Post by petrolino on Jun 29, 2019 15:15:15 GMT
Underground filmmaker Manny Serrano operates in New York with his wife Lindsay Serrano. Together, they're the minds behind Mass Grave Pictures which has produced some of their own films as well as creative projects steered by Patrick Devaney and Christian Grillo. Serrano's a resourceful cinematographer and economical editor with a solid understanding of film process. He's recently concentrated his efforts more around television work, but stresses he has no plans to abandon horror cinema any time soon.
"Filmmaking is the greatest job in the world, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love telling stories, I love seeing the character I created come to life in the scenes, and then maybe my favorite part (yet the most frustrating at the same time) editing it all together, and watching all the pieces fall into place, one bit at a time. Editing makes me want to rip my hair out sometimes, but I absolutely love it.
When I’m directing, I have my hands in every piece of the film. I love it all, so there is no single aspect that I send off to someone else and hope for the best to come back to me. We have a core group who make this all happen that I work closely with, and without them, none of this would be half as enjoyable as it is. I work with our props man Ralph Merced to create the set designs and many of the props you see. Every single badge in the movie was handmade by him, each with a custom number and name. I think he made almost 20 in total, including a couple of Hat Badges. Cat Martin being the unsung hero behind all of the amazing makeup which made our girls look as incredible as they did. And she has just as much, if not more so, of an eye for details than I do. Even when I said it was good enough, she still refused to finish until she was happy.
What I’m not a huge fan of is the pre-production planning. I just wanna get out there and shoot already, but that’s just not how it works. I mean, I love location scouting, planning shot lists, prepping the FX weeks in advance, that’s all fun, but every shoot takes many weeks of planning and coordination between myself and my wife, who is also my producer, AD and head of special FX, Lindsay Serrano. She is the whip that is cracked on the crews’ collective asses. She keeps it all in check, and organized so we can do the magic that we do.
One of the coolest parts of filmmaking though, is getting to work with other filmmakers, and see how they work their craft. We have worked the past few years with Devarez Films on Zombie Hunters: City Of The Dead, which has taught us more than we ever expected to learn in such a short period of time. We’ve also gotten to work with Christian Grillo a bit (who did some camera and sound work on Blood Slaughter as well). I would love for us to work on a full feature, from concept to completion with him someday in the future as well. Filmmaking is a collaborative art, no matter how you slice it. It’s not all “the directors vision” as is stated so many times. The Directors job is to keep the initial plan for the big picture of the movie together, and working through completion. But, without all of the ideas, love and hard work of everyone on the cast and crew, you wouldn’t have a movie. As perfectionist as Stanley Kubrick was, there was no way he would get the same Jack Torrance out of Christopher Reeve as he did out of Jack NIcholson."
When I’m directing, I have my hands in every piece of the film. I love it all, so there is no single aspect that I send off to someone else and hope for the best to come back to me. We have a core group who make this all happen that I work closely with, and without them, none of this would be half as enjoyable as it is. I work with our props man Ralph Merced to create the set designs and many of the props you see. Every single badge in the movie was handmade by him, each with a custom number and name. I think he made almost 20 in total, including a couple of Hat Badges. Cat Martin being the unsung hero behind all of the amazing makeup which made our girls look as incredible as they did. And she has just as much, if not more so, of an eye for details than I do. Even when I said it was good enough, she still refused to finish until she was happy.
What I’m not a huge fan of is the pre-production planning. I just wanna get out there and shoot already, but that’s just not how it works. I mean, I love location scouting, planning shot lists, prepping the FX weeks in advance, that’s all fun, but every shoot takes many weeks of planning and coordination between myself and my wife, who is also my producer, AD and head of special FX, Lindsay Serrano. She is the whip that is cracked on the crews’ collective asses. She keeps it all in check, and organized so we can do the magic that we do.
One of the coolest parts of filmmaking though, is getting to work with other filmmakers, and see how they work their craft. We have worked the past few years with Devarez Films on Zombie Hunters: City Of The Dead, which has taught us more than we ever expected to learn in such a short period of time. We’ve also gotten to work with Christian Grillo a bit (who did some camera and sound work on Blood Slaughter as well). I would love for us to work on a full feature, from concept to completion with him someday in the future as well. Filmmaking is a collaborative art, no matter how you slice it. It’s not all “the directors vision” as is stated so many times. The Directors job is to keep the initial plan for the big picture of the movie together, and working through completion. But, without all of the ideas, love and hard work of everyone on the cast and crew, you wouldn’t have a movie. As perfectionist as Stanley Kubrick was, there was no way he would get the same Jack Torrance out of Christopher Reeve as he did out of Jack NIcholson."
- Manny Serrano, Special Mark Productions
Ralph Merced, Lindsay Serrano, Louie Cortes & Manny Serrano
Do you enjoy any movies directed by Manny Serrano?
Thanks.
Thanks.
