Today, we present an exclusive interview with Christy Savage from Trash Film Orgy Productions, an indie film company from Sacramento, that creates timeless tales of crimes and monsters. One of the uopcoming project is the sword and sorcery movie Grunk The Smasher.
Welcome on BmovieFilms. Do you mind introducing yourself to our readers?
Hi! I’m Christy Savage. My husband Darin Wood and I make independent feature films in Sacramento, CA as TFO Productions. He writes and directs and I produce and shoot and we have an amazing group of artists we work with to bring our ideas to life!
Can you tell us how is born TFO Productions?
Darin and I started working on super 8 films and Cable Access TV shows together in the 1990s and then in 2001 we helped create the Trash Film Orgy Film Festival, showing horror and exploitation films on 35mm film. Once the theater added digital projection in 2005, it became the catalyst we needed to start making our own feature films. We already had a theater AND an audience!
What is the biggest challenge for a small production company?
Funding. It’s super hard to raise money. Especially if you’re focused more on the art and not the business aspect. We’ve been very fortunate to find a lot of people who really enjoy what we do and want to be a part of our projects, so that has helped with funding, as well as keeping costs low in order to get a project done.
TFO upcoming movie is Grunk – The Smasher, a sword and sorcery movie and an homage to Conan The Barbarian, Frazetta and Robert E. Howard. How is born this interesting project and what can you say in detail about this movie?
We are both huge fans of Conan, Frazetta and Howard, so it felt natural to do a film like this. Grunk the Smasher has a strange and interesting history and it is quite likely cursed! We originally shot a 3D short film of Grunk in 2008 as a bonus to a Conan the Barbarian screening we were doing at the film festival that year. But as sometimes is the case with being overly ambitious, the project was not completed…turrned out shooting a 3D epic in a month was just too much!! But having an unfinished project became a thorn in Darin’s side and he turned it into a feature script years later, after making other films. We made the decision to make Grunk our next film while screening Badass Monster Killer at the 2016 H.P Lovecraft Film Festival and chatting with Stuart Gordon (director of Re-Animator).
What are your TFO main sources of inspiration in terms of cinema?
We’re big fans of classic horror and monster movies, as well as grindhouse, drive in, and midnight movies. We both love movies that are weird and unusual and aren’t afraid to try new things. We love films made by underground weirdos who break stereotypes and tropes and create unique art.
The world of low-budget films is dominated by horror. With Grunk: The Smasher, you broke this monopoly by returning to a little-explored but fascinating genre: sword and sorcery. Do you already have a possible sequel in mind?
Horror is our first love and all of our films have a lot of horror in them. But they also cross genres…Planet of the Vampire Women is absolutely a sci fi movie but it’s also is a heist movie and a comedy and a horror movie. Grunk has tons of horror but it’s more of an action adventure but also a comedy, too. Let’s get this one out before we even think about a sequel! HAHA
Can you tell us about the cast of Grunk: The Smasher?
A lot of the actors are TFO regulars that we have worked with before on our other films. Rae Evannsen, Stephanie Hyden, Jawara Duncan and Marylin Monroach have all been in other TFO films and are dear friends of ours. We love working with them!!! We had a lot of actors we worked with for the first time on this film, as well, including Chris Crotte, who plays Grunk. He was a lot of fun to work with! Chris is a professional wrestler (aka The Superbeast), rather than an actor, but above all, he is a performer, and he really shines as Grunk!!! We were super fortunate to get him on this project.
What was the most rewarding part of working on this project?
it is always super fun to make big weird art with your friends and to make new friends. Creating a new world out of nothing is incredible and so rewarding. We’re very excited for the upcoming premiere.
Grunk – The Smasher is in post-production. When the movie is gonna be ready?
We are currently looking at a local premiere this fall…We’ll be doing that at the Esquire IMAX in Sacramento and we’re super excited to premiere locally on the biggest screen in town in 5.1 surround sound! After that, we’ll be doing some festivals and conventions and working to get distribution and Bring the Glory of Grunk to the masses!!
In the movies produced by TFO it is perceived a great love for classic exploitation, midnight movies and grindhouse cinema experiences. How is born this passion?
Darin and I have been horror-addicted cinephiles since we were kids in the 1970s We grew up with Horror Hosts on TV and Fangoria and dollar movies and drive-ins and novelizations and the birth of cable TV and home video rentals. Our love of horror and genre cinema only grew stronger as we grew up and once we found each other and combined our talents, it was like something magic happened.
How many days do you take to make a movie?
A lot! Because these are passion projects for us all, most people work for free and we have to work around schedule issues and life emergencies and such. Grunk was especially off schedule as we had to work around a LOT of unexpected delays.
What has been your favorite project and why?
They’re all favorites. It’s hard to pick just one…I think Planet of the Vampire Women might be the one, though…just something so surreal about being in Outer Space.
do you decide which projects to produce?
Generally as we’re wrapping up one film and getting ready to release it, we look over Darin’s scripts and weigh the pros and cons of each and decide which is the best fit and which one we’re most excited about. We’re currently discussing which project is next!
A final greeting to our readers?
Thanks so much for reading about and supporting our films! We hope you enjoy them. Planet of the Vampire Women and Badass Monster Killer are currently available on many streaming platforms including Amazon and Tubi. Monster from Bikini Beach will be available again soon on streaming and Grunk will be coming later this year! Follow our new website, tfoproductions.com to learn more!
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