The horror short, “The Ant” asks two people to avoid the tiny creature in order to win a prize. Filmed in Fort Collins, the film premieres in Los Angeles at this year’s Screamfest Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 11.
It’s created by Colorado-grown filmmakers who are part of a collective called, So Good Productions LLC. The film’s star, Jeffrey Steele, lives in Colorado Springs He spoke with KRCC’s Kendra Carr.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity
Kendra Carr: Can you tell me where the inspiration for the plot came from?
Jeff Steele: Our writer, Zachary Bakken, studied clinical psychology at CU Boulder where all of us met. Our filmmaking collective – So Good Productions,LLC – is composed of four of us. I grew up here in Colorado Springs and those guys grew up in Fort Collins. They grew up making films together. Zach’s a writer, Cam is the director, and Ethan Nelson, he’s one of the other producers and the other leading actor in “The Ant.”
I met Zach and became roommates with him my senior year. He was facing a lot of psychological torture, living in the basement, and the landlords weren’t repairing the leaks in the ceiling when it would rain. He likes to call it his twisted brainchild. It’s that experience of him being a little bit psychologically tortured as well as his deep clinical psychology experience.
Carr: Was there anything about growing up in Colorado Springs that inspired you to look into film?
Steele: So I actually grew up playing sports, which if you see me now, that makes sense. But it didn’t necessarily, in high school. I played football for a number of years and then I was a little bit tired of the concussions, so I started doing speech and debate in high school, which led to theater. I never imagined myself as an actor. It just sort of started happening and I was like, ‘I really enjoy this process.’ I did it throughout high school and got some opportunities, some scholarships, and I’ve just been kind of following that ever since.
Courtesy So Good Productions LLC/ Grayson Reed”The Ant” was filmed in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Carr: Your degree is actually in history though. What does history have to do with acting?
Steele: I view history as an encyclopedia of psychology that you can look back on. What draws me to acting specifically – not filmmaking – but acting, is getting into somebody else’s head and perspective. And when you’re studying history, you’re viewing people from their own time period and understanding why they make the decisions that they make, understanding the cultural norms and how that impacts how they move through life. So, I actually think history and acting are pretty related.
Carr: Is there a scene in “The Ant” that you really enjoyed or on the opposite end, hated doing?
Steele: The climax is really hard for me. I am somebody who likes to work very physically as an actor. So I’m trying to get kind of sweaty because in a fight for survival, and we’re shooting at Zach’s parents’ house in Fort Collins in a really nice neighborhood, and I’m disheveled. I’m wearing a tank with no shoes and I’m going outside and doing sprints up and down the sidewalk.
Carr: Not suspicious at all.
Steele: The only thing I was missing was me holding a weapon or something. I’m sure we’ve gotten the cops called on us. I’m somebody who likes to work physically from the outside in and letting the physical inform the mental and emotional. So, getting myself into that state of hyperventilation and exacerbation, it makes sense for the story, but it was really challenging to get there. In a way, it was my favorite and least favorite.
Carr: The movie is called “The Ant.” Were all of the ants real? Did you have CGI? What was the ant process?
Steele: 90 percent of the ants were real. We created a little fruit trap for the ants to come into and captured about 20. Interestingly, in the climax, that was a real ant and it came from nowhere. It was not pre-set, it just started crawling across the floor directly into where we were filming.
Courtesy So Good Productions LLC/ Grayson ReedA movie poster for “The Ant” which was produced and filmed in Colorado.
That Ant was made to be a star. He knew that he wanted to be immortalized, and honestly he carried the scene. We had one of those moments where we’re like, “Turn on the camera! Roll, roll, roll. We have to get this.”
Carr: Did you use any CGI ants?
Steele: We used a little bit of CGI ants in the final cut. You’re not going to see too many of them. Ethan Nelson is also a special effects guy and he did all the credits as well as the title card and some of the CG with “The Ant.” But for the most part, all the ants you see are real.
Carr: “The Ant” is premiering at Screamfest in LA. Is this the biggest festival you guys have done?
Steele: Absolutely. Yeah. So for the past couple films that we have made and published, we actually didn’t submit them to festivals at all. It was just sort of a let’s get our bearings under ourselves. Let’s just make stuff that we find satisfying, “The Warrior, the Bride and the Devil,” “Welcome to Hollywood,” “How’s Your Day Going?,” “A John Hughes Jawn”
Carr: So you guys didn’t submit any of those to festivals?
Steele: We submitted “Welcome to Hollywood” to festivals. That was the first kind of professional short that we had done. In retrospect, that was maybe not the most compelling story, but we learned quite a bit. I think the cinematography on that still looks pretty great.
Carr: I’m surprised to hear that you guys didn’t submit any of those, especially the Western one to a film festival.
Steele: That one was a very bare bones crew. That was three people just going into the desert in California and filming. Whereas “The Ant” was like, ‘We have A.D.s, we have a dedicated director of photography and we’re shooting on an RE camera.’ Whereas, “The Warrior, the Bride and the Devil” was like, ‘Hey, it’s just three dudes and we’re going to go out in the desert and make some props and kind of see what comes together.’
Courtesy So Good Productions LLC/ Grayson ReedBehind the scenes of the movie production, “The Ant.”
Carr: Do you have any advice for future filmmakers interested in pursuing this industry?
Steele: Don’t listen to anyone who tells you you can’t do something. Just make things. Who cares? Make it on your iPhone. Go out, cast actors; even if it’s just your friends. The important part is being creative and the more that you’re creative, the more you’re going to naturally build your skills and get better over time.
Carr: With the fact that you guys are now in LA a little bit more, can we expect you guys to come back to Colorado to film?
Steele: Yeah, it’s not off the table. I think it’s just whatever makes financial sense and whatever makes sense for the given script that we’re working on. Also, some of it depends on budgeting. We have a lot of connections here in Colorado for crew and especially cinematographers that we can always draw on. It’s possible that we might even be flying people that we know here out to California to film stuff.
Carr: What’s next for So Good Productions?
Steele: We’re looking at pitching “The Ant” for the feature version at Screamfest. And other than that, we have a short in our back pocket, kind of a gritty drama. Ethan Nelson and I, we’re going to kind of draw back for the next short and be a little bit more behind the scenes and highlight some actors that maybe you haven’t seen in the work that we’ve done so far.