20 Questions with DJ Perry

Richard "DJ" Perry

1 - Well, first and foremost, I have to ask you how you happened across my site [The Dungeon] and what you like best about it?

I was looking for S&M stuff when...actually I was checking distribution patterns on "Knight Chills" and I came across your cool site.

2 - Now that I got my shameless self promotion out of the way, let's get on to you. Tell us a bit about the inner workings of DJ Perry. For example, How did you get into making films?

I was always a day-dreamer. We use to role play (Dungeon & Dragons) and such which is really just acting without moving. I was the game master so I guess I loved the world building and that is now the producer in me. I was also always into messing around with the old camcorders making movies instead of book reports or final examinations in high school. To me, movie making is the ultimate form of story telling.

3 - What films inspired you and helped you decide that this is what you wanted to do with your life?

I love the heroic tales or anti-heroic tales such as "Outlaw Josie Wales," "Star Wars," "Mad Max," "Raiders Of The Lost Ark." I love so many different movies for so many different reasons. "Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park" A CLASSIC!

4 - You seem to have the market cornered on taking up tasks in your films. KNIGHT CHILLS itself you co-wrote, produced and starred in, yet I didn't see anything in the credits as far as directing. Ever thought about doing a little? If not, than who would be the dream director for you to work with?

I have thought about directing at some point. When I find the story that I think only I can tell then I might take a try at it. I love to write, I love to act and I love having some control over what stories we get to tell. Sometimes you just have to go for it. Directors, I would love to work with Ridley Scott, Tim Burton or maybe even Robert Redford.

5 - What about actors? Who would be your dream team of casts in a film you had complete control over?

That would depend on the movie. I do want to work with Charles Dutton, Gary Oldman, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson or any number of great actors to learn and grow from. I loved working with Terence Knox (Tour Of Duty, St. Elsewhere) in the movie "An Ordinary Killer" now in post. The dream team is the group of actors that click for a certain project. I've seen some great actors make bad movies. Except Rutgar Hauer and Kurt Russell they always rock.:)

6 - For you, what was the best thing to come out of making films? I mean besides getting to be interviewed by Neo of "The Dungeon!" :-)

I love being able to work with so many talented artists and to try and make something that will make people think, laugh, cry and yes even mock:)

7 - In the "Behind the scenes" segment of the DVD, your co-writer of KNIGHT CHILLS, Jeff Kennedy, mentioned how everyone used to play D&D. Does anyone still play and if so, what version? Care to share any memorable stories of past games?

We had so many good times with role playing and several little bits like the "Burn Out Pledge" in "Knight Chills" are real bits of role playing history. That was part of a collection of cool sayings we found scrawled in bathrooms. We are now in talks with WIZARDS and may be developing a large gaming property. I assure you it won't fall down like the D&D movie. The writing was the problem. They lifted scenes straight from other movies, very sad. They might get it right next time around. We played AD&D, Call Of Cthulu, Star Wars RP mainly.

8 - Enough of the good stuff, what about bad? Did you face any hardships in your personal life from making films? What kind of toll has this sort of business taken on you and how does it affect your film making?

I've lost a few real good female relationships because movies tend to be my mistress. They don't always understand all the hard work. It is not always limos and autograph signing. Movie making is for the mentally challenged. So, the toll has been to my sanity but it makes me even more driven. I love making movies, flat and simple. I guess I need a woman who can live with me and my movie mistress.

9 - Let's get to the point here, KNIGHT CHILLS. First off, I have to say that Doc was a big frickin' horse. How did he die? On a side note, I thought it was nice of y'all to dedicate the film to his memory too!

Hey, old AD&D Code Of Honor. We honor our fallen. Doc was a gentle giant and he died in a farm accident. We were all very sad. He was a beautiful horse. We almost used the horse from LADYHAWK but he was too far away. The gas expense would of killed the meager catering budget we had.

10 - How did this film come together? On the DVD Jeff mentions it sort of stems from his own past experiences. Care to expand on that?

Jeff was a teacher and knew role playing. Jack Nixon is based on Jeff Kennedy. Jeff also had a role playing club through the school that would play every Friday. He caught some flak over the gaming on a few occasions. Witch hunters on a school board.

11 - How much of the KNIGHT CHILLS family knew each other prior to filming, how is that relationship today, and was it strained at all during filming?

We all knew each other back then. Most were people I had worked with on other films. A handful of cast and crew were from "In The Woods" and a few other productions I had done. Sadly, we had to leave a few people by the roadside. The tribe of Collective Development www.cdifilms.com will not drag people along. Either you have the passion for movie making or you can go sell cars or work in an office.

12 - I know this is probably starting to get a bit morbid but what forms of production difficulties did you have to face while making this film? Reason being, we always hear of how much fun it was and how everything just came together, but there is always trouble, and artistic differences. The real story is what makes it interesting. Especially if through it all, you all remained the best of friends.

The outdoors shooting during a Michigan Winter was a real bitch. (snow, rain) The lack of money, lack of experience and just about everything else we did was a hard uphill battle but we made it! We really pushed through a crazy shooting schedule and survived with a marketable product. Other problems that I recall... We almost blew up the car with lighting equipment still in it. Lack of snow made WINTER CHILLS into KNIGHT CHILLS. I think the hard part was the endurance factor. For many people who are only use to a 1-3 day commercial shoot or short form movie making this was like being in a prisoner of war camp by day 6. In post, the entire movie crashed once and we lost everything and had to start over. An editor or three were let go for different reasons. Overall the movie was like 5 years of film school rolled into one picture.

13 - It is obvious that there wasn't much of a budget at your disposal through the production of this film, yet you managed to make the story just right to detract from that. How much did you have to work with here?

We were at a CLERKS, BLAIR WITCH level and I feel we put more on the screen then either of them. I like Jay and Silent Bob though:)

14 - If you could remake KNIGHT CHILLS with a much larger budget, what would you do different? Who would be replaced?

This is an option that has been provided to us. If we did, I think the casting might change slightly but the amount of time to shoot would have to be longer. I would really have liked to do much more with the action scenes. I saw SLEEPY HOLLOW made a year or so after KNIGHT CHILLS and that is how we would have liked the action scenes to have played out. More crew, better food...I really loved the experience though and I think it was vital to me as a producer to go through all that. So maybe things should just be left alone. That was CDI's 1st feature and when someone watches "An Ordinary Killer" our 5th feature they will be like WOW! But it is standing upon the experience of the previous 4 films starting with KNIGHT CHILLS.

15 - What other companies did you approach for release of KNIGHT CHILLS and what was the usual "send off?" I mean I saw another film released by Vision Factory, THE EMBALMER, and that almost made me skip over this gem of yours.

We had went with another company that I will keep unnamed only because the individual involved was let go and the company is now on good terms with us. KNIGHT CHILLS was taken overseas to the film market with a few other pictures of the same genre and the producer rep had a stake in the other films. Ours sold 1 territory and the others sold many more. He tried to tell us that he did not play favorites. Little did he know that CDI's Empire is everywhere like BIG BROTHER and we knew that KC wasn't being pushed. Then they landed on tv and their booth was like all his films and no KC. We cornered him in Atlanta (4 of us) and had a little POW WOW. Should have given him the Vanilla Ice treatment from the 15th floor but we didn't. But we did let him know a thing or two:) KC was taken away from their company and assigned to SPECTRUM who handled IN THE WOODS, an earlier horror film that I starred in and co-produced. It is a fun movie but that is another story. Rent it, drink beer, enjoy! SPECTRUM has been good so far, so know sit downs yet:) As for some of their crappy titles, someone is buying them. I use to be 17. Have bum buy us a case of BLACK LABEL and go rent SATANS CHEERLEADERS, NINJA III, and THE PURPLE JADE BADGER. If you didn't enjoy it you didn't get altered enough:) There is an IN THE WOODS drinking game but I won't encourage all that, make up your own games.

16 - Now don't get me wrong, this film wasn't with out it's problems. Like I loved how I was made to feel for Jack and his slow decent into personal disaster. Some of the other characters though, mostly John, was he supposed to be so damn annoying or were we supposed to feel for him? For the record, I hated the character with a passion!!

John was just as he was meant to be. Woman like him and guys find him annoying. He is based on people we have met or gamed with. They are all archtypes, the stoner, the bully, the bitch, the smart girl, ect...I was very happy with the drama that came out in Jack's character. I think we have all felt that way before.

17 - Speaking of problems, I need to know. How did your character, Zac, deduce that John [Kallio] wanted Jackson when all signs pointed to revenge and his love for Brooke? I saw nothing, clue wise, that would tip Zac off to that. We the viewer got to see it with the character interaction between Jackson and something else.

In LOTR Gandolf talks of "Hobbit Weed" and Zac had a vision of...I agree that a moment of recognition could have clarified things. We had a bunch of starved, sleep deprived zombies pointing cameras and holding lights. We cut about 15 pages from the script and I think that hurt us a touch. I'm going to stick with the magic weed answer. Sometimes the pieces just come together and then you forget it. "Jack I think John wants to kidnap ....ah....ah....what's your son's name?" ā€"Zac

18 - Over all though, a great story and a lot of promise behind this film and it's creators!! Congrats! Now what can we expect to see from you in the future? For example, we saw the prop sign for New Mahkra from the up coming project FROM VENUS. What's it about? DETAILS MAN, DETAILS!!! How about a KNIGHT CHILLS 2 with a guest spot by yours truly?

FROM VENUS, is heading to the foreign market this Fall and then we hope to have it out on dvd to you this Spring. Action, sex and special effects! See www.cdifilms.com FROM VENUS and all the secrets of the Avatrix, her evil priestess and the powerful ring of Rex Mundi will be revealed. I'm in decision hell over KNIGHT CHILLS. We have a sequel script with interest from Tyler Mane (Sabertooth in X-MEN) to take up the sword as Sir Kallio. I have stunning martial arts people, castles in Romania and it looks like it might all come together. The thought is to see if KNIGHT CHILLS will get out there to enough that viewers so that they can follow a sequel. OR do we condense KC into act 1 of the new KNIGHT CHILLS movie which follows the slain into the imaginative fantasy world of Sir Kallio. A SciFi mini series is a possible pitch as well.
The title is THE TYRANNY OF KNIGHT. So buy up that KNIGHT CHILLS and show your love and I swear that we'll bring the pass the dish of kick ass. We're also talking with WIZARDS OF THE COAST about their AD&D properties such as DARK SUN and such. Any suggestions?:) As for the guest spot, we'll think about it. I might need a stunt double to get kicked around by Tyler Mane:)

19 - Oh, one other thing. The story boards were great! Who did them and has the group ever thought of perhaps releasing a comic? Lord knows I would buy it!

Bruce Bennett is the name of the talented yet lazy artist who did the illustrations. We had made an agreement for a comic book and that never happen. We are looking at talking with someone like TOP COW for TYRANNY OF KNIGHT. So any would be comic artists with follow through, email us:)

20 - And finally, last but certainly not least, Are there any openings for me in production, writing, or directing? Perhaps something where I wouldn't have to leave nice cozy Florida and go to freezing cold Michigan? :-)

Without leaving Florida, I don't know. We will have a development department for writing soon so work on your screenplay skills. We actually are thinking about a script that would shoot there. If so you should come on out.

Thanks again for allowing me to support a promotion of yours and I look forward to many more times like these. It certainly has been a pleasure! Now will I get any sort of billing or promotion on any of the upcoming projects from you? My friends would never believe I got to interview you anyway. Perhaps a "Special Thanks" or something? Please? What if I beg? Ok, ok. I'll let you go ... for now!! [laughs] Thanks again Mr. Perry. It certainly was an honor!