FollowIt all starts with an idea. The more ridiculous and outlandish, the better for film director, Ryan Bellgardt. You see, he has a monster of an imagination. And when you pair that with one of those “there’s-nothing-I-can’t-do” attitudes, it’s easy to see why he’s one of the most well-rounded creatives in the business.
You may recognize him as one of the 2 Movie Guys, a zany pair of movie reviewers who get their kicks out of reenacting and spoofing their favorite movies. You may know him as the voice of KAUT 43, or perhaps you’ve heard one of his catchy jingles or you’ve seen one of his television commercials?
Whether Bellgardt’s writing, composing, performing, producing, editing sound or video, creating special effects, directing music videos, commercials and now, (take a breath) a full-length feature film, it’s safe to say Bellgardt—who is also Vice President of Boiling Point Media—has a pretty extensive hat collection.
The idea for his film, Army of Frankesteins, came about while discussing monster movies with his friend, producer/editor Andy Swanson. The two noted that you often see movies that have armies of mummies, vampires or werewolves, but you never see a bunch of big green Frankentsteins all at once. “You always see one,” says Bellgardt, “but why couldn’t there ever be more than one?“ Hence the seedling, Army of Frankenstein’s, began to germinate. Andy suggested throwing the story back in time to the Civil War era, and the idea began to take root.
Here’s the logline: A young man travels back in time and fights with an army of Frankensteins in the Civil War.
Bellgardt won’t argue that it seems a little ambitious for a directorial debut. Packed with battle scenes, historical content, creatures, and even time travel, Bellgardt knew that he could possibly be creating a monster that would not be easy to manage.
Another friend, producer/director Josh McKamie said it seemed like his third movie to do, not his first one. Bellgardt decided, “If it’s going to take two years to do, I want to make sure it’s something I really believe in and like. And this was.”
Of course being in the industry, Bellgardt and crew were well aware of what they could and couldn’t do.
“We understand the limitations,” says Bellgardt. Having an army of Frankenstein actors lined up each morning for hair and makeup just wasn’t feasible. But it also wasn’t a problem that a little “movie magic” couldn’t remedy.
“There’s a method to our madness and since we do production ourselves, we understand the limitations,” Bellgardt says. “We knew that if we had an army of monsters, they needed to all be the same monster. So we duplicated them using special effects, rather than having them all look different.” And then, they wrote the story to match. There would be one Frankenstein monster who would come from parallel universes.
Being a do-it-yourself guy for so long, Bellgardt was not afraid of learning something new. He was used to making costumes and building sets from earlier projects. So in an effort to save money, he decided to take a stab at making some of the Civil War costumes himself.
“I thought, how hard can it be? I’ll buy a sewing machine, I’ll buy some patterns, I’ll buy some cloth, and I’ll have some sweet little old lady come teach me how to sew,” recalls Bellgardt. “I made a collar and put it on the vest and I was so proud. Then I made a sleeve and I sewed it onto the jacket, but it looked like a puffy girl’s jacket and I thought, ‘What am I doing, you know? I can’t do this!’”
It was then that he came to the realization that he needed an army of people and that was okay.
“One of the great things I learned about filmmaking from this project is that there are a lot of great people who are experts and better than you at certain things. You need them and you can’t do it all by yourself. I realized that once I started to let other people do what they are really good at, and we all combined together for one vision, that it far surpassed what I had imagined in my mind.”
Along with his wife, Amy, as executive producer, his son, Christian, as one of the film’s stars, the cast and crew of Army of Frankenstein’s began the two-year project. Production would last eight months, including 46 shooting days, all of which fell on nights and weekends. In November of 2013, Empress Roads Pictures took the movie to the American Film Market for its world premiere screening in Santa Monica, California.
After numerous rejections, the film rights were at last sold to Japan, Germany, the UK, China, Canada and the US. Needless to say, the film went through a few slight modifications. “After you sell the rights, distributors can do anything they want. They can rename it and put anything they want on the poster; they can re-edit the movie,” says Bellgardt. Although he admits, “It is kind of fun to get it back and see what they’ve done to it.”
He’s referring to the fact that the Japanese version of the film is now titled, Human Weapons. Not to mention, the cover art experienced some “piecemealing” of body parts—in straight up Frankenstein fashion, of course—when the leading actor’s head was exchanged for a different one; one that doesn’t even appear in the film.
The film has since racked up armloads of awards, however, nailing down the category presents a bit of a challenge. “We had 55 nominations and 23 awards, including Best Feature, Best Horror, Best Comedy, Best Sci-Fi and Best Fantasy. We’ve won all of those categories in various festivals. No one seems to agree what genre our movie is,” smiles Bellgardt. In all, Army of Frankensteins completed 15 festivals in the festival circuit, including Oklahoma City’s prestigious, deadCENTER. “We didn’t win, but in my opinion, I feel like it is just an award to get in—it’s very competitive.”
Perhaps one of the more memorable moments for Bellgardt is when his son received an award for best child actor. “It was a blast and I’m really proud of him for it and looking back on it now, it’s a really cool snapshot of that time in his life. The movie is such a cool way to remember him at 12 years old. We had a great time working together, and it was really fun.”
What’s next for Bellgardt? Well, another monster movie, of course. This one will have a bigger budget, more support and SAG actors—and, of course, a ridiculous scenario. “I get a real kick out of hearing audiences laugh at the ridiculous situations that the characters are in,” says Bellgardt. “These people are having so much fun and whether they really like the movie or not, they are having a blast watching it. You can’t ask for anything more than that. If people are having fun watching your movie, that’s all I want.”
Get more information and see the Army of Franken-steins trailer when you visit armyoffrankensteins.com.
Written by Christina Reyes | Photography by Emily Brashier
