Ben and Casey Tebo

AC: You guys seemed to have taken the non-traditional approach to marketing your film.

CT: Well, it was a conscious decision. I didn’t want to go the 'Festival route'. I’ve seen it happen, I have friends go through it. You make a short, you go to festivals, then people sit around drinking wine telling you how great it is, then when you walk away, they rip your film. People who haven’t made good films yet love to rip on new talent:

BT: That and make fun of Affleck and Mamet.

AC: Ben Affleck?

CPT: Every time we're at festivals, or take a class In Greater Boston, it seems that all people do is sit around and talk about how BAD Ben Affleck is. And David Mamet. It reminds me of sports fans making fun of the Red-Sox when they’re down. I think Affleck is great, hey, he made it...and come on, Mamet is a genius. Period. And here these people are, driving beat up Volvo's , sitting around in Thrift store clothes, because they think its hip, complaining to each other about how bad movies are. Yet, they've done nothing.

BT: It's not really our scene. My brother and I have taken classes, and its almost the stereotypical scene. You walk in and everyone is in Berets, smoking those long cigarettes talking about Fellini. My brother and I are regular guys, who like sports. We just happened to be movie brats who want to make movies too. Wit fit in better at a Patriots game in the snow, than we do at some high fellutin film festival.

AC: Did you guys avoid festivals for that reason, you're uncomfortable?

CPT: No. Some of my stuff is way artsy. We have 2 screenplays written that are polar OPPOSITES of Under Summer, that studios wouldn’t push unless we had some credibility as filmmakers already. In the early 90's there was a huge Indy movement, studios were picking up any hack with a camera to make a film. But its like we're back in the 80/s its all about money. I hate to be business like, but i thought UNDER SUMMER was the most -'sellable' of all the screenplays. Sad, but true

AC: How so.

CPT: Well, if you write some kick ass- shoot em up, drug educed gangster flick, it doesn’t matter how good it is, your going to be compared to Scorsese or Tarantino. If you wrote a cool cyber-punk story, you're going to be compared to the Wachowski brothers. This film really hasn't been done yet. I guess the closest thing too it, would be 'stand by me' or "dazed and confused'

AC: Yeah, it seems to me, that its almost exactly in the middle of those two films.

BT: I hadn't seen Dazed and Confused until after we finished, but I couldn’t agree more. You've got the innocence of Stand by Me, with the sarcasm, of Dazed. And the decade is different.

AC: Yeah, even with only 20 minutes, you guys did a great job referencing the mid-80's with a low budget.

CPT: Actually, i give credit to a lot of the kids, I just gave them a rough idea of what to wear and they nailed it.

AC: True, but i was thinking more about the dialogue. The compact disc, the Mongoose, etc.

BT: He (Casey) did a lot of research for the decade, so hopefully if we get financing for the feature, it will be a time capsule of sorts.

CT: Lots of stuff was happening, Reagan had just been re-elected, . The cold war was coming to an end. The Patriots were awful and The Rubik’s cube was taking over.

AC: Kiss- hadn't taken off their makeup.

CPT: Right:

AC: That’s one of the best lines in the movie. When the main kid is sitting there, looking depressed about something, and his friend thought he was mad that kiss took off their makeup.

BT: We're just trying to capture the ball breaking that goes on between 12 year olds.

AC: Im sure in some cases its not as bad, and other cases, worse.

CPT: Right.

AC: Some may argue that the film is cynical, evil, shameful, un-PC?

BT: I would think just because of the polish jokes.. I mean did you grow up around polish people in the mid-80's. They suffered worse than some native Americans...
Have you ever been around young kids with no supervision?

CPT: See, the reaction we've been getting from women... I mean, when women see the short, and the kid gets his bike trashed. The look on their faces is awful... like, "i cant believe they did that" I think part of it is that they never saw stuff like that when they were young, they were stuck inside playing with my little pony while we were blowing stuff up.

BT: that and they can see neighbor hood kids doing that sort of thing to their kids.

AC: Right. Which, in theory is highly likely. Sort of a 'lord of the flies' type mentality. Which incidentally, wasn’t one kid reading that book in class in the film?

CPT: You caught it! Its an inside joke.

AC: I’ve seen it 6 or 7 times. The Carmina-Burina scene is a classic in the making.

BT: True Story

AC: (Laughing) Really?

BT: Completely

CPT: 100%

AC: You're kidding me.

BT: Pretty much all of the short, and the feature (screenplay) are all-true.

AC: EVEN THE LAKE SCENE!

BT: Yup, we were there. Except it wasn’t the mother, it was the kid. And it was worse.

CPT: Much worse.

AC: The Coen Brothers, The Farrely Brothers, The Wachowski Brothers, The Weitz Brothers, The Hughes Brothers.... do you guys see a pattern here?

CPT: That's great company, but I'd rather be put along the same lines as Brooks Brothers.

BPT: Or YECK Brothers.

CPT: What?

BPT: Yeck brothers, a shipping company out of Dayton. Very reliable.

AC: Do you think being brothers is beneficial to the filmmaking process. Do you see your self up with those names someday?

CPT: Seriously, i wanna be with brooks brothers. Suits, Its all about making suits.

BT: Well, i don’t know of a sibling team that hasn't had any success.. It’s literally like having 2 brains on one job. I think the DNA thing is helpful. Some people have made films with 2 directors that aren’t related, and it’s just not the same. Most of the movies, I think, made by brother combos, have more.. I don’t know, the relationships just seem more real between characters.

AC: What other kinds of movies would you guys like to make if this one is a success?

CPT: Without pissing off James Brooks, and having to shampoo anyone’s crotch, i think of it this way. I think filmmaking is a parallel to making music. Look at a guy like Spielberg. He's obviously the Rolling Stones of the film-world. Bigger than life. Has some misses, but when he wants to, can knock you on your ass. I would look at Scorsese like Dylan, sort of always does the same thing, but is always on top, and is way more influential than anyone thinks. a guy like Jim Jarmusch would be like Tom Waits.. not crazy popular, but adored by fans. And with the newer guys, Taranino is like Nirvana, he just came out of no-where and steamrolled everyone. And just like everyone copied Nirvana, everyone copied Quentin. And if he hadn’t killed himself, he'd probably be making mature kick-ass epics like Tarantino is. And lastly, Paul Thomas Anderson is like Radiohead. Complete, classic, so good, you almost cant get it. Too good for the masses. Masterpieces, works of art. But some people don’t get it.

AC: SO who would you guys be.

BT: C.C. Music factory? No, THE FAT BOYS!

CPT: I wanna model our career after the Foo Fighters. I think they're the best rock band of the 90's. They kick ass live, make great, straight up rock n roll records. They don’t take themselves too seriously, but when its time to get to business, they make great music. Lets just leave it at that.

AC: Well, if the feature goes well, contact them to do the music.

BT: Way ahead of you, every day I hear how "Dave Ghrol is gonna be our Danny Elfman".

CPT: The interview is over. I don’t want anyone stealing our ideas.