Hi Amin and Greg and thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions about Killer Party. I suppose the best way to get started is, could you tell us a little about the project?
GREG: Killer Party is a horror-comedy musical webseries told in 13 pieces. It’s about a wild college graduation party that’s crashed by a masked murderer, but it’s also about the hopes and fears that come with leaving friends behind and moving on to new beginnings.
So how did Killer Party come about and can you tell us a little about your backgrounds?
GREG: I was born in Arkansas and grew up really fascinated with the world wide web. I was working on websites in junior high. I loved film, but it always seemed like a far-away thing, whereas the Internet was right there. Now that I’ve moved to Los Angeles, it’s great to be able to bring these two things together.
AMIN: I grew up in Casablanca, Morocco, but am half-American and devoured US culture in any way I could find it, from theater to horror films to teen comedies. Once I moved to LA for my Screenwriting MFA at USC, I was lucky enough to be roommates with Greg. We spent so much time watching and chatting about our favorite shows and movies that we figured we ought to find a productive way to justify all that time spent goofing off together… and that’s how Killer Party was born.
What was your first experience within the horror genre?
GREG: I don’t know if it’s my first, but when I was young, I used to watch Are You Afraid of the Dark every weekend with my dad. During the week, we would buy candy at a grocery store and then eat it together. Except, one week, the episode was too scary, and it gave me nightmares, and I never wanted to watch it or anything scary again. So, as a kid, I was terrified of horror.
AMIN: It’s not exactly horror, but I was both terrified by and obsessed with Beetlejuice as a 3-year-old. Looking back, it’s probably why I like my horror with humor, heart, and absurdity. My next experience was at age nine, seeing the first 10 minutes of Scream. I watched poor Drew Barrymore get slaughtered and I bolted upstairs to sleep in my parents’ bed, then made my mother watch the rest of the film with me the next day. We both enjoyed it more in the daylight!
Killer Party is a slasher tale but is this your go-to choice when watching horror films?
GREG: In general, I’m a fan of horror-comedies or bad horror movies. I like some kind of ironic distance between me and the terror. That being said, my favorite horror film is The Shining, which is neither funny nor bad.
AMIN: I love slashers because I think it’s neat to see creators be inventive while sticking to the formula of “hot young people get chopped up.” As franchises churn out sequels, It’s fascinating to see how character stereotypes change over the decades and how you can go between identifying with the victims and rooting for the killer– though I’ll always be on the victims’ side. Frankly, I also think the bar is lower when it comes to slashers, so it’s a satisfying surprise to see them rise above it and really try to say something, like how the Nightmare on Elm Street series explores the beauty and terror of dreams.
With the writing did you split the work or was it a fully collaborative line by line affair?
GREG: We would come up with different songs that we would write on our own and then bring them to each other for notes and revisions. When writing the script, we would similarly outline the episodes, split up the episodes, write them on our own, and then bring them back to the other one, and then we’d rewrite them in the room together.
AMIN: The episodic format gave us the freedom to write things in our personal vision/tastes, because it’s actually great if each episode has a slightly different tone since each is from a different character’s perspective. The trick was to find common themes and plot points that bind our separate creative styles. I’ve also learned that collaborating isn’t necessarily about each of us giving exactly 50% all the time, but rather, knowing that Greg will swoop in and do the rest when I’ve exhausted myself, or that I’ll be there to be positive when Greg is anxious, or vice-versa (usually vice-versa!). It’s kind of like we’re raising a strange, evil child together.
GREG: Collaborating is definitely a lot about emotional support, organizational support, motivational support. It’s not just a matter of writing the thing. You have to stay friends in the process, and you have to stay committed to seeing it through.
Was anything dropped and can you share what it was and why?
GREG: There were some dropped moments and song verses, but the big thing we cut was a subplot and two songs about two campus security guards called Bike Cop and Foot Cop.
AMIN: They functioned as a Greek chorus who would sing backup and comment on the story, and ended up in many ways being very crucial. It felt cool and unique to our setting, but ultimately, it was odd to pull so much focus from the college characters that you expect to be invested in. Once we cut the cops, it forced us to really define our main characters’ relationships and led us to a much stronger story.
GREG: It also changed the killer’s identity! We’re sorry we killed the cops, but they had to die so our story could survive and thrive.
Is there anything that you wish you did differently?
AMIN: Everything we’ve done, from recording a demo CD to staging the reading, has taught us important lessons. The only thing I wish we’d done differently is to have done it all faster! It’s amazing how the anxiety that comes with rewriting or launching a Kickstarter can slow you down, and yet it all turns out fine. So from now on– less doubting, more doing!
GREG: Yeah, I completely agree. We like to wait until we’re ready, but when you do that, you’re never ready.
How did the cast come together for the Hollywood Fringe Festival and were they at all nervous about leaving it all out there, as it was one night only?
AMIN: We put up casting notices and had a colorful variety of LA actors audition. This was our first time running auditions like this and it was kind of terrifying to see people desperate to please us. But we found a talented cast that was also, crucially, willing to roll with a show that was still evolving as we rehearsed. We rarely had the chance to practice as a full group and our rehearsal time in the venue was very limited. So when show night came, it was so inspiring to see our actors and our amazingly talented pianist make memorable, interesting choices to overcome those limitations. We couldn’t be prouder of our actors, who we’re lucky enough to call friends now, too.
GREG: I think we tried to create a really low-pressure situation by not having people memorize their lines and by only doing it one night, but I think that actually contributed to the pressure of the night. It was a huge build-up to this one event, but it ultimately all turned out really well.
During the live show did you have to deal with hecklers or did you encourage call and response like The Rocky Horror Show?
GREG: We had a very respectful audience, so we didn’t have to worry about hecklers. I’ve done shows where I want the audience to yell at the cast, but this was not one of them.
AMIN: We occasionally urged them to scream or react, and they stepped up. That’s the best kind of audience– respectful, but easy with a laugh and game for anything.
Who was your favourite character and song at the Killer Party at the Hollywood Fringe?
AMIN: For me, it wasn’t so much about favorites as it was about the surprise and delight of seeing moments and songs go so differently than expected or rehearsed. There’s a song called “Krueger N You” about a frat bro trying to seduce a dead girl (he doesn’t know she’s dead, and I cannot stress that fact enough). The song isn’t complex and it never really popped in rehearsal. But put that equally funny/creepy situation in front of an audience scrambling to figure out how they’re supposed to feel, and combine it with two actors fully committing to the weirdness, and it resulted in the biggest laughs we got that night.
GREG: I agree. There were new things that all of the actors brought to the characters. We saw all of them in a different light, and it was a really great experience.
So moving from stage to screen, and you are telling it over 13 weeks, how long is each episode?
GREG: The typical episode is between 3 and 5 minutes, though some episodes are a little longer. The final episode is sort of a two-parter, so it’s longer than the others.
Can the viewers expect new songs, characters or is it an extension of the stage show?
GREG: There will be some new surprises. We’re rewriting the show based on what we learned in that reading, so anybody who saw it should expect new songs and new twists.
AMIN: Our reading was written for a cast of six in a no-frills stage show. With the web series, you’ll see some new side characters and story tangents that will widen the world and really immerse you in this group of friends and their
You have set yourself a release date of October 2016, how will you keep interest going during that time?
GREG: We’re going to be sharing photos and images from the set. We’re going to be shipping out the T-shirts from the Kickstarter. We’ve also got an audio show prequel that’s sort of a Serial parody that we’ll put out during that time to keep interest going. And, since some of our backers will have the opportunity to be featured in the show as extras or victims, we think that literal audience involvement will really help the buzz continue to build.
Based on the outcome of the funding (which will happen I’m sure) will you be taking the show out again next year?
GREG: Thanks for your confidence! Maybe? But right now, we want to focus on filming it. One nightmare at a time.
AMIN: I hope that next year we’ll be putting together the sequel! This is pretty much all I’ve ever wanted to do– roping loved ones and strangers into bringing my twisted fantasies to life.
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