Q:  Sandy, tell us where the idea came from for this movie.

SS:  I had been writing a lot of scripts on my own, but they were too long and epic and big budget, and Paramount wouldn’t sign on... I couldn’t even get them to return my calls... so I said screw it and decided to write my own little low budget cop movie. It was pretty much out of nowhere really. It was inspired by an episode of Upright Citizens Brigade. They had this character named Captain Lunatic -- pronounced Loo-nahh-tik – with an uppity drawn out “nahh” rhymes with “flaw” in the middle, but everybody said Lunatic. So I thought what’s another name I could come up with, so I used Sam Insiane, and had everyone mispronounce it Sam Insane. That was the beginning, and then I continued from there.

Q:  Give us a short synopsis of the film.

SS:  Vigilante Cops is about two cops who get kicked off the force because they can’t hold up to the cerebral demands of the PD. But law enforcement is in their blood. So they end up living in a Chevy blazer and going after the dregs of society, the lowest and pathetic of cases on the street like snack food criminals. The story is about the people they run into along the way, the crazies and the wackos. We have over 20 awesome actors in this
movie, most of them from the Auburn area, but we have TFO actors
from Sacramento too.

Q:  You brought someone along with you today. Can you introduce
him.

SS:  Yes, this John Largé, my right hand man. My co-hort who actually survived most of my psychotic ramblings…

JL:  Literally.

SS:  He dodged the chairs and bullets.

JL:  Most of them anyway.

Q:  How did you get involved in this film John?

JL:  Well basically Sandy came to me one day and said I’m working on this movie with my friend James… James Todd.

SS:  He’s our fantastic Director of Photography…

JL: Yes, our Director of Photography/Co-Producer/Psychologist. Anyway, Sandy said to me, “I’d really love for you to play Ted Nugent, the sidekick
to Captain Insiane.”  I was like, “OK.”  I’m sorta Sandy’s sidekick in real
life anyway, you know, when we go out and fight crime…

SS:  I sleep on his couch…

JL:  Yes, in our real life, Sandy sleeps on the couch at my house and we
go out and fight crimes at night… we don’t share the couch…

SS:  No, no… he has his own couch, but I have control of the TV. We painted a stripe down the middle of the room. It works people.

JL:  He watches as much TV as he wants, and I read books. Sandy can’t read. And that’s why I have the script editor credit in the movie…

SS:  Because I can’t spell.

Q:  Where did you draw from to develop the character of Ted Nugent?

JL:  The character really wrote itself. Sandy had basic dialogue which was crazy and quirky, it became the spring board for the character of Ted Nugent.

SS:  John perfected it.

JL:  I basically put myself in the character. When you look at the characters of Sam Insiane and Ted Nugent in this movie, they are extreme versions of Sandy and myself.

SS:  Yeah absolutely, they’re not that far off. I’m the one who runs around town all crazy, I’m a little too trigger happy…

JL:  And I’m the ambiguously gay one.

SS:  He’s not Ted Nugent, he’s just a guy unlucky enough to have the same name as Ted Nugent.

JL:  It’s a running joke in the movie, his unfortunate name. But people also question, “Is Ted Nugent gay in this movie?  Is the character a homosexual?”   

SS:  It’s more of a Sam Wise, Frodo kind of thing from Lord of the Rings.

JL:  Yes, you kind of wonder. Ted is impeccably groomed, he drinks tea, he reads romance novels. He dresses immaculately, but for all that, he’s ambiguous.  

SS:  Immaculately dressed until the end of the shoot last August when it was 114 degrees on the top of a parking garage in Sacramento. We were all sweaty.

JL:  Even then I was ambiguous.

Q:  Sandy, what went into the development of Sam Insiane’s character?

SS:  Sheesh, it wasn’t that difficult really because Sam Insiane isn’t all that smart. It’s easy to create that type of character. The tough thing was jugging three jobs at once, checking the angles on the camera, directing everyone in the scene. James would ask if the sound was coming through… and I’d be like, ya whatever… is there an airplane going over… no problem, we’ll edit it out… so I didn’t have a lot of time for character development. Basically Sam Insiane is a hyped-up redneck version of myself which is horrifying because it’s not me at all. But he’s very militant, even though he hates the army.

Q:  Have you played anything like this character before?

SS:  I played Ophelia in a Shakespeare comedy a couple of years ago.

Q:  You drew from Ophelia?

SS:  No, but I let go with this character in the same way.

JL:  Sandy asked if he could wear a dress and run around with
flowers in one of the scenes and I said no, that would be
my job.

Q:  John, you said you self-appointed yourself script
supervisor. Did this mean you had creative input on
the script as well?

JL:  There were moments in the movie where I would say
to Sandy, “this joke isn’t funny.”

SS:  And I was like… shut up.

JL:  We’d slap each other around a bit, then I’d go on my
couch, and after I was done pouting I’d re-write the scene.
Then I’d come back and say, “Sandy, your idea is good,
but I think I have something that might work better.”

SS:  He said it like Mr. Rogers.

JL:  No it was like Mrs. Doubtfire, there was a bit of British to it.

SS:  This didn’t happen with all the jokes.

JL:  I would say 80% of them were good. They got better after all-nighters, energy drinks, and Marshmallow Peeps.

Q:  John, can you describe Sandy’s directing style for the readers.

JL:  I think Sandy came a long way in directing this movie. He had directed theatre, but this is his first almost feature length movie with a director’s title.

Q:  Is this accurate Sandy?  Your first?

SS:  Well, I directed home movies with my friends when I was growing up, you know, 15-minute Ninja Turtle movies, super hero stuff.

JL:  I would say he evolved during this movie, he was an actor’s director, he had specific ideas of what he wanted from the actors, but then he was open to what actors suggested. Actors felt free to throw out ideas where as some directors are steadfast with their own concept of a movie.

SS:  Tell the people the truth…

JL:  OK, here’s the truth. Sandy really freaks out sometimes, when the pressure is on, he has a tendency to roll around the street in a fetal position and cry. There were moments when we never thought this movie would get done because we wanted to strangle each other. One time we didn’t speak for a week. I was on my couch, he was on his.

SS:  But I bought him a Davy Jones action figure.

JL:  He did, and a card with a polar bear covering his face that said “I’m sorry.”

Q:  You’ve mentioned James Todd, how involved was he?

JL:  Sandy and I are the co-stars you could say, but if there was a third
star, it would be James. I fell in love with him at least three times a day.

SS:  If there was one person who put more blood, sweat and tears in
this movie than John and me, it would be James. Right now he’s at his
other job, but when he gets home at 9:00 tonight, he’ll put his kids in
bed, kiss his wife goodnight, then run to his computer and work on
special effects because he has a deadline to meet. He’s done an insane amount of work being the camera guy, sound guy, lighting guy, he
designed our posters, he has held up the slack all the way to the end.

Q:  Tell us about your shooting locations?   

SS:  I wanted it to start in Auburn… nothing makes a low budget movie
look better than shooting in a big city… so that’s what we did. We
started in Auburn and ended in the city. I love the juxtaposition of
going from the small town then stepping it up and making it look
like a gang-inner-city thing. We got kicked out of a few places
and got hassled by Mall Security once, but other than that,
everything went pretty well, except we almost got arrested
for indecent behavior.

JL:  We weren’t flashers, it was just Sandy rolling on the ground
crying.

Q:  Was everything scripted or were the actors given
freedom to improv?

JL:  Both. We were pressed for time most of the time with
everyone’s hectic schedules, we had actors sleeping all over
my living room after rehearsals so we could get
them to the set on time the next day. Everyone
had to think on their feet when jokes were lame
or needed explaining. Sometimes it would be my
job as Sandy’s co-script writer to come up with
something spur of the moment that worked  There
was one time I was frantically writing in the car on
the way to a shoot and I was sucking down energy
drinks as fast as I could and biting my impeccably
manicured nails trying to write a five minute scene.
I think it’s the best scene in the movie.

Q:  Can we tell the readers which one?

SS:  No, we want everyone to guess.

JL:  It’s the scene where my nails are bitten down
to the quick.

Q:  What do you want people walking away from this
movie having gained?

SS:  There’s no redeeming message, it’s really all about
entertainment, and not about a message.

JL:   No message, not even an ending, we just stopped one
day and said “it’s a wrap.”

SS:  No, there’s a great ending.  It comes full circle in a Sam
Insiane, Ted Nugent sort of way.

Q:  If you could sum this movie up in three words,
what would they be?

SS:  Big, fat, fun.

Q:  How about one word?

JL:  Phat!

Q:  You said there was no profound message that
viewers will take with them, except BFF.  But what
have you personally gained from this experience?

SS:  It was the chance to prove that a bunch of people
could pull together and make a movie. It is the first
Auburn-made B-movie of its kind shown at the State
Theatre. We proved it can get done, we had a low budget
but we made it look like a big budget film. James is adding
amazing effects, the music is great, the actors were awesome.
It was worth all the hectic times, the all-nighter camp outs at
John’s house, and the fallouts because it gave me a chance
to show everyone I am a storyteller through film. I wanted to
achieve something entertaining that people might take notice
of and then perhaps the next time around I would be
supported again. I learned a lesson that it’s possible to
do anything if you put your mind to it. I hope I’ve inspired a
few people to reach for the stars. It's a Disneyland thing,
it's all about art and dreams. I love everyone who helped
with this project.

JL:  Excuse me, I think I need a moment here, does anyone
have a tissue?