JT Petty Q&A

Petty, a Severna Park native, completed the film when he was 21 as his New York University thesis. He also has made some short films. As a day job, he writes screenplays for video games.

"Soft for Digging" screens at the festival on May 4 at 9:30 p.m.

Q: How would you describe "Soft for Digging?"

Petty: I would place it more on the arty-horror movie end. There are some experimental things about it. It's gotten the most positive response from teenagers. It's a horror movie with as little dialog as possible.

Q: Why did you choose to use minimal dialogue in the film?
Do you find writing dialogue difficult?
Can you pay the actors less if they don't have many lines?

Petty: I feel like that is what's special about movies. When I see movies of people standing around and talking, I feel like that could be a play or a radio show. One example I often use is "Road Warrior." It is purely about movement. I wanted to make a movie with visual storytelling. Whenever I came upon a problem, I would say 'How could I do this as visually as possible?' The movie is a mystery about following and watching people. It has voyeuristic aspects. Without the dialog it forces people to watch it and become voyeurs.
I love writing dialog. In my current job -- writing screenplays for video games -- I write hundreds and hundreds of pages of dialog. In the game I'm working on now, "Splinter Cell" (a Tom Clancy license), the dialog is overwhelming. There are close to 1,000 pages because you have to account for all possible scenarios.
You don't have to pay actors less. According to a New York University agreement, I don't pay the actors until I sell the movies. That's a standard film school agreement.

Q: What was the inspiration behind the story?
Petty: There was never really a childhood experience. I knew I wanted to do a movie with as little dialog as possible. I knew I wanted to do a horror story. I liked the idea of a person carrying a spirit from one place to the next. Playing with horror conventions. I needed to stick to the conventions of the horror genre so people could understand it without the dialog. And in a way, I sort of tried to twist it away from genre conventions.

Q: How did you choose the location?
Petty: We were really lucky about locations. We chose them based on where we could get permission to shoot. I liked the woods near Elkton because they held a dense crowd of trees and it looks like everything died 10 years ago. The orphanage was closer to Severna Park, but -- even though it was 10 minutes from where I grew up -- I had never seen it. It was an enormous, creepy, fantastic location. It seemed perfect for a horror movie. Virgil's cabin was in Northern Virginia. It was a great place, formerly owned by one of the men behind the Manhattan Project, so we kept finding neat things in it. It's maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. They told us that one of his conditions for giving the cabin to the club was that he would be buried in the front yard, three feet deep and facing up.

Q: How much were you influenced by "The Blair Witch Project?"

Petty: Not at all. We were shooting at the same time. I hadn't heard of it until "Soft for Digging" was being edited. The only comparison is the location and being in the woods. "Blair Witch" incorporated that pseudo-documentary style and found footage. "Soft for Digging" is so formal. It's rigorously planned and composed. I love "Blair Witch." I think it's really good, but I didn't like it as much as I liked the trailer. That was so classy.

Q: Have you written screenplays for any popular video games? Which ones? What are your favorite games?

Petty: I've done "Batman Vengeance" and "Tarzan Untamed." "Splinter Cell" will come out this holiday season. It's a big deal. I don't really play that many video games. "Ico" on Playstation 2 is fantastic, but I never really played games that much. Most of what I get out of games are very reptilian emotions. If I want to experience rage or fright, I'd still rather watch a movie.

Q: What are the differences between writing for video games and writing for movies?

Petty: In games, it's still a developing art form. It's still so early in the process of telling stories. We don't really know what we're doing with the technology. There's the whole problem of interactivity. with a movie, you can control things so completely. All the video games I've written have been big licenses, which means there are big corporations who can tell me if I'm doing it right. There are things that can't be done in a Batman story, for instance. With a video game, it can take one and one-half years to write the screenplay. It's completely different because you can't write everything that will happen. after the first draft, we change the script to make it more interactive or to make a more satisfying puzzle.
Writing video games has made me a whole lot more efficient in how I tell stories. You've got to be able to tell the story as quickly and efficiently as possible. A lot of times when I'm watching movies, I get really impatient. I like movies that treat time as precious. Every moment needs to give you something.

Q: What is your favorite genre to write or direct?

Petty: I'm not sure. Everyone wants me to do horror movies because I made one. I'm certainly interested in scaring people. Samurai movies are my favorite, but I don't know that I could make one just because I'm not close enough to the subject. I'd love to make Westerns. I wish people were still making them. I'm certainly interested in darker stories. Millions of people like watching violence on screen. That confuses me, but it certainly interests me.

Q: Have you ever considered meshing your video game and movie jobs?

Petty: Hollywood is real big into adapting video games right now, but I think it's still just a movie and probably not a very interesting one. Video game stories are still pretty clunky. It's not a more interesting movie and not an evolution of video games. It doesn't add to the experience for me. I'd probably like to get more of a range of emotion in the video games. The next evolution would be to tell stories in interesting ways in video games.

Q: Which do you prefer: Writing, directing, editing or producing?

Petty: Directing. It's where you can tell the story as you'd like to. I love writing, as well. I'm interested in telling stories visually and the straightest way to do that is directing. I'd love to leave producing behind. It's an exhausting, long, hard process.

Q: Which films or directors had an impact on your decision to be a filmmaker?

Petty: I'm not sure. It's what I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember. I've tried to make movies since I was 8-years-old. At that age, it was probably "Dumbo." That's a fine movie. There's nothing darker or sadder than "Dumbo." [Directors such as] Kurosawa, Scorsese and Buster Keaton fundamentally altered the way people watch movies. Keaton conveyed so much by how he used the camera.

Q: What's next for you?

Petty: Right now I'm writing a script for Dimension. I've got my own script that I'm working on, as well.

Q: Do you plan to set future projects in Maryland?

Petty: Sure. I don't have a Maryland trilogy in my head, but the woods I got for "Soft for Digging," I don't think I could have gotten elsewhere. I'd love to come back and make more movies there. So much of my imagination is based there.

Q: Are there particular films you're looking forward to seeing at the festival?

Petty: I'm real interested in seeing "How to Draw a Bunny." I'm real excited about the John Waters thing that he's doing. "Claire" is exciting. I'll definitely try to see that.

Q: Do you have any advice for film students trying to break out of the pack?
Is there a secret to making a film on a really tight budget?

Petty: Do what you're good at. Try to set limitations. Don't try to make your "Bridge Over the River Kwai" as your breakout movie. It's really smart to set strict limitations on yourself. Tarantino did that with "Reservoir Dogs." He used essentially one set and was good with dialog, so that's what he did. Making a movie is really hard. Making it at home helps. My mom cooked. Having family help out was really great. It saves money if you know what you want.