Interview with Jason Todd Ipson - Unrest
By: Marcus Ingelmo

Evil Dread: Hi Jason, how are you doing today?
Jason Todd Ipson: Hey Marcus, I'm doing great - grateful to be starting a new year. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you.

ED: No, thank You! Tell us a little what your film UNREST is about.
JTI: UNREST is a film that takes place in a first year Gross Anatomy Class. The lead character is haunted by premonitions about her cadaver whose spirit is in a state of unrest.

Philosophically, the film is about life and appreciation for it - especially by showing proper respect to the dead. In the Aztec culture, tens of thousands of people were willingly sacrificed to ensure bountiful harvests for their people. Yet there is a reverence within the Native American cultures towards the dead. By contrast, physicians have the highest access to the dead of any other professional group, yet behind closed doors there is not a ton of reverence - I believe because it is tough for a doctor to do the job that is expected of them if they do not distance themselves from death and what it means.

ED: UNREST was one of the "8 Films to Die For" that were screened at the After Dark Horrorfest. How did the film get picked up for that and what kinda response did it get during the actual Horrorfest?
JTI: Courtney Solomon, who runs the After Dark Horrorfest, saw UNREST through Shaun Redick at the Collective, and immediately wanted to acquire the film. We had a couple of meetings, and decided it was an awesome way to platform our film with other films on a national theatrical level.

We were excited because the film sold out theaters all across the country. I had friends in different theaters everywhere - and most of them reported that the crowds had a great time. I got a ton of fan mail response, and was really grateful to all of the people that saw the film and cared.

The other side of that was the message boards. The message boards ate us alive. I think there must have been a bunch of people hanging out on there trying to tear holes into everything, because everyday when I checked the boards I thought "how can these boards be so different from what I'm hearing from actual audience members?"

The reality is that nothing quite compares to having your film seen by 80-90,000 people theatrically. It was awesome, and something I am grateful for.

ED: How has the overall response for UNREST been so far and what were your expectations to begin with?
JTI: My hope was that the audience would find this film and make it one that everyone knows. We tried to set up a world and create a film that was not the same as all the other films out there. So we set it in a hospital in the most accurate setting one could.

I actually thought that the critics would hate this movie because it really isn't a horror film. It is definitely not a slasher movie, and it is not scary. But it is creepy. It is meant to disturb the audience. I was ecstatic to find that the critics (most) loved it. I couldn't be happier to have their support. We took grand prize at five film festivals before we had to pull the film out of them for Horrorfest. So I'm very excited with everything that has happened.

ED: How long did it take to shoot UNREST and was it hard getting finance for the film?
JTI: When everything was said and done, it took 23 days to shoot the film. We shot on 35mm, so that was very fast for a film this involved.

The financing was relatively easy. There were a lot of companies that wanted to do the film. The difficulty we ran into was when I said I did not want to use stars - because I wanted the audience to feel that the actors were really medical students. That scared a few people off, and lowered our budget, but we were lucky to still have people that believed in the project.

ED: UNREST was your debut feature. How was your experience on the set, did you find it to be a difficult task being the director and was it a "scary" job to take, or did you feel comfortable with the role?
JTI: It was my first feature, but I did two 35mm thesis films while at USC, so I was pretty well prepared. In all honesty, my second thesis film THE FIRST VAMPIRE was a much larger production in a number of ways. For that film we recreated 13th century Sweden, shot in sub zero weather, in the snow, with animals (horses, chickens, oxen, rats, etc), children, etc. and shot for 15 days. The film looks like LORD OF THE RINGS, so in a way I feel that UNREST was my second feature.

ED: Tell us a little of how the film came to be. When did you first read the script and what was the main attraction of the script itself?
JTI: I met a writer named Chris Billett, and we tossed around ideas related to setting a horror film in the gross anatomy lab. Chris went off and wrote a number of drafts before I got involved as the director.

The main thing that attracted me to the project is how creepy the film is.. it is not terrifying through violence, but for those that get it - it is horrifying psychologically.

ED: When did you first know that you wanted to make movies and was there any special reasons for why you got into the biz?
JTI: Great question. I, like most people, always was fascinated with movies. However, it wasn't until I was in residency (I'm a surgeon) that I figured out that I really wanted to be a professor.

To me, the movies are the largest classroom to the world that there is. So I make movies in order to be educationally stimulated - not because I want to make movies per se. I love learning everything there is about a project I'm doing, then trying to figure out visually exciting ways to "teach" it to the audience so they understand the world.

ED: That is really cool, not to mention very special. I understand you used real dead bodies in UNREST. How did you come up with that idea and was it hard getting the very idea through? It must've created some tension on-set?
JTI: Humn. I cannot really discuss this except to say that we used a real hospital and a real morgue, so everyone involved knew what they were getting into. There was some discomfort because of our surroundings, but mostly I think people really like the reality of what we were doing. It was very humbling.

ED: Would you say that it was hard making a scary movie with scares that would actually work for an audience when seen on screen? What scares you on film?
JTI: Well, as I said, I'm not sure UNREST is scary. It is disturbing. I have a very high tolerance from having cut living bodies open on a daily basis - so I know if something disturbs me - it is likely to disturb someone else.

Nothing really scares me in terms of screaming out loud. But films terrify my psychologically. For me war films always do. The idea of running into a line of bullets fighting a war makes me very uncomfortable. In terms of my horror picks - SAW terrified me. I loved asking myself the question would I cut off my own leg to try to save myself and run the risk of bleeding to death? What a great question - and truly scary!

I of course love the jumps that come out of nowhere and are not expected. Gore, not so much. I like gore, but it's hard to really be afraid of it when you've done some of the things I've done.

ED: Where did you find the actors for UNREST? Did you have auditions or did you know more exactly what kind of persons/names you wanted from the start?
JTI: We hired a casting director and held auditions. There were 16,000 headshots submitted for the roles. The casting director saw a few hundred, and I probably saw around a hundred people that were prescreened.

What made it exciting is that we were trying to cast unknown actors - hoping we could make them stars.. but concerned the most with their talent. That allowed us to have a great cast. In fact Jay Jablonski who plays Rick O'Connor and Marisa Petroro who plays Alita were in my second feature effort EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ITALIAN. I always joke that I'll keep using Jay until he is a star - he's awesome!

ED: What would you is the best thing about UNREST, what's so attractive about it and why should people check it out?
JTI: Oh man, at this point I've seen the movie so many times that it is hard to say what the best thing is for me. For the audience, it is the set piece that you can't miss if you see the movie - and if I tell you about it - then it would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that things are seen in this film that people have a hard time believing actually exist.

ED: What types of movies are you into and from what would you say most of your inspiration comes from? Are you exclusively into horror or could you see yourself working with other genres as well?
JTI: I am into movies that have good stories behind them. I could care less about the genre. I care about the story. At USC I directed a comedy and an Epic Drama for my projects. I have now directed UNREST, which I consider a medical-thriller, and EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ITALIAN, which is a romantic comedy.

I'm now attached to direct an action film, another romantic comedy, and another horror film.

What I will say, however, is that Horror fans are my favorite fans. They are the greatest people. Really nice people that let their minds push the limits..

ED: What do you have coming up next, if anything? Have you started on anything new?
JTI: Well, I'm about to finish EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ITALIAN that will be released in the summer of 2007 - and I'm deciding over the next month which film I will go into production with of the above projects. I think it is a high likelihood that it will be a horror film.

ED: Anything else you want to add and say to the readers before we wrap this up?
JTI: I want to wish everyone a very UNRESTful 2007. Hope it is full of scares!

And if you love scream queen Cerina Vincent, please check out EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ITALIAN - she's the lead with Jay Jablonski from UNREST..

Thanks for having me..

ED: Thank you Jason. Have a great 2007!
For more info on Jason's movie UNREST, check out the film's official website at unrestfulmovie.com