ThaFormula.com - This movie impressed me mainly because of how real it seemed at times. It wasn't your average gang movie and I was wondering how you came up with the idea for this movie?

Adam Ripp - Along time ago I had the concept about doing a film about gangsters in South Central from the point of view of a stolen video camera. It's a basic idea that I had for a while, but when I originally came up with it there wasn't the idea of digital video cameras yet. You know all we had was VHS cameras so there wasn't any proven model for how you could shoot a film on video and get it distributed. Then with films like The “Blair Witch Project” it kind of showed that you could in fact shoot a film on video and have it picked up and financed by a major distribution company.

ThaFormula.com - But what made you come up with this idea?

Adam Ripp - Well the idea that I had came from my experiences of growing up in L.A. I grew up in the Hollywood Hills, but in the late 70's they started bussing kids from South Central to my school so I became friends with a lot of kids from South Central and became very aware of the Gang Life. Then I started seeing films come out on the subject matter, and although I was really inspired by them and thought they were amazing films like "Boyz N the Hood," I thought still they hade yet to tell the story from the point of view of a actual gangster in the way that a Martin Scorsese makes films about Italian American gang members. He doesn't tell a story about a kid trying to stay out of the life, he tells the story about a guy that not only wants to get into the life but succeeds in exploring that world very realistically so that's kind of how I came up with the concepts and my reasons for wanting to do the film.

ThaFormula.com - So how did you come up for the ideas for the characters?

Adam Ripp - Well the way the process worked is that I basically came up with the basic concept and all the basic characters and then with my writing partner Steven Wilson we kind of mapped this whole thing out in creating the actual story. Saying “okay were gonna focus this story, on this kid Chris and his kind of journey and his decent into the gang life,” and then we scripted the whole thing. Once we had the basic idea and the story we pitched it to Lions Gate Films and they financed it. Then with the money in place then we wrote the script doing a lot of research and talkin’ to a lot of gang members. Once we had the script, we cast the film all over South Central and Watts.

ThaFormula.com - When you say research, what kind of research did you focus on?

Adam Ripp - We basically met with a lot of gang members all over South Central Los Angeles and a lot in Watts. Whether it was hangin’ out in Jordan Downs or Nickerson Gardens and all around there. An associate producer came on board named Quinton Drew. Quinton is from Watts and all his brothers are from Grape Street. But Quinton never banged and he is very active as a gang prevention activist. He also has a thing called the Watts Village Community Theatre. So through him we were able to hook up with a lot of Gang Members. We were meeting with a lot of people right in the heart of Jordan Downs and that's where we shot the film, there and all over in Watts.

ThaFormula.com - What was it like and did you get any problems at all in the beginning?

Adam Ripp - Absolutely, some people said “I don’t wanna have any part of it” for political reasons as well as not believing in me or trusting me or saying “you know a film like that doesn't need to be shown, we need more positive films.” My response to that was, “listen it's been a decade since “Boyz N the Hood” and “Menace to Society” (because those are the 2 films they always come up with) and gang memberships, gang deaths and murders in the inner city has only increased and obviously the problem is there. People are still not aware of what's going on in inner cities all across the United States so the problem is still there. There is a whole new generation of people that didn't grow up to “Boyz N the Hood” and “Menace to Society” and are completely unaware of what's going on, so that's why I felt it was really important to get deep into it and shoot it in South Central and Watts and to cast the film from South Central and Watts.

ThaFormula.com - So what did you do after the script was done?

Adam Ripp - We cast the film and did all the casting in Watts. At 103rd and Wilmington. We had several weeks of casting calls where anybody could show up. You didn't need a headshot or a resume. You didn't need any acting experience.

ThaFormula.com - Now when you did the casting calls. What was the response?

Adam Ripp - We got hundreds of people. We had a casting director and her experience was casting mostly hip-hop music videos and so she basically put out the word, she put out flyers, she put out ads, radio stations got behind it and announced it and from the that word spread and people showed.

ThaFormula.com - Did you call on any actors?

Adam Ripp - I did separate casting with traditional actors cause I just wanted to see what the difference was gonna be, but going in my goal was to cast all non-actors and the traditional actors that did come into the traditional casting sessions were totally what I was not looking for. They couldn't nail the parts, they didn’t have the right look. The kids from the community were so much more talented then the actors that I met with.

ThaFormula.com - Well you pretty much answered the question on why no one has been able to make a real street movie. No one seems to be able to play the roles correctly and it always seems like the actors are just too soft...

Adam Ripp - Absolutely. I mean when you look at these kids in the streets you notice that they just have a look in their eye of experience. They carry themselves in a certain way and you can't act like you have been put down for 15 years. You can't act that. For me the film is all in the act.

ThaFormula.com - So you did cast traditional actors, how many of those actually made the film?

Adam Ripp - None.

ThaFormula.com - Did you expect it to be this way?

Adam Ripp - I didn't expected to be this way. I hoped it would be this way. That was my goal going in, but going in the film I knew was gonna hitch on the cast. If I didn't nail the cast the film was gonna fail. I mean Lions Gate was like “hey here's more money to shoot on film or here's more money if you wanna cast some names or actors” and I was just like no, no. When you look at the film you can't see Cuba Gooding Jr., you cant see Ice Cube, you cant see snoop cause when you see those guys you know they’re entertainers. You gotta look at the film and not look at an actor.

ThaFormula.com – You’re right there. I actually played the film for a couple of people and they actually thought the film was real. That's when I knew you had something special here. So I was definitely surprised at how good the acting was considering they are not your everyday actors?

Adam Ripp - Here's the thing. One of the reasons that these kids are so good and again not everybody that auditioned was incredible, but I had far more incredible actors and not enough roles to fill them in. I mean there are so many talented kids in these neighborhoods and I think that’s one of the reasons that they are so good at acting and improvisation. After we did the script and I cast the film we went into about three weeks of rehearsal where the kids translated the dialogue into their own vernacular because I couldn't write that specific dialogue or it wouldn't have sounded real. So I said, “yo you got to say this, this, and this as it's scripted but say it how you would say it. I couldn't write the “N” words in the script as many a times as they say it but I didn't wanna take that away like a normal Hollywood studio would say. Because that's how a lot of kids talk and the film is kind of violent even in just the language, that's why the dialogue is so realistic.

ThaFormula.com - So were the majority of the people cast in this film actual gang members?

Adam Ripp - Yeah, everybody was either a gang member, ex-gang member, or at the very least grew up in the community. The only person that had any acting experience is the kid that played Lonzo. He's from Inglewood, he grew up in the neighborhood but he started pursuing acting early on.

ThaFormula.com - Do you think that if you had made this film, these kids would have ever gotten roles in any other films?

Adam Ripp - No, because they weren't pursuing acting. A lot of these kids never even thought of acting. Some of them had done some acting like in a play in high school or something, but none of them had acting on their mind. I think they heard about the audition, and it was an opportunity. They knew the world and the life and they knew that it was gonna be an easier transition. I wasn't askin’ them to come in and play something that they didn't know, but now that they had the experience, they feel this acting thing is cool.

ThaFormula.com - Do you think if there were more opportunities like that for minorities that we that we would have a whole different movie industry right now?

Adam Ripp - Absolutely, but it's not only the opportunity. I think it's given the kids a hope that this is a possibility. I think the important thing is sayin’ that this is a choice they can make. You know, saying that yo you can become an actor, there are roles out there and that you can go out on auditions. I mean these kids are so smart and so talented that they just need the chance. If you give them the hope and the opportunity then these kids are gonna go far.

ThaFormula.com - Did you know exactly how bad it was in the streets before the film?

Adam Ripp - No I didn't because I wasn't in Watts everyday. I mean when you go down there it's not physically a horrible place to be and there are such amazing people there, but there is such a sense of dread or of hopelessness and despair that it just gets to you. I was going and working in the community for like about a year and it got to me.

ThaFormula.com - So now that you have felt what its like and seen how the news never focuses on this problem, what do you think can be done to change the situation?

Adam Ripp - Well I think that the bottom line is what it takes to change is not money and it's not necessarily getting rid of all the gangsters because what I tell people is gang members are not the problem. Gang members are a symptom of the problem. You can go down and arrest every gang member today. You could kill every gang member today, but tomorrow if a baby is born in the same circumstances and environment a lot of them are gonna be the gangsters of next week. So we gotta make people aware of the problem. If people aren't aware of what's going on, nothings gonna change. You can give a billion dollars today, but it's not a money issue, it’s an opportunity issue, it's an issue of havin’ hope and it's an issue of the circumstance and environment that you know if your in Watts and you wanna go to the store or you wanna go to a movie, you gotta drive far! People are so used to an infrastructure of a city and being able to walk down the street and go to a movie nearby, but that's what the case is down there even though you have these kind of wonderful neighborhoods and very traditional houses. People just need to be aware. I showed the film all over the United States and people like “oh this isn't really going On is it?” I'm like “what are you talkin’ about!” I mean when we were shooting in Watts which is only a couple of miles in area, there were like 4 murders a week going on.

ThaFormula.com - Were you surprised at what you saw going on?

Adam Ripp - I mean I was surprised at talkin’ at some of the media and news organizations. They said well that's not news. I mean I turn on the news and I hear what's going on in Israel with the Palestinians every day. That's as old news as is Crips and Bloods and Black on Black crime or Latino on Latino crime in the inner city so you can't say that it's not news.

ThaFormula.com - What was it like filming the film in the communities of Watts and South Central?

Adam Ripp - People were really cool. We shot this film really quick. We shot this film in 12 days. People in the community were so supportive and just kind of took us in and we had very little problems.

ThaFormula.Com - So you guys had a few problems?

Adam Ripp - Just little things like guys coming to the set and saying, “muthafuckas why am I not in the film?” I'm tellin’ them I can't hire everybody in South Central, that the budget isn’t big enough. One guy came up in a bicycle and started givin’ us shit and I said, “yo I don’t even recognize you, you weren't even at the audition and don't fuck up these peoples opportunity just because your not involved.” What I came to find is that there is a small negative group of people that are like “fuck everybody, I just want to get paid for doing nothing” and it's kind of like cannibalism. It's like feeding off of everybody else and bringing everybody down. I'm like, “yo look I got 40 people that I cast out of this community, I got a whole crew that I crewed up from this community.” “Were shooting in this community.” “I could have cast this film a whole different way and shot it in the valley, but that's not what I'm trying to do.” But that's a very small part of the community. For the most part everybody was positive. People were comin’ out of their houses and I would be like “oh man let's cast her as a part you know.”

ThaFormula.com - Could you have built a better set?

Adam Ripp - No. I mean that was one of the things that uh, you know you have got to shoot in the community. It's like you can't build sets. Reality is the real background to shoot on. You know use the real people, use the real locations.

ThaFormula.com - What were the cops response to this film?

Adam Ripp - I showed the film to a lot of cops and they wanna use the film in some kind of gang prevention type of program and they wanna show it to the gang unit officers because they felt it shows the reality of gang life but it also humanized the gang members. The cops on the street don't see the positivity, they only see the negativity and at the same time the gangsters and the kids in the community don't see the positive side of the cops, they only see the negative side of the cops and so that makes for a really tense relationship. But the cops dig the film.

ThaFormula.com - Now how hard is it to film a movie to make it look like it's coming straight out of a regular home camera. I mean it must be a lot harder to film this way seeing that you can't use the big special effects normally used in movies?

Adam Ripp - The film is designed and there is a lot of little things that you wouldn't know in terms of the editorial or little effects that we did. It's a very traditional film in a lot of ways but the style of it and the way that I shot it and everything. I mean we had such a big crew of people to make it look so chaotic and so much like a home movie. It's more challenging to do it this way because you gotta make it look real. In a film you will forgive it for being Hollywood because it's a Hollywood movie. If there is any moment in this film that doesn't seem real or seems like a movie then it takes you out of the experience of the film that we’re trying to create.

ThaFormula.com - Is this too real of a movie for Hollywood?

Adam Ripp - That's a good question. I mean “Gangs of New York” is a very violent film.

ThaFormula.com - But of you notice that that never seems to be a question when it comes to Italian type of movies or...

Adam Ripp - Well no, if my film was about Italians or about Latinos, we wouldn't have gotten the grief that we got. We wouldn't have had any problems. There is a certain racist perception that as soon as its a Black man committing violence, that there is a certain fear that it puts in the people and that it's a black film or black gangster film and black gangsters are gonna come show up and rip the theatre apart. I think it's very difficult. I had heard that then and I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard that the Hughes Brothers approached New Line about doing a sequel to “Menace to Society” and they didn't wanna do it. Even though they know it's gonna be profitable, I think they know that there is gonna be a lot of challenges and headaches. We went to Magic Johnson Theatres and they refused to play this film.

ThaFormula.com - What was their reason?

Adam Ripp - They said we don’t play these types of films even though they have played other gang films that had some stars in it. I’m like “listen, we want to do something positive with this film.” “We’ll pay for security, we'll have questions and answer sessions after the screening.” It’s like if you wanna do something for the neighborhood, make people aware of this fuckin’ problem.

ThaFormula.com - Did this film get any play in any independent theatres?

Adam Ripp - No, we tried but we were just up against too much. It's hard because independent theatres you know they saw the film even though I set out to make like a urban art film and film festival audiences loved this film. I think even the Indie Theater owners looked at it and maybe it wasn't the fear of violence, but it was like “well this film is a black film.” If it was about Latinos they would see the artsy aspect of it maybe, but I think that they judge it just on the surface. I don't even know if they watched the film. They could have just seen the poster and seen a black kid with a gun and said no. I mean I played the film for so many film festivals. We got incredible reviews from the New York Times, Variety, and film festival audiences loved the film so this isn't a case that this is one of those blaxploitation films or a B-Movies that you see in the video stores that shouldn't be in the theatre.

ThaFormula.com - So not one theatre wanted this film?

Adam Ripp - I mean there were a few small theatres, but it doesn't make sense financially to open in one or 2 theatres if you can't expand. It's financial suicide to do it that way. You know, you start in a theatre or two and then you have other theatres that agree to play it if you hit a certain number and we didn't have that opportunity because we couldn't get the other theatres to agree and even if we make a hundred thousand dollars on the first weekend in one theatre, no we will not make the film. At first I thought going in to the film, “this is a film that's meant to be seen in the home.” I mean I know what the theatres fears are, I know what happens with films like this that are violent and that are about the African American Community, but then when I finished the film and I was showing it to audiences all over the states everybody responded to the film. The film was like this incredible communal experience that took people on an emotional ride and when I saw that I had no idea that that was gonna be the response. I mean I hoped that would be the response, but I had no idea that the audience would react in that kind of unified way. Once I saw that, I said wait a minute we need to reconsider this. This film should absolutely consider a theatrical run and then we ran into all the controversy with the problems that we did.

ThaFormula.com - So what's the situation now with the movie?

Adam Ripp - Well the films out on DVD right now and we will see what happens. I mean were still looking for a worldwide audience. If somebody stepped up and said you know “hey we wanna put this up in theatres” that would be great. I'm looking for the film to get the greatest exposure that it can. I'm lookin’ for as many people to see this film as possible. If that means on DVD, so be it. If that is in kind of a post video theatrical release because word spreads and this becomes kind of a cultish phenomena, then that's great too, but I think it's important that as many people see this film as possible.

ThaFormula.com - Well it's a great movie and it's definitely very original...

Adam Ripp - Well one of our early supporters and early fans that saw a rough cut of the film was Dr. Dre. He called me and he was like "yo I just checked out your film, what are you doing?" I’m like “Nothin" and he said, "come down to the studio I wanna hang out with you.” So I went down and spent like 6 or 7 hours with Dre hangin’ out in the studio and you know he loves the film.

ThaFormula.com - So he really dug the film?

Adam Ripp - Oh yeah, he tripped out and it's funny because I got a call from one of my actors a few months ago and he said, “oh my god you won't believe what happened, I was at this party just hangin’ out and this dude comes up to me and was like, ‘Yo man!’ and I turn and it was Dr. Dre and Dre recognized him from the film.” I thought that was cool and it made me really happy that this kid is being approached by Dr. Dre and Dre is sayin’ “hey I'm a fan of your work.” I'm tellin you that guy is so incredible. When I met him he was very cool and true and just very supportive and not with all the bullshit. As much hype and fame and fortune as that guy has he's just very real. He told me he seen it 5 0r 6 times and showed it to all his friends so that was great.

ThaFormula.com - So how long has it been out now and where can they get it?

Adam Ripp - It came out December 10th and people are callin’ me tellin’ me they can't find it cause it's always rented out. So just be sure to let people know that it's out now everywhere on DVD. We didn't have the big theatrical release but I think it will grow and hopefully become or have some kind of cult status.

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