Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2007-09-27

Interview:


We were recently able to sit down with Craig Zobel, the director of The Great World of Sound and one of the co-founders of the popular website www.homestarrunner.com.

Craig told us a little about the movie, the filming and casting process, and how he made the transition from working on Homestar to directing a film. Be sure to check out our movie profile page for The Great World of Sound here.

Now you started writing "The Great World of Sound" in 2001, was there something that inspired you to write it?

Craig: My dad actually worked for one of these companies in the 70's for a short period of time and explained to me what it was and how the scam worked. I always thought that would be an interesting place to start a movie, to be a talent scout but not be legit at all. So that was the initial inspiration.

Now your film premiered at Sundance this year, did you originally intend to do the festivals in the beginning stages?

Craig: Yeah, definitely. We made the movie for a very low budget. I'm not sure how much you know about how it was made, but we made it for $82,000. So we wouldn't have really had a chance if we hadn't gone the festival route. We had great actors, but they weren't the actors that were going to sell a movie on just that.

I applied early for the first deadline for Sundance, so I had to wait with everyone else. But that was definitely my dream.

Since you were on such a tight budget, was there anything specifically you looked for in casting?

Craig: It's funny you should ask that. I've actually had conversations with other people that have made very low budget movies, and I actually had this person call me out on that. He said he didn't have access to those kinds of actors, and I said you probably didn't ask. That was all that I did, I just kept asking until I found the people that I thought were right. I did audition here in New York for some of the roles.

I really wanted to have Pat Healy, who plays Martin in the film. I had him working backstage on a different film, and I knew he was a good improviser and that was something that I had to have. I thought he had a really great face and was just the guy for the role.

Originally, I didn't have anyone to play Clarence (Kene Holliday's role). I actually asked a casting director if she would help me. I said, "Hey, Susan, I know you don't want to have spend the energy explaining why you have to turn me down when I ask you to do this free movie, but I think it's going to be good. Would your assistant be able to help out maybe after work?" And she said yes, and I met Kene that way and some of the other actors that way. For the secondary roles, I casted those out of a casting agency in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they did it pro bono too, because they thought it was a cool project.