REVENGE OF THE MAILMAN

Keith Mosher on the set of “One Long Day.”

Working as a Las Vegas city carrier for the United States Postal Service, Keith Mosher has no doubt seen his fair share of long days. The 37-year-old has clocked in many a draining 11 hour shifts as a mailman for the past five years.

Well, like Peter Finch’s character in the film “Network,” Mosher is mad as hell and not gong to take it anymore. Instead of picking up a gun and “going postal” at his day job, however, the six-year Army veteran decided to pick up a camera and make a dark comedy/action film. “One Long Day” is the result.

Gruff is mistaken by some gangsters as somebody that owes a lot of money to the Revario crime family. When they kill his beloved pet Fluffy, all hell breaks loose as Gruff has one hell of a day seeking revenge “Desperado” style, settling the score with someone... anyone... everyone. Directed by Mosher, the violent opus stars a fellow mailman as Gruff and is slated to have its first 15 minutes screened at the High Desert Shorts International Film Festival in Pahrump. A winter 2008 world premiere is also being planned.

Oh, did I mention I have a small cameo in the film as a gun-totting unnamed Thug? Yes, I answered an ad placed by Mosher on Craigslist, which is where he found most of his large-numbered cast and crew, and I spent a couple of days out in a desolate spot in the desert filming. Completely impressed by Mosher’s epic-sized little film that features lots of stunts, gun fights and cool locations, I decided to do a Q&A with the first time movie maker to see how he’s been able to pull it all off. Still in the final stages of completing “One Long Day,” Mosher gladly shared the below answers to my questions. Mosher talks casting, inspiration, budget, locations and stunts. I also prodded him for his thoughts on post office bloodshed, Uwe Boll’s “Postal,” violence against dogs in cinema and more. By the way, for those that want more details on his project, Mosher also has a book planned that will provide even more helpful hints to making an action film on a micro budget.

Keith Mosher directs Chris Schaub.

CCF: Keith, first off, let me say thanks for taking the time to do this Q&A. I know you are pretty busy getting “One Long Day” edited and finished. This is your first time directing a feature, what made you decide to jump in and do it?

KM: My wife is ultimately responsible for igniting the fire in me. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a big Hollywood director. At some point, I let my circumstances take control and just got stuck in a rut of a nine to five job (or in my case a seven to six, but you get the point). Once she got me excited about my long lost dream, I bought a book by Robert Rodriguez titled “Rebel Without a Crew.” I powered through it in two days and decided to just do it, I was going to make a movie.

CCF: How did you go about starting the project and what inspired this particular story?

KM: The story for “One Long Day” came about from my love of animals. Whenever an animal (particularly a dog) gets hurt or killed in a movie, it makes me sadder than seeing a person get the same treatment. The story and characters for my film have been a work in progress for a number of years... Just random thoughts in my head really. I never really sat down to put anything on paper. That is, until I decided to make the film.

CCF: Right, so is the dog in the film played by your dog or just based off your dog? What’s his name and what’s the character’s name?

KM: Fluffy the dog in our film is played by Rosco - a Daschund or “Hot Dog Dog” as Tony likes to refer to him. Initially, I wanted a poodle to play the part of Fluffy, but early on this film started to go from dark comedy to almost a parody. So, in my mind, it was funnier if Fluffy was not only played by a short haired dog, but also one that is as far from an attack dog as one can imagine. Plus, Brett Looney, my production assistant just happened to own a very well trained Daschund that was perfect for the role.

CCF: I’m not a big fan of dog violence either. “The Dark Knight” and all the “Resident Evil” films have these ridiculous gratuitous scenes with their heroes punching and killing dogs. You would think with the recent uproar and negativity towards those involved in dog fighting have faced, especially Michael Vick, you wouldn’t see this kind of stuff in movies. Do you remember what film exactly inspired the idea or was it more of a hypothetical internal question on how you would handle that type of situation?

KM: I didn’t think “The Dark Knight” was bad in that way, it kind of reminded me of John Candy in “Armed and Dangerous,” except John actually bit the dog on the nose in that one. Really one of the biggest inspirations, now that I think back, would have to be “Lone Wolf McQuade.” But inspiration aside, I always pondered how far I would go (to get revenge) if my dog was killed, and there were no laws to stand in my way.

CCF: You have a cast of over 30 people, how did you cast the roles and where did you get your crew?

Chris Schaub is out for blood in “One Long Day.”

KM: The first person I cast in my film was Chris Schaub, who plays Gruff. He is a mailman in the same office where I work. Almost two years before we started filming I remember telling Chris I was going to cast him in a movie one day. He probably thought I was nuts, but I knew way back then, If I ever made “One Long Day” he would have to play Gruff.

CCF: Yeah, he’s your lead. He pretty much has to carry the film. How did you know he could pull it off?

KM: Physically it was a no-brainer. Chris stands 6’4" and is a very imposing guy.

CCF: Cool. And for the other members of the cast and crew?

KM: My good friend Kenny Silanskas was a big part of “The Sopranos Last Supper” show here in Las Vegas. One night he gave me two tickets to the show, where I found three critical members of my cast. First was Dean Mauro (who plays Tony Revario), then Rob Marrocco Jr. (who plays Vinnie) and lastly Tommy Lynch (who plays Rocco). These guys are all incredibly talented and I highly recommend their show if you haven’t seen it yet. The rest of my cast and crew were found mostly from posting free classified ads on Craigslist.com. I have had tremendous success with that site.

CCF: Of the cast, how many were actors before this and what are some of the things they’ve done?

KM: We have one actor - Chris Schaub and one actress - Rebecca Edwards that had never really done any serious acting before this film. The rest of the cast had different levels of experience, but most had been in front of a camera before.

CCF: Except for some of the extras, like me. (LOL) Now, not including me and I think one of the other guys, most of the Thugs were Postal employees, right? Also, where did the Bikers come from?

Odd Job? Nope, postal worker Tony Diaz.

KM: For thugs we had Tony Diaz, Sherm Reaper and David Sharp who are all postal workers. The bad guys at the end of the movie are all from a local bike club the Che’Lu, of which Tony Diaz is a member. He was able to get many of his biker friends to appear in our movie, which makes for a great end battle scene.

CCF: What about locations, bands for the soundtrack, etc.? How did you go about securing some of these things for the film?

KM: Thanks to the efforts of Chris Gabriel we were able to score two great locations in Las Vegas, Larry’s Villa and Larry’s Hideaway. These locations were perfect for the film and didn’t cost us one penny. As for music, we have The Peccadilloes (who provided the title song for the soundtrack), Thaddeus Corea (of the Blue Man Group) as our music supervisor and composer, and Steven Imel as a composer. We also have a good list of local bands contributing to our soundtrack including: Casino, Missing Blind, Billy’s Kid, The FunkyJahPunkys, DeadAmerican, and Val-halla. We are still looking for more music, so interested artists should contact me at Keith@OneLongDay.com.

CCF: Were there any misconceptions you had as far as making a movie going in that you now know better about?

KM: Well, I thought we would be done with principal photography in the first seven days, does that count? No seriously, it took me all of about three hours on my first day on set, to realize how much work making a movie really is. This is really hard work. We had days where we started filming at 3 a.m. and didn’t wrap until 2 p.m. That makes for one hell of a day, especially when everyone is working for free. It makes you really appreciate your cast and crew, and I had one of the best around.

(Continued - Click to read Part II)