JH: I obviously really appreciated the time you took making sure the opening credits and hour-cycle credits looked extremely professional, as this is one place a lot of Indie filmmakers ignore. You ended up using Manhattan-based Coda VFX to do these credits as well as the rest of the visual effects in your film. How did you hook up with them?

TI: They were introduced to me by our first composer. You may not know this, but Limbo had another score initially, and that composer put us in touch with his friend who was the producer at CODA. Unfortunately, we parted ways with that composer and got a new one who re-scored the entire film (the score in the film now). That was a major hiccup in the post production of Limbo and it stalled us for months. In fact we were set back almost half a year, if not more.

JH: I understand what that's like. One of my early films had a verbal agreement on music from an artist and then, after we had the music edited into the film, he decided to start demanding the moon. In the end, we had to scrap his music and find different music, which all led to the film stalling for months in post, as well. Goes to show you that getting things in writing ahead of time is always a necessity. That's one of the reasons we've gone to such lengths to put in a section to help filmmakers find reliable musicians and composers.

Now, we've talked about this some in emails and whatnot, but for the sake of our audience, why don't you tell us how you ended up getting Scott Brock, Dan Sable, and Bob Chefalas, who had experience working on movies like the Aviator, Gangs of New York, and many others?

TI: Scott is Thelma Schoonmaker's assistant editor and has been for over a decade, since the first film he worked on with her [was] Casino. He answered an ad we had on the Internet, he read the script and liked it so much he came in for an interview for the job. By then, we had let one editor go, and another had walked out on us, so we were desperate. At the time I was actually editing the movie myself. I did the Limbo rough cut, and it was almost three hours long! Scott came on board, we were shocked he did, and even more amazed at how hard he worked on the film at the same time as working on Aviator. The guy didn't sleep. He introduced me to Dan Sable who he had worked with on a Woody Allen movie.

I read Dan's IMDB credits and I was stunned. He was supervising sound editor on over 70 films from the 60's with directors like DePalma, Woody Allen, Demme, DeNiro, Ron Howard on classics like Carrie, Obsession, A Bronx Tale, Apollo 13 and The Untouchables. He asked for a dvd to watch to make a decision on. He had retired so he was doing it for fun and enjoyment. He liked it and joined the team. Honestly this guy is unbelievable. A lot of the sound you hear in the movie he made FROM SCRATCH. From coughs, to foot steps to rustles and car noises and ambience. Things you don't notice, but make the film feel smooth. He contacted Soundtrack in Manhattan and we got Bob Chefalas to mix the film there for us. He [audio] engineered on The Manchurian Candidate and Cinderella Man. I think the biggest trip was looking at the calendar at the mix studio and seeing the schedule. It read I think, Manchurian Candidate, Limbo, Aviator and She Hate Me which was mixing in the next room while we were in the other. It was all luck, fortune and a good script that got us that far. I was very lucky.

JH: How are things progressing with your negotiations with distributors?

TI: Agh, it's okay. Most people in the business side of things don't know what to make of the film. We had a hell of a time getting into festivals. A lot of them said 'your film just doesn't fit our lineup.' Reviews have been amazing. I think we've made staff or editor's pick on about three or so sites and have gotten wonderful response from all reviewers. We sent the movie to them cold so we are happy that they simply liked it with no previous knowledge of my work (I don't have any!). We are negotiating with one distributor now and the film will hopefully be out in the first few months of 2006 in North America at least. What we need is underground support. We think this can be a cult film and it is very niche. Word of mouth will take it a long way, and I am glad the people I made it for are the ones who like it the most. Mid twenties to adult males who Google, play video games, sit on couches watching movies and can quote lines from Scarface, Godfather, Hitchcock, Schwarzenneger, Stallone and wonder what happened to all the mind bending films that used to make up the bread and butter of film fare in the old days. Everyone else is more than welcome to love Limbo too of course! (I'm an equal opportunity filmmaker).

JH: Well, our site plans to start working with grass-roots distributors as well as more national distributors, so I'll let you know if we can't give you a hand with that down the road.

With that said, do you have plans for another feature yet?

TI: I am in production of my next film now. It is a documentary/film and will be finished in early to mid 2006.

JH: Any insight on things you'll be doing the same in this upcoming film? Any things you'll be doing differently?

TI: This is a doc/film so it is quite different. Once that is done, I will probably work on my next narrative/fiction project. It will be a horror/thriller about religious fundamentalism. I like talking about the human condition and questioning what it is that makes us human and motivates us to act. This next film will continue that debate that I started in my first film. If you thought Limbo was disturbing, this will blow your mind. Just thinking about the story makes me nervous…

JH: I love films that make the filmmaker nervous. If you're not working on something that has the potential to scare you, then I think you're not pushing yourself. I personally believe that choices of faith must be worked through by each person with serious soul searching and a desire to actually discover Truth, not just accepted because of what one's parents chose to believe. As such, I look forward to seeing what you're able to pull off with your cinematic eye into this topic.

With that said, do you have any advice for first time directors out there?

TI: Don't be dissuaded by nay-sayers. Often they just don't have the guts to try to do what you're doing and want to see you fail so they can feel better about their inadequacy. Work hard, stay true to the art and just do it. Make the movie, good, bad or in between. At least you will learn from the experience. Sitting around waiting for that big opportunity is a waste of time and it probably will never come. Spending thousands at film schools etc helps some, but most get lost in the shuffle. Credentials are for some folks but that just makes it easier to lose grip on why you should make films. Expression of yourself and your experience as a person. You can control your future in the business to an extent, and that starts with actually having a product to work with and show, and one that you can call your own.

JH: Good advice. Thomas, thank you for the interview and keep in touch. I look forward to seeing your future work!

God bless!