Mickey Keating's been a very busy guy over the last few years. Right around this time last year I was at SXSW covering his third feature, Pod, he also had Darling debut at Fantastic Fest in September 2015 and now we're back at SXSW for his fifth feature, Carnage Park. He's a director you should get to know and not just because he's dishing out films at an incredible rate - they're also quite good!
Carnage Park takes place in California in 1978 and stars Ashley Bell as Vivian Fontaine. All Vivian wants to do is go to the bank and secure a loan so she can save her family's farm, but then two thieves barge in and rob the place. Making matters worse, they kidnap her. Think that's bad? Then their getaway car breaks down in the worst possible place - an isolated piece of property in the desert that belongs to a former military sniper who enjoys picking off targets.
Prior to Carnage Park's debut at SXSW, I got the opportunity to sit down with Keating for an extended interview during which we talked about where he got his start in the industry, how and why he prefers to make films at such a fast rate, the challenges of getting Carnage Park off the ground, his next film Psychopaths, and much more. You can catch it all in the video interview below and, in case you missed it, click here for my review of Carnage Park.
Mickey Keating:
- 00:04 - Where he got his start.
- 00:53 - Why he makes films at such a fast rate.
- 01:32 - How he gets all of these films off the ground; how the financing for Carnage Park kept falling through.
- 02:33 - Being able to work on multiple projects at the same time.
- 03:36 - Where the idea for Carnage Park came from.
- 05:07 - Would he be able to survive Carnage Park himself?
- 05:45 - What scares Keating most.
- 07:02 - On working with Pat Healy.
- 08:22 - On working with Ashley Bell.
- 08:59 - His next project with Bell - Psychopaths; the cast and scale of that film.
- 11:00 - Having the energy to jump from one project to the next.
- 12:09 - Why he didn't serve as a producer on Carnage Park, like his other films.
- 13:18 - Why he didn't worry about production challenges on this shoot; the only real problem they had during filming.
- 14:15 - Not worrying about continuity when it came to the weather.
- 14:55 - His experience re-watching his past films.
- 15:50 - Would he ever consider making a big budget studio movie?
- 17:40 - Do budding young filmmakers come to him for advice?
