Interview By Joseph McCabe
Director Michael Tiddes and Producer Kelly Dymon are another team of first-time filmmakers, making their Screamfest debut with Crawlspace, a short and twisty tale of a young wife who finds herself in both physical and emotional traps, only to escape both in a sudden burst of shocking violence?

Did both of you have a hand in Crawlspace?s script?

Tiddes: ?No, I was the writer of the script initially, and then I brought Kelly on to produce the film with me.?

What gave you the idea?

Tiddes: ?It?s actually funny, because initially the overall concept for Crawlspace came from personal experience. I was actually underneath my own crawlspace. I was running cable from the living room to my bedroom, when my roommate mentioned that he hoped there wasn?t an earthquake, because I?d be trapped down there. At first I kind of giggled, but then I thought about it, and I thought, ?Wow, that would really suck.? Because I was down there for a while, and it?s claustrophobic and it?s hot and it?s dirty, and it smells and there?s cobwebs. And while you?re down there your eyes start to play tricks on you. I was like, ?Man, this would be a great environment for a film.? I didn?t know it then, but that was kind of my launching point for the overall idea. And finally I just kind of brainstormed the idea??How could I incorporate a crawlspace into a story, and not have it overtake the story; and actually have a fun kind of thriller film?? I?ve always been fascinated with the human psyche. I?ve always been fascinated with the fact that people do certain things in certain ways. We all react in certain ways to certain situations; and I always thought it was funny how people react in situations that are unlikely, or, if situations are extreme, what happens? This theme of an internal beauty and beast in each individual arose. In the wrong situation we can be pushed to different lengths and something can come out of us that we don?t often expect. The storyline for Crawlspace got fleshed out. From there I just wrote and wrote and wrote. It was like a forty-page script after a year of revisions; because I?ll write and then I?ll leave it alone and then I?ll come back to it in a couple of months. Finally it became an eleven-page script that I gave to Kelly to get her opinion. I thought I had a good script, and then once she read it she told me we had to make it. I didn?t have a choice at that point.?

Your film is fairly polished. Could you talk about your prior experiences?

Tiddes: ?As far as making movies this is actually the first short film I ever made, rather than just running around with a video camera. This was the first film I actually shot with a script and a crew and a planned production. I?ve been working with the Wayans Brothers in Hollywood for the past few years. I came out here and was a PA for a year. I got the right opportunity and was in the right place, and became an assistant for Rick Alvarez, who?s one of the Wayans producing partners. From there I?ve gone on to do some feature films. So I?ve been on the set and I?ve really seen the process and been able to experience that. I kind of just took everything I?ve learned and rolled it up and threw it into this production.?

Dymon: ?I have no real film history. This is the first film that I?ve produced. I started off in television, producing talk shows and then moved on to reality shows. Reality and talk TV is great but it?s not for me. Film is a passion of mine, so I really seized the moment when Michael came to me and said, ?I?m ready with Crawlspace.? I was like, ?Yes!??

How long did the film take to make?

Dymon: ?Our pre-production was about three months. At least on my angle, as far as research is concerned and getting sponsors on board, doing a short film can get to be costly. I thought it was important to come in with a small budget and still make a quality film with a full story. So sponsors were important, getting the products were important. That took me about two to three months.?

Tiddes: ?From start to finish it probably was a nine-month endeavor. Because we didn?t have anybody. I basically funded this myself. I saved up money for two years, and we had a meager budget. There was a lot of begging that went into it??Can I borrow this? Can you come out? Please, please!??

Dymon: ?I was really surprised at the amount of people that were willing to get their hands in. We were so lucky with the crew, with donations, with equipment, with the people who care on board. It was a real labor of love.?

Tiddes: ?The actual shooting of the film took us three days, to actually build the crawlspace set. I thought I wrote an easy movie to shoot, because I have a crawlspace in house. But then when I thought about it, I was like, ?How am I actually gonna film this underneath the house.? We found ourselves building a little crawlspace set that we could actually afford. But we came up with a little trick for that.?

Are you both horror fans?

Dymon: ?I love horrors, thrillers, action?anyone that?s being punched, cars that are being crashed, blood that?s being spilled. I have a gore streak in me. [Laughs.]?

Tiddes: ?Yeah, I?ve always loved the horror genre. Those are the kinds of films that you can have fun with, because you?re always anticipating. You?re always waiting for that scare. You know it?s coming. You just don?t know when, or how they?re gonna do it or where they?re gonna do it. I just really get into those. I guess I?ve always had a dark side too, because blood and guts is something I?ve always liked.?

Dymon: ?If we can sit in a theater and our feet are still on the ground then it?s probably not a good movie. [Laughs.] We like to have our feet up on the seat.?

What have you been up to since finishing Crawlspace?

Tiddes: ?Well, we?ve been trying to get into all the festivals we can. Screamfest is coming up this weekend, and we?re pumped for that. At the same time, I?ve been working away trying to finish the final polish on a couple of feature film scripts that I have loaded into the gun, and I?m just waiting for the opportunity to pull the trigger. At the same time, we?re waiting on financing for another short film that I wrote. This time I don?t want to pay for it. I paid for this one, so I?ve got to dig myself out of this whole first. We have some ideas, we?re just trying to get it going. We?re working seven days a week also. But I?ve got a couple of features that I really want to do and get people interested in, and another short film.?

Dymon: ?Yeah, we?re ready to make more movies. We?ve got ants in our pants, and we?re really ready to do another production and get our hands dirty.?

What is your biggest fear?

Dymon: ?Have you ever seen that scene in The Abyss, where the water?s freezing cold and it?s coming in and she decides that she has to drown in order to live? That is my biggest fear. I?m terrified of deep water, and I?m terrified of the freezing cold. I?ve got to be honest?I can?t even watch that scene without having a panic attack and sweaty hands.?

Tiddes: ?I don?t like spiders very much, or bugs in general. But it?s not really bugs that bother me, but when you walk through a spider-web and you know there?s a bug on you but you don?t know where it is and you freak out a little bit. That always bothers me.?

And you managed to work a spider-web into Crawlspace!

Yes. It took many, many weeks to cast those spiders. Because they didn?t do what I wanted them to do. [Laughs.]