The Encounter: Robert Conway Interview

5th May 2015

Look out Spielberg, director Robert Conway is following your trail of M&M’s towards a hit with The Encounter, a Close Encounters-esque extra-terrestrial jaunt that hits DVD and VOD June 2.

Where did the idea come from, Robert?

The biggest scours of inspiration for me came form YouTube. There are thousands of UFO sightings videos posted and I thought it would be cool to make a sightings video into a full-length film.

And how much were films like Close Encounters, The Thing, and Dreamcatcher an inspiration?

Close Encounters and The Thing are great films and I’m a huge fan of them. Also, Predator, Fire in the Sky and Alien were great sources of inspiration for me when writing the script.

The original teaser poster was terrific, but it didn’t suggest it was so much of a horror movie as it was a science-fiction movie. Does the new DVD cover more perfectly encapsulate what the film is about?

I think it’s really both a Horror and a Sci-Fi. I’m a huge Sci-Fi fan and I love everything Sci-Fi. I’m also a huge Horror fan and love making Horror films because there are endless subgenres to explore. I will say though that the new artwork does help clarify that it is a horror film, which is important. In the original script there was more sci-fi tech talk about the who, what, when, why but I felt that too much exposition really messed with the pacing and it was better to go with a streamlined but open ended flow. So I would say it’s more Horror then Sci-Fi but the Sci-Fi is still there to the point where I like to think of it as a cross genre film.

How important is sound to a movie like this?

Sound is VERY important on a film like Encounter. It was also one of our biggest creative hurdles. We had many great films to reference about how an alien would sound or what noise a UFO makes but I never want to simply borrow from other films so it took us a while to find the right effects that sounded out of this world but original at the same time.

Who was the production designer? They deserve props! It looks great!

My production designers were the awesome team of Liz Bradley and Christopher R. Smith. Also Cory Vandenboss who made the creature suit and Jon Alexander who created the alien pods. Then our very talented VFX team of Borja Ortiz and Kyle Schlosser who really deserve a special shout out for their amazing work.

What extras can we find on the DVD?

Well there is my very insightful and inspiring commentary track! LOL Also, I think a very funny BTS vid and plenty of interviews with cast and crew.

How would you prefer audiences watch the movie? Via the VOD or the DVD?

I’m just happy if they watch it ☺ I would say that the cool thing about the DVD is the special features. We have some pretty funny stuff on there and that’s always cool when people can see how much fun we have making scary movies.

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