Post Mortem with Mick Garris back on FEARnet, John Carpenter preview, Feb 28

By April MacIntyre Feb 25, 2011, 17:56 GMT

During the interview, Garris and Carpenter discuss Carpenter’s motivations and inspirations for pursuing a career in filmmaking, his vastly different opinions on sequels versus remakes, and his thoughts on the use of computer graphics.

Next week FEARnet will air new episodes of “Post Mortem with Mick Garris” featuring legendary filmmaker John Carpenter. 

Below is an exclusive clip from the five-part series featuring the interview between Carpenter and Garris. The five-part interview will be available on FEARnet.com starting February 28, 2011, and will also be made available on Verizon FiOS cable channel 197 starting March 4th and On Demand (VOD) as of March 7th.

During the interview, Garris and Carpenter discuss Carpenter’s motivations and inspirations for pursuing a career in filmmaking, his vastly different opinions on sequels versus remakes, and his thoughts on the use of computer graphics. 

Carpenter discusses his motivations and inspirations, as he is the latest subject for Mick Garris, whose “Post Mortem” has given him the reputation as “the Charlie Rose of the blood and guts set.”  Garris' insight and relationships with these top-of-their-craft filmmakers continues to deliver the best interviews that illuminate many anecdotes and behind-the-scenes cinema secrets for fans to savor.

From Carpenter's interview with Mick:

On his early inspirations:
“Man, in the beginning I just wanted to be a director. I didn’t care. And I got in the business to make westerns. That was my first love. I became a big Howard Hawks fan in film school. He was a director that’s not really well known, that isn’t really well known today – outside of film buffs. But I just fell in love with his work.”

On other early heroes:
“Hitchcock I think for his technique…Polanski…the same directors that everybody at the time revered as classic American directors…Orson Wells.”

On whom he likes to follow now:
“I still love to watch Roman Polanski to see what he’s going to do. I primarily watch new directors – see what’s going on, what’s new, what’s the new approach? That’s fun.”

On the toughest genres to direct:
“The more difficult genres to pull off are comedies and horror films because they require timing. Dramas are the easiest. They usually have people talking to each other, and you can shoot close ups. Creating a mood in horror films or creating the right mood in a comedy is hard.

On his thoughts on the use of CG:
“Computer graphics are a tool, a tool you can use to create benefit. A lot of what’s being done looks like animation, like a cartoon. It’s unconvincing.”

Other Garris interviews have included legendary masters John Landis, Frank Darabont, and Wes Craven.

The no miss series airs on FEARnet from Feb 28th-March 4th.