Matthew Faggiani
He is the filmmaker of The Sun Dog short film.
SKSM: May you introduce yourself to our readers? Who are you and what do you do?
Matthew Faggiani: My name Is Matthew Faggiani. I am a 35 year old sound designer, writer and film maker from Manchester, England.
SKSM: How would you decide that shoot movies was your mission?
Matthew Faggiani: I have always been into films since I was a kid. My parents had a very generous collection of films on VHS as well many books about genre movies and film criticism. I went to The School of Sound Recording in Manchester primarily to study music production but early in my first year, we were tasked with producing the audio for a five-minute short film. Not only did I enjoy the process much more than music production alone, I realised then that I had no idea how much work went in the production of sound for film. Processes like Foley and ADR were completely alien to me and from then on I focused on learning all I could about sound design.
SKSM: How come you picked The Sun Dog to develop into a movie? What is it in the story that you like so much?
Matthew Faggiani: I’ve always found monster dog creatures and werewolves terrifying ever since watching Disney Peter and the wolf as a child. The wolf in that film scared me so much i can still have nightmares about it today. I also love the concept of demons or spirits appearing in the still image. To me it’s also somewhat reminiscent of the little girl Erica’s fate in Roald Dahl book The Witches. Trapped in a painting by a witch as her parents watch her grow old and die in the canvas before their very eyes.
SKSM: You knew about the Dollar Baby program from a friend. Do you plan to take advantage of the program with your film?
Matthew Faggiani: Yes. Unfortunately, despite a very successful pre-production, we never ended up making the film due to work commitments and assignments else where.
SKSM: The script is written, could you tell our readers more updates?
Matthew Faggiani: The script has been written and finalised for about ten years now. Re-reading it for this interview I am still very pleased with it and wouldnt change it.
SKSM: If you finally shoot the movie, how long do you think the running time will be?
Matthew Faggiani: We had an estimated running time of between 15-20 minutes.
SKSM: Is anyone else involved into this project?
Matthew Faggiani: The screenplay was adapted by myself and my brother David Faggiani who wrote the majority of the diologue. After we had a finished script we gave it to the very talented writer David Pilling to edit.
SKSM: I personally love the concept art. Who is the artist?
Matthew Faggiani: Its great isn’t it !? It’s by Manchester based artist Andrew Henderson. He has done Special makeup effects, concept art and illustration for many of my projects. His work always captures the essence of the horror and always emphasizes the most frightening features of a creatures design as I think you can see in the sun dog concept art.
He can also draw beautiful butterflies.
SKSM: You are currently an audio producer/podcaster. Could you talk about this?
Matthew Faggiani: For the first years after university I specialized in boom operating and on set sound for film and documentary. I was relatively late to the game on podcasts and only became a fan of the medium in late 2017. Since then I have produced multiple podcast for clients and have Hosted my own shows for the past 4 years. Matt and Mike Pull Focus is a film appreciation podcast I Co-host with my friend Mike Dunn. I also co-host The Daddy Day Podcast with my five-year old son Luca. This has been a real joy as our monthly shows are a great record of the development of his speech and his personality in general.
SKSM: You also had written a book short horror stories in the vain of Stephen King short stories that we are recording as Audiobooks.
Matthew Faggiani: I’m such a fan of the short story format especially in the horror genre. I find that most horror stories surprise you with a new monster or at least a new take on an existing one that if done right can really pack a punch in just a few short pages. With this in mind Started to develop a frame work in which to present these stories and it turned out I named the book using a rather bland list of horror archetypes – Ghosts, Zombies, Werewolves and Time. Essentially just a list of the horror sub genres that scare me the most. However like my favourite writers, I tried to do something original with each to hopefully surprise the reader.
SKSM: Who are your favorite or influential writers?
Matthew Faggiani: Clive Barker, William Peter Blatty,Terry Pratchett, R.L Stine, Thomas Harris, Robert Bloch are all hugely influental however Stephen King has single handedly had more inluence over me and pop culture in general that any other writer i can name. His books are the only books ive ever had to put down because i was too scared to read on. If thats not a testement to great writing i dont know what is.
SKSM: You are Sound designer, Podcast producer, filmmaker and writer, which artistic discipline do you stand out the most or feel most comfortable yourself?
Matthew Faggiani: Writing i think because it is the purest form of self expression. Simply your own thaughts and fears written down. However I enjoy colaberation so much I was very exited to record my stories as audiobook, working with some amazing voice actors to add depth to the stories and hopefully make them more acessible to a wider audience.
SKSM: What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
Matthew Faggiani: I love The Sound Of Music. I have the soundtrack on CD in my car and listen to it daily.
SKSM: What is in the top 5 on your bucket list? (Everything is possible and nothing is too strange)
Matthew Faggiani: In no particular order …
.Visit Japan
.Record a live ochestra
.Visit the Monroeville mall as featured in George A Romero’s, Dawn of The Dead
.Meet Charles Dance
.Live long enough to watch An American Werewolf In London with both my kids
SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything you want to say to our readers?
Matthew Faggiani: What an honor. Im truly grateful to be asked thank you!
I would ask that your readers check out my audiobook of short stories avalible on Youtube, Spotify and Acast. Just search Ghosts, Zombies, Werewolves and Time as well as my podcasts Matt and Mike Pull Focus on Youtube, Spotify and Acast and The Daddy Day Podcast also avalible on Youtube, Spotify and Acast
SKSM: Would you like to add something else to this interview?
Matthew Faggiani: Also please check out the artwork of the great Andrew Henderson whos work can be found on his instagram, birdofparadigms.
Andrew Henderson’s cover art for the audiobook, Zombie
