Mark Tapio Kines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Tapio Kines (born 1970 in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA) is an American film director, writer, producer and owner of Los Angeles-based Cassava Films [1]. Kines is perhaps best known for directing the thriller, Claustrophobia, released as Serial Slayer on Lionsgate Home Entertainment on December 14, 2004. Serial Slayer aka Claustrophobia stars Melanie Lynskey, Sheeri Rappaport, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. Kines is currently slated to direct another thriller entitled Dial 9 To Get Out.
Contents |
[edit] Early Years
Kines grew up in Cupertino, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, where at the age of seven he became interested in film after watching such films as Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A fascination with drawing and writing lead to experimentation with animation and eventually landed Kines at California Institute of the Arts studying film and experimental animation.
[edit] Education and Jobs
In 1989, Kines began studying at the famed California Institute of the Arts which provided Kines with an education that many employers were impressed with. By 1992, he graduated with a BFA in film, with emphasis in experimental animation. After graduating, Kines moved to Los Angeles and began working full-time as a graphic designer. As the popularity of the internet began to rise, Kines started designing websites - including a stint working at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood where he worked as art director for the Star Trek website as well as many other high profile projects.
[edit] Foreign Correspondents
The idea of creating and directing films had been a lifelong dream for Kines. In 1996 he began writing a script which eventually became his first feature film, Foreign Correspondents. The film began production in 1997; was released in 1999, and received distribution in 2001. The film was shot on 35mm and had a modest $500,000 budget. The budget was raised by utilizing loans from friends and family, Kines' personal savings, and from independent financiers whom learned about the film from Kines' website dedicated to the project.
The film stars Melanie Lynskey, Wil Wheaton, Corin Nemec and Yelena Danova and is split into two entirely separate stories, the first entitled "Dear Jenny" and the second "Love, Trevor." Though the film is very neatly divided into these two different stories, with two different casts and two different cities, there are certain thematic and narrative ties that bind the stories together so that they form a cohesive whole.
The film was shown at several film festivals across the world and received positive reviews. Articles about Kines and his venture into the world of film-making appeared in The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune which helped spread word about the film.
The film was seen as a success by Kines and his crew. Shortly after the release of the film, Kines began to work on several film ideas and considered the idea of quitting his day job to pursue film-making full-time.
[edit] Claustrophobia ... For The Time Being
January 2002 was a busy time for Kines. He began writing a new film in which he used a childhood nightmare for inspiration. By mid-February Kines had finished a rough draft he entitled Claustrophobia. After sending the script out to several friends and potential crew members, and receiving positive responses; Claustrophobia was ready to be born.
[edit] Synopsis
A quiet neighborhood outside of Oakland, California is held hostage with terror when a serial killer armed with a crossbow begins to stalk and kill the residents from their rooftops. Hunted in their own homes, no one is safe. And as the body count begins to rise, the neighborhood mirrors a ghost town. The only safe retreat becomes a horrifying deathtrap for three women who believe they are alone - until they hear the terrifying footsteps up above...
[edit] Casting
Claustrophobia was a relatively easy film to cast considering it had only three main speaking roles. General auditions began and Kines, as producer, received over 1,000 headshots from actresses wanting to be one of the lead roles in the film. After auditions, Melanie Lynskey, Sheeri Rappaport, and Mary Lynn Rajskub were set to star in the film. Kines was also able to cast Judith O'Dea, star of the classic zombie film, Night of the Living Dead, in a small role.
[edit] Filming
Filming started on June 3, 2002 and ended on June 13. Most of the film was shot in a single house with only a few exterior shots. The film was shot entirely in daylight, something Kines felt added a surreal and nightmarish feeling to the story. However, this innovative decision was not widely applauded by viewers of the film; many thinking a horror/suspense film taking place in daylight was simply not as scary, while some thought it was a fresh and well-executed take on the genre.
[edit] Post-Production
Editing, digital cleaning and color correction took place, all of which are very tedious yet needed tasks. Kines drafted Christopher Farrell to compose the score for the film. Farrell had previously scored Kines' first film, Foreign Correspondents. The titles for the film were done by William Lebeda, whose previous credits include The Village. Dialogue touch-ups, sound effects and background noises were all taken care of in the 5.1 audio mix. Kines sent the film to Serafine Sound, a professional post-production sound house in Los Angeles, California. The film was fully completed on May 31, 2003 - 364 days after the first day of production.
[edit] The Name Change Controversy
Getting domestic and international distribution is a huge feat for any independent filmmaker. After keeping extensive production blogs regarding the progress of Claustrophobia, Kines was approached by Integration Entertainment [2] whom were interested in representing the film for domestic sales. Months later, Kines found out through a Fangoria press release that his film had been picked up by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, one of the leading home video distributors.
To the dismay of Kines, who had legally signed over the rights of the film to Lionsgate, the "powers that be" at Lionsgate renamed the movie Serial Slayer and changed the original artwork, most likely to appeal to the young, blood-hungry horror fan demographic. The film was low on gore and high on suspense so this drastic change of name and artwork was widely regarded as an injustice to Kines himself as well as potential movie-viewers who were being greatly misled as to what they would be seeing in the film.
Many online forum posters, reviewers and bloggers were oblivious to the role that Lionsgate played in overhauling the film and many held Kines responsible for the deceiving title and artwork - something he nothing to do with.
[edit] Serial Slayer and the World
Serial Slayer aired on iN DEMAND'S VOD from March 25 - May 23, 2005 and is currently available on DVD in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway and Thailand.
The film is also set to be released in Japan, Russia and Ukraine.
[edit] Life Outside of Film
Kines does freelance graphic design work when not working on his films. In January, 2006 Kines took a short-term consulting job at Disney. On August 3, 2005 he married his girlfriend Miki in a private ceremony.
[edit] Filmography
- Foreign Correspondents (1999)
- Serial Slayer aka Claustrophobia (2003)
[edit] Trivia
- Kines' production company, Cassava Films, took its name from the cassava tree which is a source of tapioca - an obvious play-on-words to his full name, Mark Tapio Kines.
- Is a fan of directors; Alfred Hitchcock, Zhang Yimou, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Alexander Payne and Lukas Moodysson.
[edit] References
- Cassavafilms.com
- Horror-Asylum.com Interview with Phil Davies Brown. (2004).
- www.upcominghorrormovies.com Interview. (2004)
- www.DVDtown.com Interview with Yunda Eddie Feng. (2005)
- www.filmjerk.com Interview with Dark Savant. (2001).
