Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

CJ Wallis Thrillist Interview on PT Anderson Website


"The "Licorice Pizza" filmmaker fascinates and puzzles his admirers—and one website has tracked his career for more than two decades with an obsessive attention to detail."

Thrillist reached out to discuss the 20+ year history of our Paul Thomas Anderson website to promote Anderson's new film Licorice Pizza. The article titled "Cigarettes and Red Vines: The Story Behind the Definitive Paul Thomas Anderson Fan Site" is now out and features an interview with director CJ Wallis 

Click here to read the full article

Thursday, October 31, 2019

CJ Wallis Discusses Conan O'Brien Job!


A clip from CJ Wallis' recent interview on Ben Hagarty's podcast "Black With No Cream" tells a shortened version of his story about trying to land a job on Late Night with Conan O'Brien!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Last Chief Interviews CJ Wallis

CJ WALLIS Also Known as FortyFPS Production Interview.

by Aaron Jay


Let’s see, where do we start with this man?

Deep in the heart of Vancouver, British Columbia. One of the world’s most beautiful landscape scenerie there is to see. We take a look at Canada’s finest film director, producer, designer, and screenwriter CJ Wallis.

The 35 year old doesn’t seem to disappoint, ever. Starting his career off as co-founder of an online resource for the Academy Award-Nominated film director Paul Thomas Anderson back in the 90’s. Wallis isn’t new to this. From his signature slogan ‘Bird’s Eye View’ and famous website ‘FortyFPS’, to his partnership with Jet Life Records. His unique directing skills and camera work is a one of a kind as well as the designer’s creative inspirational stand out album covers, prints and musical visuals. Mr. Wallis gets it done.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

(Re)Search my Trash Interviews CJ Wallis

An Interview with CJ Wallis, Director of BB
by Mike Haberfelner | December 2016




Your new movie BB - in a few words, what is it about?

BB is about doing any and everything, inside and outside your means, for the person you love.


Basic question of course, why make a movie about a camgirl, and - even if this might sound silly - did you do any research on the subject?
I often have a bunch of 20 minute chunks of films in my head and as new fragments or elements occur to me, they get added to the pile. Occasionally the pieces fuse themselves together and become something that people haven’t really seen before.

A lot of stories I enjoy, things like Taxi Driver, involve the dark-side of the world willingly invited into the lead character’s life for one reason or another.

I hadn’t spent any time on web-cam sites previous to writing this or meeting Jen, our lead. If you’re looking for porn, watching a web-cam girl is like putting on Stairway To Heaven when you want to hear some heavy rock music quickly and just carry on with your day.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Daily Dead Interviews Director CJ Wallis



Q&A with BB Writer/Director CJ Wallis:

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, CJ. When did you originally come up with the idea for BB?

I never really know, to be honest. I tend to just have a bunch of cool ideas for characters or show-off scenes or shots floating around in my head that, individually on their own, don’t add up to much.

I was pretty into Bjork for a long time and in high school I saw 18 hours worth of underground Hi-8 tapes of a kid named Ricardo Lopez who filmed himself over a year having conversations to the camera about his love for Bjork while progressively, and successfully, building an acid bomb hidden in a book for her. He filmed and timed his own suicide with when she was meant to open the book herself.

I met cam-model Jennifer Mae and the more I thought about her profession, I started to realize how vulnerable and terrifying it could be under the surface. Coupled with my fascination with people’s theories about being able to hack into embedded cell-phone or laptop cameras and add Ricardo Lopez to the gumbo and all those chunks rapidly form and became Megazord-like.

A few days later, the script was done. A month after that, we were filming.


Thursday, April 2, 2015

INTERVIEW: THROUGH THE LENS CJ WALLIS



Mike O Keefe, writer for a prominent travel website SunCity Paradise, reached out for an interview to discuss everything from photography to touring around the country.

Editing a video and preparing a shot to best fit the subject takes a certain skill, one that Wallis has truly mastered. Whether it’s a travel landscape or one of the most prominent rappers out there, finding the right angle from the right perspective is key.


An interesting viewpoint is that while the PT3 tour videos are featuring Curren$y’s performances in every destination, the documentaries are really about his travels and himself. 
“I shoot all of it the way I see it, and then cut it and it goes up that same way,” Wallis explained. “With anything that I put up for Curren$y or whoever, people see it about them, but the way I see it’s my own documentary.”

You can read the entire interview here.

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Find more information on this project and others at our official website, fortyfps.com
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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Liberal Dead New Interview With Director CJ Wallis

Mitch Reaves reached out and mentioned he was now writing for The Liberal Dead website and asked some questions about BB before the release of the film.

For any of you who may still be unfamiliar, BB is the new project from CJ Wallis, owner of FortyFPS Productions. His work is synonymous for outstanding camera work and cinematography, as well as a signature modern, yet classic look. BB is his return to the horror/thriller genre after taking time away to do documentary filming for hip hop artist Curren$y and his JetLife record label. 
BB synopsis from IMDB: 
BB is the provocative story of a girl named Leah who, under the name “Candy Cummings”, performs strip shows online from her apartment for thousands of strangers every day, never fully knowing the extent of evils that could be watching on the other side of the screen.

When I saw the first teaser trailer for BB, I was immediately hooked. After watching, I reached out to CJ, asking for absolutely any info I could get on the project. Being that he’s not only incredibly talented, but an approachable, all around good dude, he hooked me up with the exclusive stills you see below, and even better, also offered to do an interview. 

Q: Tell us a little bit about how you came up with the concept for BB? 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Vice Magazine: CJ Wallis "The Steve Nash Of Directors"



From Canada to Curren$y: CJ Wallis Makes His Move

Clinton Yates, well known writer for Vice Mazagine and The Washington Post, approached me at the Howard Theatre in Washington and mentioned he was interested in doing an article. After a few meetings, Clinton posted our discussions and his thoughts.


"How The JFK of JLF got his start"

Curren$y Spitta is talking to an employee of Untouchable Body Shop who plans to restore an old Chevy he's got on the lot for a series called Cruise Life. The car is getting a new paint job, adding a full hydraulic system and upgrading the chassis. "We're going back with the marina blue. Ghost graphics on the hood of the trunk. It's gonna be nice," the employee says.

The rapper, whose obsession with cars is well-documented, is immensely moved by the potential of this project. "Please, please, son,” he says. “Could you talk to CJ? The master and the animator of my dream and my vision?"

Monday, December 13, 2010

American Mary: AxWound Interview


One of the first passionately supportive people on the Dead Hooker bandwagon was Hannah Neurotica, writer/blogger/founder of countless horror-staples including Women In Horror Month and the Eli Roth endorsed AxWound Magazine (which got passed around throughout the shooting of Inglourious Basterds.)

Entitled "American Mary Video Teaser Made Public; Reports of Blue Balls & Bluegina Cases Now Global!" Hannah has posted an interview with myself and the Soska Sisters for the web-version of AxWound. In her words:

In late November Jen & Sylvia Soska announced how they would celebrate the second anniversary of Twisted Twins Productions: release a teaser for their next feature film! Hype was building around just what the teaser for American Mary would contain.
Would it be another Grindhouse inspired feature like Dead Hooker in a Trunk (DHIAT) or……..? Just what direction was this creative team heading? As one of the lucky few to view the teaser before it’s December 11th release, it was hard as hell to keep my mouth shut. And yet the twisted twins along with partner in crime/ co- producer CJ Wallis (Fortyfps Productions) are showing excellent willpower in a culture that wants nothing more than instant gratification. 
It’s been a while since we were given a horror film to look forward to without being inundated with clips and behind the scenes footage and leaks, etc. Not to mention trailers that are so long you feel as though you already saw the damn film. The first American Mary teaser gives very little away but says a lot about the atmosphere and eery body horror vibe that awaits us.

You can read the entire interview here. Despite only being released this past weekend, the horror community has fully embraced the trailer and posted stories in countless places all over the web. The laundry list has started here on the Soska's blog "Penny Dreadful Diary."

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Interview: Talking With Tim

CJ WALLIS ON PLEASE SUBSCRIBE

The basic concept of the Please Subscribe documentary (“Please Subscribe follows YouTube celebrites David Choi, Happy Slip, Daxflame, and Tay Zonday as they discuss how online media and YouTube has affected each of their lives and the face of entertainment.“) sparked my interest fairly quickly. The documentary, made by CJ Wallis and the Soska Sisters, hopes to play at several film festivals in the near to long term. I recently conducted an email interview with Wallis. In addition to this documentary, according to Wallis: “I recently directed/edited/conceived the forthcoming Sarah Slean music video and am currently in development on my debut feature film, Frank Flood. The girls are getting a ton of attention for Dead Hooker In A Trunk and are currently in development on two scripts. I also have some original music under the label Elective, which is also going rather well.”


Tim O’Shea: When you contacted the four YouTube celebrities featured in Please Subscribe, did any of them need convincing to be involved in the documentary?


CJ Wallis: The only real person that needed a little bit of a nudge was Daxflame, and is mainly because he is actually represented by one of the bigger agencies in Los Angeles, so there was a bit of looking into one another and the project before they could commit to it. He is also a bit gunshy as his YouTube experience with the public hasn’t necessarily been as positive as the other four.

O’Shea: How did you arrive on picking those four folks in particular?

Wallis: David Choi was where the entire project sort of started. One very late evening in 2008 I think, the Twins and I stumbled across David’s high energy DuckTales video and it shattered us. It is long and repetitive and I think everyone involved ran out of ideas and energy midway through, but that’s what made it amazing. I had featured David’s “YouTube Love Song” on the viral section of a youth tv show I used to direct/produce on and somehow David’s videos kept finding their way in front of me.

Early November 2009, the three of us were re-watching the videos and the idea came up about doing a documentary about these people. A casual internet search into the matter launched the project instantly as David was due to appear in Canada in under two weeks for the first time and play a show in our hometown of Vancouver – saving us the plane tickets, hotels and rentals elsewhere. We e-mailed him and he got back to us and was instantly onboard.

The second day of filming with David, we were driving someplace and in his usual humble manner quietly offered “i could prolly get you tay zonday…if you want…” and suddenly we had Tay Zonday.

O’Shea: Logistically what was the biggest challenge in doing the documentary?

Wallis: As with most filmmakers at whatever level of success we are at currently, it was money. During the time the documentary was coming to life, the girls and I had recently finished their debut feature length film, Dead Hooker In A Trunk, that was also primarily paid out of our own pockets so when Please Subscribe happened, the credit cards were already very much full and there wasn’t a ton left to draw from.

Daxflame needed to be flown to us because it is too dangerous for him to show his house and where he lives which is something we explore in the documentary. Tay Zonday lives in Hollywood, so we begged and pleaded and found our way down there thanks to sympathetic family members etc etc.

While already in Los Angeles (with no immediate chance of coming back within our timeline) we had a YouTube personality that was tied strongly to Daxflame’s story choose not to be involved. We learned they were involved in a previous documentary that is famous (in the wrong way) within the Youtube community and we suddenly needed a fourth subject. David suggested we message Happyslip, who we also enjoy, and she happened to be in LA for a day or two and she graciously gave up her free time on the trip to be involved. It saved the day a thousand times over.

All interviews or filmmakers tend to say things like this, but in all sincerity: all four of these people have rapidly become lifelong friends to the three of us. And the people surrounding them in their lives that we met are no different. Alot of people in this industry, in my experience, tend to only ask you a question so that they can eventually just answer it themselves back at you, so it is rare to find so many people at once who are so endlessly selfless, generous and kind. We stay in regular contact with David’s friends Peter and Sam and are planning to see them all in the middle of July. There is mumblings of shooting a music video for David while we are down there.

O’Shea: A great deal of your recent work has been for feature film, short film and music videos, was working on a documentary a form of returning to your roots of producing for local TV programming in Canada?

Wallis: Actually, it was more of a return to the way I learned filmmaking. My friend Jeff and I would always have a camera on us and would film friends and random events, either together or separately, and then cut them up into fully polished/structured mini documentaries with sound cues and intricate sequences and pass them around to our friends – as they usually could be enjoyed out of context. Those things allowed for a lot of experimentation and mistakes and were always fun to cut up.

So this is sort of the same deal in a way. We got our friends together, shot a bunch of stuff with an idea of where we were going, and now we have to sit here and sort it all out all the surprises and left turns that were thrown at us along the way. It’s wonderfully loose and fun compared to working on a feature or short but, as the film is in it’s second major overhaul now in as many months, it can also be a curse because there isn’t that structure or safety net of having a pre-written scene to work from to know when you’re finished. Obviously everything is up to us how it’s presented and that’s where the pressure and self-doubt can creep back in and infect the fun. You always feel like something can be cut or timed a little better.

O’Shea: Given your own musical background, did you find it easier to interview the musicians featured in Please Subscribe?

Wallis: I wouldn’t say it helped in interviewing them, but it did help with the bonding sides of things off camera. I think there was only one technical question I asked to any of them and it was to Tay, something about the structure or key of Chocolate Rain and he shrugged a “it’s a counterpointed song in Eflat.” It just wasn’t something that ended up being talked much about.

O’Shea: You are collaborating with Twisted Twins Productions on this documentary, how do your differing approaches toward this kind of work serve to compliment each other’s skillset? How did you and the Twisted Twins divvy up the work on this documentary?

Wallis: The girls and I have been working together on things for the last 3 years now, I think so everything is sort of blurred or second nature as far as official job titles go when we are on a project or set. And despite the fact that they make the crotch driven boy movies in the house and I make more mopey dramatic things, we have similar tastes so it’s not that difficult for us to mesh on things outside our comfort zones…

For Please Subscribe I was on camera and location sound so we’d figure out the nice areas we’d want to shoot and when I’d be setting something up on the camera, the girls would be putting the LAVs on our subjects as well as producing or acting as the AD’s and keeping everyone in good conversation and happy. Everyone did a bit of everything. I do all of the post production work for our stuff, so when it gets to that stage, the three of us huddle around our make-shift studio in the apartment and it gets done.

O’Shea: Not surprisingly, you’re using YouTube to promote the documentary–what’s been the response from folks at YouTube?

Wallis: David sent me an e-mail one day that he had sent the official trailer for the doc we posted to his main contact with the YouTube higher-ups. They got back to me that they all loved it and it was a hit virally within their head offices and there was talk of featuring our video on the main page of the site. There were a lot of questions about what we were going to do with it and if we were planning to release it on YouTube. I said we were planning to go the conventional route of festivals into a home video sale but would be interested in hearing what they had to offer (as they have recently started their film rental program) and I didn’t anything back and stopped getting responses from them. They recently celebrated their 5th anniversary where they got each of their celebrities and made little documentary-esque videos about each. The one they made for Tay, shot on the Canon 7d I imagine, that is pretty close to our trailer which was a bit frustrating/demotivating at first but could also just be a big coincidence…

O’Shea: Is it too early to discuss how many festivals you’re going to submit Please Subscribe for consideration?

Wallis: We had a goal of a major film festival in mind that had a hard deadline about a month after we finished filming. A cut of the film was slapped together quickly and we got it in in time but was, admittedly, a bit too scattered and not a proper representation of the footage we have. As a director, you always want to take the home run shot of submitting to a Cannes or Sundance wherever but the reality of the situation is, or what I think our thinking has evolved into over the last year or so with ‘Hooker’ as well, is get it any and everywhere that will have you.

The audience and responses may grow a bit slower but at least your putting yourself and your work in front of audiences rather than submitting to three or four major festivals and sitting on a project for a year or so waiting around, which is what happened with my short Last Flowers. The smaller and mid-level festivals I’ve gone to have been some of the best film experiences of my life and there is so much else going on with the major festivals that have nothing to do with the movies themselves, I think all I can suggest is save your entry fees for someplace that looks a bit more warm and inviting.

O’Shea: Sidebar question, as a fellow fan of Conan O’Brien–how frustrating was it for you to see NBC bail on him as host of The Tonight Show so quickly?

Wallis: Despite the lives being affected, it made for great fued TV. I sort of had a soft spot for Jimmy Kimmel that has grown substantially since he called Leno out on his show. On a selfish level, when I go to LA, I’ve always gone to tapings of things (game shows, late night shows, anything) just to watch the chaos or see how shows vary the way the crew operates and functions etc and with Conan in LA, I was finally able to go to tapings of something I actually enjoy. And as we speak, Leno’s ratings as worse than what Conan’s were when they dismissed him. I assume the TBS show in November will shoot in LA still, but that doesn’t help us on our July trip, heh. He got a big chunk of money – it’s not the Tonight Show but I’m sure it helped take the sting off it. And the Tonight Show hasn’t really been the Tonight Show since May 1992 and they just chased their best chance at getting it back.



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Find more information on this project and others at our official website, fortyfps.com
Follow us on Facebook & Twitter for exclusive content & updates.