Spirit of Halloweentown (2024)

Oh geez, bolt it show die. People say good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater. They want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the protection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Got it off. We were just watching the movie one day and he says, I want to go to Halloween Town someday, and I go. It's a real place. The evanda is called Spirit of Halloween Town. It basically honors the movie.

Welcome to Halloween Town a little, your beautiful faces. I had never seen Halloween Town, and to be honest, I didn't even know about Halloween Town. And what I saw in the film were children going against their parents and sneaking to a special town in another dimension where everyone can be their true selves. It comes from making people happy. To me, I am putting together a little performance.

And you dress up like zombies with blood and goo and brains. Yep, awesome. When you're standing back here, people walk in, they just freak out. Kids actually start crying like crazy about the time they get here, and then they have to go out of our emergency actually door. Yeah, element Intown.

That does not like Halloweentown. When you're celebrating the devil birthday. It's a holy day set apart for celebrating the saints. So he's mocking God. You know by you know this Halloween.

This is where I was haunted by the Old Man. I had this mental sense that someone was coming up behind me to push me down the stairs. I can see somebody falling through that floor flood. Is there anybody here? Would you die in this room?

The spirits in Halloween Town. I want to invite them into our circle. Can you make a noise? We are not here to harm you. We want to communicate with you.

We believe in you. Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. On the side episode, I am talking with co directors Brett Whitcomb and Breadford Thomason. They are the spirits behind the Spirit of Halloween Town.

That is a documentary that aired at the Fantastic Fest and is all about the goings on over at Saint Helen's, Oregon in the original Halloween Town. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this interview. I would love to know a little bit more about you. Guys, and especially your filmmaking journey. Could you tell me a little bit about yourself, Brett.

We started making movies back in two thousand and eight with The Rock Fire Explosion. No idea what we're doing, no film school, just super inspired by a bunch of docs. We saw some early stuff like Hands On a Hard Body, Got This Country, Vernon, Florida, just getting like seeing some stuff that like realizes docs could be different than just talking heads, and just never looked back. Somehow been lucky enough to make this is our seventh one. So how do you picked your subjects?

Is it just what's strange and unusual or how do these projects come to you? Guys? We have a tendency to explore things that meant something to us as young people, things that we kind of stick in our memories. It could be something we're nostalgic for or something that we just has never left our minds, and we tend to want to go back and explore the people behind these things. With Glow the story the Gorge Slats of Wrestling, that was a show we watched when we were kids, and of course the Rock of Our Explosion was to show this pizza in the case of the spirit of Halloween Town, the newest one that it was Halloween that really inspired us.

We weren't as familiar with the movie Halloween Town. We knew of it, but it wasn't necessarily something that we were nostalgic for. But we really loved Halloween and Halloween imagery and time of year, so we wanted to find a place that we could go make a film that is just uniquely Halloween. When you make a project, how do you organize yourselves? Because I know documentaries are very difficult to make and especially to just coordinate everything.

They're all different. Jasper Mall was like we found the mall and started going there every day, and once we'd found things that we thought could turn into a feature, we knew we at some point had like a feature dog. But a lot of times, obviously we do research, we reach out to the people in the town, We make sure everyone's comfortable but doing it. Everyone wants to tell a story, wants to have us in their house, and we do all the stuff that everyone else does. But I think some of the stuff we'd do a little different is we really try to immerse ourselves in the town, get a room or somewhere where we're right there and we can walk out the door and go explore with the camera and not expecting too much and just see what happens.

With this movie, we floated around and we would meet people in the street and next thing you know, we're in. Yeah, every process is different, but we usually always go in with respect and walking to the people that are passionate about this thing, and then once we get there permission and usually they're really excited to tell this, they want go on this journey with us. It's always but again it's always different. Yeah, I can elaborate on that a touch too. I think that with a film like our last film, Butterfly the Sky, the story of Reading Rainbow, it's much more of a there's a story that is out there and that story exists in history, and so we know what our heatline is and a story like that and that's the story go and tell through the interviews in kind of a more I don't want to say standard way, but we know more of what the story beat are in a film like that.

With the spirit of Halloween Town and Jasper Moll, these films are much more like that was saying, we just we go into the town and we allow ourselves to find the stories as we're there, which obviously takes longer, but it's a different kind of process. We enjoy both, but I think our hearts that are both done more observation side. For sure. You ever encounter people that are reticent to talk to you guys. Oh yeah.

But what we do is we just feel people out, We talk to them, and if they express a disinterest in being a part of the project, then we back off because we don't want someone to feel like they are doing something they don't want to do, because that's not going to lead to an authentic I think experience with us and an authentic story unfolding in front of the screen. And we may just for mall they were people in the mall who didn't necessarily want to be have their stories featured to be a part of it. Then we just shot around that. But we do work to gain people's trust, and I think that even sometimes people who at first are not as interested, they come around after we just have conversations with no camera and make it clear what we're doing and what our angle is, and I we'll do stories.

You talk about putting the camera on them or bringing the camera. How big is your crew? Honestly, it started out as a budget thing, me and Breadth and some brands starting off. And then we realize that if I run the camera and Brad the sound, it's two people. And just like you bring a bunch of stuff and people and the houses and small rooms, it's people feel like they're like, Okay, this is a big deal.

I need to be on I need to be something. I need to perform, and to walk in with the camera and just sit on the floor and let the dog wicked or kick it out. It's part of the kind of room now, and it's and then sometimes we'll just start talking and then I'll just pick it up and just start filming, and before we're having a natural conversation. Because inherently, when you point a camera to somebody there not, it's hard to be yourself. I don't like it.

I don't want to be filmed, and so I'm always I feel like I would be veryself aware of the camera, and I would want to be portrayed a certain way and smart and cool, and I think everyone probably has these feelings. And I think by having a really small crew of people, just me and Brad and maybe one other person even waiting outside and I don't know that they've already spoken to It allows us to do our best to get authentic people in their real moments. And that's why I also will talk to people while they're doing things like inspirited Hallaween town. People are like flipping through a book or maybe they're working on something, and that keeps people from just sitting there worrying about we're just filming their face.

So there's just a lot of ways we've figured out things that work for us for our process. When did you come up with the idea to do this one? A couple of years ago now, but to Find a Sky had premiered and we were in that sales process on that and we got an opportunity to make something similar to Jets from all we wanted to do slice more slice of life observational film, and again that conversation about Halloween came up that we've had before, what can we do with Halloween? So I think it was just like two years ago now that we found Saint Helen's and found that they transformed themselves every year, started meaching out and finding schedules in the town to talk to and then went out there and started filming, And.

How long were you filming? For six weeks or maybe eight total weeks or something like that. I was just the time. Then makes up a full season of Halloween there. Basically, after you guys get back and you start to blog the footage and go through everything and start to actually shape the film and the editing, do you ever find the need to go back out and do more shoots or do you pretty much just stick with what you shot the first time?

This one was interesting because Jasper Mall, Brad and I got a kind of an airbnb cabin there and Brad we would come back to a cabin after we shot, and Brad would start looking at the footage and sometimes if he'd felt inspired, he would or put something together and then bake it. And then he stayed the whole time I came off and on because he stayed there and would edit it, and Min would come back to shoot and look at what he has put together. And I think that's a really good similar way of Jasper Molla. He came home and because it was forty minutes away from where we were staying, you go enable bread to look at it immediately or remember the experienced it in real time and then come home and clip that part.

Yeah, you're cutting scenes after spending a day out shooting, and then you set the scenes aside, and then once you have them all together, that's when you start. You have an idea the whole time, but it really comes down to these scenes that are ending together and that kind of makes it efficient once you get to that stage. Yeah, sometimes they'll be like, oh, really we should go out and get a little more of this, a little more of that. But usually once we leave for shooting in a city where we don't live, if we leave there, then we're going to make it work with what we have. So what's your methodology as far as okay, I've got all these scenes now to arrange them into a store or to tell the story through these, are you using note cards or just like a clip system and that premiere or what's that actual methodology for you.

It's been different with every film. With this one, it was definitely note cards. There was a nice bulletin board of the place we were staying at, so made note cards the scenes on them, put transitional elements on them, and just put them on the wall and step back and try to think about the loose act structure and how the film would unfold, and how to keep audiences invested in character story by spreading in all like keeping it too just story based, because we really wanted the film to also be just Halloween ephemera, and like we wanted people to watch the film and just be able to feel Halloween around every corner. So there's a lot of moments that are just people in costumes looking at the camera or just little vignettes from within the town that aren't necessarily tied to our story.

And that was by design because we it's a Halloween movie, and we could Rett and I could probably watch an hour and a half of just that stuff, honestly, but we wanted to make sure to lean into that here and there too, so that became a part of the story. Plus building out the arc set kind of extracts and stuff. And when do you start to think about like music a visa I can tell you're probably a big music fan here. We always try to do something unique, I think with the music every film, be it using the super Frank most music and explosion and ESG and glow, and this one it was we we wanted to use this vintage tape M one thousand, Library Music late seventies to the mid eighties. There was a specific window of time that we went pull from, but then we found it to be limiting to a degree.

We could use it for scenes and it worked really well, but we started to think we needed something a little moreuthomatic, so we connected with a composer that we know, McKenzie Stubborn, made a main theme for the film that opens it and recurs throughout. So it was just God grew as we were. After you start to assemble everything, are you showing everything immediately to Brett or do you wait and say, okay, here's a rough cut and just to get that initial feel and bounce stuff back and forth. Or are you both in the edit sweet at the same time. I can't I edit by myself usually, but I can't wait to show Brett stuff.

So it's like I cint a scene that I'm just like usually so excited to see how what we've done is come together, and I send it to him right away and. Do any sort of like test screenings with your friends and just pass it around to get more responses. Or do you just go on your gut it's a. Tricky, slippery, slow but try to let go with our instinct for a long time until we get to a certain point. We don't show people scenes or the only time we might show something is when it's we think it's a full piece, and maybe we're like, if we're so desensitized to the well the footage we've been shooting it, looking at it and it's just getting a little crazy.

Just to watch it with sitting with someone and to see their reaction is helpful. And we have five people that we trust that we'll do that with that can give thoughtful notes that are also almost not like fans of ours, but understand what we're trying to do. Yeah, and so that usually works, and then we'll just seeing it with somebody might set off some ideas. We did do test gratings with Butterfly and The Sky More and that was really helpful, I think, but with this it was more of those trusted companies. When do your actual subjects see the documentary for the first time.

We like to encourage them to watch it in the theater if ever possible, because we feel like that's the best way to see the film, and we really take pride on being able to sit in the theater with the people we made film live and watch together and then have a conversation after. So we encourage that. But someone's a major part of our film and their story is complex, or we want them to have a look at it beforehand, we'll send that beforehand. Most of the major people in this film have seen it already, and then we had a couple of two fantastics and watch it for the first time, and that's what we encourage. We're hoping to move it around enough to where everyone can see it in that way.

Is that also your first time seeing it patrically? Yes, that must be nerve wracking. This one was. We sometimes we've rented a theater or watched it it whatever city we're in. If we have a friend that's working at a theater, we'll see if we can get up, let us play the file or whatever.

But Almo, Drafthouse, lam Are or Fantastic Best was probably the best experience. This is probably the best experience I've ever had with any movie visually and crazy. So yeah it was. I was more excited than nervous, and yeah I looked insane. Just I was so pleased.

Went a way the fantastic best and al did everything. It was crazy, Yeah, just perfect. Do you have more dates already lined up for this? Yeah, we're out to a bunch of festivals, but we also were playing at band Selm Festival and I think it's October tenth through thirteenth, is that one? And then Tall which is the second to last weekend.

I think the weekend of the twenty fourth of October and that's a Wincht talk. So we've got those two lined up fall and we're just feeling out. What to do with the film. We want to play a few more festivals, but we also want to figure out some placement for it so it could be hall we content next year. Same and when you're shooting something, you're working on one project at a time when it comes to that, but are you already thinking about your next stuff?

Do you already have projects lined up? Do you have multiple pokers in the fire or just waiting for something to happen. We have a list that we always add to that are like ideas, and for some reason someone just are working out or someone's not responding to us, and we just put up the back burner. We'd keep trying. Well, it's emails for a year and then someone might be like, yeah, let's talk, and then something gets going and then just always keeping our eyes and ears open for stuff.

It's not like we're not like super aggressive about Okay, now what's our next thing? You know what I mean. We're pretty honestly, we're pretty calm about it. And things seem to happen every couple of years. Is there a good place for people to keep up with the film online or you guys yourselves?

Yeah, the spirit of Halloween Town, it's the Instagram is Halloweentown doc. I believe Instagram and that's where all the screenings, future screenings, things will be posted. I mean, we have a website also, that's window dash Pictures dot com and that's where all of our fulture you can find where they're available. All the trailers are there, everything's there. Guys, Thank you so much for your time today.

This has been great talking with you. Thank you appreciate your time. Every age you like to see something stranger come with us. Sun you see this, follow this says Halloway says. Hallowway and get screamed in the night sallow the same Countrysi.

I am the one hiding in the young bed deep ground shark and the eyes glowing red. I am the one hiding on the bull stairs, fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair, it says Holloween. This says Holloway, following following. Follow. The sto we call ho everyone here of the punkin sole in this town, don't be loving now.

Everybody's waiting for the next surprise, that common day, hiding in the chest, shading some thanks, waiting at the counting. All this is holloweens like green, I'm yours. That's your fine, Say it once, say you twice, take a chance and rollodize right with the moon and everybody scream. Everybody screamed. The clown with the tear away face, a flash and a trace, am the shadow on the moon at night, feeling no truths to the brim with fright.

It says Holloween. This says Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Where that's no fun with. That's our job. But we're not in your corner.

In this town. Don't we love it now? Everyone's ready for the next start to. Change and mind catch you in the back and scream like I bet you make your jump back a. Stay This is Halloween?

I mean, what is great? Please make queen or at the moment on. This is following, this is hollowing, following. A following The list time We call home, Everyone here to the Monkein song.