Interview with Director Andrew Robertson

With his movie Refuge enjoying it’s Canadian premiere here in Toronto at the After Dark Film Festival, I was able to catch up director Andrew Robertson who discussed the movie, how he started and life as an independent filmmaker and who some of his influences in the filmmaking world are.

Can you tell me where your interest in filmmaking began?

Since forever? [Laughs] I really have been interested since as long as I could remember. Basically I’m an 80’s kid, lover of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars and during the eighties all my friends’ parents started getting video cameras, you remember those huge ones? Giant things with tons of cables that connected to your VCR? Well, we as kids were fascinated that you could use these to make actual movies!

This all began around the age of eleven and I spent about two whole summers making horror movies with my buddies, using mannequins and bottles of ketchup, that sort of thing. Then I got older and moved on to other things but always had those times in the back of my mind.

Along the way I was working as an advertiser and editor, watching camera technology grow and advance, and eventually took the next step and here we are, this is our first film.

So what was the inspiration behind Refuge?

Well, the post apocalyptic genre is a fan favorite and speaks to a lot of our fears, specifically all the different ways our species can become extinct. As you can see on TV and video games people can’t seem to get enough of it. We wanted to try and portray that world in a more realistic way we could and really if the world did collapse the first thing you would probably do is find a nice safe place to hide and wait it out to see what happens.

So, that’s what we did and we wanted to stay away from zombies and huge sprawling stories. Let’s face it, things like The Walking Dead and The Road are so huge in the post apocalyptic genre that people have started to view them as a bible of sorts. We see this sort of world like a new updated version of the western, where you recognized the scenery but were never sure what was going to happen.

Being a smaller independent film obviously has you on a tight schedule. Does that add extra stress for you or is there some hidden benefits, like bonding between actors and crew?

Andrew: Well I don’t know because I’ve never known anything different than that. [Laughs] It’s a funny thing to have a very low budget because when you have little money it forces you to hustle more. That then permeates through the crew and cast and makes them give that extra little bit to help.

The passion and desire was definitely there and hopefully down the line we will be rewarded for all the hard work and long hours with a bit more money and better access to equipment, sets etc. We had a great time so I feel very lucky in that regard.

You mentioned you were an 80’s child. Is that where you found your interest in horror?

I would go spend my summers in Baltimore with my dad and I had this one good buddy who would go with me every day to a little convenience store across the street to get those grindhouse horror movies. I never even knew anyone else was watching them but to us, the grosser and gorier the better.

Then what, ten years ago Quentin Tarintino and Robert Rodriguez started doing those homages to the grindhouse films and it was like ‘Oh my god, that was a real thing that people liked?’ so we kind of felt validated in our choices of films from back in the day! [Laughs]

How hard is it as an indie filmmaker to actually get your film made?

Unfortunately, it’s all about the money. But more importantly, to me anyways, is dealing with the process of getting the film made. When we started out it didn’t come across as such a mystery and we had a little Kickstarter campaign going so really, you have to just deal with the funds you have and go from there.

What I am finding the hardest or most mysterious is where we are now. Now we are here in Toronto at this big film festival and you hope people see something good in your film and want to help you do it again but taking you to a different level at the same time. Really all of this, from organizing your schedules, doing this interview with you, meet and greets and all that is more new to me than the film making process so I’m kind of learning as I go.

Who was or still is a big inspiration for you as a filmmaker?

I would have to say Robert Rodriguez. I like his message and love his book Rebel Without a Crew, which is his first experience making a movie. That is a great inspiration just in terms of work ethic and just doing it, pushing forward even if you are unsure that the direction you are going is the right one. Pushing hard to get to the next level, it was very inspiring.

In terms of movies, The Coen Brothers are amazing. Smart, well read and funny and are great genre filmmakers as well. Everything they do seems so well thought out and planned and it shows up on the screen.

What projects are up next for you?

Andrew: We have a couple projects on the go right now, one is an occult thriller which is more of a serious and hardcore type of film and then there is a horror comedy which is much smaller and lighter. We are writing those right now and depending on how Refuge does, maybe we will be able to get a few more funds together to take us to the next level that we were talking about earlier.