A Conversation With The Scream Queen Of The Midwest, PJ Woodside, About Her Latest Film, FRANCES STEIN

PJ Woodside and her partner, Steve Hudgins at Big Biting Pig Productions in Madisonville, KY are creating quite a stir in the independent horror scene. They’ve put out a film a year for the last decade. Their most recent film, Frances Stein, was recently released on Amazon Prime and has been getting a steady stream of five star reviews. PJ Woodside wrote, directed, starred in and edited Frances Stein.

PJ Woodside spent the last decade honing her skills as a filmmaker, earning herself the title of the “Midwest Scream Queen”. Starting as a writer and community theater actress, where she first paired up with her filmmaking partner, she’s become an all around filmmaker who wears many hats. Frances Stein is killin’ the indie horror scene and recently won Best Horror/Sci-fi Feature at the Motor City Nightmares Film Festival.

Jacqui Blue for Film Inquiry: What was the inspiration for Frances Stein?

PJ WOODSIDE: I like to play around with cliché female stereotypes and blow them up in a way the audience doesn’t expect. I did this with Widow, my first movie, about a widow who is not what she seems;  The Creepy Doll, my second, about a pregnant wife and her difficult in-laws; and my third, Lucid, which centers on the “crazy girlfriend” situation. In Frances Stein, I started with the “bitter ex-wife takes revenge on new wife” scenario, but I knew from the beginning that things were not as they seemed.  As I worked on the early draft, it occurred to me that there haven’t been many “female mad scientists” in the movies. That’s when it clicked – how I could use Frankenstein as a touchstone and foundation for my story.

FI: How much of Mary Shelly’s original Frankenstein story would you say inspired yours? What’s different/similar?

PW: I know some folks will expect Frances Stein to be about sewn-together bodies, but for me the most interesting part of Shelley’s story is Dr. Frankenstein’s desire to play God, to create life where there is none, and how that backfires on him. In my story, Frances has different reasons for “creating life,” but her methods reflect the dark side of science, with an ambiguous morality – something that also occurs in Shelley’s original story.

FI: What does the story mean to you, personally?

PW: I make some commentary in the movie about smart women in roles of authority – that they aren’t given their due credit, are often thought of as bitches or crazy women, and that they sometimes aren’t allowed to take ownership of the successes they earn. This commentary is no accident – I’ve had to fight for my due as a female filmmaker, though I will say age has made this easier. I think more attention needs to be paid to stories that center on interesting characters who just happen to be women, and that’s why I keep writing them.

Also, I created a mature female character who has men of a younger age obsessing over her – and this is no accident either. We routinely see the situation of an older leading man with the gal 20 years younger as his sidekick, and I’m just so tired of it. I wanted to flop that on its head and do the opposite – just for fun. I don’t know if it works, but I enjoyed it!

FI: When preparing as an actress, how do you connect to (or disconnect from) your character as Frances in the film?

PW: I’m a very analytical person, and connecting with Frances came quite naturally. She is rarely flustered, never doubts herself, and is always five steps ahead of everyone around her. That’s me on a good day! Okay, on a very very good day. I fall apart far more often than Frances does, but you don’t get to see that part of her.

FI: As a writer, how many drafts did you go through before you were happy with it and said this is it?

PW: This one took a while. I’m amazed when I look at some of my early notes  how much this story has changed. I actually started writing it before I wrote Lucid, so it was in the till for at least four years. I thought I was done with the screenplay at one point and held auditions, but I knew it needed more work so I held off filming until I got it right. It feels like it went through 100 revisions, but it probably was only 25 or so, more if you count the times I made outlines or wrote treatments to get myself back on track.

The story started out linear, but I knew that if I wasn’t careful it would be seen as Jayne’s story. I didn’t want that. I needed to create a structure that would keep coming back to Frances, even when she’s not on screen. After a mentor of mine, Nick Faust, told me everything that was wrong with my first version, I set out to tell the story differently. That’s when I developed the interview/interrogator scenes. These gave us a lot of freedom to jump around, to hit key scenes, but also to keep the big question in the viewer’s mind: what happened to Frances?
One of the central characteristics of the interrogation scenes is the fact that Avery is lying. I knew if I could set this up right, it would create a fantastic element of suspense for the audience.

FI: How do you fund your films?

PW: We’ve done a couple of Kickstarters and used the money to pay for actors with some name recognition – T.O.N.E-z for this one, Bill Johnson and Joe Estevez for prior films. We’ve also had some backers who are serious fans. However, typically we fund our films out of pocket and just count on doing everything on a dime. We’re beginning to see some income  from VOD, and with our back library that is working out nicely for us.

However, we will always have the “garage band filmmaker” feel to us – we attract fans because we focus on what matters: story, creativity, ingenuity, and surprise. We avoid being slick and formulaic. Where we’re located, in the midwest, there aren’t many opportunities to be part of filmmaking and also be a regular 9-5 joe. We offer that, and our fan community has really grown.

FI: How would you say you’ve evolved as a filmmaker from where to started to where you are now with Frances Stein?

PW: I started out as a fiction writer, so shifting to visual storytelling is the biggest jump I have made. With each script I have learned more about filmmaking language, about conflict and on-screen intrigue, and about how to use the screenplay as a blueprint to continue the revisions in production and post-production. Overall, we’ve become better at planning. Since we do all the steps of the process ourselves, we know what we’ll have to do in post if something isn’t working on set. I’ve done a total rewrite in the editing room before (on Lucid, in particular), and it’s not the best way to work.

However, I have learned as much from editing as I have from filming and writing. Editing has, in fact, become one more step in the creative journey of a film. Seeing the story come to life and then seeing the audience react to that – there’s nothing like it. A bad edit can ruin a good movie, and a good edit job can make a mediocre movie much better. When you have good footage and good editing – that’s the best!

FI: Do you find it to be challenging to direct yourself while you’re also starring in a feature film? Or do you have someone who helps to direct you while you are on screen? How does that part of your process work?

PW: I knew it would be tricky keeping an objective eye while playing the title role, but I had great people to help me when it came to making decisions about my own performance. Steve Hudgins, owner of Big Biting Pig Productions and my filmmaking partner, takes over directing when I’m on screen. We’ve worked together so long that we know how to communicate quickly and know how to trust each other’s instincts.

We both like to act – in fact, we met while stage-acting – so we often take roles in our own films. As we’ve grown, we’ve pulled in a few other folks that we rely on to help us with all the areas of production. We have a system, at this point, and very few obstacles we haven’t encountered!

FI: What was the most challenging part of making this film?

PW: I would say getting the script right was the most challenging. Filming was actually easier this time – essentially because we knew exactly what we wanted for each scene, and shot only what we needed. I did very little rewriting in the editing room on this one. We did build Frances’ mad laboratory, and we had never built a set before, so that was a bit challenging.

I’m very proud of the music in this film. I worked with a couple of different local musicians for the original pieces. One of them  wrote the melody and lyrics, which we used in the fun “Frances Stein” music video. A fabulous local pianist then took that melody and developed several lovely piano pieces, which are at the core of the movie. We recorded her performance before filming began, so that we could more easily “fake play” the pieces with authenticity.

FI: How have audiences received the film?

PW: It’s been terrific.  We’ve cranked up the promotion since it just came out on Amazon streaming. The positive reviews keep coming in! We’ve had great reviews from Ain’t It Cool News, Famous Monsters Magazine Online, and Victor Miller, writer of Friday the 13th and a long-time fan of our work.

Watching Frances Stein at the premiere with that first audience was very, very special. The tone in the room was kind of magic. I always love that with our premieres, but this movie has a special place in my heart and for me it’s the best yet.

FI: What’s next for you?

PW: I actually have four scripts in the works. I consider myself a writer first, and though I will continue to produce movies with Big Biting Pig Productions, I am also interested in selling projects to outside buyers.  We just have far more good ideas than we have time to produce!

FI: And what’s next for Big Biting Pig Productions?

PW: We are actually in pre-production on our 10th feature film, It Lives in the Attic, which Steve wrote and is directing. I can’t say exactly what’s coming after that, but rest assured we have plenty of material for years to come. Join our mailing list and you’ll always know what’s coming up.

FI: When you’re not making horror movies, who is PJ Woodside?

PW: I’m a very creative soul, and always seeking to grow as a person and as an artist. I have two grown offspring, both brilliant and creative, and am married (long, long time) to a very supportive and creative man. I work part time as an adjunct instructor and tutor. I sometimes perform in plays. I sometimes perform as a singer. And I like to canoe and be outdoors. When I’m not working, you can find me with a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other.

For more information about Frances Stein or to check out PJ Woodside‘s films visit the official site for Big Biting Pig Productions.