Exclusive: Sean Cain Talks Terror Birds
Staci Layne Wilson
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When young Maddy Stern (Jessica Lee Keller) discovers her dad has gone missing during a routine birdwatching excursion, she and her college pals trek out into the wilderness to find him, only to end up in a wealthy scientist’s desolate ranch aviary, where they encounter a pair of giant, hungry terror birds believed to be extinct for centuries – not to mention Greg Evigan and Leslie Easterbrook!
We caught up with the director of the film, Sean Cain, and here’s what he had to say on working with the 80s icon cast members, wrangling CG birds, and more.
Dread Central: How did the project come to you, I mean… with a title like Terror Birds, what were you thinking when you heard it? Was it like, “Awesome!” or “Hmmmm…” ?
Sean Cain: When it comes to these Syfy type movies, I always go “Hmmmmm,” and pray the script doesn’t totally suck. A couple of months after Jurassic City came out, I received a phone call out of the blue. The producers, Kevan Otto and Jake Helgren, had seen the trailer and wanted to discuss about potentially directing Terror Birds. We had a great first meeting, and after reading the script I thought to myself, “Okay, I think I can make a fun movie out of this.”
Jake explained that these Terror Birds were real animals which existed at one time. “The apex predator of their day,” he said. Plus, no one else had done a movie with just these creatures. So that made it more interesting. Having just done a flick with a bunch of velociraptors running around a prison, I viewed these monsters as being somewhat similar. I mean, birds did evolve from dinosaurs, right?
DC: How much was already in place when you came on… was the script written? Cast in place? Location figured out?
SC: The process was a bunch of “hurry up and wait.” After they “hired” me, we waited another four months before actually shooting it. The hardest part was deciding where to film it. Originally it was going to be at John Schneider’s studio in Louisiana. Then near Austin, Texas, where Jake was from. Then Nashville, where Kevan had done some movies previously. Then we scouted places in Los Angeles. For a while I thought we were never going to get this movie made.
We finally decided on Austin. There’s a film ranch there called Spiderwood Studios that’s just amazing. So picturesque. The Colorado River runs through their property, and walking around, I just fell in love with it. Just so long as I didn’t get bitten by a poisonous snake or eaten by the alligators.
Because we were shooting outside of L.A., it was decided that most of the cast would be local. So during our location-scouting trip, we also had auditions. Jake already knew the acting scene there and had a lot of great talent come out and read for us. The only actors we didn’t choose from there, besides the “name” talent, would be the two female leads. For a variety of reasons we didn’t get these two until almost the last minute, and I didn’t even get a chance to meet with Jessica Lee Keller until the first day of shooting. Thankfully, she was amazing along with the rest of the cast.
DC: Love your 80s icon cast with Greg Evigan and Leslie Easterbrook! What was it like to work with those two together?
SC: I originally met Leslie a while back through our mutual friend, Aine Leicht. She’s such a cool person and I had wanted to work with her for a long time. Right before this project I did the first edit for Lavalantula, which she was in, so that reminded me – oh yeah! Got to get her on Terror Birds!
Greg is also a cool guy. The very first Syfy type movie I worked on, as an editor, was Sand Sharks, which starred his daughter, Vanessa. In general I really like working with actors, especially the seasoned ones who are old pros. One of the highlights doing Terror Birds was watching these two go head to head. It’s fascinating watching their process, which can be so different at times.
DC: As the director and the editor of the film, does that make the shooting process more succinct? I mean… Are you already editing in your head, as you’re storyboarding and shooting?
SC: At this point I’ve done a number of these types of FX movies, which is a skill set that you can’t just go into and wing. Both Kevan and Jake are also directors, but they hired me because they knew it wasn’t a skill set they possessed yet.
Although Jake was the writer, he graciously let me conform the action sequences to what was more realistic to achieve with what we had at hand. It’s my belief that before you step foot on set, you need to be as ready as possible. That means everything is storyboarded out. Because you only have around 100 FX shots budgeted into the project, you need to know exactly what these are and how you are going to capture the plates you need for the FX guys.
I find the process of directing not a lot of fun. Especially during the hot, humid Texas weather. There’s this pressure to make your day, and typically that means compromising on what you want to achieve. My favorite part of the process is getting into the editing room and watching it come to life before your eyes. It’s the closest to magic as I’m going to get. So, when I direct something, it’s because I want to make sure I get what I need for that.
DC: Who did your special effects, and how closely did you work with them?
SC: Joseph Lawson did the FX for Terror Birds. I love this guy to pieces and have worked with him now many times. He’s the type of guy who, no matter what the budget is, he’ll give you 150%. I really hate the mentality of: You get what you pay for. If you take on a project, you should do the best you can.
During the FX process I work closely with Joe and his team. We will initially come up with a design for the creature. Then, during my editing sessions, I will tag the various FX shots and write out as much information about that shot as possible. Joe goes to work based on my descriptions and sends me back animatics, which is a pre-render of the final. Sort of the creature without its skin. I have to drop that into the edit’s timeline and make sure it’s working.
The end process is all about getting the “final” shot back and making sure everything about it is working properly – is the timing still correct, does it seem like the proper size (if you watch enough of these movies, you’ll notice that the monster sometimes changes size from scene to scene), does the shading, etc. work with the plate that was provided? Because I’m the one responsible for the movie when it’s all said and done, I really have to go through each frame of each shot with a fine-tooth comb.
DC: We see you have a couple more horror movies in the pipeline. Would love to know a bit about those and any other projects you’re excited about.
SC: The best part of my Terror Birds experience was some of the people I met through this project. Which includes the people at MarVista Entertainment. I’ve worked with a lot of other distributors in the past, and it’s always this process of “How do we change this film?” Not to make it better (because it’s never better), but just so they can put their stamp on the film. I understand that these films need to make money and they are a product, so there are certain things you have to do to help facilitate that. However, Stephanie Slack and her team were supportive of also what we were trying to do with this. After I finished Terror Birds, they gave me a call because they wanted me to make more flicks for them!
So currently I’m doing a volcano movie in a couple of months, and we’ll probably do another monster movie in the fall. They’ve also read all my horror scripts so I’m hoping we can do some of those soon.
For more information check out the official Terror Birds Facebook page.
Synopsis:
College student Maddy Stern (Jessica Lee Keller) knows something is wrong when her father (Craig Nigh) goes missing during a weekend birdwatching trip on a desolate East Texas ranch. As she enlists the help of her good-looking college pals to trek into the wilderness to find him, rampaging, six-foot-tall prehistoric “terror birds” with man-eating tendencies are the last thing anyone expects to find… much less a wealthy mad scientist (Greg Evigan) – but that’s exactly what they find, and they’ll need to run for their lives if they are to escape the wrath of the Terror Birds!
Categorized:News
