"Have you heard about all the stuff going around?"
"I have."
"Back in the day, your father and I would handle this and if he was here now, maybe
we'd still handle it.
But he's not and that's on you.
So the way I see it, you gotta handle this."
Bringing the DIY spirit of punk and hardcore music to indie filmmaking.
How's it going?
My name is Matt Wells.
I'm an actor and producer on the independent feature film CROWN & ANCHOR, which will be
released theatrically in the fall of 2018.
CROWN & ANCHOR is an intense family drama which examines the effects of childhood trauma
and it is scored entirely with punk and hardcore music.
Bands like GORILLA BISCUITS, YOUTH OF TODAY, DYS, JOHNNY THUNDERS, X-RAY SPEX (just to
name a few).
I made the movie in my town of St. John's, Newfoundland which is where I am right now
hiding from the rain under the trees.
I made the movie with my best friend Michael Rowe and I met him when I was in a band.
We were in a band together and that's how my journey started into filmmaking, it started
with music.
We started to have some success on music television in Canada.
We were touring with bands like SLAYER and FISHBONE and D.O.A.
Eventually that journey led me into music television.
So I all the sudden I went from being a singer in this independent band to interviewing some
of the bands that I admired.
I became a music and film journalist on music television and through the years I got to
interview people like Lou Reed and NO DOUBT, Greta Gerwig and Quentin Tarantino.
But somewhere along that journey I started to feel I wanted to do something different
which was acting and filmmaking.
And you can imagine what an aspiring actor and filmmaker can learn from interviewing
people in that world.
I did thousands of interviews and it was always sort of percolating in my brain.
To be quite honest with you what I learned as a guy in an independent band, that's
what gave me the tools to be able to make a movie.
This sort of D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) spirit of punk and hardcore music, that's what
I lived, that was my whole life.
We were putting up our own posters, we were raising money to make albums and music videos,
running it like a small business so we could go on tour and sustain ourselves to continue
doing something that we loved and that is exactly how we made this movie and exactly
how we're approaching the roll out of distribution.
And when you think about it, those worlds (independent film and independent music) that
punk and hardcore do-it-yourself culture and spirit, they are very similar and that is
exactly the tools that we used to make CROWN AND ANCHOR.
What made the production of CROWN AND ANCHOR unique?
Matt Wells: Our first day on set of CROWN AND ANCHOR we shot 15 pages which was already
longer than any project our writer/director Andrew Rowe had worked on in the past which
sort of set the tone for the next 15 days of filming.
This was Andrew's first feature and we only had 15 days to make it happen.
But it created an urgency on set which absolutely you can see in the performances, you can see
in the direction.
There is something about being under the gun and knowing that you really don't have the
option to make a lot of mistakes or second-guess yourself and that's really what we did.
And the backstory of CROWN AND ANCHOR is that we had private investors and we had a strong
script, but it was long.
And everybody told us it was too long at our budget.
We didn't want to have to cut it because of budget.
Because we knew if we cut it at the script phase, it was going to cut the heart out of
the film.
And Andrew had a distinct vision for this movie about wanting to really focus on character
development which was going to mean a lot of long, one-take, no cut scenes.
And Michael and I we connected with that vision (we believed in it).
So we wanted the ability to cut in the editing room and not on the page.
So we knew we had to assemble a team who was amendable to that type of environment.
I mean essentially we had to find people who wanted a punk rock the heck out of this thing
and that's what we did.
We found an amazing cast, an amazing crew.
I mean the good thing about having a very strong script is that it allowed us to attract
very strong actors who had been in the business for a very long time and without that sort
of experience, never would we be able to make something like this.
This was a no-frills set.
There were no dressing rooms, no trailers, it was stripped down.
We had to have a team that were checking their egos at the door and were cool to work in
that sort of environment and just try to put all the money on the screen, which is what
we did.
Without this incredible cast and crew it never would have happened.
So that really, it influenced and it was a big part of the energy you see on screen.
But not just the environment of production but also the location.
You know our creative team are spread all over right now from Toronto to California,
but out home town is St. John's, Newfoundland (where I am right now) and there is something
really special about this place.
And if you have a project I highly, highly recommend you consider coming to make it here
not just because it has a growing and thriving film community.
Not just because it has an amazing crew here, really talented actors and not just because
it's beautiful but because there is an energy in this place, it's an island in the middle
of the North Atlantic Ocean.
We are geographically isolated, we are socially and culturally unique and it also informs
our movie.
And if you don't believe me how special it is here just see if you can ask Jason Momoa
I'm sure you can just call him.
The guy is here all the time filming.
It's not a rare occurrence to see him walking down the street going to grab a coffee, it's
a very special place.
And there is something about (not to get into too much of a history lesson on Newfoundland)
but our ancestors through the years having to live off the land and the brutal climate,
that sort of helped inform who we are.
And there is a dark, raw beauty to Newfoundland and there is a strong independence and you
see that in our film as much as you see it influenced from the words that were on the
script.
What were your biggest challenges?
Matt Wells: So our biggest challenges (I mean like most independent films) it's budgetary,
right?
We only had so much money and we had to work around that.
But honestly our biggest challenges on CROWN AND ANCHOR came later as we went to market
and they were all self-inflicted wounds.
Like I said everybody told us after reading the script that they really thought it was
strong but we should not make a movie (as first time filmmakers) that was running at
two hours, that maybe some of the scenes were too intense, maybe we shouldn't score it
with punk and hardcore music because that might alienate some audiences and that being
in such a beautiful part of the world we should focus on these exteriors and show more of
the landscape.
But we did the opposite, not because we are stubborn or we don't want to collaborate,
it's because those choices we felt were true to the characters and true to the story
and that's what we wanted to do, right?
So we made a movie that runs just under two hours, no A-list stars, all punk and hardcore
music but these are the things that have allowed us to get an international sales agent, these
are things that are allowing us to have a North American theatrical release as an independent
film and it was because it was authentic to the story and authentic to the characters.
And that's what we're doing, right?
As independent filmmakers what we're trying to do is chase the authentic stories.
And we knew all these choices were only going to help the film but again it was because
we knew who our audience was.
Knowing who your audience is is so important and you know I go back to this idea of the
do-it-yourself punk and hardcore spirit from that music world that inspired us so much
that we took it to the independent filmmaking process, the same way that we used that when
we were in a band, the same way we thought about DIY when we were in production is the
same way we're rolling out distribution.
You know as independent filmmakers we want to see our film in theaters, right?
But it's not always something that we have access to.
We didn't want to go straight to DVD, we didn't want to go straight to VOD or streaming,
so we've taken the same do-it-yourself spirit and we've partnered with independent movie
theaters across North America to do our own theatrical.
Every independent film journey is going to be different but this has been our's.
And it's because we stuck to our vision, it's because we knew our audience and we
were willing to do the work because we believed in what we were doing.
So I hope you come out to see us when our film hits your city.
You can check out our website [CrownandAnchorFilm.com] which is up on the screen here and you know
come out and talk to us.
We're going to do Q&A's in some of the cities afterward with myself, our writer/director
Andrew Rowe, our lead actor Michael Rowe (who is also a producer on this with me), we want
to talk to you guys and hear your questions and know what you're doing and tell you
about filming in Newfoundland.
So that it.
I hope you get to check out CROWN AND ANCHOR.
It's raining so I'm going to go inside.
Thanks for listening.
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