FREQUENT PHRASE: `THAT'S A FUNNY STORY ...'
Albemarle's master of no-frills filmmaking
No money? No problem -- Foutz will get his movie made
LAWRENCE TOPPMAN
Movie Critic
ALBEMARLE --
John Foutz can direct you a movie in a week -- from his own script, if you'd like.
He can light it and find props and shoot it and edit it and add sound effects when he's done.
And
if he were dropped on a deserted island with one tree, he could
probably turn a coconut into a camera and make film stock out of his
notebook paper.
The Albemarle native has spent the last quarter
of his 40 years on the planet exploring the destiny that settled over
him when he was 12, squirming in front of "Alien" in a neighbor's
basement but becoming entranced by that narrative.
He keeps
taking freelance design work or industrial videos to pay the bills. He
and wife Jill keep raising four kids, the oldest of whom has fallen in
love with one of Foutz's old video cameras.
Yet he keeps
producing movies in various capacities with tireless fervor. Some, like
"Bird in a Glass House," take the better part of three years. But when
he works on "Guerrilla!" he's -- well, a guerrilla. He gets in and out
and gets the job done at top speed.
"That's a funny story," he
says. "We were hired by this guy who had never directed anything but
figured it would be easy to make a horror movie. The (project)
crumbled, and the actors and crew were stuck in very rural
Georgia. We got to know each other well and thought, `Let's stay and
try to do something.' So we shot an 80-minute film in three days.
"The
idea was that a producer was trying to make a lot of money shooting two
films at the same time. I played the director of the expensive one, a
Civil War picture; a guy named Basil Tilleman out of Texas -- he'd been
running the camera -- played the director of a low-budget horror movie.
It was whatever we could come up with that was funny, kind of like the
lowbrow humor of `Borat.' Although a friend of mine told me, `Don't
call it lowbrow. Call it satirical.' "
Born to be a storyteller
A
lot of Foutz' anecdotes could begin "That's a funny story ..." He can
smile now at the leading lady who dropped out of "Bird" halfway
through, forcing reshoots, or its leading man's difficulties in
learning his monologues. (The Foutz family put that guy up in their
basement to save money.)At the same time, Foutz and a few other locals
make up a loose-knit repertory group seriously devoted to low-budget
pictures.
"John has a passion for filmmaking that will never be
sated," says writer-producer Dexter Goad. "He'll be 90 years old in an
assisted care home, using the holographic camera on his cell phone to
tell one last story.
"He's a `run and gun' filmmaker. I don't
mean that in the sense that he is sloppy or in a rush, just that he
does not waste time with so many of the unnecessary trappings you find
in other indie directors. John's not going to show up the first day of
shooting in leather pants, a beret and a riding crop, demanding that we
change the shooting order because his astrologer said Mars was in his
stellar House of Pancakes for the next week."
Maybe he's in a hurry because he took so long to get started.
He
grew up in Stanly County, doing puppet shows at 6 or 7 for the family,
then borrowing his dad's Super 8 camera at 12 to shoot a school project
that lit a fire in him. After graduating from Albemarle High School, he
worked in a TV studio at Central Piedmont Community College, did video
work for Charlotte (now Lowe's) Motor Speedway and took a job at a
graphics company.
"I wound up working so much that I'd stopped
riding my bike and lifting weights," he said. "Now I was sitting all
day, including my hour commute each way, and my sciatic nerve got
pinched due to muscle atrophy. For three months, I couldn't dress
myself from the waist down. I eventually lost that job."
But he
found his avocation. Foutz began to work from home on his computer
after studying commercial art and advertising at Guilford Technical
Community College. He realized he could freelance jobs and create on the side -- and see his wife and kids -- if he didn't miss sleeping.
`Everybody's big brother'
For all his drive, says one of his frequent film collaborators, Foutz doesn't run people over.
"His
mind never stops; he's a person who always has to be in motion," says
single-named actress Vanelle. "Yet he comes on site very prepared,
which allows him to be laid back. He's funny and warm and ends up being
everybody's big brother. If you're having a difficult time (in a role),
he's good at getting you there, but he's not a micromanager.
"His
strength is that he's very confident; when he comes into a room, people
are drawn to him and respect him right away. But one thing he needs to
work on is discerning who's worthy of his respect: He wants
to give everyone a chance, and not everyone deserves a chance. His
disappointments haven't stopped him, but how much can John take before
he wants to give it up?"
Despite investors who have fallen away,
despite any false starts and unanticipated headaches, Foutz stays
cheerful and wants to stay where he is.
"(Director) Robert
Rodriguez says, `A money hose makes any problem disappear.' I don't
want to be frivolous and spend all day shooting a bug landing on a
leaf, but it would be nice to know I'd paid for a location and would be
guaranteed to shoot there on the day I'd planned," says Foutz.
"As
long as I can work around here, I'll be content. So many people
remember me, and that opens doors. I needed to shoot `Bird' at my old
high school, and the secretary was a friend of my folks. She said,
`Come on over, and I'll unlock it. When you get done, call me up.' You
can't get cooperation like that in L.A.!"
John Foutz
Family: Wife
Jill and four children: Matthew (15), Emily (12), Abigail (6) and Kate
(21 months). Matthew wrote, directed, edited and added effects noises
to his first short film at 9; Foutz used him as second camera on a
short film for writer-producer Dexter Goad's Shadowdog Productions last
year.
Notable work:"Bird in a Glass House," a drama about a drug dealer who tries to redeem himself after a friend dies (producer, cinematographer, etc.); "Guerrilla!" an experimental mockumentary about filmmaking (director, actor); "The New Adventures of Captain Fluoride,"
a series of animated shorts about dental care (actor, producer, writer,
director -- and Emily plays Fluoride's sidekick, Flossy); "Nerds of Steele,"
a feature-length family comedy in post-production, starring former
Carolina Panther Sean Gilbert and country singer Ansel Brown (director).
Web:www.foutzstudios.com.
