Lights, Camera... Action! With: Indie Filmmaker/Graphic Novelist Joe Wilson

Lights, Camera... Action!

Today’s Pamela DuMond Author interview is with:

Joe Wilson

who is a storyteller (writer/director/video editor/camera operator/producer).

Hi Joe!

Thanks for being here today. Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Hi! Thanks for having me! I love what you've done with your font. 

I started telling stories using the still image.  As a photographer, I met lots of different kinds of people because I had a camera around my neck and I heard a lot of stories I never would've without taking pictures. Photography led to me drawing, creating installation art, performance art, acting, doing stand up comedy, screenwriting and playwriting. I've also worked as a private investigator, waiter and bartender, where I met more people, including members of organized crime, and heard even more stories. 

After banging my head against the entertainment industrial complex as a screenwriter and actor in Los Angeles, I could see the historical changes happening in telling stories online and decided to go completely indie as a storyteller, making stories with the help of the audience who wants to see them. Since making that decision, I've created two online series (Vampire Mob & PlayShorts), met thousands of people online and have had the most fun I've ever had as a storyteller. 

Okay Joe – you’re on my radar because you’re working on something super cool called 

Vampire Mob.

True! Vampire Mob is the first series I created (which you can watch watch right now, with swearing http://www.VampireMob.com) and was to have a third season but we lost the great Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons, The Bob Newhart Show) who plays one of the main characters. With a script that is longer than the first two seasons combined and that had numerous scenes including Marcia's character I had to decide to recast her role, rewrite season three to address her character's absence or maybe stop telling the story. 

One idea that was floating around was to create Vampire Mob as a graphic novel and that seemed like one that would allow me to keep Marcia's character "alive" and to continue telling the story I wanted to, so that's what's happening, right now! 

What was your inspiration for Vampire Mob? 

While I was working as a private investigator in the intellectual property field I had a case that involved a mafia-related term and during the investigation I had a conversation with someone who thought I was someone else (part of the job). I said something along the lines of "There's so many vampire stories, and we haven't had a mafia story in a while, where's the vampire mob story?" 

None of the vampire stories on screen appealed to me and I thought about trying to find another way into the genre as a writer, to keep some of the basic elements of the mythology, but lose all the mysticism. 

I started cooking Vampire Mob as a short film script and the first realization of the story was as a short play called "Craig's Other List," which was performed twice. I continued to see the world growing as I developed VMob and thought telling the story as an episodic would give me the opportunity to tell a bigger story. 

I made the first season with my own money and the amazing VMob audience contributed the budget to make the second season of Vampire Mob, which would not exist without their help. It's been one helluva ride making two seasons of Vampire Mob!

After working with 21 actors and a giant dog making Vampire Mob as an online series, I've begun the process of creating Vampire Mob as a graphic novel, working with artist JM Ringuet & creative consultant Corey Blake. 

The script for issue 1 is locked-ish and JM has created the cover, which I've been showing parts of on Twitter (@VampireMob).

I will be having parts of the Vampire Mob graphic novel created to show the audience who I will be asking for help to create the first issue, initially digitally and, budget allowing, having copies printed. 

Why—out of all the ideas swimming around in your brain were you compelled to work on this?

It seemed like it would be a fun.  

Vampire Mob has been a life changing project, one that taught me more than anything I've ever worked on and one that allowed me to find an audience for the stories I tell. It was also a story I wrote with Marcia Wallace in mind, before ever asking her to be in it. She said yes! 

I love the giant ensemble of flawed characters who inhabit the world of Vampire Mob. It's still a fun story to tell there's a whole lot more of it waiting to be told. I can't wait! 

Thanks for hanging out with us today, Joe! Keep us updated on the Graphic Novel process!

And because this blog is DAY LATE -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you and Kathy Zaloga!

xo

Pam DuMond