Fantasia 2017 Interview: Writer/Director Graham Skipper Talks SEQUENCE BREAK

Over the last few years, Graham Skipper has contributed his acting talents to a variety of genre projects, including Almost Human, 20 Seconds to Live, Tales of Halloween, The Mind’s Eye, Carnage Park, Beyond the Gates, The Devil’s Dolls, and last year’s Space Clown, which marked his first time at the helm of a feature film as well. Skipper also recently completed another genre feature, Sequence Break, and he celebrated the world premiere of the film as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival's impressive slate for 2017.

Daily Dead caught up with Skipper a few days ago, and he talked about transitioning into the role of director, the inspiration behind Sequence Break, his experiences collaborating with his cast and crew, and much more.

I'm so glad to get a chance to talk to you about the film, Graham, and congratulations on being a part of Fantasia, too.

Graham Skipper: Thank you, it's such a thrill. I've always heard about this festival, and I've always wanted to come here. So to get to play here is a total dream come true.

We’ve chatted before for some of the different film projects that you've done, but that was when you were involved on the acting side of things. I know you’ve been branching out and last year, your feature film directorial debut came out. Was there something in particular that sparked your desire to step into the role of director?

Graham Skipper: You know, for me, I think that I've always had a great interest in writing for sure, in terms of getting to create a world from the ground up. As an actor you sort of step into somebody else's world, and then you play in their sandbox, within their rules. And that's part of the fun of being an actor, is that you get to adapt to those different situations.

But as far as being a director, Sequence Break was just a story that I really wanted to tell, and that I really wanted to tell my way. It came from a deeply personal place, and it was something visually that I really understood in my head. And so, that was really the beginning of it, it was just an organic process to want to tell a story in a certain way.

Let's talk a little bit about the script. What inspired the origins of this story?       

Graham Skipper: Well, the way it started was like six or seven years ago I read about an urban legend about a killer video game called Polybius. And in the urban legend, it basically says that there was this arcade game in the ’80s that supposedly when people would play it, it would give them seizures, or it would cause them to hallucinate, or sometimes it would even kill them. And so I always thought that would make a really interesting movie, but I could never figure it out. I wrote different drafts of ideas of how to maybe turn this into a film, and nothing ever really clicked for me, nothing ever felt particularly inspiring to me, until a couple of years ago I revisited Videodrome for the first time in quite a while. And it just hit me that the story I wanted to tell needed to be told through the lens of body horror.

And then I took some issues that I was going through in my life, and just some personal things for me, and combined that through the psyche of this killer video game, and made it a body horror movie, and that's how the film we have today came about.

Because this is such a specific idea, I’m curious how production went for you guys, and was it challenging to find a location?

Graham Skipper: The way the production came about was actually kind of a fun story. So, I wrote the script, and I was really happy about it, and I didn't really have a specific plan of how to actually make it. And then it was on my birthday last year that my godparents, who are Alex and Audrey Wasliewski, they're both really accomplished actors in Hollywood. Anyway, they were at my birthday party, and they came up to me and said, "Hey, we've been thinking about wanting to produce a film. Do you have any scripts of something that you're working on?" And I said, "I sure do." And I gave them the script, and they loved it, and had some really great ideas about ways to make it better, and then we set about to actually make the thing. And with their help we got everything put together.

What was really amazing was that in L.A., there are actually a few really interesting arcade repair shops, which of course is where the film takes place, so I really wrote it with one particular place in mind. We weren't able to shoot there. But then Lyle and Audrey were able to find this really amazing warehouse space downtown, that already functions as an electronics workshop. So we were able to shoot there, and dress it to look like an actual arcade workshop, which had the added benefit of having actual arcade games on set. So that was fun, because whenever you were on a break, you got to go over and play an arcade game for a little while.

Was there a game in particular that you just kept playing? If it were me, I'd be like a kid in a candy store in that scenario [laughs].

Graham Skipper: Oh, yeah, for sure. There was a really fun game there called Road Blasters, that was fun. And Ms. Pacman was also around, too, and that's always a favorite.

How much did your cast help you get through the challenges that might have popped up during production on Sequence Break?

Graham Skipper: Every filmmaker wishes that they had more days to film, so we definitely shot this fast and furious. But the cast was amazing. I think the biggest blessing for me was really having the cast that I did. Everybody was totally on point, totally ready to go to all the weird places that they needed to go. And especially with Chase [Williamson] and then with Lyle [Kanouse], I have such a great relationship with those guys, that I think we were able to have a shorthand that allowed us to go to a lot of extreme places in a short amount of time.

And you’ve also got Fabianne Therese in this too, who I’ve been a big fan of for a while. Because of the independent film circles that have developed through different movies, is that how you guys knew each other going into this?

Graham Skipper: Chase actually recommended her, because he had worked with her on John Dies At The End, and they're good friends, so that was how I met her. I certainly knew her work from John Dies, and then from Southbound and Starry Eyes, too. So, she came in and read for us, and nailed it, and I think she and Chase had such great chemistry that it bleeds through into the film.

What do you think is the biggest thing that you took away from your experience working on Sequence Break?

Graham Skipper: I definitely discovered a lot about myself throughout the process, just in terms of how difficult it is to actually make a film. All of the elements that go into it, that go into creating a new world, and putting all these pieces together to actually make something engaging, and unique, and as big as you want it to be.

I also learned a lot about how I like to be directed as an actor, then having to direct other actors. I learned a lot about the sort of things that I prefer, and what helps me to work, which helps me. I think it'll help me in the future, when I act in other stuff, to be able to get into the head a little bit more about all of the elements that need to be present for everything to work. You know, camera placement, how the lights are, how you stand in the light, what looks good on camera, what's the most interesting choice that you can make?

One thing that was a major part of our whole production—and I told everybody this at our first meeting—was, "In every department, when you're faced with two choices, make the bolder one. Always go with whatever the most bold choice is, and you can't go wrong." And a lot of times throughout shooting, I even had to be reminded of that. Because it's oftentimes easy to say, "Oh, sure, we'll just get this and we'll move on." Whereas, really, the thing that you want is maybe sometimes tougher to get. Maybe it takes more time. Maybe it's a more unique choice. But the end result is, I think, something that stands out more, and is really going to stick in people's minds.

[Above photo courtesy of GrahamSkipper.com]