April 18, 2015 marks the 10-year Anniversary of Salt City Horror Fest at the Palace Theatre (2384 James St.). Eight feature films will be shown in the 35mm format, and a special Rochester-based bonus will be screened at 10 p.m.. Enjoy all of the films for $20 (in advance) or $25 (at the door) from noon to the wee hours of the morning. Doors will open at 11 a.m. There will be food trucks available outside and in the parking lot. Comedian Alex Bidwell will take the stage at 7:15 p.m.
Christopher Malone had a phone conversation with playwright, actor and production assistant, Martin Casella, who may be contacted via Skype the day of Salt City Horror Fest.
Playwright Martin Casella explains that his role of Marty in Poltergeist (1982) was a dream come true. It was a defining experience. He’s had the opportunity to work in various sectors of the film industry and alongside big names, but he has a great fondness for his current role as a writer.
As mentioned in my interview with Oliver Robins, we talked about hits and often misses regarding computer-generated imagery or CGI. In Poltergeist, the majority of special effects were done classically.
“A lot of the people that I speak to at conventions are big fans of special effects. People are getting tired of CGI. The effects look like cartoons. The animation does not look real.” He brought up E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) as a bad example. In the revised (CGI) version, the titular character’s head raises to an unrealistic jack-in-the-box height, and the replacement of guns for walkie-talkies was unrealistic and almost absurd.
Considering the process of wowing an audience with the aesthetics of a production, Casella has a firm personal belief that it’s important to recognize the difference between digital movies and “honest films.”
Casella has received international recognition for his work, especially The Irish Curse – a comedy-drama that centers around five professional Irish-American New Yorkers with great careers, but less-than-adequate penises. It tackles society, stereotypes and masculinity all in a 90-minute performance.
Of course, stage and film are drastically different animals when considering production and writing.
“Plays are about people, ideas, and storytelling,” Casella said. “With films, the primary focus is who is directing and the stars.”
In plays, there are no explosions to drive the action. It’s the tangibility and believable topics that pull on the heartstrings of the ticket holder. And, there is no CGI.
“The CGI … it gets to a point where your mind shuts off. You don’t care about the people anymore.”
Despite the popularity of computer generated imagery in modern movies, Casella’s love of writing and film encouraged him to become a part of Hollywood.
“I’ve always loved movies,” Casella said, “and I have always wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. That’s what I studied in college and what I did when I first graduated.”
Casella worked in production and as an assistant to Stephen Spielberg for Used Cars (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
“There weren’t any unions to cover the jobs in production, so there weren’t any rules about how long you were supposed to work, and the days were incredibly long.” Casella was often one of the first people to arrive and the last people to leave.
“These were the days before cellphones, so I had to find payphones in order to to call back to the office and check in.”
While in Africa shooting Raiders, Casella had to stay in a rundown hotel 20 miles away from the resort where the production team was filming. Casella had to drive back and forth, early morning and late at night, to and from the resort. Although it is done electronically now, call sheets had to be personally distributed under the doors of the crew members.
Casella was also the go-to guy for dropping off scripts to potential leads at their homes. “I had to hand the scripts over to Tom Selleck and Harrison Ford among others, I’d give them an hour to read through it, and then I’d knock on the door an hour later to take the script back.”
He’s always enjoyed Ford, giving recognition to the actor’s gravelly personality. “He has a certain crankiness to him and his sense of humor. It has always given his roles more depth.”
It’s the personality traits like Ford’s that adds to that characters Casella creates. The characters, as fictional as they are, have a charm that grounds each of them. It’s how we, as audience members relate.
To add to his resume, Casella teaches a play writing class in a Manhattan high school. “We talk about plays and film all of the time. Once I prompted the kids: ‘Plays are about ideas, so what are movies about?’ One of the girls in my class just looked at me and said, ‘Boom!’ The moment was very funny, because she is smart. I looked at the class and said, “Yes, that’s correct.”
Casella knows how a movie will do at the box office without having to check his entertainment sources, because the students are spot-on.
“Whatever is popular, they’ll be talking about it,” he said.
“Disney is big, because they are recreating their movies, but focusing on the villain. Cate Blanchett is the biggest star of Cinderella. Villains are the go-to role, because they are the most interesting. Look at Heath Ledger, Javier Bardem … Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep were each an antagonist in August: Osage County.”
However, he emphasized the characters and the relationships.
“In The Avengers, Gweneth Paltrow’s character is shown up in a plane, watching the action take place on a television. Is that what we’ve come to? We’ve reduced the actors to watching video screens.”
Casella is a fan of movies, but the concept of overproduction still rings deficient. “I really like Skyfall, but the scenes with the crashes … it just felt unsatisfying to me. It felt like the studio tacked it on because they felt a giant moment was needed. And don’t get me started on The Hobbit movies.”
All of the special effects for Poltergeist were done on camera, he emphasized. The clown, the ripping apart of his character’s face, and the objects crawling upon surfaces were done on-set and in real time. The steak that crawls across the counter had to be placed on the counter in a specific spot due to the camera filming the piece of meat from above.
“The kitchen scene was one long take,” Casella said, and the entire process took about 20 takes to film. The lighting was what it was: the oven light, the flashlight, and the moonlight. As he walked through the scene, he had to hit various marks. “I had to pull things from the refrigerator and take bites of food that I didn’t like in real life.”
Martin Casella
Cast members of The Irish Curse, a play by Martin Casella
Photo: theirishcurse.com
