One-Eyed Horse - the Official Film Site

Production Diary 3

An Interview with One-Eyed Horse Writer and Director Wayne Shipley

May 2007

First of all I'd like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy pre-production schedule to do this interview. Could you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I’m a retired English and drama teacher and arts administrator who has always loved the collaborative nature of both theatre and film. Providing most of my directorial experience, theatre will always be my first love because of its immediacy.

Writer and Director Wayne Shipley (foreground)

Nothing can match the thrill of watching a show evolve from a clumsy walk-through to a polished examination of themes and characters. Film I find somewhat intimidating because of the amount of time that elapses from pre-production to finished product. The danger of losing coherence seems always looming. Film, on the other hand, does provide a remarkable opportunity for collaboration. On One-Eyed Horse, I’ve been most fortunate to work with a dedicated and talented production team: Ruth Holmes, Bill Blewett, Bob Brown, Jeff Herberger all have specific talents that far exceed mine.

How did you get involved with filmmaking and what are some of the other projects that you've worked on?

I have been fortunate to have worked on several major projects, both studio and independent. Working background action on several studio films (Liberty Heights, Pecker, Species II, Cecil B. Demented, Runaway Bride) gave me significant insight into what big budgets buy, namely established talent, time and production value. But my experiences with independent productions have allowed me to see what is possible without deep pockets. I assisted my Actors Company Theatre partners Gary Wheeler and John Strawbridge on Convergence, a slick festival film that is an outgrowth of their Working Actor classes. They will lend their talents to several OEH multi-camera shoots coordinated by our Director of Photography Jeff Herberger. I was also fortunate to work with Gary and Sue Svehla on two productions, Terror in the Tropics and Terror in the Pharaoh’s Tomb, in which I got to be in front of and behind the camera. Both films lovingly pay homage to the great horror films of the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. In Mark Redfield’s The Death of Poe, I too got to work both sides of the camera and learned that cinematic style and grace does not have to cost a bundle. Mark and actor/composer Jennifer Rouse will both have an opportunity to show off their considerable talents in OEH.

Of course, I have to ask this question. What is your favorite western film and why?

My taste in films is eclectic, but I must admit that several Westerns have permanent slots in my top ten. Among my favorites are High Noon, Stagecoach, Red River, Will Penny, Lonely Are the Brave, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Fort Apache… I could go on for pages, but my favorite Western—and my favorite film, for that matter—is John Ford’s The Searchers. It was my number one before all of the directors and critics “discovered” it in the ‘70’s. I saw the film at a Western Maryland drive-in theatre in 1957. Something about it—even through the eyes of a callow thirteen-year-old-- prompted me to return to it again and again. At first I was drawn to the landscape: Monument Valley in all its surreal beauty had never been photographed with more impact. Early on I identified with Jeffrey Hunter’s "Martin Pauley" as he fought to move beyond "Ethan Edward"’s dominance. Finally I grew old enough to understand the drive—and even the bigotry—of John Wayne’s obsessive "Ethan Edwards". Though a flawed film in more than a few ways, The Searchers is inspired filmmaking without equal.

What made you decide to write and direct a western?

First off, I grew up with Westerns. They are our mythos. Self-reliance, individualism, honesty, and a host of other abstract concepts were central to literally thousands of little morality plays that happened to, for a time at least, define who we were—or thought we were—as Americans. Poverty Row B’s and major studio epics were all the same at their core: "Singing Sandy" and "Shane" were the same hero, regardless of production values. After years of begging, I got my first horse when I was nine years old. Lady, a long-in-the-tooth bay mare, was far from Roy’s "Trigger" or Gene’s "Champ", but she was my independence, my freedom, my identity. On her wide back, I could be "Zorro" or "the Lone Ranger", and with a little help from my Mom who supplied costume material, I could even have "Tonto"’s fringed buckskins. So, when I decided some fifty years later that I wanted to make a feature film before I check out, choosing the Western genre was imperative. Besides, who in his right mind would try to make a Western in Maryland!

Just as a sidebar, the response to our project has been nothing short of remarkable. There seem to be more closet cowpokes, gamblers, and saloon girls than any of us ever imagined. A big thank you goes out to the local Single Action Shooting Society folks who have been a godsend.

I've heard that many of your actors have been training for One-eyed Horse for the last several months. How is, what you call, “Cowboy Bootcamp” coming along?

One thing we realized from the start is that some of our best actors didn’t know how to ride a horse. Only a few people auditioning could label themselves proficient horsemen.

Bob Brown

We could make our performers dress the part, but unless they knew how to sit and steer their mounts like seasoned pros, the film wouldn’t be credible. Out of necessity, my wife Pat, head wrangler Bob Brown, and I started Cowboy Boot Camp to help our performers become comfortable around creatures who can smell a greenhorn a mile away. It’s amazing how quickly some of our novices have become competent—and how much we enjoy the company of creative and dedicated people. Besides riding horses, we also practice handling and firing period rifles and handguns.

Could you tell us a little bit about the story of ONE-EYED HORSE?

Set in Missouri in the late 1880’s, OEH is a story of one man’s obsession with confronting someone who twenty-five years before, he feels, cost him his sense of self. It’s a film about adversity and how we often judge ourselves and others by the extent to which we allow misfortune to shape our lives. It’s a film about fathers and daughters. And it’s a film about loyalty—to those who deserve it and to the ideas that make us who we are.

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