John Pata- Filmmaker

Photo credit- Mary Manchester Copywright- Head Trauma Productions

     

It's interesting who or what you find if you are not afraid to try new things or talk to new people. One of the things I enjoy the most about myself is the fact that I love to meet new people, and am not afraid to engage with them. You would never know some things about people if you didn't talk to them. This is no different.

     When I first met John Pata we were out playing photogs at the EAA Airventure 2012. He was running around with one team focusing on portraits and interviews, I had several assignments around the event to cover but eventually his team needed some spare hands and I was it. After rolling from location to location and working our different aspects of capture around each other small talk ensued. I learned that he was an independent filmmaker and had just finished up a feature length project. How stinking cool is that? As time plodded by I would see “Dead Weight” pick up awards at different festivals and couldn’t help but notice that it was being screened at what seemed to someone like me (not heavily involved in the film community) all of the film festivals with what could only be described as “massive exposure”

     John is a regular guy, walking down the street in Oshkosh he has the appearance of anybody else. You would never guess his accomplishments without being told as it is a skill you don’t really wear on your sleeve, you just do it because you love it. His passion shines through in every post of his I see about it, and the time and dedication to his art is amazing. I can't even imagine how many long hungry nights there are in this line of work. It takes a special person to take this sort of risk and sacrifice and deserves a round of applause from anyone who respects a can do attitude and can appreciate getting it done.

 You can see accolades, link to the Dead Weight blog, screening info, and other fun stuff on the web here:
http://www.carryingdeadweight.com/

And see the facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/carryingdeadweight

John was cool enough to take a few minutes and answer some questions for us so we can get to know him a bit. Thanks John! With no more delay, here's John!

MO: Hi John, let’s start with the basics. Who you are, age, basic data. You get it.

I’m a 29-year old indie filmmaker, president of the Time Community Theater, and have been organizing horror events in Oshkosh (under the pseudonym Oshkosh Horror) for the past six years. I probably ride my bike too much, always drinks iced tea, and never get my fill of veggie burritos.

I was born in Myrtle Beach, SC, but my family moved to Oshkosh when I was just a little lad. I graduated from Oshkosh West in 2002, and UWO in 2007 (with a degree in graphic design).

MO: What films or projects have you been involved with? Dead weight is picking up tremendous speed on the circuit I see, but what else has there been?

Dead Weight is my main focus right now. We shot it in and around the Oshkosh area in 2011, released it in March 2012, and have been doing what we can to draw attention to it since. We've screened in close to thirty fests around the world, won numerous awards, and met a ton of excellent people. We have some really big news coming up, though. Wish I could say it now, but we have to wait a little bit.

Aside from Dead Weight, my first film, Better Off Undead (2007), was a 29-minute zombie comedy I made for $700 with friends while I was in college. We did it for fun, and surprisingly, it received great attention in the horror community.

Thankfully I have a lot of talented friends making films, too, so recently I worked on multiple projects. I was a grip on Don’t Go To The Reunion, a slasher flick by Slasher Studios out of Appleton, handled special effects on a segment for the Wisconsin anthology, Hole In The Wall, and recently finished up an assistant director gig on another anthology from Illinois, Chop Shop.

 MO: When somebody does what you do, it’s pretty easy to guess that your interest began at an early age. Maybe that’s to bold of an assumption, but I understand drive and passion so I’m guessing it’s a safe bet to think you knew early on. Describe your path to now. Education, setbacks, victories, etc.

That’s a correct assumption! Ghostbusters, Jaws, and The Evil Dead. Those are the three films responsible for getting me started. Ghostbusters was the first film I truly loved, Jaws was the first one I actually thought about the process behind the camera (as I heard stories about the constant problems they had with the Bruce the shark), and The Evil Dead (not only blew my mind but) introduced me to the notion of not needing tons of money to make a film, and doing it because you want to. And to think I experienced all this by the time I was 10-years old…

I made plenty of backyard movies with my best friend growing up, and always viewed films with a strong interest, essentially studying them, but I never had any formal training or education. Growing up in the punk rock scene instilled an incredibly strong DIY ethic in me, and then discovering filmmakers like Peter Jackson, Robert Rodriquez, and Lloyd Kaufmann when I was younger greatly influenced me. They did what they wanted, and wouldn’t let anything stop them. They truly embraced the idea of drive and passion can take you anywhere. Hell, Peter Jackson started out making super low-budget horror/sci-fi films, not to mention an X-rated muppet movie, then he goes on to make Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit!

There’s been a lot of setbacks. When you make an independent film, EVERYTHING is against you from day one. You just need to remain persistent and grow thick skin immediately. “No” is never an option. When you are presented with a roadblock, you need to figure out a way around it instantly or you’ll be dead in your tracks.

When it came to Dead Weight, Adam Bartlett (my film partner) and I just threw ourselves into it. We didn’t know how to produce a feature length film, but we quickly learned (especially through Googling tons of stuff and reading countless books from the library). We organized both Oshkosh Zombie Walks together (the second one brought over 1,000 attendees downtown), which definitely helped us. From those, we gained lots of experience working with businesses, reaching out to others, and putting together a large operation.

Oh, and I sold the screen-printing business I co-owned to focus on filmmaking full-time.

MO: What’s next for you? More films, sticking with horror? New horizons? Give us a preview if you would.

Yes, more films! I have a short film about a guy mentally and emotionally dealing with (perhaps I should say over dealing with) a break-up I’m hoping to get rolling soon. I’ve wanted to film it while now but like I said, everything is against you. It’s a matter of finding out how to roll with the punches. In the last few weeks, Adam and I finally decided on our next feature. It’s totally official, too. Both of us labeled a notebook so there’s no turning back now. Ha. I don’t want to say too much just yet (considering there’s still a lot to figure out for the script), but I will say it will have a lot of psychological and supernatural elements to it, greatly inspired by early John Carpenter films and The X-Files. I’ll also be editing a documentary about the punk rock scene in Green Bay during the ‘70s and ‘80s, currently titled Green Blah!

Horror is definitely my first love, so I’ll go down that road quite often, but I wouldn’t say always. I’m a fan of all films, and really, a good story is a good story, no matter what genre. A few years back I wrote a short comedy script, 44oz., that I would love to shoot in the near future. And I recently created a very basic outline for my first non-horror feature. It’s safe to say I’ll focus on horror, but not exclusively. I never want to do the same thing twice, so everything will differ from each other somehow.