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 his Exclusive two-part Series is taking a look at the Independent Film Projects of two amazingly talented woman of the Joss-verse along with the insidious talents and outstanding performances of two men that rock your demon-infested world each week, both in front of and behind the camera. In Part One of the series we featured the Indy Film Chance, written and directed by Buffy’s Amber Benson [Tara Maclay] who also stars in the film and Mike Massa [stunt double for David Boreanaz] on his physical contributions to the recently-released Pearl Harbor and the in-production sequel film, The Matrix Reloaded! Completing Part Two of the series, we focus on another Indy Film first, The Enforcers written and directed by Angel writer, Mere Smith. Also in part two, Angel actor Andy Hallett [Lorne, The Host], who is featured in both Indy productions, tells us about his experience of working with the ladies at the helm.
The third segment of our Festival showcases Angel Writer and newly appointed Story Editor Mere Smith, now turned director for her first independent production, The Enforcers. What better way to test the waters than to write and direct your own film! Who has better vision of the finished output? We call her ‘One-take Mere’ -- “Yeah, that’s me baby!” she replies laughing. “It’s all those days of directing, it really made me think, ‘You know what? Takes are bad, get it in one!’ As she humorously recounts about her first directorial adventure we found that the experience was not all laughs, but first we discovered what the film was all about. “It’s called The Enforcers,” Mere starts off proudly, “and it’s an action comedy. I shot the first 40 pages, basically the first 30 minutes, as kind of an extended trailer to sell the script from. I wanted to get a bunch of my friends together and just shoot a movie and it, whoa! turned out a lot bigger than I thought it would thanks to Elisabeth James who is my fabulous Producer! She’s David Greenwalt’s assistant and she is just - she’s the bomb diggidy. She rocks my world. She’s so awesome! Sorry, I’m a little effusive with the praise of EJ,” states Mere with a laugh. The film stars Jarrod Crawford, who Angel fans will remember as Gunn’s friend Rondell from Season Two, James Marsters and a good friend of Mere’s Gin Young. Wanting to get your friends in a movie seems like a little idea but first inspiration has to set in and for this enthusiastic writer, ideas are themother of invention! “I started writing the script back in December,” Mere began to tell us. “You know there are so many people sitting around Hollywood talking, ‘Oh this movie sucks and that movie sucks and I could it so much better.’ And I thought why not put your money where your month is. You know, literally, like $11,000 worth,” she said laughing. “And while I’m not saying that my movie is going to be an Oscar nominated short film or anything, I definitely think that if you’re gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. And so I felt like doing this movie was, kind of me paying my dues, you know what I mean? Earning my stripes.”
Knowing that you’re going to direct your own production doesn’t necessarily make the writing of it any easier. “No! It makes it more nerve wracking,” states Mere. “Now, I can’t speak for people who have been doing this a really long time obviously because I haven’t. But I know that for me it was kinda like, ‘Oh shit. I’ve written these scenes and now I have to shoot them and what if I can’t make it look the way it should. The way it appears on the page.’ ” She explains, “When you’re writing, I think you are in a directorial mindset in the sense that you see the movie being played out as you’re writing it. So you automatically see a camera angle, you see how close you want to be on somebody’s face for a line.” All of the Whedon women have been getting into the mix this summer and maybe that’s why all the different hats that are so familiar to Joss are starting to find their way to different heads. So we asked, ‘Who is the inspiration behind all of this?’ “Amber inspired me,” Mere reflected. “Watching her actually get it done you know and going through it. She helped me out so much. She walked me through a bunch of steps that I had no clue what I was doing. I mean she really -- she was like a rock and she was always there if I had any questions, she was great! The other part, of course, is when you’re on a staff with people like Joss and Tim [Minear] you realize that you really have to keep up the pace. You have to keep working and working to make yourself better just so you can get on par with them. Not even to surpass them, just to come up to their standards.” There are other Angel familiars involved with the film such as Ashley Taylor (Alexis Denisof’s stand-in and the sailor who got fried in the episode Hero) and Rob Mars (Angel’s stunt coordinator, who is Mike Mandrel’s assistant). Also Mere adds, “Tangi Miller, [Elena] from Felicity. Jain Sekuler, who is the Script Supervisor for Angel, had never done any acting before but I knew she was perfect for the roll of the Mob boss’s wife. I basically had to talk her into it and I had to convince her that she was perfect for this roll, which she was. She agreed to be in it and I felt like I scored the coup of the century. I was just like, ‘Yeah, I rock! My powers of persuasion are just absolutely infallible.” ” Mere gave us the low-down on the rest of the cast and what their rolls comprised of. “Of course Andy [Hallett] is always good for some laughs. No, he’s not singing! He’s actually playing this really skuzzy, sleazy, low-rent hotel guy.” She laughs as she explained, “Yeah, we got like stubble on him and his hair’s all greased back and he’s wearing a ripped-up Riverdance shirt, which I found in the Good Will Store. I was like, ‘He has to wear this!’ So we tatted it up, you know, got it dirty and threw it on him and I was like, ‘This is perfect.’ [James Marster’s] character’s name is Sully. Sullivan McManus and he’s kind of a loser,” she said laughing a bit. “I mean there’s no other way to put it.
If there are gracious people on the cast of Angel, Mere leads the pack! She spent a good portion of her interview expressing the fabulous jog her cast and crew did with and for her and so we could not let this be wasted. Plus it gave great insight as to what you can always learn when you least expect it. “Thank God again for Elisabeth James, she is just my savior goddess in so many ways.” Mere looks back at day one, “Here I was thinking it’s going to be me with a camera on my shoulder, trying to mix sound with my foot,” she admits laughing. “And she ended up getting us a crew of 30 people, all working for free, busting their ass for a solid week. It was just amazing and it’s all because of her. So when I say that, ‘Oh it’s my movie’, it’s really actually our movie, because without Elisabeth I would have nothing, I mean I would have stick figures. I would have lots and lots of video of stick figures on a page. I’d basically have a flipbook, and she saved me from that.” Mere confesses, “She was the one who made it as good as it is. She’s the one who put in all the effort, all the hours. God, I don’t think she slept the entire week that we shot.” Gee Mere, what did that leave for you to do? “Well, I didn’t [sleep] either but that was pretty much a given. That was more out of nerves and anxiety and you know, nausea. But she was the rock, absolutely!”
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