Interview with Gregory Duke (director)

How did The Night Life come about?

I was goofing off with my uncle one day and I told him about a silly idea I had for a gay film full of zombie carnage, except the zombies have nothing to do with the plot - the characters are all used to the zombie menace plaguing them. I figured this was about as close as I'd ever get to wry social commentary. Steve said he wanted to do an animated film with vampires in it. We talked a bit about computer animation and then two days later Steve gave me a script.

How did The Night Life get its title?

The project was originally called The Bar Scene, which captured the seedy cruising aspects in the script but missed the film noir and undead carnage aspects. I suggested that Steve change the title to The Night Life.

Were you involved with the creation of the script?

Pretty much all of the script is 100% Steve, but during the writing process Steve and I would bounce ideas back and forth to keep things fresh so there's a bit of me in the script. The most obvious points are the dance numbers because I beefed them up a little. The film needed more blood.

How did you cast the film?

We mostly used word of mouth, which I suppose was an appalling idea, but somehow through past acquaintances, friends, and friends of friends we got together a really talented cast.

What were the rehearsals like?

I had a lot of fun with this film in rehearsal. How often do you get to tell an actor that his motivation in a particular scene is an inhuman lust for brains? Things gelled really quickly and everyone had fun with the material. It was very encouraging.

What was the recording session like?

We were worried that we weren't going to be able to get everything done in the time we had alloted for recording, but we managed to nail it with time to spare. Working out of a recording studio was a bit foreign to me so we got off to a slow start, but once I got accustomed things were fine. Besides, the actors did most of the work for me.

How did things work between you and the animator?

Mike's a good friend of mine, so we have a natural rapport. He worked off the storyboards and written instructions I gave him, and then every so often I'd swoop down, see what he'd accomplished, and tell him it was all wrong. I was quite happy with this arrangement.

How does directing an animated film compare with directing a live-action film?

I'd say the stress level is spread out a bit more so it seems less intense. It's so much easier to exercise control over the look and feel of the project. The creative freedom available to us was really exciting.

How did this experience compare with directing Fluff?

It's hard to compare the two. Fluff was feature length, shot on video, and it was the first time I'd ever directed a movie. I had no training and little idea what I wanted. On The Night Life, it's not just the medium that changed; I had a better understanding of what I was doing and what my goals were, and it was a much smaller project. All in all, it was a lot easier for me to get a handle on The Night Life.

You wanted to direct a gay zombie film. Is this what you had in mind?

Nope, not in the slightest. But that's why I like working with Steve. If I think Zombies, he thinks Vampires, and Detectives, and Mummies, and Shakespeare, and Dancing, and...