Interview: Co-Writer/Director Aaron B. Koontz Talks CAMERA OBSCURA

As a producer on projects like Starry Eyes and The Sacrament, Camera Obscura co-writer/director Aaron B. Koontz has been a fixture of the indie horror film community for some time now. Koontz recently celebrated the VOD and On Demand release of his debut feature, Camera Obscura, which ambitiously blends together the psychological horror/haunted camera/slasher genres for a truly unexpected cinematic treat.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak to Koontz about his experiences working on Camera Obscura, and he discussed how he approached both the story of the film as well as its conflicted protagonist, Jack Zeller (portrayed by Christopher Denham), how his earlier career helped prepare him to take the directorial reins, the joy of being able to collaborate with friends, and more.

I would love to hear about what inspired you to take the story route that you did, because I thought some of the ways you blended very familiar tropes together really works well in this film. I also love the fact that you couple all of those things with this character who's dealing with this really serious disorder. I don't think that a lot of folks really take the time to, I don't want to say acknowledge, but really make the connection that there's a lot of folks out there who maybe had to go overseas and deal with the war and stuff like that. And they're back here now, and they're working through these issues.

Aaron B. Koontz: Thank you for noticing that. I think there are some people who get conflicted on Jack's performance because they want something very over the top, and they want someone to be more animated about what he's going through. I say, "Blame me," because this is what Chris and I talked about, making this a subdued kind of performance because he's trying to convince the world that he's still okay.

This is someone that, when we entered the story, it's been eighteen months since he's given up photography and come back from some of these horrors he's witnessed overseas. Now, he's trying to prove to the world, and then also to himself, that he's healthy. He's got to maintain this façade. When these weird images start showing up in his pictures, it's like, "Okay, wait, am I really going crazy, or is there something that maybe is pulling the strings? If I bring it up, someone will think I'm crazy." How do you navigate that when you have a mental illness?

It's just a very complex way of looking at your protagonist. That was ultimately why Christopher Denham wanted to be a part of the role, because we had all these complexities layered in. And this whole project started with a combination of things. I'd heard this story before of a colleague of mine, while I was at work up in the Midwest, and he was in an elevator. He had gone to South America and the locals there won't allow you to take pictures of them. You can take a shot of the beautiful scenery, but none of any of the actual Aborigines. And when that happened, they were concerned that this camera would steal their soul. There's a very ingrained belief in that, and there are a lot of different ancient cultures that believe in this.

I've always thought that was an interesting trope and it existed in a lot of other films, and I think that's why photography's a unique subject matter. It becomes something fun to explore in horror. So, I had that, but that had been done before, and I had seen that. Then, really, we still had to do all the research on PTSD, and just kind of watch these horrific images that are in the news recently, and all these horrible things we're seeing overseas. So I researched PTSD, and I started to see how people would black out and do all these crazy things, and nobody really understood what was really happening to them. So I merged all of those together and created a new narrative similarly based off of a short film that I had done called Aperture. But that was this kind of camera trope, and then just layering in these little pieces. Eventually, my co-writer, Cameron [Burns], and I realized that we had possibly created a different journey than horror fans might be expecting, with a really rich and horrific descent into madness, sort of like Jacob's Ladder. That got us really excited.

Your résumé is so interesting to me. I'm always a big fan of somebody who starts in horror, ends in horror, and has always been in horror. But I think you have a really interesting résumé in terms of all the different facets of filmmaking and television production that you've been able to be involved with over the years. How much did that variety and all of those different positions that you've had over the years help prepare you to transition into becoming a feature filmmaker?

Aaron B. Koontz: Well, I think that was me trying to understand the roles of the teams that I would eventually be driving. So, I was a writer first. That's where it all stems from. But then I realized in order to best protect your writing, you really need to direct it. And in order to best protect your director, you need to produce it.

When you graduate from film school, you just take whatever jobs you can get. I just wanted to be on set. I wanted to learn. I wanted to figure out each aspect, understand what the grips do, see what a production coordinator does, and then it ended up being the logistics of what makes them work, so that you can better motivate those people. In my day job, I work in project management. And it's a similar kind of role. I learned how to be a good manager by bad management, previously.

It's the same thing on the set. I remember being a production assistant and getting yelled at and treated like the worst possible person. I was dealing with just absolutely awful hours and having no clue why we're doing what we're doing. As a director, every day I shake the hand of every person that's on set. I talk to them and I engage with them. I make sure they know that we're coordinating something together.

You mentioned Chris earlier, in terms of coming on for the role for Jack. The thing about his character is that he’s a guy who's relatable but, also, has to be believable when he goes to some of those dark places, too. Can you talk about collaborating with him on this character and just finding that right balance to Jack? Because, at times, you so want to empathize with him, and yet, he starts to do these really terrible things, which aren’t so likeable.

Aaron B. Koontz: It was just an absolute joy to work with Chris Denham. My nervousness mainly centered out of directing him. He had just finished Jodie Foster's film Money Monster with Julia Roberts and George Clooney. He'd been directed by Scorsese, too, and he was just on Broadway with David Mamet as the director in China Doll. So that was a little intimidating. But then, as soon as you meet him, he's a cinephile. He's a nerd just like me. And it was great. We completely hit it off. He loved the script. He's a filmmaker in his own right, too, so he brought more to this project than just this angle of an actor. It was just such an amazing collaborative environment.

We took all these real elements and tried to layer them into Jack’s background and his life. That was when Chris' performance really came to life for me. He could channel this Jekyll and Hyde kind of approach. You could see him go into this madness mode, but then he'd try to reel it back in and ground himself in reality. It was a lot of fun to explore. He's the best, the absolute best.

You also have guys like Chase [Williamson] and Noah [Segan] in this, and you also have folks like Andrew [Sensenig], who was in We Are Still Here, and Gretchen Lodge from Lovely Molly, too. I would love to hear about being able to bring in other folks from the horror community into this project as well.

Aaron B. Koontz: The pros of having a close-knit community is that you get to run the gamut of talking to people about a project and generating interest. Even Barbara Crampton at one point was going to be in the film, but it didn’t end up happening. I just can't imagine making a genre film and not keeping it in the family. After Starry Eyes, that's when Noah and I became good friends. He and I collaborated on this script even before it ever went into production.

The first two people I ever talked to about this movie beyond Noah were Chase Williamson and Gretchen Lodge. I had just finished SXSW 2012, I believe, and I had seen John Dies at the End and Lovely Molly. I fell in love with both of their performances, and from there, I chatted with them briefly, but it wasn't anything about anything specific at that time. These are two actors that I think are amazing and I want to pursue them.

Andrew Sensenig, he actually lived in Dallas at the time. He's now moved to New York, but we knew each other in the Austin horror scene. So this project became a mixture of friends. It's about keeping it in the family, first and foremost. And even for the film I'm developing now, I'm always looking for ways to involve friends. Because if anything goes wrong, we can dig in together and find ways to make things work together. That's what makes filmmaking so much more rewarding.

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In case you missed it, check out Heather's interview with Camera Obscura co-star Noah Segan.