How Joe McReynolds made the grindhouse-esque thriller Inhumanity

Joe Reynolds on the set of Inhumanity

Austin’s Joe McReynolds is the director of grindhouse-esque thriller Inhumanity, out now from Wild Eye Releasing.

indieactivity: When did your filmmaking career kick off?
Joe McReynolds: Well I took a filmmaking class in 2006 given by Steve Mims who had taught film at the University of Texas. It was a 14-week film class that went over some basic film techniques but I was really drawn to the class because he was offering some lessons on using Final Cut Pro which was the NLE or nonlinear editing system preferred by professionals. I like editing and wanted to learn more. In the class I met Javier Garcia. I wanted to be a director and Javier wanted to be a cinematographer, so we began to work together on the class assignments.

Our first video was called “We dance for Money” and if you dig deep enough into the world wide web you can find it. It has its own interesting story which I will refrain from telling right now. LOL. After that and a couple more short films I decided to make a feature film, so I wrote a script and we shot a film called “The Vern” which starred Karl Anderson and Curtis Wayne. Karl plays Detective Raymond Nash in my latest film Inhumanity and always brings the heat. So yeah, after making The Vern I had two kids, got divorced, and had cancer. When the dust settled we made Inhumanity. Now I am working on my 3rd film.

indieactivity: And why movies? What was it about movies that had you fixed on building a career around making them?
Joe McReynolds: Well at the time I had a small business that was doing pretty well and I had some free time. I looked into doing something else other than my normal critical care nursing job. I took some real estate classes, played around with some stock buying and dabbled in some other things. I just didn’t feel passionate about it at the time. But I really enjoyed video editing and creating. I liked writing and the idea of creating something out of nothing. I liked that each idea has its own journey and thought it would make for an interesting life to be able to tell stories through moving pictures.

Joe Reynolds with Leviticus Wolfe

Creating an alternate reality, capturing a person’s attention for two hours and leading them where I wanted, all the while tapping into their subconscious— that sounded more interesting and fun than buying and selling dirt or trading stock. Looking back, some would say that was foolish and I would be a much wealthier man if I had stuck with stocks and real estate. Maybe… Maybe not. But I wouldn’t have taken these amazing journeys with these amazing people and have these amazing friends. I may not be making millions of dollars right now but I am making movies with my friends and I’ll take that over being rich and not making movies any day. But I would still like to make a living making movies…. LOL. So in short I would say making movies with my friends sounds like a pretty cool career to build something around.

indieactivity: Most cite “Star Wars” as one of the films that spurred them towards a career as a filmmaker. What was that film for you?
Joe McReynolds: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Fargo; The Shining; Taxi driver; and Apocalypse Now. But I guess if I had to choose one that really made me think I could make a movie, it was Fargo. I love the Coen brothers and their style, which I feel has a lot of Kubrick’s style. I just loved the fact that the characters were so real and the plot was captivating. I watched a lot of movies before I started to make them, but I can definitely say Fargo kinda made me feel like I could do it. Soon after that I watched Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, and Raising Arizona. I mean I love the Coen brothers. Their work is a strong influence on me. They make quality films. I wanna make quality films.

indieactivity: What was the first thing you shot?
Joe McReynolds: I bought a Sony HI8 video camera and shot a short film with my nursing classmate Tony Hussey, who is also an executive co-producer on my current film Inhumanity. It was called COKE. It was basically a short film about a guy studying for a test who got thirsty and made himself a glass of Coca-Cola. I put the camera in the refrigerator, the cabinet, I had all these cool angles. Shot from underneath the glass to see the ice. Shot thru the glass as the coke was being poured. I mean this was pure cinema. It was groundbreaking. Then I edited it all together and decided to make it black and white because that seemed more artsy. LOL. But yeah, that was my first short film in like 2004.

Joe Reynolds Crew & Cast

I have since lost that film since it was on a computer that crashed on me. I remember editing it on Sony Vegas and was just in awe of being able to shoot something then edit it. I shot some footage at the wax museum in San Antonio and edited it to Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” and had all these crazy zooms and cuts and filters on it. It was insane. Everyone I showed it to loved it. So I was hooked on editing after that. Then I said well if I wanna edit some stuff I need to shoot some stuff and if I wanna shoot some stuff I need to write some stuff. So here I am now…. Writer/Director/Editor.

indieactivity: And how do you think you’ve improved as a filmmaker since then?
Joe McReynolds: I think I have become a better writer for sure and am still improving every time I sit down to write. Writing is the most important part, in my opinion. I also have developed into a better director in dealing with actors and people in general. Being able to communicate your vision to so many people in a way that achieves what you want is a pretty essential skill. And overall, just having more experience. You can’t teach experience.

indieactivity: Is there a sequence in the latest movie that you’re really proud of, one you can genuinely step back from and say “Wow, that looks great”!?
Joe McReynolds: There are two: the party scene and the last 20 minutes of the film. I think there are some really cool things in the party scene that came out great and the last 20 minutes to me are just well done considering the intense pressure we had to work under. It was a miracle we got what we got, and it all came together in one weekend. I say a miracle but I had guys like Ford Austin who is a freaking indie film stud, and Gene Bautista who is an art direction machine. Javier Garcia, who handles the camera like a pro every time he touches it. Then with Diana Rose and Darcel Danielle bringing in great performances alongside Leviticus Wolfe it made the ending awesome! I love the last 20 minutes for sure. I love it all of course but I am really proud of the ending. We had a lot of obstacles to overcome to get it in the can.

Joe Reynolds with Sergio

indieactivity: How did you get the cast? All Auditions?
Joe McReynolds: Diana Rose and Darrel Mitchell, the dynamic acting and producing duo, did the casting. They set up auditions and knew people in the Austin acting community. Leviticus Wolfe who plays Six Pack Sam lived in my apartment complex and we barely knew each other. I met him at the pool and said to him “You would make a great serial killer in my next movie.” He embraced it and did a great job. Ford Austin is like my brother. I met him at the Bare Bones film festival in 2010 when I was there screening my first feature film “The Vern.” We have been friends ever since and I knew I wanted him in my next film. He’s a phenomenal actor and a great friend. He can’t grow a very good beard but he tries…. LOL. We have beard growing wars along with Leviticus Wolfe. Me and Levi are always tied and Ford is still trying to catch up. For has a mustache fetish. He thinks he looks good in a mustache.

indieactivity: Did they have much time to get to know each other before the shoot began?
Joe McReynolds: We had a few rehearsals for the main cast and a script reading. I had a few parties to get people acquainted but for the most part we had to get to know each other on set, except for Diana, Darrell, Levi, and Ford. We were all friends.

indieactivity Where did you shoot the movie? Do you believe the city is as much a star of the movie as the human players?
Joe McReynolds: We shot the film in Austin Texas. I don’t think Austin was a star of the movie, but I think the attitude of Austin was alive and breathing life into our film. Austin is a great city with a lot of great people. We love shooting there. The people are cool and always friendly plus I live there… LOL

What do you hope audiences get from this movie?

Entertainment… I hope people like it enough to watch it over and over again just for fun.

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