Chris Bickel - all photos courtesy of the artist
Chris Bickel has been a staple in the Columbia creative community for a couple of decades. From his imprint on the local and national punk scene to masterminding one of Columbia’s favorite karaoke show for years, he leaves an incredible mark on any genre he touches. Despite earning a Media Arts degree from the University of South Carolina, he never ventured into filmmaking until a few years ago when he directed the wildly popular THETA GIRL. After being named the 2020 Free Times Best Filmmaker in Columbia Jasper decided to check in with Chris and ask about the progress of his new film and see how he has adjusted to the new landscape we live in.
JASPER: Chris how have you been adjusting to the pandemic? How has the shutdown affected you personally?
BICKEL: It hasn't really affected me that much. My day job (record buyer at Papa Jazz Record Shoppe) never really stopped. Although the store was shut down for a bit, I was still in there working. We wrapped shooting on my new film (BAD GIRLS) right before the pandemic started, so I've been in post-production on that during my evenings and weekends -- so pandemic or no, I'd still be holed up at home working during this time. I'm not the most social person in the world anyhow, so aside from the general feeling that the world is ending, the pandemic has affected me very little.
JASPER: After the run of Theta Girl ended it seems you went straight into producing your new film Bad Girls. Was producing a 2nd film so soon after Theta Girl your plan from the start?
BICKEL: After THETA GIRL was finished, I did the festival circuit with it for almost a year while trying to pin down distribution -- which ended up being something of a fiasco (par for the course in indie film). Once THETA GIRL had a legitimate release, I began work on a second film called SISTER VENGEANCE. I wrote that script with Shane Silman, casted it, and then set up a production schedule. The lead quit a few days before the first shoot day, having decided that traveling every weekend from Atlanta for two months was going to be too difficult. I tried to recast, giving myself six months to fill that lead role but I couldn't find anyone locally that I thought was a fit, so I shelved SISTER VENGEANCE and set about writing BAD GIRLS which was loosely adapted from a stage play called GIRL GANG RAMPAGE, written by Shane. What may have seemed to someone from the outside as jumping right into BAD GIRLS from THETA GIRL, actually involved -- to me -- a lot of false starts and wasted time.
JASPER: Give everyone a taste of what Bad Girls is about.
BICKEL: Here's the log line: "After robbing a strip club, three desperate teenage girls lead a misogynistic Federal Agent on a lysergic cross-country chase, scoring a duffle bag full of money, drugs, and a crew of willing kidnap victims along the way.” I see BAD GIRLS as a punk rock road movie somewhere at the intersection of FASTER PUSSYCAT, KILL KILL and DOOM GENERATION. It's an existentialist fantasy wrapped in the package of an exploitation film.
L-R Shelby Lois Guinn, Morgan Shaley Renew, Sanethia Dresch
JASPER: Theta Girl received great reviews and had great fan response. What was the biggest part of the learning curve for you in directing your first feature?
BICKEL: The hardest part of filmmaking is people wrangling. Working on such a small scale, budget-wise, you end up wearing many different hats and it's impossible to be a master of all of them at once.
JASPER: What experiences did you take with you from Theta Girl to producing Bad Girls to make it a better overall production experience?
BICKEL: The first time you do anything you make a million little mistakes. One hopes that in their second time around they can half the number of mistakes. The number one thing I've learned is that you can't plan ahead enough. The more you think through before the day of shooting, the easier it is when unforeseen problems arise.
JASPER: How has the shutdown affected post-production and the release of Bad Girls?
BICKEL: The only thing affected really is the release schedule. I still don't know if a theatrical premiere is a wise decision, nor do I know if doing a festival run is a good idea. I may have to rethink the method in which the film is rolled out. I honestly don't even know if we'll have a country left after November. I'd like to have the movie out by December -- if, you know, there's still an America.
JASPER: Micro budget/indie film production can be intensely satisfying and a bit self-abusive in the physical toll it can take. How has your experience been finishing Bad Girls?
BICKEL: I'm not on a deadline, so I'm working at my own pace to make it the best thing it can be. Viewing it as an underground film, it's going to have warts by the very nature of its low budget and the lack of experience of everyone involved (myself included). But I think people are willing to overlook the flaws as long as they are entertained. So, my main focus during this time is doing whatever it takes to ensure that the movie is wholly entertaining and hopefully thought-provoking. All of this would be easier with money to pay other people to do some of the work -- money to not need a "day job." I consider this an obsessive hobby. So even when I'm pushed to the point of exhaustion, it's still FUN for me -- even if in a masochistic way.
JASPER: Any words of wisdom for new micro budget indie filmmakers?
BICKEL: Finishing is the most important thing.
-WS