Ghost Team One was released today to theaters, VOD, and digital outlets. We were recently given the opportunity to interview the movie's co-directors, Scott Rutherford and Ben Peyser, who told us about how they got together, improv acting on set, and more:
How did you two get together to co-direct Ghost Team One?
Scott Rutherford: We met at UCLA film school. I have been writing on Workaholics and Ben had been running his own commercial production company. Because of my Workaholics experience, Hernany Perla, who was the producer, brought me on. This was going to be such a speedy process and I knew I’d need a DP that would be the whole package. Ben became the greatest choice possible because he’s an incredibly talented DP, but he’s also worked as a director and producer. He’s a really funny guy and we make each other laugh. Our shot at making the best movie possible was if we combined our talents.
How involved were you in the script writing process? Did the two of you make any significant changes to the story?
Scott Rutherford: Hernany had this passion project for a while, so he had a number of writers and scripts. We got in with Andy and Arthur and worked on the script. We tried to make sure that the motivations were as clear as possible. Once we got on set, if something wasn’t working, we were free enough to rework the story and go with it. Day one, we had these hilarious improv actors. Some of the problems we had resulted in some of the most exciting solutions that made the movie fun.
What movies did you two watch to get a good feel for the found footage sub-genre?
Ben Peyser: We watched plenty of horror movies for reference and quickly realized that we’re the biggest cowards you’ve ever met. We needed to watch them together in the daylight and in very comfortable settings. We realized that we needed to make our characters those guys because most guys in horror movies are stupid. Wouldn’t it be funny and more real if the character himself was scared of going upstairs?
With all of the improv acting, I’m sure you guys have plenty of great memories on set. Is there anything that immediately comes to mind?
Ben Peyser: There are actually a lot of them. One of the toughest parts of editing was cutting down on some of the hilarious moments. One of my favorites is that we have a 45 minute take of JR leaving these pathetically desperate voicemails on Fernanda’s phone, begging her to come back. That 45 minute take ends up being 2 seconds in the movie. We just sat there for 45 minutes biting our hands not trying to laugh. We yelled cut and people were rolling. There are parts of the shot we couldn’t use because the camera was shaking from us laughing.
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"Ghost Team One follows two friends who are both trying to impress a girl who believes the spirit of a vengeful madam is haunting their home. They set out to make a documentary about a murder that took place in their house decades ago and, much to their surprise, soon capture some terrifying—and uproarious—supernatural activity that leads them to believe that the ghost is not only real…she’s also into them."
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