Filmmaker Joe Stauffer Talks Pieces of Talent; Dread Central Readers Get a Blu-ray Discount
Scott Hallam
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Joe Stauffer created a damn impressive indie film entitled Pieces of Talent. Those who’ve been lucky enough to see this gem know the strength of it. Recently, Stauffer sat down with Dread Central to talk Pieces of Talent and future projects.
Stauffer opened by discussing what exactly Pieces of Talent is. “It’s a dark psychological thriller, but it’s got some nice gory moments. At the heart of it, it’s kind of a love story,” Stauffer said. “I feel like it doesn’t adhere to your typical horror blueprint. We tried to make some characters you really cared about, so hopefully when people watch it, they’ll identify with that.”
He followed up with a very brief synopsis. “Charlotte is a struggling actress,” Stauffer said. “She, by chance, meets David, who is an artist/filmmaker, and they hit it off. A friendship is born, and Charlotte agrees to be part of his new project and doesn’t quite know what she’s signed up for.”
Pieces of Talent is slick in that it definitely has plenty of quality F/X but doesn’t go overboard. Stauffer mentioned this. “In the writing process, we didn’t want to overdo it. We wanted the F/X to be motivated instead of just being a gorefest. But when you see the F/X, we wanted them to be as good as possible. We got our buddy Tony Rosen to do the F/X for us. I think this was his first feature he worked on. He went on to design and make the Annabelle doll. Going into this, all of us wanted to make the best thing that we could, and we knew we didn’t have a lot to work with, so we just put our best foot forward.”
Stauffer gave us a behind-the-scenes glance when he discussed some details on the special F/X. “Some of the F/X were trial and error,” Stauffer said. “Without spoiling anything, there’s a headshot scene in the film, and the first time we shot it, we used a revolver. But it just so happened that one of our friends had a shotgun in his car. A real one. The revolver bullets were just going right through the gelatin cap. So we ended up trying the shotgun, and the results were explosive.”
The reception from the public for Pieces of Talent has been above and beyond what Stauffer could have hoped for. “This is my feature film directorial debut,” Stauffer said. “So I’ve recently gotten the opportunity to start going to conventions. David [Long, star of the film] and I went to Scare-a-Con, and it was our first convention ever. And it was really incredible. We didn’t realize the response we had gotten until we started doing conventions and meeting people who owned it already. It was weird (in a good way) when we went to Cinema Wasteland and we just had a crowd of folks who were like, ‘I own it already. It’s fucking awesome. Thank you for making this.’ People had tattoos of the tagline, ‘I have something beautiful I want you to see.’ I was just blown away and so thankful that people were connecting with something that we cared about. We put a lot of ourselves into it, a lot of our souls into it. And the fact that people felt that when they watched it was really cool. It was really rewarding on a very personal level. We’re just very thankful and the response has been great and it’s still growing.”
Pieces of Talent just became available on Blu-ray on September 2nd. Do yourself a favor and order it at Pieces of Talent.com. And because Joe Stauffer loves his Dread Central fans so much, right now you can enter the code “DREAD” at checkout and get a nice discount on your Pieces of Talent purchase.
For more visit Joe Stauffer’s professional site at the ShutterBladeMedia.com. Stauffer’s talent is undeniable. Follow him now as his star ascends!
Categorized:News
