I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the director and lead actor of The FP, Jason Trost, and discussed some of his past and current projects.
Most of you will recognize Jason as the “beat beat nigga boot” wearing protagonist from The FP, the movie about Dance Dance Revolution gang fights I reviewed a while back. You may also recognize him from the trailers of All Superheroes Must Die, his latest film, just released on Video-On-Demand and to be released on DVD/Blu-Ray January 29th, 2013. I highly recommend you go check out the trailer, and Amazon and snag your copy.
Also, before we get started with this “literally copy and pasted from a Skype conversation” interview, if you haven’t seen my introduction to a local screening of The FP at MAGFest 2013, go check it out. It was a ton of fun and everyone (most people) seemed to enjoy themselves.
Nigel Daniel: Hello!
Jason Trost: Hey how’s it going?
Nigel Daniel: I’m doing well, how about yourself?
Jason Trost: doing pretty good
Nigel Daniel: To start off, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to have this chat with me.
Jason Trost: Yeah of course, no problem
Nigel Daniel: As mentioned previously, my name is Nigel and I run a website called Terrible Movies for Terrible People. Don’t let the name fool you, we review generally lesser known films and not always just the “bad” ones. My readers were pretty big fans of The FP.
Nigel Daniel: I had a few questions of my own, as well as a few questions that my readers were interested in hearing your answers to.
Jason Trost: Awesome, yeah I’m familiar with the site, FP’s #1 fan Frank Sanders love it
Jason Trost: Well fire away then!
Nigel Daniel: Excellent
Nigel Daniel: Where did the inspiration for The FP come from? Was this something that had been planned for a while, or did it come to you one day that a movie about DDR Gang Battles would be awesome to be a part of?
Jason Trost: Basically the one day scenario, I was playing Def Jam with my buddy lee (LDubbaE) when we were in high school and it just clicked, because we we’re also jacked on DDR at the time. Then we thought one night at 4am, why not fuze the two worlds?
Nigel Daniel: I think that’s great that “JTRO” and “LDubbaE” are friends in real life. That image makes me smile.
Jason Trost: We’ve known each other since we were like in 7th grade
Nigel Daniel: That also answers one of my readers’ questions, about whether or not you guys actually played DDR.
Jason Trost: Yeah we played for years. I actually doubled BTRO’s legs though, because he couldn’t do it
Nigel Daniel: That’ll look great on IMDB, “BTRO’s Stunt Legs”
Jason Trost: As if I needed more titles/jobs on that movie ha
Nigel Daniel: With the initial idea in place, how did The FP come to life? Was it a project for school? Or was it something your group went out and made happen of your own volition?
Jason Trost: I made some shorts in high school that were similar in structure to episodes of “The OC” why it was called The FP… yeah, the jokes that old. Then when I was 18 I wrote the script for the feature after my brother saw the shorts and told me to pursue it as a movie. Then when I was 19 I got a refund from film school after the first day and used it to fund a short that was the first ten pages of the script that ended up getting us the movie made.
Nigel Daniel: Do you feel that the final product is true to the spirit of the original shorts?
Jason Trost: It’s the toned down more widely appealing version, if you can believe that. Definitely happy with it though. And it’s true enough in spirit. A lot of the same dialogue.
Nigel Daniel: Toned down? Wow. I’m almost afraid to ask what was cut out. Well, almost. What kinds of things got cut out?
Jason Trost: Inside jokes, offensive jokes, the insanity of color filters, it was almost like a Joel Schumaker Batman movie
Nigel Daniel: Are those available anywhere for viewing? Like on YouTube or as DVD/Blu-ray extras?
Nigel Daniel: When scenes about digging in the sand for tampons makes the cut, I have to wonder what got taken out. That sounds amazing.
Jason Trost: I think some of them are on YouTube or vimeo somewhere. Sand digging tampons was exclusive the the movie
Nigel Daniel: A friend of mine purchased one of the higher level special editions of The FP, and he told me it included an autographed tampon. That’s just amazing.
Jason Trost: Yeah, I remember having to autograph 500 of those on my floor one day. That was pretty epic.
Nigel Daniel: Aside from the 500 tampon autographs, what would you consider to be the most memorable part of The FP’s creation?
Jason Trost: Wow. That’s tricky. It’s been an odyssey getting this film made and released. There were so many, the SXSW trip where we ended up seeing the movie to Alamo may have been the best though. It was a lot of the cast/crew of the movie tearing down Austin for a week. The war path to victory.
Nigel Daniel: Does JTRO’s story end with the liberation of The FP, or are there plans for another movie somewhere down the line? Also, if another FP movie was made, would you prefer a sequel or a prequel?
Jason Trost: I wouldn’t definitely prefer sequel. And we’ve always wanted to do a trilogy. They’re my dream movies. I have the outlines for 2 and 3. But unfortunately, The FP bombed (at least this far) and combined with our crappy deal with the distributor it’s going to take a long time for investors to be paid back. But maybe in the future if Brandon and I accidentally get rich we can use FP 2 and 3 as a tax write off when we need a loss. Ha.
Nigel Daniel: Have you considered an option like Kickstarter? If I recall correctly, the people behind ThanksKilling were able to use it to raise over $100,000 from fans to fund the recently released sequel, ThanksKilling 3.
Nigel Daniel: It’s unfortunate that The FP wasn’t as big a success as it could have been, but for what it’s worth, I know plenty of people who love it.
Jason Trost: Yeah that would be awesome, but they tax you on that and you lose a big chunk which is rough.
Jason Trost: Yeah The FP seems to be getting more steam now that it’s on Netflix. I think we just have to give it a couple years and let it finds its audience.
Nigel Daniel: I’ve got a reader who wanted to ask you, “Was the trauma that JTRO went through at the loss of his brother in any way personal to you?” Do you see JTRO as an extension of yourself, or is he just a character?
Jason Trost: Well considering my brother (also technically a BTRO) is alive and well, I’m not really JTRO. I think JTRO took a lot more shit than I would have if I were in his massive boots.
Nigel Daniel: Those boots are amazing.
Jason Trost: Yep. They’re in my closet right now.
Nigel Daniel: I’d like to imagine that sometimes, when no one’s looking, you wear them around the house.
Jason Trost: More often when people are looking
Nigel Daniel: Even better.
Nigel Daniel: In less than a week, I’ll be hosting a viewing of The FP for Games On Film at MAGFest 2013 in National Harbor, MD. Is there anything you’d like to say to an audience full of people who are about to watch The FP for the first time? Also, is there anything you’d like to say to an audience that has just finished watching The FP for the first time?
Jason Trost: Well, For people about to watch it I say, “It’s a joke, I promise.” And for people who just watched it I just pat them on the back and say, “You made it!”
Nigel Daniel: I’ll pass that along. 🙂
Nigel Daniel: A reader just texted me, he wants to know two things, “What is the most difficult song you can pass on DDR?” and “What is your stance on full frontal male nudity in cinema?”
Jason Trost: Most difficult song when I used to be in my prime was MAX 300. My stance on full frontal, It’s hilarious and I think we need more of it.
Nigel Daniel: A noble answer on both counts.
Nigel Daniel: Any upcoming projects you’d like to plug?
Jason Trost: Well I got my new movie All Superheroes Must Die coming out next week that I hope someone watches
Nigel Daniel: Where will that be available?
Jason Trost: VOD 1/1/13 Limited Theatrical 1/4/13 and Bluray/DVD 1/29/13
Nigel Daniel: Excellent.
Nigel Daniel: I’m just about out of questions, Jason.
Nigel Daniel: I’d like to thank you again for sitting down and talking with me about The FP.
Jason Trost: Yeah no problem
Nigel Daniel: I’m very excited to see your upcoming project, “All Superheroes Must Die” and I hope everyone goes to see it.
Jason Trost: Yeah hopefully I didn’t totally blow it on this one.
Nigel Daniel: I just had one last thing…
Nigel Daniel: If you’re ever near DC, I’d like to formally challenge you to a life-or-death Beat Beat Revolution match.
Jason Trost: You’re on, at this point I’ll probably get 187/d like a pussy bitch though… lost the eye of the tiger.
Nigel Daniel: I love it. Jason, you’ve been great. Good luck on your new movie and I’ll definitely let my readers know they need to go see it.
Jason Trost: Thanks a lot! This was a blast
Nigel Daniel: Agreed. Have a good one, man.
Jason Trost: You too! Take it easy.
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The Anti-Cameron Strikes Again!
I'm not entirely sure what this means. But thank you.