Q&A With Michael J. Bassett (Silent Haven)Date published: 2011.01.09 Q: What´s your age when you chose your career? Bassett: I started as a wildlife photographer and film maker when I was a teenager. It wasn’t until I was in my early 20′s that I decided I wanted to make movies. So I guess I really started then. Q: What elements of Silent Hill 3 make the game itself engrossing for you? Bassett: When I first played the game way-back-when, I was more interested in the scares and general freakiness. Loved the visuals, sound design and atmospheres and didn’t really pay that much attention to the details of the story. Only revisiting later and trying to understand the stories within the SH universe did I really begin to see the depth of detail and creativity that went into the games. It certainly renewed my respect for all those involved. Q: Are you going to keep the Heather clothes the same from the game? Bassett: Haven’t made final choices about Heather’s costume. Obviously the game character has a very well established and iconic look which I’m not about to mess with without very good reason. I have a superb costume designer on board so will be talking to her about all this in the new year. It all has to come from character not just what looks good and that’s going to depend on casting too. Everything feeds off everything else. Q: Will you be relying on more of character driven plot or more action and effects? Bassett: Character and plot are paramount to me. But defo some cool effects and action too. Q: Will you have elements of each of the games or just you base in the third game? Bassett: Story-wise; mostly 3rd game. Maybe some new stuff too and a few locations from others. Q: Have you made costumes for the monsters? Does your crew think prosthetic is the way to go for designing the creatures in your film? Bassett: Not yet. I’ll try and use practical prosthetics wherever possible. Q: Do you take inspiration from other movies or directors? Bassett: I don’t watch other movies for inspiration for my own movies. I look at photographs, art, comics, read books, sit in coffee shops and watch the world go by and pretty much do any other artform other than my own. Otherwise I’ll just be copying someone else. Obviously though, I’ve seen thousands of films and music promos over the years and inevitably things will rise through my subconscious – it’s all just a crucible in there. Q: Will we hear the siren again in the second movie? Bassett: Almost certainly. Q: How many minutes will the movie be? (120min. like the first one?) Or and Epic 3 hour Lord of the Rings type? Bassett: Not quite that long. I like my films short and punchy. Impossible to say with certainty at this stage… A film should run as long as it needs. Many films I see feel too long and indulgent to me. But a good film never feels too long or too short. The examples you cite prove the rule (apart from Inglorious Basters, which I thought was way too long but didn’t much care for anyway) Epic is not just running time, it is scale and ambition. Q: How far along are you with the project? Is actual filming still several months away? Bassett: Quite far. Yes. Q: Will there and be some like boss battles in the movie? Like Leonard, Claudia’s father, or the monster that killed Harry Mason? Bassett: Don’t want to give anything away – but there might well be something along those lines in the story. Q: Will Heather fight? (with guns, steel pipes…) Bassett: Heather will behave according to the needs of the situation and the desires of her character. If fighting is required, then so be it. Q: Have you decided who’ll be the composer? Bassett: No Q: Predictably the movie will be released in 2011 or 2012? Bassett: I’ve no idea. When the film is released is nothing to do with me. Q: How many years remained in the creation of this great script of Silent Hill Revelation? Bassett: The script is constantly evolving even now. I started it about 10 months ago. It will not be finished until the final edit is done. Q: Will there soon be media advertisements or artwork for your film? Bassett: There won’t be any artwork for a while. It’s not really anything to do with me. Q: Is it your intention to have any returning actors, or if you were avoiding that direction all together? Bassett: Some characters will return. As for casting – all things are possible. Q: Have you spoken to / will you speak with Gans about the storyline? Do you know yet whether there will be any aesthetic changes to Gans’ Fog World or the Otherworld in Revelation? Bassett: Can’t go into specifics really… I have chatted with Christophe. Told him what I was planning. Suffice it to say that there will be inevitable aesthetic changes simply because I view things differently to Christophe and so the film will reflect (for better or worse) my vibe and interpretation of the world. Q: Do you think that at some future can repair the damage that was done with many adaptations of video games that have tarnished the reputations of many games and above all that this history is to blame for the adaptations of video games are about to cease to exist in film? Bassett: I think the answer to making video-game to movie adaptations seem credible is to make good films. My Silent Hill is a film in it’s own right first and a video game adaptation second. Anything else just doesn’t make sense to me. Having said that, just because I say what’s important now doesn’t mean my film will be any good. It just means I’m going in with the best intentions to make something of quality. |
