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An interview with Bryant Mainord and David Turnbull

“Beekeeping” is the third and latest movie from Anchorage-based Scarface Productions. Written and directed by Bryant Mainord and produced by David Turnbull, the film takes place at Statham County University where Mike, one of four roommates, learns that he owes $1,500 in late video fees. Unable to tap into his student loan to enroll in the next semester, one of Mike’s roommates comes up with a scam by which each roommate starts three school clubs, which are each eligible for $125 from a university fund. When the dean catches on to their scam, he offers them a choice: expulsion or turn all of their phony clubs into bona-fide ones. The movie premiered in Anchorage in April.

Mainord and Turnbull met with Rocky Mountain Magazine for a cup of coffee at the Anchorage Barnes & Noble to talk about the status of the film. All responses are from Mainord unless otherwise noted. Mainord and Turnbull are in their mid-twenties and are former students of the University of Alaska Anchorage. Most of their cast are current and former UAA students. Their first movie, “Checked out”, is a comedy about love in a library. Their second movie, “Election 2004 – The Movie: Tony vs. Lisa” is a documentary about formerly apathetic voters who take up combat-style campaigning in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Alaska between Tony Knowles and Lisa Murkowski.
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What is current status of “Beekeeping?”

It’s almost done. We’re in the editing process. We’re pretty happy with the cut and the test audience. There was some stuff that they liked and some they didn’t like. What people saw in April is done. We’re just cleaning it up.^[1]
One scene – when the audience finally sees Mike’s girlfriend her - was listed as the least-favorite scene of the movie. We’re thinking about shortening the scene. It’s mostly good enough. We’re pretty happy with it, but it had technical issues - the sound was really bad in that scene.^[2] We were under the gun before the screening. We didn’t notice it, but one shot you could see her talking but it was the wrong shot.^[3] 

How did you come up with the idea for Beekeeping?

I wrote it, but it was based on a story by David Turnbull. A few years back when I was going to UAA, we started a film production club. The club basically went nowhere. The idea was if we start the club we’ll get some money and access to resources on campus. We joked around that if we start 10 clubs, we get $1000.

When did you know the film was going to come to fruition?

DT/Last August. The first draft of the script was a year old. After the whole Channel 5 thing^[4], we needed to do something. I’d been trying to convince him [Mainord] for a while.
BM/We talked about it the night we screened “Checked out.” I wrote the first draft and it was not very good. Last August was when we finished the script and we cast the film in September. We’ve given up on movies before because we couldn’t find the cast. Beekeeping is mostly people who are normally in our movies and a few who responded to fliers. We held 50 auditions and used two people in bit parts around the movie.

What was the worst moment during the filming process?

DT/Do we just want to start shit talking? There were moments on the set when it was almost like a fist fight. Two more words and it could have come to that.
BM – Dave and I were pretty damn cool on the whole set. We work with a bunch of people that we keep working with. Any time we add new people on the crew and cast they need to work on it. There are a couple of personalities that don’t get along. This is what happens when you don’t pay anybody. I have no complaints about the crew. There are a lot of people helping us. It can be hard to manage them because they’re working for free and working all weekend.
We got kicked out of the dorms. Our filming is guerilla style still. We rushed in, dressed up a set in the dorm and got kicked out by Residence Life.^[5] We got kicked out of the commons area - even being on the sidewalks. We swiped some scenes at APU^[6] – the locker scene. Dr. Pearce^[7] gave us access to K building. We never really pursued access with him much. He probably would have helped if he could have. If there was an easy way to get access, we’d do it. We went to the library and conference room 150 at night. If we didn’t know who to talk to then we’d go in and just shoot it when we could. We had pretty big casts and crew and had to work around their schedules.

What was the best moment during the filming process?

BM/Being back on the set for the first time after a year.
DT/Seeing John Whitlock improvise – that’s always the best. Just seeing all these people working on the movie, getting into it and taking it seriously. John is just getting better and better each time.
BM/We’ll never make a movie without John. You know that, right?

What kind of feedback have you received from viewers and from the Native American community?

BM/A lot of people have seen it on DVDs that are floating around. The screening in April was awesome - even as bad as the sound was from the speakers. It was a really rough draft of the movie, but they laughed at all the right parts.
DT/The comments card were surprisingly good. They were all writing the same stuff.
BM/As for the Native American community, my aunt has seen it.^[8] My parents haven’t even seen it. I haven’t gotten that much feedback from that community for a lack of exposure.

Any complaints about the movie?

One comment said the homophobic part is tired. We tackle somewhat controversial issues. Anybody can blow that out of proportion. It’s good hearted humor. We wanted to see Jared as a gay guy. There was no message in the movie. We just wanted to make you laugh.

You’re Alaska Native. Why haven’t you done a Smoke Signals, Powwow Highway or other Native-American – focused movie?

I’m not interested in that kind of story. It’s not my culture. My culture is Jerry Bruckheimer - Hollywood type bullshit. I make movies about college-aged slackers.^[9]

What’s next?

We’ve got a lot of ideas kicking around. The next one will be bigger and better. We want to shoot a film set in Anchorage this time.^[10] We’ve even been thinking about Election 2006, which was a rumor for a while. He’s [Tony Knowles] running for governor.

Who else had key production roles in the movie?

Jesse Warfield was the director of photography. This was the first time we had a real DP. He’s worked on some other movies, but I don’t know what roles. He was an extra in “The Matrix” and “The Hulk.”^[11]

What channel did you show "Checked out" on?  In retrospect, was that the right thing to do or would you have done something different?

Channel 5 KYES UPN. It was an accident from the start. Would I take it back? Why? No. You never know when I’ll strike next.

What are your influences – film and otherwise?

BM/I’m hesitant to say Kevin Smith, because he defined jumping the shark.
DT/He was the influence.
BM/ "Clerks.”  “Clerks II” was worthless. Most of the influences come from writing. Our movies are not visually exciting. Cohen Brothers, Wes Anderson, John Hughes, the frat pack - Vince Vaughn, Owen and Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell. When I watch the outtakes to their movies, it’s the same kind of improv and using people over and over. “Fletch.”^[12]

What are your favorite movies or genres?

Comedies. Some I could never aspire to do. “The Big Lebowski.” “Fletch.” “Breakfast Club.” “Return of the Jedi.” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” “Dazed and Confused,” where high school chicks always stay the same age.

Any plans for a different format from comedy? Serious drama or documentary? Other subjects?

Any documentary we did would still be a comedy. Why stray from comedy? We’d like to make all types of comedies: horror comedies, WWII comedies. Not interested in staying in the college comedies. Mystery comedies.

What do you hope will happen with Beekeeping?

BM/We’re going to send it out to a few film festivals. We’re putting a lot more stock into the next one as far as anything happening. This one turned out pretty good. All the three movies we made so far are practice. We’re not anticipating that someone buys it. We want to get into some festivals to attract funding - use it as portfolio. If it turned out to be something a broad audience would dig, I never thought about it. We should get our core audience first.
DT/John Whitlock paid the fee to enter it in the Toronto Film Festival.

If you weren’t making movies, what would you be doing?

Not much worth mentioning. (Laughs) In high school English class, I liked writing. I hated reading books. I loved movies. It was that simple. Not a specific moment. I always wanted to make movies.

To learn more about "Beekeeping", visit myspace.

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