents thought I was famous cause my name was in the credits on the local news.  I had the morning shift and worked from 4:30 am to 1:00 pm.  So I had a lot of extra time to work on my personal projects.  It was during this time that I decided to attend the New York Film Academy.  One of my friends Frank Sabetalla attended as well - he is currently my DP (director of photography) and he just recently opened his own production/photgraphy company called SideShow Pictures.  We also met Jason Rice, a very talented writer and filmmaker; he is currently finishing his latest short entitled “The Shed”.  We hope to have his and my latest work “Death’s Sickle” premiere together at this year’s New York Horror Film Festival.  It was a 12-week intensive course and I learned a lot and shot a really funny zombie movie called “Dead Things”.  So from then on I decided I would create short films while I worked as a graphic artist.  I ended up leaving News 12 and started working as a motion graphics artist at a place called Teatown Communications Group.  This place was great for me as a filmmaker because the owners were also movie producers.  Dean Silvers and Marlen Hecht produced some very successful movies “Flirting with Disaster”, “Spanking the Monkey” and “Wigstock” just to name a few.  Anyway I would always bring my shorts in to work for critique and go over my pitches and my edits with them.  It was great I really learned a lot about filmmaking and production from them.  I eventually left Teatown to go on my own and be a freelance motion graphics artist.  And if there was one thing that I learned at Teatown it was to never stop making films.  It’s very important to keep on making shorts and writing scripts/treatments.  I am very fortunate that at this point in my career I can make money working from home.  This gives me a lot of extra time where I can still pursue my film career.  I currently have VH1 as my main client and am working on a show called Celebrity Eye Candy that airs Friday nights at 11:30.  It’s one of those tabloid celebrity shows.  I basically make fun of celebrities with my animations.  Just like how I use to draw funny pictures of my teachers in high school, only now I get paid for it.

HoH  - Speaking of shorts - Stephen King's Suffer the Little Children (The Bathroom Scene) - what made you choose this as your first independent short film?

RJ  -  I read somewhere that Stephen King does this thing called "Dollar Babies".  You give him a dollar and he lets you make a short of one of his short stories for festival screenings.  At the time I really didn’t have any ideas for an original short myself so I grabbed Nightmares and Dreamscapes off my shelf, and began to read through it.  Suffer the Little Children gave me the chills.  I always like when kids are evil in stories and movies - it always freaked me out.  The only reason why I did the bathroom scene was because I did not have enough money at the time to do the whole story.  So I picked that scene because it seemed like it was a good opportunity to build tension.  It was sort of a challenge to me because up until than all that I really had done was more on the comedic side.  This was my first attempt at a more serous toned genre flick.

HoH  - More so than in Suffer the Little Children, your 2005 NYC Horror Film Festival opening highlighted, I think, a little more of what makes you stand out as a filmmaker - the use of computer effects for blood droplets, for instance, and the altered movement of the imagery.  Seems to outdo almost any of the other independent short horror films Ive witnessed.

RJ  - Thank you - I do all the effects myself.  One good thing about being a motion graphic artist is that I’m always learning and trying new effects during my workday that I can use again in one of my films.  By the time I get around to using it I probably already have done it [so many times] that the effect is fine-tuned and a little better than when I first did it.

HoH  - What kind of drugs were you on when you did with They Came For It!?

The armless aliens of They Came For IT!

RJ  - Hahaha...  I was completely sober when I came up with “They Came for It!”  I was, however, just getting over a break-up with my live-in fiancé.  And like any artist will tell you, the best work comes out of a very emotional experience.  You just have to know how to focus that energy into something positive, and I think I've mastered that.  So from now on I plan on either falling in love or breaking up with somebody whenever I have to be creative.  I can’t take all the credit though - the Page Turner 2000 was invented by my x-fiance Giovannina Raimondi.

HoH  - What do you usually shoot with?

RJ  - I usually shoot everything with my own camera - a Panasonic DVX100 and shoot 24p.  During any action sequence I turn up the shutter it gives it that very fast crisp look to the footage.  Depending on what kind of budget I put together my next short may be shot with the Panasonic HD Varicam.

HoH  - You mentioned comedy.  Although your work has a dark side to it, its dipped heavily in comedy.  If you had a million dollar budget and the creative freedom to make anything that you wanted - would you do a horror film, a sci-fi film, a comedy...

RJ  - I most likely would start with a horror/comedy.  Once I begin making features I’ll most likely stick with this plan.

HoH  - You mentioned working on VH1's Celebrity Eye Candy.  If the opportunity opened up, would you be content doing shorts, openings, commercials, and the like fulltime, or would you be resistant to those projects eating all your time and more determined to try and focus on films...

RJ  - I have to make a living and right now VH1 is paying me to make animations on a daily basis.  I also am working on my first music video for a band called the Bouncing Souls.  So at this point in my career I am still putting my own money into my shorts.  But I am working on breaking into the business.  Right now, being a freelance motion graphics artist is allowing me to still pursue a career in filmmaking.  If I had a fulltime staff position I would never be able to do the stuff I’m doing.  I am also making more money than I would be making if I had a fulltime gig.  So I guess it really works to may advantage anyway.

HoH  - I noticed you also have an entry in the Tribeca/American Express 15 Second Clip Contest - for their "my life... my card..." promotion.  Your clip stands out, being by far the richest in special effects and visuals.   I know the date is close - have they announced a winner?

RJ  - The contest actually ended this week.  We didn’t win the grand prize, which was $15,000.  That would have covered the budget for my next short and than some.  We did however make the top 25 and won a video ipod.  My DP Frank Sabatella came up with the idea.  We shot a bunch of stills in his studio one day and I took a day and a half animating them in After Effects.  I’m pretty happy with the end results.  It’s just another piece to add to my showreel.  Now I just have to find the time to finally put my reel together.

Hannigan's "My Life... My Card..." entry was the richest in special effects by far...

HoH  - Your webpage shows a promo for your upcoming film, Death's Sickle.  Death's Sickle seems to be your most complex project to date and will start shooting very soon.  Is this a new story you came up with recently or something that goes back in time a little further in time...

RJ  - I came up with the concept about a year ago.  This will really be my biggest and most involved idea.  There will be a lot more complicated special effects in this flick.  And the story will be deeper and more involved than my previous work.  I plan on submitting this one to every genre fest out there.  And even the regular film festivals.  My plan is for this to be my last personally funded project.  I really hope that I can pick up some investors and producers on the festival circuit for my debut feature film.

HoH  - What do you see as your biggest obstacle between now and completing Death's Sickle?

RJ  - I see my biggest obstacle is being able to complete my film the way I’m envisioning it in time for it to premiere at the 2006 New York Horror Film Festival and to keep all my current clients happy so the freelance work continues to come in.  I’ve always burned the candle at both ends it’s just that there is a lot more at stake this point in my career than ever before.

HoH  - I also saw a mention of something called FlipSwitch - what is that?

RJ  - FlipSwitch is my company name. You can visit the website at http://www.flipswitch.tv/ - my showreel will be there soon, I promise!  I just have to find the time to actually put it together right now I have been so busy with work I can’t even get around to marketing myself.  I guess it’s a good thing being this busy but I really need a vacation…  BADLY.

HoH  - On a lighter note, can you name your top three favorite films of all time?

RJ  - I can’t do just 3 so here’s my top 8.  Not in any special order: The Goonies, Evil Dead, The Re-Animator, Nightmare on Elm Street, E.T., Requiem for A Dream, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Night of the Creeps.

HoH  - Any specific directors that you've idolized growing up?

RJ  - There are a few directors that I loved growing up.  I guess like anyone who’s my age loves Spielberg’s movies, E.T., Indiana Jones, The Goonies that he produced.  I also loved the Elm Streets, so Wes Craven for starting the franchise.  And A guy named Fred Dekker.  He did two of my all time childhood favs; The Monster Squad and Night of The Creeps.  Then of course the great Sam Raimi - with The Evil Dead and Darkman.  I also love what he did recently with the Spiderman movies.  Which leads me to my favorite directors at the current time.  I can’t wait for Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain.  He blew me away with Requim for a Dream.  It was one of the most intense movies I have ever experienced.  And I am a huge fan of Eli Roth.  He is exactly what the genre needed for quite some time.  In this current fad of pointless remakes I think he stands out with his overall excessive gore and just the right amount of comedy, his movies entertain me all the way through.

HoH  - If you could do a remake - which one would you do...

RJ  - I would not do a remake.  I think they are pointless.  To me it seems as though the current industry is not creative at all so they have to rehash old movies and make them more “today” so basically we get to see what happens to the victims if they all had cell phones.  Every remake that I have seen was in no way better than the original.  There was one exception though King Kong but I think we can all agree Peter Jackson is a cinematic genius. Other than that I’m not a fan of the remakes so you can just imagine what I thought when I heard Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell announced they were remaking The Evil Dead.  There are certain classics that should be left alone because of their cult classic status.  And if Evil Dead is not one of them I sure as God don’t know what is.

~  HouseofHorrors would like to thank RJ Hannigan for taking the time to sit with us, and give some of our readers a little more insight into what it takes to get your visions to the big screen.  Take some time and visit his Official Website - where you can watch Suffer the Little Children, the 2005 NYC Horror Film Festival promo, and They Came For IT! in their entirety (quicktime required).

HoH plans to visit the set of Death's Sickle, so keep it here for all the latest in horror filmmaking...