ATTACKAZOID grants interview, promises death by laser later

What would Brian Lonano do? Sorry, couldn’t help it, but seriously, I shouldn’t make jokes because this guy could send an ATTACKAZOID - one of the diabolical, laser spraying giant robots in his unbelievably good short ATTACKAZOIDS! - to turn me into paste. The young and dripping-with-talent Lonano recently answered a few of our questions. Show some respect for our new mechanical overlords and read it.

Crackle: What’s your background? Was filmmaking a lifelong goal?

Brian Lonano: I’m 24 and I live in Staten Island, where I’m an assistant editor at a News Channel. Though working in TV is interesting, film has always been my passion. I was and still am a big sci-fi geek and watched the “Star Wars” movies countless times on VHS. However, the film that inspired me to pursue filmmaking was “Jurassic Park.” I was 10 years old when I saw that and since then I have done everything in my power to make movies, either as flip books, pictures from a disposable camera, or my VHS-C camera that I didn’t get until High School. And to boot, every movie I made either had a space-ship, a robot or a monster in there somewhere.

Crackle: Of course, War of the Worlds is an easy reference point for ATTACKAZOIDS!, but what were your other inspirations, film and otherwise, for the short?

BL: You hit the nail right on the head. Another book that really inspired me is “The Martian Chronicles.” For a while, the dream was to make that into a movie if I ever made it in the Industry. But instead of dreaming, I decided with my brother to write our own Alien Invasion. When writing and developing “ATTACKAZOIDS!” my brother Kevin and I watched films like Invaders from Mars, Forbidden Planet, Children of Men, The Evil Dead Trilogy and all of Tim Burton’s movies. Music also helped a lot with the creative process. I’d listen to “The Rite of Spring” and other intense classical music while day-dreaming about scenes in the film.

Crackle: Science fiction seems like a genre that doesn’t find its way into a lot of short film—maybe for budgetary reasons. Can you talk about the challenges and rewards of shooting sci-fi on the cheap, and in the format of a short film?

BL: Budget is definitely a reason why sci-fi doesn’t show up too often with aspiring filmmakers. I will never have the money to have Industrial Light & Magic do the effects for my films. To be honest, I didn’t want [ATTACKAZOIDS!] to be heavy on the CGI. I love stop motion animation and miniatures. Kevin and I wrote the script in such a way to keep the background and the effects very minimal. I love shooting people in dark voids. If you give the audience a little taste of a special effect, I don’t think you need to bludgeon them over the head with it at every [opportunity]. We showed Holly Lynn Ellis walking down the street with the buildings in the background and after that we never had to show her and the town miniature in the same shot again. Same goes for the ATTACKAZOID: there’s only one shot in the whole film that has more than one ATTACKAZOID.

Below: ATTACKAZOIDS!

Crackle: You display a real love of gore in ATTACKAZOIDS!, and I noticed that you’ve shown your films at a few horror festivals. What are the three most disgustingly gory scenes ever put to celluloid?

BL: I’m actually not a big fan of gore… but I really enjoy over-the-top stuff like the head explosion in “Scanners.” It’s so ridiculous. That was the sort of gore I wanted in “ATTACKAZOIDS!” I get squeamish with scenes like the crucifix sticking in “The Exorcist” and the eye goop scene in “Hostel” but I have no problem with blood explosions, geysers or elevators in movies.

Crackle: You can help settle an internal debate at Crackle. Death by ATTACKAZOID laser: instant and painless, or instant and excruciating?

BL: When you are dealing with an ATTACKAZOID, I’m afraid there is nothing painless about the experience. What I imagined was the laser blast heats you up to the point where you burst like a bloody water balloon.

Crackle: Can you talk about the actual technical process of bringing the Attackazoids to life?

My good friend Jeff Jenkins is fantastic with models and stop motion animation. The script was very vague on what the ATTACKAZOIDS looked like. I originally suggested they look like walking flying saucers with metal claws and one big eye that shoots lasers. Jeff suggested it look more militarized so he drew up a sketch but he wasn’t sure if he could pull off the design. He had spare parts in his house that looked like a gun so he finally told me that it was going to be a big gun with arms and legs. I was sold. I gave him a shot list and storyboards of everything I needed the ATTACKAZOID to do. Jeff attended the outdoor shoot so he could [make sure the lighting in his] shots would match the live action footage. After we wrapped the outdoor shoot for the massacre sequence, he started animating right away back home in North Carolina. I can’t say enough how happy I am with his hard work on the film. Jeff really did an amazing job and I’m so grateful.

Crackle: What projects are you currently working on?

BL: I’ve got “ATTACKAZOIDS!” on the brain. We are sending it to film festivals right now and we’ve been brainstorming new stories. Kevin and I wrote a prequel called “ATTACKAZOIDS, DEPLOY!” and we also have an idea for a part 3. [We also] want to create webisodes that focus on different aspects of the “ATTACKAZOIDS” universe, dealing with characters such as the inventor of the killer robots, the man who supplies the ominous voice, one of the victims of the attack and more back-story as to why the ATTACKAZOIDS came in the first place.

The official ATTACKAZOIDS! website is Robot Hand Films.