Alvin Ecarma is the writer, co-producer, and director of the film Lethal Force, which has played in many prestigious festivals all over the world. I worked on the film as the action director and cinematographer. Now that you're caught up, to the interview!

Eric: So, Lethal Force is your first feature film. How did you settle on the story you wanted to tell?

Alvin: Basically, I followed "El Mariachi" as a model since I wanted to make an action film so I came up with a very pared-down narrative with a very basic, boilerplate structure that would act as skeleton for all the set pieces. There couldn't be that much dialogue since it was all going to be dubbed and the characters couldn't be terribly complex since I didn't know how much interest I could drum up from the local acting community. The comedy that emerged basically bubbled up through the seams; I did intend things to be humorous but I didn't try to force it. The actual script reads as fairly serious and hard-boiled for the most part but when you throw it up on the big screen, it's FUBAR, baby.

Eric: Yeah, that was interesting. I remember you had asked me if I might help on the movie, and sent me the script. I wasn't much impressed, because it read like a very typical action movie with a little bit of comedy every now and then. What sold me is when I went to a showing of your short films in Baltimore, which floored me with their audacity. Then I knew you had the goods. And Lethal Force plays so much better than the script would have led me to believe.

Alvin: Well, the script ain't Shakespeare but it holds together. I've read plenty of scripts where you're at page 10 and you're wondering what the hell is going on. Even if you aren't enthralled by it, it flies along at a decent clip; I figure it can easily be read in half an hour.

Eric: I was there when you were casting, and I saw some of the maniacs who showed up. My favorite was the guy who attacked your video camera. I know you have some good crazy actor tales. Dish!

Alvin: As I intimated, the acting community in DC is very conservative and in order to give myself some credibility, I put together a resume and press clipping packet to show that they wouldn't be wasting their time or making something shameful if they signed on board.

Almost immediately I ran into static from a number of the actors. The actor who was supposed to play Jack, the gangster, dropped out a three weeks before the shoot began because the film was too violent for him and didn't want to be associated with this kind of film.

Then the actor that was cast as the villain did an 11th hour prima donna spin and came up with a laundry list of demands including $100 for every day we went over schedule, daily transportation and costume stipends, 20% of the gross (or something like that, I forget the numbers), health insurance and a stipulation that we'd have to renegotiate the use of his image every three years. Now I was very clear to everyone from the beginning that this was strictly a "no pay but you get credit and copy of the film" situation but because this guy was the big fish in the local acting pond he thought he could throw his weight around and I'd totally cave in. On the one hand it was a bit flattering that he thought the film could be a success on some level, but on the other it was incredibly maddening that he'd pull this stunt because he felt he was hot shit since he was the go-to guy to play rapists and child molesters on the locally produced crime re-enactment shows for the Discovery Channel. I gave him his walking papers but it didn't end there; he was friends with some of the other actors I had cast and fed them a line of crap about how I was going to put their lives in mortal danger and so two immediately dropped out. The other acquaintances, having some common sense and backbone, realized that he was a complete imbecile and stuck with the show. I recast his role and things were going fine right up until the night before when the new actor told me he was deeply offended by my short films and since he was a world famous martial arts guy (ha!) he couldn't be in something that would so tarnish his reputation. So finally I went through the remaining cast and wondered who was freakiest looking guy remaining and it was Andy Hewitt who filled in and did a hell of a job.

During the shoot, there weren't any glaring problems except for two actors who stopped showing up for no adequately explored reason. One guy ended up being cut out anyway so it didn't matter but for the second guy, we simply threw a wig on another guy and kept him hidden in the background so you wouldn't notice that he suddenly lost six inches in height and gained 15 lbs.

Our last major thespian problem came from an actress. Now this girl- Ms. X- was in the movie because she seemed to be a nice person but during the shoot she was continually late and incredibly unprofessional. The only good thing she brought to it was her friend that she brought into the production who, like Andy Hewitt, rose to the occasion, and took up the acting reigns when Mrs. X let them go slack which was quite often in her case. In addition to her continuing tardiness and general amateur behavior, another friend of Ms. X was even worse than she was and was quite offended that we insisted she show up on a scheduled day, on time and ready to work, and told us to never call her again.

Anyway, after the shoot we needed to get Ms. X to sign a release form. I went ahead and asked her but because she was now such a major star, she not only had to review the footage before she'd sign the release but I'd also have to dance a jig and give her the rim job of a life time. After missing our first meeting time because she overslept, she finally saw the footage and signed off on it.

Still let me say that the rest of the actors on the shoot are great and totally cool and I plan on using them on my next film if they haven't become totally sickened by me.

Eric: Where did you get your main crew? You'll have to include me because I forget. I had been eating nothing but cupcakes for weeks and that time period is fuzzy.

Alvin: Since I knew I would need some locally based, talented key people for the film, I began compiling a dossier literally years before I even wrote the script. I found FX man Danny in an old issue of the Monster Make-Up Journal; I found you through a review of your film BIRDHEART PIE in Shock Cinema that was reviewing a short film of my own.

For other key positions, the Johns Hopkins Film Society was essential. They had shown one of my films at one of their festivals and we clicked. President Teddy Chao and board members Jeannice Angela, Wil Ryan and Dan Humire were instrumental in getting filmstock, securing locations and filling out crew positions as the schedule permitted. The only person who approached me directly was line producer Kent Bye who I met through the society's film festival.

Eric: You live in Maryland. Did you know that Bigfoot was sighted out there? Would you consider shooting Bigfoot murder? I mean, would you lump Bigfoot in with humans, or do you consider him an animal?

Alvin: If Bigfoot is indeed an actual example of cryptozoology, I would have to waive murder since a dead body would be the only way to prove its existence. However, if the creature is actually a corporeal projection of John Keel's concept of "ultraterrestials"- a pool of interdimensional intelligence that has been toying with humanity's collective unconsciousness since the beginning of time- the death or capture of such an animal would be impossible and any actual attempt would be to put one's life in mortal danger.

Eric: And on the topic of Maryland, did you find it particularly difficult shooting a movie there? Before this, most of your shorts were filmed in New York. Any preference?

Alvin: There was no real difference although we'd have been chased by the cops more if it were shot in NYC. As it was, we were only kicked out of a couple of locations in Maryland.

Eric: Ah yes, kicked out indeed. The fight scene between us was being shot in a half-built house, and we got kicked out of those day after day. How many did we end up shooting in, three or four just to complete a minute's worth of action?

Alvin: We shot in three houses, then we figured we better finish this someplace where we wouldn't get kicked out. Fortunately, we had passed by an abandoned elementary school not far from the home of F/X man Danny when we were doing some pickups so we finished things there. It probably would've been better if we had actually shot everything there to begin with. Oh well.

Eric: Some days of shooting went great, and of course some went terribly. Was there any day in particular that made you want to swallow a puffer fish so it would blow up in your throat and suffocate you to death?

Alvin: The shooting went fine, all things considered. However, I think this was because I've been on some really, really, really bad shoots in my lifetime. This was my first experience with a crew that was capable, talented and gave a damn. I love you all.

Eric: For me, the worst day of shooting was when we were in an abandoned area near bum feces. So now the movie is finished, and all ready to go. How did you build awareness?

Alvin: This first thing I did, and most important, was to send review copies to every reviewer on the planet in order to start fattening up the press kit. This is absolutely essential in order to establish street cred and a paper trail. Then in the first year, I submitted to all the main festivals. In the second year, because the film had been programmed in some name festivals and with our incredibly fat press kit, we submitted to smaller festivals but asked if they could waive the entry and half the time they did. But our most effective marketing tool was the line of action figures. They were cute, a killer icebreaker, and a sweet gimmick. I made them myself with some paint and sand paper. Eat your heart out Todd McFarlene.

Eric: What gave you the idea of making action figures? People did love them.

Alvin: Producer Man Kent came up with that. As I recall, we were waiting to go off on location late in the shoot and the idea of promotional ideas came up. Kent blurted "action figures" and the rest is history.

Eric: Now here's the rub. Good movie. Good press. Good festivals. Distribution problems!

Alvin: It turns out that a lot of distributors would rather distribute the mediocre or crappy versus something actually good. I have no idea why. Some of the biggie indie distributors like Miramax or Fox Searchlight are only interested if your movie stars Ethan Hawke. However, the main problems in the end was that the film was pretty violent so there's almost zero chance it could get the R rating that's vital to getting product into a national chain, there were no stars and it was 70m. Still, we have worked out a deal with a very large independent video distributor and the film should get a release in the Fall.

Eric: So what are your big plans for the future?

Alvin: Well, I'm going to go slum around in Hollywood for a while and then if I haven't contracted syphilis, I'll come back to the East coast in 2005 to shoot my next feature CERTAIN DEATH in the fine state of Delaware; during the shoot I plan on visiting Wilmington and taking a tour of a screen door factory.

Eric: Last question. Would you rather kiss a bunny made of fiberglass, so your lips would get all cut up and itch for days, or sleep one night curled up in a giant tongue?

Alvin: The second.

And there you have it! Now you've peered into the mind of Alvin Ecarma, so you might want to take a shower because I bet that isn't very hygenic.

originally published in Hollywood is Burning magazine