'A Knight's War' Director Matthew Ninaber On Crafting A Fantasy World In His Backyard

Dread Central

We spoke with 'A Knight's War' director Matthew Ninaber about his lifelong love of fantasy and constructing all of the film's set by hand.  Dread Central https://www.dreadcentral.com/  Check Out Our Podcast Network- https://www.dreadcentral.com/dread-podcast-network/  Grab your Dread merchandise, movies, and more- https://store.dreadcentral.com/  Follow Dread Central on social media: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/DreadCentral Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dreadcentral/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DreadCentral TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@dreadcentral

Transcript

00:00Okay, cool. Well, hi Matt. Matthew. It's so nice to meet you. Congratulations on a nice war. Thank you so much

00:05You'll to have it like almost out into the world

00:09You know, it's nerve-wracking. I'm like

00:12a lot of work went into this thing, so

00:18One thing real quick you were you the voice and the body of psycho gore man

00:23So I was the body of psycho gore man, but not the voice. So oh

00:29Cool. I wear I wear a version of your body on a pair of sweatpants pretty

00:34weird and cool at the same time, so

00:37That's awesome every Halloween I put on the mask and I walk around town so

00:44But it's so cool, okay

00:45I love that you are both acting and doing a lot of like

00:48Stunt monster work with it also making your own incredible films like a nice work and in the press release

00:54It said that this was partially filmed in your backyard and I really want to hear more about that

00:58How big is your backyard? Like I want to know what that what exactly that means because that's so yeah

01:05So just to give a quick backstory to make this movie

01:08I go into a lot of people to talk and said hey, I want to make this movie and people like you can't do it

01:12You can't do it. Like how are you gonna get a cast? I'm like, no, this is possible. This is possible. So

01:16I

01:18So I have not a big problem

01:21It's not small property

01:22but I live like maybe on just under half an acre like my neighbor is like I can throw a ball and it hits him and

01:28It's just a regular neighborhood

01:30so in the I was like

01:32I'm gonna make this movie and to prove that I can make the movie how to go build a castle

01:36Patrick from epic wanted to see it and

01:38So I just started building a castle in my backyard. The trampoline is right beside the castle as a chicken coop my neighbors

01:46Like a little fire pit is right there as well. So it is this

01:51Monstrosity that's still there and when you go in it, you feel like wow, you're in a fantasy movie

01:56but when you walk out of it, it's like oh wow, there's

01:59There's the chicken coop and there's the neighbor and they're having a little cookout like it is the most random thing

02:07But I'm like, I don't have money to go build the castle on some of I have to build in my backyard

02:12So I have to take it down and my wife's like this needs to leave

02:15I'm like it will it will but I might do a sequel. So let's just wait a little bit

02:18So yeah, I still have a castle back there

02:21That's so cool, though

02:24What does it look like look like a castle on the outside so on the outside no on the outside

02:28It looks horrible

02:29It if you've been on set before you'll realize that only one side of sets look good and the other side just looks like really

02:36Bad craftsmanship. It looks like cardboard and foam and and random things

02:41Working and like how

02:43Yeah, people are like what is this that and then for the witches scene

02:47We had to build this huge like almost like a circus tent over top of it to get the Sun so that song wouldn't come

02:54in so it looked like a circus was in the backyard and people were

02:58Walking out wearing monster suits the witches and and makeup wasn't at my house

03:03It was down the street at my brother's where we built the other castle

03:06So just down the street, it looks like people are just going on a walk, you know, which is

03:11Demon monsters everyone nights. It looks like we're just LARPing downtown and people like what's going on?

03:16Like this is this is we're not I don't live in a movie town

03:20So I live actually in horse and buggies go by like it's a Mennonite town. So it's such a

03:26paradox

03:28Like like yeah horse and buggies are going by and and then there's nights and there's so people visiting town

03:35We're just like what is what is going on right now? So yeah, we that's okay

03:40And you use your brother's house who is Bodhi, correct?

03:42Yeah, so my brother just lives down the street from me and we built a little garage

03:48And that's where we film all of our interiors which I'm in right now

03:50This is actually where I filmed a night's war. And so I flipped the sets right now. I'm sitting where the

03:57Sacrificial tank was sitting where people get drowned. So yeah, so I'll flip this into another movie at some point right now

04:06It looks like I'm sitting to a living room. It's not a living room. It's

04:09It's just where we make magic happen. So wait, that's so sorry fucking cool, though

04:14That's your podcast. You can say whatever you want

04:16Yeah, it's like it's so fucking cool that you're able to take a fan like his fantasy, you know fantasies are epic

04:22They're huge in scope and being able to make them and you in your backyards. Well, not only but a lot of like

04:29Backyards in a town like that is just I mean, I love movies. I love indie horror. It's just a magic. It's literal magic

04:37It's just so cool. It is it is and that's the thing is just like the sets aren't small either like it is

04:42It's a big

04:45Huge like they don't like they're tiny you're not like no, I don't think you're hiding anything in terms of size

04:51yeah, we we the foam is what we carved the castle out of and we

04:57We basically had three

04:59Hardware stores that ran out because we just kept on buying like give it all give me all of it and just and so yeah

05:05Around town people are just like what is going on?

05:07So but now people just don't from psychogormon to Death Valley to this movie like okay

05:11This is this crazy guy that makes monster movies and everyone else

05:19Monster it's not a real monster. It's yeah, that's a movie in and of itself a guy who makes monsters and oh

05:25It's not a real monster, but it's not real monsters. That would be a lot of fun

05:31But what I love about this besides like the incredible production design with the sets is

05:37You also have like really incredible character design and clothing design and wardrobe design

05:43So I wanted to hear more from you about what that process was like because that's not a doing that period stuff is not easy

05:48Either especially I'm assuming on a pretty indie budget

05:51No work for you to get all of this like armor and crazy costumes and masks like it looks so

05:58Yeah

06:00I've been wanting to make a fantasy movie since I was a kid

06:02so this was like this is the time to step into something and it's like I'm not going to it wasn't about making a

06:08Movie that I had money for was about making a dream come true. And so I was hunting begging

06:14Borrowing thinking and I've been like we spent so much time like the first set of armor. I actually made all out of foam and

06:23When we did the testing

06:25Everyone made fun of me

06:28It was just like really bad like

06:31Like I don't know like it was it was bad

06:34I thought I was good and I have good friends like man. I don't know how to say this, but it's really bad

06:40I'm like, okay. Okay. So hey, you know what they told you and that's they told me

06:45Need people like some people send their art to people to get like affirmation. I send my art to get crucified

06:50I'm like, I want to get better and and so then I realized we need real armor. So that's when we started

06:55Hunting we went and we ordered some stuff from Ukraine and then the war broke out and I was just okay

07:00And then we went and we were hunting everywhere. We ended up going all over the place. We drove down to

07:08Somewhere in the States. I don't even know where we went in the States

07:11It's a medieval depot and the head of a that a bargain bin of all the stuff that got scratched and returned

07:19It is but it's literally a factory of just like things to kill people with I'm like this is so much fun

07:24But they had a scratch bin and they're like you can have this at discounted rates

07:27If we had to buy everything at full price, we couldn't have done it because we need we need spares

07:31We need extras. So we're like diving into like this secondhand armor shop like and they're like, yeah, this is rusted

07:39There's a scratch my this is great

07:40This is amazing because this is gonna save us time because we aged everything and I'm like pre-aged perfect. Yeah

07:47It's not messed up. It's exactly what you exactly and then afterwards we just drag it behind a car just to get even worse

07:52But Darcy did such a great job

07:55The armor was really my brother and I going at the armor

07:58But the witches and the keeper and the invoker like those outfits those garments. That was Darcy

08:04She sewed those we went back and forth on like styles and she's like, okay

08:10But she would just out of nowhere just create like these like amazing garments

08:14I really love what she what she brought to it

08:17We ended up like going to fabric shops all the time. Just like picking out like little things like okay

08:21This would look cool it and I just for me. I loved every aspect of it

08:26Like I was there for the sets. I was there for the wardrobe

08:29I was there like it was just so much fun creating this world and you only got one shot to do it

08:34And that's why I was like, okay, let's let's let's make sure this works. So

08:39Yeah, well, so I'm assuming you grew up. Were you a fantasy like reading fantasy playing Dungeons & Dragons or play?

08:47I wasn't allowed to play Dungeons. I was a pastor's kid. That was like demon stuff. I was the devil. No

08:57No, no, but it's

09:00Background because I've always been drawn to like like witches and demons and being a pastor's kids just like don't do that

09:09Anyway, I love it. I think it's so much fun and

09:13And it's like, you know, my brother and I we've been swinging swords around forever and I just I loved I loved

09:20All of like Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy. I love the costumes from that and then getting into like Psycho Gorman

09:27I was like like it just it

09:29Psycho Gorman was such a great opportunity because it opened up my eyes to like what I could create because these movies that I've always

09:35Adored I'm like, oh this is possible. So anytime there's a monster now like because it's like a Gorman

09:41There's a bust that Steve has of me and anytime I want a monster

09:45He's like cool. It has to be you that wears it because I only have your head and that's all you can afford

09:49I'm like, yes, so it's like the monsters was always getting made off of off this face. It's like

09:56Because of that's opened up so many doors, right? So like I play the horned demon in this movie and

10:02and

10:03I don't know. Your question is how'd I get into this? I don't know

10:06I've just I've just been daydreaming of

10:09This stuff and there's a crazy

10:11There's a book called the book of Enoch which talks about Lilith which talks about demons which talks about how demons came down to earth

10:18And they were supposed to be the mentors to humans

10:20but then they led them astray and it's and then like and there's all these things and that's where like nights war really got me

10:26Thinking I'm like, oh man, like these gods these angels were supposed to be mentors

10:30But then they're like, ah screw it these little stupid humans. Let's rule over them instead. Do you know what I mean?

10:35It got me excited and when I started learning about Lilith and how it might have been Adam and Lilith first

10:41And Lilith was like, I don't like you Adam. I want to go hang out with some, you know demons

10:45Then she comes back and sees Adam with Eve and she's like, oh you did what I'm like, this is just so it's just so fascinating

10:50I'm just so fast. You had the Bible. I mean, I'm assuming you had to read the Bible quite a bit. Yeah

10:55No, so it's like surprise. It actually gave me ideas because there are a lot of cool stories in the Bible

11:02Stories in there are so amazing. I think people do a disjustice because they don't actually tell them

11:06I'm like, just just tell them like they're crazy

11:15Yeah, oh it's it's it's it's it's there's a lot of fun stuff in there so there's uh, yeah anyway

11:22So that's where I came from

11:24That's so cool, though

11:25And I mean, it's wild to hear that like a for a pastor son to making this but I how does your dad feel about it?

11:31Oh my dad loves my stuff and my mom just yeah, this is fun. This is fun

11:36So it's just like, you know, they're they're the greatest like my dad helped me build

11:39He's his names in the credits help me build the sets and if it wasn't for them

11:43It's just like the big thing is it's like to show

11:47Love you need darkness like to go to the dark place. You need light like it's kind of like this thing that

11:53I'm not verbalizing it properly. But

11:57Yeah, like I love dark stories that

12:00About like, you know going into pain and anguish and coming out a better person

12:04I think that's something that I love about Bodhi's like Bodhi's characters

12:08Like he's that friend that you just that never gives up on you and it's just like he just keeps going like Avalon betrays him

12:14I don't know how many I don't want to give away the movie but

12:18Opportunities to walk away. He's like no, I'm gonna stick the path and and it's just like anyway

12:22There's good themes in there that you need and you need dark witches to explore it with and I love the witches

12:27I think they're so like going to the costume design there so many people do which is

12:32They're just so regal and so royal and like they remind me of like, oh they look like they were goddesses like at one time

12:39Do you know I mean like these these anyway, so yeah

12:42Well, I love their teeth because I feel like so often they have when you have teeth like that in a movie

12:46It's hard to talk but they enunciate so I know that sounds silly like a small thing

12:51but it adds to like their character of feeling regal and having them feel like they were

12:56God like at one point they do have that fallen angel vibe with them

13:01And that was a hard thing to communicate to people because when people think witches they start doing the nose thing

13:06I'm like, what do you know stop?

13:07No, these are like these beautiful like goddesses that like they look like they took like the yeah

13:14They dominate it like they top of the game. So yeah

13:19They actually remind me of Hellboy to the Golden Army they have that kind of vibe the elves in that movie

13:25Yes, like a regalness

13:29Yeah, there's definitely like when you watch this you can you couldn't be able to point out different movies that have inspired me and stuff

13:34Like that Hellboy is definitely one of those. So yeah, they're okay. The hell of movies are great. I don't care

13:39Anyone says I love all my movies. They're so fun and so ridiculous. Yeah, perfect

13:45What what's it like working with your brother on all these movies because you you directed him in Death Valley too, correct

13:51So yeah, so it's not a new relationship. No, it's it's kind of like a like to rewind a little bit we both

13:58Are actors and we were spending so much time auditioning and it's such a hard thing to get a role that fits you that

14:05Works and we both kind of sat down just like what if we stopped auditioning? We just learned how to make movies

14:12And so that's kind of like where this I'm like we keep waiting for people to give us these roles

14:17But no one's gonna ask me to go swing a sword and ride a horse

14:20So why don't I just figure out a world where that can happen?

14:23And so for me, it's just like I'll take a little small move role at each one of my movies and for him

14:28It's just like I don't know anyone else that could do what he does

14:30like the armor was like

14:32So I like went full armor

14:34It's about a hundred pounds that he had on with helmet and everything and to carry that was just so

14:39Intense it was just it was just imagine people actually wearing that like back in the day when you had to fight in that stuff

14:46Like can you imagine that is like this would rank everyone has and he had to have but it's just wild to think about how

14:53Brawny you have to be to be able to wear that kind of thing all the time

14:57It's absolutely nuts. And when we did the photo shoot we put on all the armor and that's how I like to start my movies

15:02It's just take pictures of everyone just to kind of figure out their angles and what works and it was only 30 minutes

15:08Hey Matt, uh, I don't think I can wear this. Maybe we should wear the foam armor. Oh my hey, Jeremy

15:14I don't know how to say this but you're wearing the real stuff. We're doing the real

15:20Him and Kristen would always show up on set and they'd be missing pieces like they purposely try to leave a couple pieces behind it

15:27I'd be like coming with

15:30And if you try to take it off again

15:33I'll sew it to you. Yeah, and

15:36And so like yeah

15:38but again, like working with your brother's great because

15:41When you're with other people you have like this thing or it's like I have to be like, oh people's feelings

15:46I have to be nice and you have to put on this like show of like, you know

15:49Being a good director with Jeremy's just like why did you do that? Like why?

15:57Gives it right back to me and it's just it's just funny and the jokes on set everyone gets treated one way

16:03but Jeremy and Matt treat each other a different way because we're both like hey, how you doing really good and then we see each

16:08Other like what you want? You're late. You're late. Why are you late?

16:15Older who's older I am definitely the older one. So I appreciate that question. So

16:21Hey, I'm the oldest and I'd like never my brother looks older than me. So I never know so I never make assumptions

16:27I there you go. There you go

16:30So

16:31Would you make a sequel to it? It's where would we do you want to do more movie?

16:35Oh, man, we wrote like a Bible for this whole world

16:38Oh, I was wondering what the Lord and like all the cool stuff cuz a little see

16:44Yeah

16:45Lilith is our are like our main character the one that we really want to dive into and kind of build the world around and

16:51a Knights war is really like what's our entry point that we can do justice because again

16:56The world does get bigger and and we get more into the Lord and there's so many things I want to

17:02Explain and people are like, hey, man, you just gotta pull that back a little bit. I'm like, okay

17:06Okay, the next one the next one. So so I really like yeah

17:11We wrote we have two other movies that we're very interested in doing that is connected to this world

17:16And if we get the opportunity amazing, that would be like so awesome

17:21but again

17:21I'm just so happy with this movie like what we what we pulled off and the team and

17:26Like just to set the scale like there's sometimes I think our crew on average is about 10 to 12 people including actors

17:33So it's like it was such a small team and it was it's so crazy

17:37What we were able to like create and the fun that we have and I hate the word, you know

17:43We were like a family. I don't like that word. It feels very disingenuous. It was like we were like a cult and

17:52Even better and

17:53but it was it was so much fun making this movie and it was the hardest thing I've ever done like

17:58some of the locations that were the

18:00Exteriors were like it was like three kilometers from the side of the road to get to where the cave was and we had to like

18:06Load up a sled and like I'm pulling a sled

18:09Jeremy's pulling a sled with armor on Kristen's pulling a sled and then we have camera equipment and like we're traveling three kilometers like

18:16Almost two miles to get to this location

18:18it's up a mountain and then the cave is down the mountain in the middle and like this like it looks like a meteorite hit it

18:24And and people are falling down like the ice wall trying to get down there and like the first day

18:31I thought it's gonna lose everybody and somehow everyone stayed and said no we want to make this movie and

18:36I know Kristen and Jeremy both had a look at each other. We're like given side. I like you gonna quit

18:41I'm not gonna quit but if you quit I'll quit but if you're not quitting I'm not quitting

18:44so it was just like they got super competitive and

18:47but you bond you bond making a movie like this and

18:51and

18:53Yeah, every everyone's message means like when when we go in again, like there's a bomb that we're not making one this winter

18:58I'm like, man

19:00Okay. Yeah, let's let's get going

19:07And it's like you really do bond with people and you do it's so amazing about how much we all come together to tell

19:13these stories and like when you're the director you're like

19:16Do you guys hate this and then everyone it just like rallies around you and it just reminds you that it's a good story

19:21And I feel like that's such a good boost of confidence

19:23Like if your crew is behind it, then that's what mattered at least, you know what I mean?

19:27Like yeah, they're gonna show up. That's incredible

19:30and the other thing is there's something about making movies that attracts a certain individual like we're not normal if

19:38We're freaks

19:41We're just all full of isms, aren't we and none of us fit into society, but we're all good here and that's that's the thing

19:48I'm like, it's so freeing to be on set because you get to be the real you versus when you're trying to fit into

19:53Normal world. It's just like oh, what do normal people do?

19:59Like that was but it's so free it is so freeing like it's free all weirdos but like in the same similar artist way

20:06So exactly and it's all exactly yeah. Yeah, so so yeah, I obviously won't make another one

20:13Well, I hope you do because this was so impressive just like the effects and everything is just like wow

20:19This is thank you a crazy thing to accomplish with like such little resources and building in your backyard

20:24I mean it is movies are magic and this one is definitely a little piece of magic. I think so. Congratulations

20:30Yeah, and if you if you do get the blu-ray we cut together like a 30 minute like behind the scenes showing everything

20:37It is so funny to watch the movie and then watch the behind the scenes. It's just yeah

20:43I'm so glad you did that. I love that again, like normal world versus fantasy world behind. Yeah, that's so cool

20:50Well, it was so nice to chat with you about thank you and I'm so excited for everyone get to experience what you guys made

20:55It's again

20:56it's super impressive and just so cool to see what you can do if you have enough spirit and enough love for the story what

21:02You can and if you're dumb enough to do it, but yes

21:06Yeah, I wasn't gonna say that but you did not me

21:09Thank you so much. Thank you

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