Count Smokula, it is believed, was born 496 years ago in the town of Yabatubursk, near Glipsch, in Smokesylvania. Yet through an old series of family remedies, medicinal plants and herbs, he has retained his boyish vigor, and most people can't imagine he is a day over 380. Even as a boy, The Count was known to possess miraculous powers of entertainment and was much in demand as a singer of Smokesylvanian songs of joy and for his exquisite playing of the SqveezeBox, which he performed at many Shlabans and other social events throughout the Shmear Province.Although from one of the oldest and most prominent Smokesylvanian families (his great-grandfather Sverdling of Smokula was considered the benefactor of the region, and his likeness hung outside The Great Latrine of Glipsch), the Smokula fortune had been greatly diminished by the time of The Count's birth, and in fact he was called The Count because of his ability to find Grooshiks (coins) and count them over and over again. it is to this childhood ritual to which The Count attributes his dazzling ability to count to five. When he was about 11 years of age, the terrible Blue Plague swept through Smokesylvania. The boy was quite ill for several months and at one time was not expected to recover. His mother, however, determined that The Count should live, summoned a kropsik lady, who after performing an elaborate votchnik ritual on him, saved his life. However, since the cure involved transfusions involving caffeine, The Count has had a constant sturggle with cafe latte addiction. Several stays in a rehabilitation clinic have helped to clean out his system, but even one cupp of the latte keeps him up at night, and that has accounted for his perpetual pallor. The disease also left him with an unnatural craving for blues music, which he needs to hear constantly or he reverts to a near catatonic state. Upon recovering from the plague the boy Count was determined to regain his health through physical acticity, and also needed some extra Grooshiks to help the now-struggling family, and so obtained employment in the tanning factory of Zakneh and for a time cleaned the public clocks in Glipsch. Being of a rather capricious nature, he amused himself by changing the times on all the clocks. The Glipschniks,unaware of the little trick played on them, and always following public clocks for their schedules, never got anywhere on time, and hence the expression "A Glipsch on time, never boils." Eventually, The Count grew up and emigrated to the United States. Smokesylvania had changed. Lightbulbs had emerged, and the villagers no longer huddled around their television sets watching their favorite programs by candlelight. The Count took a hard look around and realized that all the excitement and dazzling television guests could be found in The Hollywood of the California. And that is where he now makes his home - as host of the only talk show in America to show and tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the Smokesylvanian truth - God help us all.

DAMON PACKARD

www.reflectionsofevil.com

Crimson Celluloid
Australia's first Horror'zine
Interview with Damon Packard
by David Nolte
January 2003 (11 months after completion of film)

1) Upon seeing your film REFLECTIONS OF EVIL I guess the obvious first question is ARE YOU DERANGED???

DP:  Good heavens no. That was just a character.

2) What exactly did you hope to achieve when you started the film and did you meet your goals?

DP: It was mainly a statement about how I feel about this time, (fear, hostility, anger, people ready to explode at any minute for no reason, puppet-tabloid-media propaganda, corporate-ruled armageddon, intestine-clogging junk foods, etc) As for the film itself I'm basically dissapointed in it, not necessarily how I feeI about it, but the 'general' reaction (or lack thereof) of how other's have reacted to it. And I don't want people to get the wrong impression and think this kind of material is my 'forte', because it isn't! Looking back, the strongest regret is certainly not cutting the film shorter and faster and taking the extra time to fix and refine certain things, but It's too late now...I blew it.

And I blew it on a much larger scale in an overall way which is difficult to sum up in words, for one thing I should know better, I've been making films for over 20 years and this is not the mark of a veteran. Certainly the opportunity to make a feature with any kind of a budget will never arise again. In another state in succint insanity I look at the film now unable to answer what or why it is I shot what I did, it's a blank memory. What the hell was I thinking? I hate these kind of movies, this isn't what I'm into! Why would I make this film? What the hell is wrong with me?! And certainly as for the outcome after completing the film--as far as 'meeting my goals', heck no! I was temporarily having delusions of granduer, hoping it would ultimately lead to something bigger and better. Hoping it would get a much stronger reaction from a wider group (either negative or positive) as opposed to a completely large scale muted response. These are always the kind of sanguine fantasies one has on the brink of completing a new film, I've been through it time and time again. Unfortunately the reality is always ultimately dispiriting. And this is a pretty strong potential example of just how self-deluded one can become in their own work.

I never imagined I would need to send over 29,000 DVD's around at tremendous cost over a course of a year, mailing envelopes day and night full time, hiring people to pass out DVD's daily, going from A-Z in various celebrity address lists, production directories, (both local and international) agency directories, magazines, newspapers, reviewers, producer/director directories, countless film festivals, video stores, film schools, special events, horror/sci-fi conventions, galleries, distributors, bookstores, film meetings, websites, cafe's, music stores, constantly RELENTLESSLY psychotically leaving, sneaking, spreading, hurling, passing, plopping, tossing DVD's everywhere, exhausting every penny I had left and getting very little reaction over-all. I mean what the hell is wrong with this world are people brain dead!?? I suppose I'm the one who's brain dead for being so stupid in wasting so many DVD's, but then it was either do it or don't, you know how that go's.

I mean, how many days in the week does a person find a copy of Reflections of Evil sitting on top a paper machine in Pacific Palisades or ATM in Malibu or inside a vending machine at UCLA film school, or being passed out for free by homeless people at screenings, or see someone wearing a giant Reflections of Evil sandwich board walking around Beverly Hills giving away dvd's, or on the arm-rest of your chair inside a theater or in the bathroom stall at a studio, or in the prop truck on location, or on your car windshield, or stacked next to periodicals, or handed to you by the security guard at the entrance of an extremely upscale Beverly Hills community, or sitting on the paper machines outside Dreamworks, or on the steps at Zoetrope, or in an alley behind Samuel French's, or suddenly showing up in the mail one day out of the blue? Grant it, the film is not everyone's cup of tea and maybe some have taken offense but it's not "Blood Beach Zombies 2" we're talking about.

If anyone bothered to watch more than 10 minutes regardless of what they think or how baffled they are they should at least realize the DVD is not a Dianetics CD-Rom advertisement or something. (well, maybe about 30 seconds in one small scene at the beginning but thats a different matter) Still in general this is a pretty unique and amazing film to be found laying around free for someone to pick up. Of course I have come to feel after this grandiose experiment in guerilla marketing it probably simply would not matter how brilliant, incredible and unusual a film is, if it is left / passed / sent around to people for FREE they will instantly interpret it as junk!

Now there are some exceptions to that, and I always thought I would give the public the benefit of the doubt to decide on their own, which seems to be a mistake. I'm not too sure people are capable of forming their own opinions. Not meaning to sound bitter or harsh but how I else can I interpret the results of such an experiment? The other thing which astounds me is how utterly apathetic and dismissing people are, you simply would not believe how many people (and we're talking everyone from hard-core film buffs to indie film supporters / collectors, etc) will simply refuse taking a free DVD in complete disinterest. I had them passed out at all the special events and screenings, particularly cult/indie/horror, obscure 60's & 70's films, it doesn't seem to matter what audience we're talking about, at least 97% of them WILL REFUSE taking a free DVD. This is no joke, I have observed it quite extensively in the last 9 months.

Another thing I have increasingly discovered is just how many of these DVD's I've left around for people to pick up have been tossed in the garbage. What may be most disturbing is WHO I've discovered is throwing them out, being theaters and places who are ardent supporters of independent (and cult) cinema. Yet their tossing hundreds in the garbage. In fact someone just recently told me that USC film school had discarded all of the DVD's I left around, I can only guess UCLA did the same thing. (that alone is 250 copies tossed in the garbage by film schools no less?!) Now, I realize it's their right to do this, but I still find it quite tragic in a way. I mean, is this the state of extreme apathy and hostile ignorance in the world today? I suppose one only needs ask that question to him/herself, but personally speaking I would never ignore a DVD of someone's independent film laying around. I suffer the same flaws as everyone else but still generally at least try not to instantly ignore or dismiss things and people.

This whole 'marketing' approach was a massive experiment, and it's left me drained of hope. Most (with a few rare exceptions) seem to be either apathetic, ignorent, dismissing or unable to decide how they feel about something without the collective approval of peers or advertised hype. Of course I was sending it to every film festival and such each month, going through all the 'normal' channels, but I had to go way beyond those boundries and try and get it into as many people's hands as possible. Both movie-lovers and film industry people.

I hope I don't sound bitter or angry, because I'm not that kind of person, just relaying the results of a marketing experiment, be it naively assumed or not. I'm just relaying the facts, not being pessimistic. I want this message to go out to all the young aspiring filmmakers out there. The apparent result is; if you make a film and want to really get it out there, (and have a little extra money to do so) don't even bother because, A. people won't care, and B, they will just toss the DVD's in the garbage and C. the more brilliant and uncompromising the film is, the more the derision and lack of response you can expect. It's very easy to see how and why so many awful films are churned out and blandly marketed by the industry, aside from there being a serious creative drain and lack or original idea's these days you simply have to be a compromising, game playing, team-member-play-it-safe ultra-mega-hack to work within the system. Not that everyone doesn't have to compromise to some extent to work within the system (like Orson Welles said it's an expensive paint set) but it's gotten much much worse than that in recent years. It's bad enough when things were just conservative and restrictive in the late 80's now things are exhausted, jaded, over-saturated and ultra-conservative.

Besides that, creative filmmakers are a dime a dozen these days, you can be the most briliant filmmaker on the planet but it has virtually nothing to do with the real world of film directing, not anymore anyway. I remember many years ago fearing the dreaded arrival of this time we're now officially in.

That is the only structure I can give you
for the entire universe
is predicated on love
creating itself

Well, getting back to Reflections, after 11 months of spreading the film around I can tell you absolutely nothing significant has come of it. But don't get me wrong, I am extremely appreciative and flattered by all the positive response it has rec'vd by all the true (intelligent-open minded-knowledgeable) fans of independent/underground movie's. The response however can be more likened to the results of sending several hundred DVD's out there, not 29,000, where did the other 28,000 DVD's go, did they fall into a black hole? I would estimate I had a grand total of about 75-100 responses in sum. Negative, positive, baffled, kind, whatever. That leaves (approximately) 28,900 un-answered DVD's.

3) I must say that certain sequences stayed with me long after watching them, in particular the episode concerning you in your mom's house at night, this was genuinely frightening. I describe the film as a kind of schizophrenic urban nightmare, do you think this is accurate?

DP: I only wish i had the words to describe it that way during filming.

4) What problems did you encounter whilst shooting?

DP: Everything you could imagine, which is typical making any film. After doing it for so many years you come to expect these things, but with all the increasing senseless rules and restrictions and red tape it gets more difficult every year. I don't think there was a single location we weren't chased off by Security on. It was ridiculous, I had to keep sneaking back with the actors, shoot and run like a military operation. No time to even set up a tripod in most cases. They damn near arrested me on several occasions, and I wasn't very pleased with having to put the actors through all that.
Fortunately they (the actors & crew) were extremely good sports about it. But if it wasn't for the constant aggressive lawbreaking there would have been no movie, plain and simple. And I can say that for just about every film I've made.

5) You've achieved a great deal on a minuscule budget which parts of the film are you proudest of and which would you change?

DP: For change's I wish I had spent more time getting the looping more accurate, I wish I had focused harder on having a sound person always on the spot. I wish I had cut the film shorter, faster, maybe even eliminated the vomit intro, and so on. Proudest? Probably the Universal-Spielberg sequence's. The miniature tram and sets built by Brian McFadden and Kelly Mann.

6) I heard something about you being sued by Spielberg and banned for life from Universal Studios (I've been there too, it's no great loss to be banned!), what's the deal there?

DP: I was banned from Universal, (definitely no great loss) the Spielberg thing is a joke of the opening intro. Universal had their eyes on me and decided I was really up to something no good. I was there by myself, harmlessly shooting inserts when the entire security staff flanked by Sheriff deputies swarmed on me, damn near arrested me. They sat around for 90 minutes deciding 'my fate', asking questions like "why were you filming children?" Mind you this was in the park, not the lot, with hundreds of other people walking around with video cameras. (and many months before 9-11) Things have changed since the days when a 16 year old Spielberg could walk on to the Universal lot every day and take over an empty production office, or Columbo could sit down and charmingly talk to a young child sitting alone at a table.

7) You've been making experimental films for quite a few years now, who are your filmmaking influences? What kind of film would you make if you were presented with a decent budget?

DP: Probably a feature version of "Apple"; an elvin-sword and sorcery fantasy, which can partly be described as Lord of the Rings on psychedelic drugs. But it's a very different film than what one might expect from me, it's a sweet, sensual, magical, adventurous fairy tale. Most of the "Reflections" crowd would probably hate it. I've always loved fantasy, especially that short wave of mythic organic-looking fantasy films which came out of the early 80's (Dragonslayer, Excalibur, The Dark Crystal, Krull, etc)--my favorite probably being The NeverEnding Story--which was in essence the last of the 'creative early 80's fantasy wave'. However I still feel there has not really been a great film in this genre. Jackson's Lord of the Rings in my book does not fit the bill, as I would much rather see a newer more daring, wild and inventive effort. I'm not saying that I could do it, but certainly it's something I would like to make an indelible contribution to. (it's all a matter of perspective anyway, and people are experiencing reality on drastically differing levels these days) It's important to note that much of the 'tone' of "Apple" would be a softer, sweeter, atmosphere. With much attention to realism, take films like Andre Rublov, Crouching Tiger, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, The NeverEnding Story and combine them into something new and this is the closest analogy I could offer.

Influences? Admittedly Spielberg. But this was mainly the Spielberg of the 70's & early 80's back when things were still exciting and possible. (don't even get me started on that)

8) What kind of response have you received from people who have seen REFLECTIONS? What's the strangest reaction/most gratifying and/or scariest?

DP: In general--for the most part NO RESPONSE. Just complete SILENCE. This is the thing that always drove me crazy, I had to send tens of thousands of DVD's just to get what response I've had. I'm not sure what the most gratifying or scariest would be however I do think the FUNNIEST reaction had to be from Sylvester Stallone when he was on the phone with his son talking about the film (see celeb response section) "That poor Curtis, Packard must have paid him 100 bucks..it's really sad.."

9) You have committed to celluloid one of the greatest vomiting sequences I've ever seen, well done.

DP: Thanks, I'm not sure why I even shot that.

10) Can you tell us what the significance of incorporating the 9-11 footage in Reflections was?

DP: It seemed to me to fit perfectly with the theme of Fear, propaganda, anger, hostility, war, conflict and it's connection with "Bob's world" of his street experiences and how they grow more extreme. That is the individual's battle's, conflicts and psychotic maelstrom's of rage are a metaphor for larger events. Since Bob begins by stirring up the negativity and hostility surrounding him, when that "negativity shockwave" grows more powerful, it eventually even causes 9-11 and all the spiraling events to happen--right up to the present war. It's all Bob's fault!! In the sequel I could explain this.

11) Can you mention a few words about the sound FX mix in the film, obviously sound is very important to you, did you take the film to a post house or handle the mix yourself?

DP: Did it all myself in Final Cut Pro, collected a whole new library of Lucasfilm sounds in the digital world this time. I've been into creative sound design since the early 80's and have always gone to great lengths (in the analog world) to get the highest quality and interesting sounds in all my films starting in 1982. How many 14 year old Super8 filmmakers in 1982 do you suppose were collecting state of the art Lucasfilm sound FX? Walter Murch, Ben Burtt, Randy Thom, Gary Rydstrom, these were the pioneers. Unfortunately these days (and for the last 10-15 years) people take quality sound for granted, it wasn't like that in 1980 or '81, it was a brand new thing. Remember those days? It's all over now.

12) What's the daily life of Damon Packard like?

DP: Ever since completing Reflections, the attention has not stopped. Calls every day from producers, meetings, festivals, offers, ..and actually I'm just kidding!! In actuality at the moment pure nothingness. Just spreading DVD's around--until they run out. Which will be very soon, as in about 1 week. Then the nothingness will reach new levels. It will become mega-nothingness. I will become a living drooling vegetable placed in an asylum.
............for this complete interview goto www.reflectionsofevil.com