Q and A with Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows)

After the movie premier of What We Do In The Shadows at Luna Cinema (see here for the review link) director Taika Waititi stayed on for a Q and A session, which quickly turned into an impromptu comedy night. Waititi was “hilarious”. Consequently I should premise this post with … I believe most of the following is true.

© Shadow Pictures Ltd MMXIV

The idea

Waititi explained that he and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) started writing the story in 2004 when ‘there were few vampire movies’ on offer, but it took seven years to make.

‘We just slipped in before it became very uncool.’

When asked about their process he explained that ‘Jemaine and I would meet in a café and one of us would come up with an idea and then we’d finish our meal and go home and do nothing. Then one day we talked about a floating cup in a mirror and seven years later there was a movie.’

Taika Waititi © The Ponder Room

The look of the vampires

The pair wanted to create ‘a classic vampire movie not a sparkly one’.

As a result Waititi’s character Viago was modelled on Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in An Interview With a Vampire, while Clements Vladislav was influenced by Gary Oldman.

Documentary style shooting

According to Waititi ‘In the 1800s there was a lot of vampire persecution going on, so the vampires escaped to New Zealand, to the mean streets of Wellington.’

‘We must have done 130 hours of footage which came down to 85 minutes. The bonus is we can do a 48 disk box set.’

Shooting amongst the public

Originally told as a short story which they filmed in 2004, it was interesting to hear how society had changed during that time.

‘In 2004 we were wearing frilly shirts and when we were shooting outside the locals were calling out ‘homos’. In 2011 no one was calling it out, so we had to ask some kids to say it, and even then they didn’t want to.’

Research

‘We had a Vampirologist friend, called David, who had read most books on vampires … so I guess we phoned a friend … and we spent about 15 minutes on Goggle.’

Working with a low budget

Waititi explained that most of the budget was spent on the revolving room that was used in the fight scene. Added to that the female cop was a Kindy teacher, and it was his own hand coming out of the backpack.

‘The trench coat was a second hand ladies coat.’

Influences

When asked an extremely long question about his influences and whether Peter Jackson had influenced him, Waititi’s answer was ‘yep’. How many interviewees would love to have said that? After the laughter died down he adde that they had borrowed the interior of the house from Jackson.

Was it a challenging film?

‘The whole thing was just a hassle,’ was Waititi’s quick reply.

‘After two days we wished it was a short film. The flying was the worst it cuts of the blood supply to your penis … which you need.’

Were the historical drawings real?

In the movie there are several dark historical images of vampires and other nasties.

‘They were the real drawings and they were so freaky we had to put them in…I hope they are out of copyright … I’m sure they must be.’

The music
The music used in the movie was based on ‘our tastes over the years and what our budget would give us. We met some guys playing gypsy music and loved it. We were negotiating with them for a long time and in the end they said ‘just use it and good luck’.’

The future

Waititi is currently looking into a time travel movie, and working with Clements on TV show idea.

The Q and A eventually wrapped and Waititi posed for photographs (secretly changing into character and slowly raising his hand into the peace sign) while the audience recovered from laughing so much.

As I left the theatre I pondered …

How much fun they must have had on set. If you throw Rhys Darby into the mix the mind boggles about the outtakes.
Hopefully there will be a DVD Box set, though not 48 disks.
We can all be thankful that somehow the cast managed to keep it together and get the movie finished.