Burning Down the House: An Interview with Chad Archibald
By: David Briggs
(Originally posted September 19, 2011 on Tri-City Film)
We’ve all heard of indie filmmakers going to great lengths to capture their vision. From guerrilla tactics, shooting
without permits, to maxed out credit cards, it seems that once an idea forms, there are those who will not stop until it has materialized. Yet even the most zealous filmmakers must admit that burning a building remains an excess
withstood only by the truly hardcore.
Chad Archibald is such a filmmaker. And yes, he did torch a building. “There’s a crucial scene in the film where a house burns down. We literally had no money and I thought ‘how am I going to burn down a house?’ I tried test shots to figure out how to do it, and even talked with fire departments from here to Barrie to see if they were going to do test burns.”
without permits, to maxed out credit cards, it seems that once an idea forms, there are those who will not stop until it has materialized. Yet even the most zealous filmmakers must admit that burning a building remains an excess
withstood only by the truly hardcore.
Chad Archibald is such a filmmaker. And yes, he did torch a building. “There’s a crucial scene in the film where a house burns down. We literally had no money and I thought ‘how am I going to burn down a house?’ I tried test shots to figure out how to do it, and even talked with fire departments from here to Barrie to see if they were going to do test burns.”
“About a year and a half later—I was searching that whole time—I needed to get that scene, it was crucial. Then I drove by a place outside of Guelph that they were obviously going to tear down, so I asked the owner if there was any way we could burn that house, and he was like, okay.”
Astute readers will notice Chad mentions twice his “crucial” mission, while emphasizing the film would not be the same without it. Some would have returned to the drawing board, rewritten the script so that a burning building wouldn’t be crucial. Not Chad. And this type of dedication helped make Neverlost a success.
The amount of red tape Chad cut through for that shot could very will become legend. Once he found a property owner willing to let him light the match, he had to deal with the fire department, hydro officials, and no doubt, someone from Guelph city council. He likened the
process to a “nightmare,” the stuff of which materialized within a binder full of the necessary paperwork required for the shoot. He joked that the worst part of the experience was that after months with binder by his side, once the flames pierced the sky, “they didn’t even look at the binder!”
The final shot, and the paperwork required to achieve it, was worth the trouble. “It was huge and it looked fantastic, and we finally had our scene.” With that scene wrapped, Chad was able to put the final touches on Neverlost, a script he had honed for about five years before bringing it to production with Black Fawn Films. Starring Emily Alatalo, Ryan Barrett, Jennifer Polansky, and Danny Bruzzi, Neverlost tells the story of Josh, who after losing his true love Kate in a house fire, begins to take a turn for the worst. The film offers a unique portrait of a man unwinding, slowly losing grip on reality in sake of the temptations of a parallel life.
Astute readers will notice Chad mentions twice his “crucial” mission, while emphasizing the film would not be the same without it. Some would have returned to the drawing board, rewritten the script so that a burning building wouldn’t be crucial. Not Chad. And this type of dedication helped make Neverlost a success.
The amount of red tape Chad cut through for that shot could very will become legend. Once he found a property owner willing to let him light the match, he had to deal with the fire department, hydro officials, and no doubt, someone from Guelph city council. He likened the
process to a “nightmare,” the stuff of which materialized within a binder full of the necessary paperwork required for the shoot. He joked that the worst part of the experience was that after months with binder by his side, once the flames pierced the sky, “they didn’t even look at the binder!”
The final shot, and the paperwork required to achieve it, was worth the trouble. “It was huge and it looked fantastic, and we finally had our scene.” With that scene wrapped, Chad was able to put the final touches on Neverlost, a script he had honed for about five years before bringing it to production with Black Fawn Films. Starring Emily Alatalo, Ryan Barrett, Jennifer Polansky, and Danny Bruzzi, Neverlost tells the story of Josh, who after losing his true love Kate in a house fire, begins to take a turn for the worst. The film offers a unique portrait of a man unwinding, slowly losing grip on reality in sake of the temptations of a parallel life.
Neverlost has garnered rave reviews, and has proven a hit amongst audiences on the festival circuit. It played at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival in 2010, where they “sold out all of our screenings, and we won the audience award for the best Canadian film.” The film’s darker tone leads some to label it a horror movie, yet Chad explains that although “it keeps getting called a horror movie, it’s not. It’s like a genre love story, a fantasy thriller. It’s really not a horror movie, but it keeps getting into horror festivals, so I just go with it.”
After the film’s success at Fantasia, Chad continued the momentum by booking a Canada wide tour to promote the film. His description of the tour could have been culled from the pages of a Barnum & Bailey promotion guide. “We’d wake up in the morning, travel to the city, find a Staples, print up flyers, print up posters, go downtown, put up posters, hand out flyers to people, then wonder if anyone was going to show up. We’d call everyone we knew in that city trying to promote it. We’d get everything ready at the theatre, but you don’t know if five people are going to come out or one hundred and
fifty.”
After the film’s success at Fantasia, Chad continued the momentum by booking a Canada wide tour to promote the film. His description of the tour could have been culled from the pages of a Barnum & Bailey promotion guide. “We’d wake up in the morning, travel to the city, find a Staples, print up flyers, print up posters, go downtown, put up posters, hand out flyers to people, then wonder if anyone was going to show up. We’d call everyone we knew in that city trying to promote it. We’d get everything ready at the theatre, but you don’t know if five people are going to come out or one hundred and
fifty.”
Despite the stress and the frenetic pace, the tour was a success. Audiences did arrive, and for the most part, Neverlost screened to full houses. While waiting for the feature presentation audiences were viewing trailers for
some upcoming Canadian films. “We love working with other filmmakers in Canada, and love promoting this movement that’s happening. So we went to some of the biggest films that are coming out in the next year from Canadian genre
filmmakers and we asked if we could use their trailers. We
showed four trailers that had never been seen.”
An indie filmmaker himself, Chad understands that gaining exposure can be difficult, and realizes how important such instances of cross-promotion can be. He remains optimistic about the state of the ever-emerging Canadian film scene, a scene that he plans to contribute to continually. He makes clear that there are many projects to come, one of which will be another horror movie. Be sure to stay tuned for that. After all, now that we know Chad is willing to burn down buildings for art’s sake, one can only imagine where his visions will lead us next.
some upcoming Canadian films. “We love working with other filmmakers in Canada, and love promoting this movement that’s happening. So we went to some of the biggest films that are coming out in the next year from Canadian genre
filmmakers and we asked if we could use their trailers. We
showed four trailers that had never been seen.”
An indie filmmaker himself, Chad understands that gaining exposure can be difficult, and realizes how important such instances of cross-promotion can be. He remains optimistic about the state of the ever-emerging Canadian film scene, a scene that he plans to contribute to continually. He makes clear that there are many projects to come, one of which will be another horror movie. Be sure to stay tuned for that. After all, now that we know Chad is willing to burn down buildings for art’s sake, one can only imagine where his visions will lead us next.
