All language subtitles for Tac Rodney Remembers (2022).English

(gentle music)

- You know, I'm 73 and

the memory...

it's a bit foggy.

Pizza to G0 was...

It's about a guy,

a slovenly guy,

who lives in this filthy apartment,

and he's hungry,
so he orders a pizza.

While he's waiting for
the pizza to arrive,

he starts channel surfing on TV,

and everywhere he surfs...

then we go into it.

So sometimes he's
watching a film noir,

sometimes it's a comedy,

sometimes it's commercials,

sometimes it's a soap opera.

All different kinds of film genre.

Some are like a period piece.

But all of this...
every time he flicks...

and we use the same
actors for everything.

We went in, and some of
it's in black and white...

there's a western in there

that I got to use my
Vilmos Zsigmond skills on.

A campfire scene at night.

As it happened, at the
Concordia Film Festival

end of year screening,

a gentleman called Bob Presner

showed up and saw that film,

and he was looking for somebody

because he had two clients,

two producers who
wanted to make a film

for the drive-ins.

That's how long we've been around.

They were making a drive-in film,

and so he recommended
us to the two producers,

Jack Murphy and Fred Fox.

They saw our film and said,

"Guys, do you want a job?
We got a job for you."

So we got a job.

The budget was $750,000,

shot in 35 millimeter,

1979, a film made for drive-ins

called Pinball Summer.

It was our first feature film,

and it was shot in summer.

Again, shot like I
said in 35, for 750...

$750,000 back then.

We're talking 1979.

They're doing films in Ottawa now

for a little bit more than that

40 years later.

(laughs)
So.

But it was a glorious experience.

We had the chops to do it.

As I recall, we had like 25 days,

so it was a fairly
generous schedule,

and most of the shooting,

like over 90% of the shooting,

it's all outside, it's all exterior,

so lighting-wise was no issue.

We didn't have the usual issues

because we had very, very few...

Very few interiors to light

except the pinball arcade,

and it was a bunch
of kids having fun.

It was harmless, mindless.

(laugh5)

It was a one page or
two page suggestion

made by Steven Miller,

who became one of the
producers on the film.

He had this idea from a film

after seeing

some other

horror film that was
successful in the States,

and he took it to John

and John said, "Yeah, it's great,

and we've got the guys to do it."

And so

myself and George

and Bob Presner and Steven Miller

and the guy who they
brought in to write,

John, I forget his family name.

But we all worked
slowly on development,

and we would go to Cinepix,

and we would screen films.

John would show us what he liked.

At the time, Cinepix was distributing

a lot of Japanese horror,

and you know, Japanese
horror back then...

I don't know what it's like today,

but it was a lot of slice and dice

and bloodshed.
(laughs)

John liked that because
that's what sold.

So that was our
mandate basically.

(laugh5)

It was certainly, yeah,
one of the influences.

It certainly helped launch my career.

It gave me a good boost forward,

that's for sure.

Back Stab was a pretty good one.

Back Stab was one of the better ones.

James Brolin and Jim Kaufman.

Yeah.

I don't recall very much about it.

Well, I'll tell you
the one thing I recall

about Back Stab and the Jim Kaufman.

That's where I met my wife.

(chuckles)

She was working in
the costume department.

It was quite a generous
budget, as I recall.

That's Christian Duguay
who directed, right?

That was a fairly generous budget

and a lot of fun

‘cause there's lots
of special effects.

It was a brutal shoot though

because we shot over
Christmas and New Year's,

and there were periods

where it was

brutally cold,

like down to 25 below,

and we were shooting
outside at night,

and often the film was so brittle

it would snap and break

and everything fogging up

and the batteries
dying all the time.

I have photographs of me wearing

a full... it's like a ski mask,

and it's just covered with frost

from working outside all night.

It was a tough one,
but it was beautiful,

and it looked really good.

I really liked the result.

Christian, before he directed,

he was a DOP himself.

Actually, he started off
as a Steadicam operator

and then became a DOP and
then became a director.

And so, yeah, that
was shot in winter.

Pretty brutal too.

But again, we had
quite a bit of money.

It was a generous budget,

and I think Columbia Pictures

was involved in that too.

I think Columbia Pictures

was one of the producers,

but there was no shortage
of money on that film.

On both of those two
films you mentioned,

we had by that time...

we had graduated to
the full package.

Whatever I wanted on my
camera list, we got it,

so we got all the
high speed lenses.

We got all the toys.

Probably the best one
Allegro ever made I think,

other than the one
I directed for them,

The Neighbor,

was Deadbolt

with Justine Bateman I believe.

Justine Bateman and

Adam Baldwin,

who was a cousin of
Alec or something,

one of the Baldwin gang.

But that was a good film

because we had two
very good actors,

and as far as Justine...
was very pleasant, easy,

because you've heard these stories

before I'm sure,

but they're not always
easy to work with.

I understand

that all actors have
a certain insecurity

because it's them on screen.

It's them in front of the camera,

so they're often very
insecure and nervous,

and you've got to
be part psychologist,

in order to... and therapist
to help them as a DOP

because if there's
one person on the set

that they always want
to fall in love with

and always want to
be close to, it's the DOP

because their image
is in your hands,

so to speak.

And so often they're difficult

and nervous and insecure.

"What's the lens you're using?

What's the filter you're using?"

But Justine was just

easy, a sweetheart,

no problem whatsoever,

and the story was solid.

Adam Baldwin played the
psychopath in that one.

We did a lot of films about psychopaths.

And that was also shot, I must add,

in the same house that we shot

all of the horror sequences for...

so when you see it,
you will recognize the rooms

that we shot Amityville Curse in.

It's the exact same house

that we called "the monster house."

It was at that time...
James Brolin I think

was just hooking up
with Barbra Streisand.

I think. I'm not sure.

But the memory I have
of that film now

is because at the time,

I had a brother who lived in Montreal

for a long time,

and his wife

was a big fan of James Brolin.

James Brolin was a
TV star first, right?

He was in some...

some TV series

about doctors or something.

I don't know what it was.

But my sister-in-law was
madly in love with him,

and so she asked if she
could come to the set

and meet him,

so I remember my brother
and sister-in-law

showing up at the set
to meet James Brolin

and having their
photograph taken with him.

He was a very nice guy,

and he's a very easy
guy to work with.

Very eaSY QW-

But that was a good
little film as I recall.

Again, another one
of the better ones.

Yeah.

It's not one of the films

that sticks in my memory.

I know it's a fairly good one,

but I can't recall.

That was a Doug Jackson I think too,

was it not?

I'm sure that was Doug,

but I have very little recollections

of that one. Very little.

Not one that stands out,

but in that section,

you'll see this was always...

Pierre liked his stalker,

male psychopath,

looking for his next
female victim type of film,

and it was always
pretty much the formula.

Young woman, vulnerable,

trust the wrong person,

looks like she's
going to get slayed,

but somehow she always
turns the table

and the nasty guy
gets his comeuppance.

Roll credits.

(hands clap)
The audience applauds.

That was basically Pierre's formula

for successful filmmaking

(chuckles)

in a nutshell

because we did a whole batch

of them like that.

At the time,

I was just happy to
do the photography,

but I have to say
that towards the end,

it's what made me want
to change and get out

because, you know,

I felt we were doing a
lot of the same things.

The genre was...

I wouldn't say it was tired,

but there's not much in
the way of innovation

in the stuff that we were doing,

the ones that we were doing.

That was my feeling,

and I just needed to get
out and do other stuff

and find another
way to express myself.

(gentle music)