Saturday 25 July 2015

Interview with Alex & Marissa Murphy of Painshack 2015



Well Id firstly like to welcome Alex and Marissa to Rotten reviews this is something different but i want to highlight filmmakers aswell as there work,they are on of the (dont know many) but hardest working Independant Horror Directors I know, covering a lot of formats they have there first feature "PAIN SHACK" in the bag. A successful webseries "Ricky Shore Sings the Blues or RsstB" that has been going for years and what stemmed the feature from some of the episodes/skits and now they have a second movie on the way "Blowing Raspberries" which has said to be a lot more darker but with still the same love and humor as Pain Shack had.


Matt. Alex & Marissa so what got you into filmmaking ?

Alex: I've wanted to be a filmmaker - or at least tell stories - for as long as I can remember. I had my first camera when I was around 5 or 6. In high school, I made comedy skits with my friends that we'd compile onto tapes. We'd sell them to our classmates and give them out at punk shows. After college, I wanted to start making videos again, so I made a short called Weird Al Raped Me and posted it to YouTube. That was the beginning of RSStB.

Marissa: I've had a lifelong passion for acting. I grew up on stage, performing in local productions and attending theater camps from age 3 to 18. I didn't do any acting from when I was 18 until I met Alex, so it was nice that he brought that back into my life.


Matt. So "Ricky Shore Sings the blues, did you really think you would get a so many fans over the years or did u think it would purely help out in your filmmaking conquests?

Alex & Marissa :The RSStB shorts were what we could accomplish with the limited resources that we had. We always had feature length films in mind, but we had to wait until we were capable of producing one. In the meantime, we promoted our shorts to people on social media. It's always been about numbers, door to door sales. If you can reach one person, you can reach more, so it takes maintaining a strong connection to the community. We have a reputation for being good to people (unless you cross us), so that's helped in spreading our brand. It's flattering to know that we have viewers but we've never expected anything.



Matt: Over the years with RSSTB and "Pain Shack" pretty much your whole family and friends pets and little Town are involved which makes it so perfect in my eyes what is it like working with friends and family?

Alex & Marissa: Friends and family were all we had available. Most people don't want to act in a film. Making films can be a lot of fun, so we'd always use any opportunity we had to shoot something with someone. There have been some times where we've butt heads with friends or family while filming. We remember a long discussion we had with a friend about a strange costume choice he was insisting on and it ate up hours of our time. Usually an episode of RSStB takes about 30 mins to an hour to shoot, but if someone's being difficult, it can take much longer. Looking back on all of the episodes, we're happy that we included so many people that we care about.

Matt: In the past you have both touched a lot of taboo subjects with RSSTB, has there been some funny stories over the years of abuse/hate etc you can share?

Alex & Marissa: We've been called every name in the book, we've received death threats and rape threats, had people tell us anything and everything possible. Nothing really phases us. Usually if we're being harassed, we make a video spoofing the person who's harassing us. That's sort of become one of our trademarks. TheDVDLamer, Anferny Fandango, Salvia Guy, Ry Guy, these are all parodies of specific people who've gotten on our nerves.

Matt: Recently "Pain Shack" had a private Screening in Slaughter in Syracuse, I can only imagine you were both crapping it, what was it like sitting there?

Alex & Marissa: We were anxious about it but our friends ensured that it went smoothly. It was such a great group of people that we were able to talk and laugh about the film. That eased our anxieties and the screening ended up being a lot of fun.

Matt: So currently you both seem to have your name is all over the Internet (Not like Kimye but close enough) with the re-release of all the RSSTB episodes on DVD and Trippy Shore and many releases of pain shack, I can imagine you are both working like the clappers?

Alex & Marissa: Yep, the clappers over here. It's a lot to juggle, but we have our routines. This is what we do. It's an adjustment for us to market and sell a feature film on DVD, but we're learning and handling it okay.



Matt: With 2 different Cuts to Pain shack the Rough Cut and the obviously not, which do you both personally prefer ?

Alex & Marissa : It was difficult to edit it down because we had to cut some of our favourite material, but the final cut has a faster pace and less inside jokes, so that's probably the one we both prefer.

Matt: Finally with SinS like a distant past, Pain Shacks selling lovely (some by my loveable self) and RSSTb getting made like hot cakes, what's in the future for the pair of you of course "Blowing Raspberries" is firstly near completion what can we expect to see from the both of you next, more Festival runs?

Alex & Marissa: More movies. We wanna churn these babies out. We'll continue to post RSStB when we can, but our focus is on features and wherever they take us. We have several exciting projects in the pipeline, so stay tuned for future announcements

Thank you again, for taking the time out of both of your extremely busy schedules to spend a little of time answering my (Probably pointless) questions ......

Ricky Shore Sings the Blues on Youtube:

RSStb On Youtube ..

Buy Pain Shack and RSStb DVDs

Buy Pain Shack

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