Q. How did you get involved with "The Stunt People"? Are you still a part of the crew?
A. About 5 years ago, it was pointed out that we all lived in the San Francisco bay area, so I tagged along and started doing camera work and other miscellaneous help on their shorts/demo vids. It just grew from there.

A year and a half ago I moved down to Hollywood, so my adventures in the stunt world don't go on as much, though we still meet up at conventions and promote the name.

Q. I've read that for "Undercut" you designed the action around the camera moves, which is opposite of the norm isn't it? Tell us more about that.
A. Ya, much of that was planned way in advance.

Action has a lot of elements...rhythm, originality, etc...but the thing that wraps it all up is how it's shot. So I came up with general camera movements and angles weeks before shooting and told choreographer Eric Jacobus + The Stunt People certain perimeters to fill in. For example, rhythmically this shot should have 6 hits and I'm going to have the camera do X Y and Z. So the specific details of the choreography would be created around these earlier plans w/ camera and props. They'd decide which moves work cool in a sequence of 6 hits while considering what hits work with that angle, since camera angle depicts whether a fake hit looks like it contacts or not. It was a balance of previous planning mixed with improvising, what looked cool, flowed well and felt painful.

Q. The scene where the camera moves between the two guys as they're fighting, kind of taking on the perspective of one of them momentarily, was amazing! Was that a Reedy original idea? Tell us more.
A. Haha, ya, a lot's been done in fight scenes and I thought it'd be fun to try it. There's a couple of fun action moments like that which people tend to point out, so that's nice of you to notice.

Q. What were some of your other favorite parts of the film and why?
A. Action! Fans of independent action cinema know that The Stunt People do amazing fighting, so naturally each member of the crew in Undercut had their own tricks and ideas. I'm happy with everything they did...and they deserve it...especially given the extreme 110 degree type conditions we were in everyday. Aside from that, I'm happy with trying things that are perhaps new to how martial arts movies are constructed, be it a satirical story revolving around outsourcing, or how the action was done.

Additionally, people who love action really respond well to the movie.

On the flip side, I'm also happy that people who generally hate action movies and/or might not always appreciate the formula of "Kung-Fu cop vs. Tae Kwon Do bad guy" or "ancient chosen one fights evil force" seemed to cling onto the fight motivations in this. And the girls LOVE ninja dog, which was a valuable lesson in life no educational institute could ever teach.

Q. Are there any scenes in particular that came out much better than you expected? Much worse?
A. The movie is 4 years old. Through 4 years of experience, education and research since then, I've learned a lot, so of course there's the "oh man, I could've done it like THIS! or like THAT!"

The satire is thick in parts. Some groups of people, say, people who liked TEAM AMERICA'S satire, eat it up and love it while others are so-so with it. So for half the people out there, it could be reeled back. But I am extremely happy with its balance of story, action and originality and am fortunate so many people feel the same way.

Q. There seemed to be a lot of property destruction in the film. Has it been hard to keep the police from seeing the film?
A. The police are scared of The Stunt People and their superior kicking abilities.

Q. What kind of equipment did you use for filming? Any technical tips or tidbits you'd like to share for aspiring filmmakers?
A. I don't think I have any mind blowing advice, but I like the hierarchy of "creativity beats money." On the DVD, there's a commentary track as well as a fairly in depth making of documentary that runs from quirky filmmaking techniques (like how we blew up a van for $1) to what wet dog food tastes like (hint: meat flavored Jell-O meets toxic beach sand). It's probably the most educational thing any of us will create until one of us dies for common sense reasons, setting an example for generations to come.

Q. The musical score for "Undercut" was funky fantastic! Can you tell us more about the composer and how your relationship with him came about?
A. Anton Patzner did the music! I saw him perform in one of his many bands and asked if he was interested. He said no. Then yes. Then probably thought twice about that answer after seeing the intense work regiments he'd have to live in for many months.

He's awesome and can do anything, so we could bounce around ideas, from comparing techniques of Jon Brion scores to the Enter the Dragon theme.

He had great ideas, like how (villain) Chinese Ninja Andy would have a synth based theme and (hero) Ninja Eric would have a string based theme. When they face off, it comes together in strategic moments.

If you like his stuff, definitely look him up and his other projects.

Q. Can you tell us what some of your primary cinematic influences were for the screen fighting sequences in your film? Any particular styles, directors, genres that you particularly wanted to emulate or avoid?
A. I watched HOUSE OF THE DEAD and used variations of the ridiculous dialog to create the governor's ridiculous dialog. For reals.

Q. What's coming up next from Stephen Reedy, and how can we stay abreast of developments?
A. I've been very lucky to be busy since this movie. After running through the film festival world with this, I spent a year cutting theatrical movie trailers for stuff like Transformers, Grindhouse, Smokin Aces, etc. I left that and have had the fortune to get paid to do directing stuff for places like Sony and Warner Brothers, with new work on the horizon. More recently though is a project through Image Comics where Jesus and the Antichrist team up as a crime fighting super duo to fight hypocritically violent pro-life extremists. It's 36 pages of craziness included in a huge short story anthology called POPGUN. It's found in stores everywhere.

And who knows, perhaps an Undercut comic someday?

I'm too cheap to have a website, but random ongoings are found on my Myspace, for any savvy internet detectives who care enough to search for it (both of them).