Exclusive Interview with RANGE RUNNERS Director Philip S. Plowden
Josh Millican
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The cleverly-made survival thriller Range Runners premieres On Demand and DVD September 8th from Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment.
Synopsis:
A woman thru-hiking an isolated trail runs into trouble when her pack is hijacked by two men hiding out in the woods, desperate and on the run. Now, stranded and left to fend for herself, she has a choice: crawl back to her normal life in defeat, or push forward and take back what was stolen from her.
Range Runners stars Celeste M. Cooper, Sean Patrick Leonard, Michael B. Woods, and Tiffany Renee Johnson.
Director and Executive Producer Philip S. Plowden recently gave us the 411 on the most sweat-inducing release of September! Check out our full conversation below.
Dread Central: Congratulations on the film. How long has it been in the works for?
Philip S. Plowden: Thank you! My business partner and writer of Range Runners, Devon Colwell and I started hatching the story late in the summer of 2017. We were able to complete the script and raise funds in time for a June 2018 production. We shot everything in 18 days and then spent 3 months in post-production and a year touring the film at various film festivals around the U.S. We signed with our distributor, Dark Star Pictures earlier this year and are eagerly anticipating our September 8th On-Demand and DVD release.
DC: What was the initial germ of the idea?
PSP: Devon was hiking the Appalachian Trail with his wife Megan and he started thinking about what it would be like if she were out here on her own in a survival situation. And then the story started to snowball from there. Both Devon and I are active guys and we love the outdoors and hiking, so this story was something that appealed to us on many levels.
DC: Most independent filmmakers tend to have to write to whatever their budget, address book and contacts, or resources on hand allow. Was that the case with you?
PSP: We are not much different from most indie filmmakers in this respect. We had a shoe-string budget that was funded entirely by private investors, so we had to craft a story that was manageable but also stood out with a high level of production value. There’s only so much you can do with any indie script but we didn’t hold back with it and it’s important to write down whatever serves the story first and not worry about the budget. Then once money is in place you can adapt and change based upon what you are able to do. There were times our lead producers Christian Crocker and RoseMary Prodonovich had to reel in some of our wildly creative ideas and keep us on budget and on schedule. Without them it would’ve been a mess so I’m grateful we had such diligent producers on board.
Stunts were a large portion of our budget with this film and we knew we wanted the action to stand out so we hired an incredible stunt coordinator, Aaron Crippen and he was able to work with the actors before filming began to get them comfortable with a lot of the action sequences. I feel the action stands out as a result.
DC: Were you ultimately able to accomplish everything you wanted to do though?
PSP: It was our main goal to produce a feature film of our own under our company banner, Fatal Funnel Films. We had an extremely packed schedule. 18 days for everything – 2 in Park Ridge, Illinois for the track and field sequences and 16 down in Carbondale, Illinois in the Shawnee National Forest. We had remote locations in the woods with hikes in and out every day. It was challenging for everyone and our crew was so fantastic. They called it “Range Runners Bootcamp” and everyone busted their humps to see this vision come through. The story is all there as a result and it’s a testament to the cast and crew that we accomplished this in the time we had.
DC: This is a real showcase for Celeste B.Cooper. I imagine that role was hard to cast?
PSP: The role was not hard to cast at all actually. Celeste came to the audition and blew me out of the water with her performance. Devon too. She related to the character because of her own relationship with her father who challenged her when she was young to persevere through life’s various challenges. We had her in for a call-back – one where she performed some of the stunt work and physicality and afterwards I gave her the role on the spot. I didn’t see anyone else for a call-back. She was the only one.
DC: What does Celeste bring to the role?
PSP: I mean what doesn’t she bring to this role? Absolutely EVERYTHING. Energy, physicality, passion, creativity. Celeste brought it all and there’s not enough room on this page to explain just what she did in this project. She devoured this role and was a pleasure to work with. She’s a consummate professional and I cannot wait for a wide audience to witness her performance in this film. It is truly something to behold.
DC: And what kind of training or preparation did she have to do for such a physically and emotionally-demanding role?
PSP: Celeste was doing a play at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago prior to Range Runners and in the play she was doing a lot of physical work like sword fighting and running so she came to the shoot physically prepared. As far as the mental preparation goes, Celeste has her own process which she would be better suited to speak on. I do know that she connected deeply to the character of Mel on many levels and was able to bring her to life brilliantly.
DC: Were all of the actors local hires?
PSP: Yes, we cast through Paskal/Rudnicke Casting in Chicago. There is a wonderful community of actors in Chicago and we were fortunate enough to work with some of the best. Our entire cast brought a high level of professionalism and enthusiasm to their various roles which made it a pleasure to direct and work with them.
DC: Did the male actors struggle shooting any of those scenes? There’s some tough moments there…
PSP: This was definitely a rough film for a lot of us. It’s visceral and raw and we don’t pull punches with the story. I do know that Sean Patrick Leonard who plays Wayland is a big guy and he was concerned several times about causing physical pain to the other actors. He’s such a loving guy in real life and he plays this maniacal villain in the film and there were a few scenes where he had to exert himself physically and make it look realistic. I thought he did a magnificent job controlling his body and strength while selling the action in these stunt scenes. Michael Woods who plays Jared did all of his own stunt work as well and has to get beat up and choked and dragged. He embraced this fervently and performed brilliantly, leaving it all on the screen. I think there are still probably pieces of his flannel shirt on that forest floor.
DC: It’s such a heavy film. How did you wind down at the end of the day?
PSP: It was certainly heavy! After wrap, first I removed any Deer Ticks that had accumulated on myself throughout the day. Tick check was mandatory down there after being in the woods all day. I’m the type of director who likes to be in the trenches with the actors right next to camera and not sitting behind video village. I’m very energetic and want to be there for the performers and bring a comfort level to their psyche while they are doing some of these harder scenes. So on Range Runners I was jumping into waterfalls, running around the woods and on a track and rolling around in the mud. I relished this type of stuff. There was not a lot of time to wind down at the end of the day. We’d have showers and grab food but then it was all about prep for the next day and nightly meetings. When I’m involved in a project, it’s my main focus and I have endless drive to see it through to the end – even if that means sacrificing creature comforts in life like a good night’s sleep.
DC: Is there a physical release of the film coming too, in addition to DVD?
PSP: Yes. There will be a wide On-demand cable and Transactional Video On-demand release on September 8th. We will be available on a variety of platforms for rent and purchase – Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, VUDU, Xbox, Fandango Now, to name a few. Then in a few months we will be available on a larger cable network and subscription streaming services.
DC: What extras or bonus features might we find on the DVD?
PSP: We will have some interviews with cast and crew and possibly some extra footage/deleted scenes.
Are you excited to check out Range Runners? What did you think of our exclusive interview with Philip S. Plowden? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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