Frequently Asked Questions

 

Who are you?! Who runs this site?!

I'm Andrew Gowans (the guy who plays Axel), I made this site for our film, isn't it awesome?

If you have a question for for the FAQ, wish to issue a cease and desist, or just want to contact me you can e-mail streetpunksmovie --att-- gmail.com . Any feedback on the film, good or horrific, is always appreciated.

Why did you guys make this film?

After boozy night nights at the Edinburgh goth clubs in the early 2000s we'd stagger back to someone's flat for the "after party" and try decide a film to stick on. Staple watches were Manhunter, The Terminator, Assault On Precinct 13, American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Bright Lights Big City, The Warriors... And all are great but none of them captured everything we wanted from a post-club 5am watch, when you are so wasted you can barely stand up, so we had to make the film ourselves.

It was the old punk ethos, if it doesn't exist you make it yourself.

Simon and I had also made three films in our last year of school, and really loved making them, and thought it would be fun to make another film. It also seemed like a great idea at the time - but we were almost certainly drunk.

How much did Street Punks cost to make?

If you exclude the camera which Simon got for his 21st birthday and the cost of my computer that was used for editing, it literally cost us about £30. We spent our £30 budget on props from the joke shop and the Army-Navy store. Mitch was given some "gas money" to drive us about and fund the tooling around he did in his Dad's car.

Everything else was stuff we had lying around or borrowed from friends. We're Scottish, if we can get away with doing something for free then we will. However the amount of cash spent on cheap wine for the "wrap parties" after shooting would have run into the thousands. Once again, we're Scottish.

How long did Street Punks take to make?

Far too long... We had the idea of making a film back in 2003 or 2004 and started writing it. Filming began in late Summer 2005, and we naively assumed it would be finished as a 20 minute short by the end of the year Then it grew and grew and went on and on and we eventually finished filming, and I finished an edit of the original extended cut in Summer 2008.

Further editing went on to get it tighter and make a "theatrical cut" and as I write this it's February 2011 and I'm getting the internet release ready. In short, Street Punks has taken many years and is partly responsible for the lines of cruelty around my now dead eyes and sneering mouth. Overall it's been a great though, good times, I think...

How did you get Bret Easton Ellis to star in the film

We met Bret back in 2005, and after show and the conversation went like this.

Andrew: “Bret, we need a favour.”
Bret: “Sure guys, what can I do for you”
Andrew: ”...we’re making a film and we’d like you to be in it.”
Bret: “Wow guys, that’s amazing, but when can we do this – I leave tomorrow.”
Andrew & Simon: “We can do it right now!”

He then recorded the two lined needed for his part. Bret is a good chap, don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.

The radio presenter sounds familiar, who possesses that velvet voice?

The presenter was none other than WRSU's Corey "Velvet" Goldberg, who presents the excellent, eclectic and eccentric weekly show But Is It Art. Corey is also well known for touring with Skinny Puppy, running their news site Litany and being an absolutely top chap.

The film soundtrack is both dope and fly, what are the tracks?

Best to stress from the start Street Punks was not created to make any money, we have not and will not make a penny off it, it will never be sold, and it will not be shown at any festivals etc.

The main reason for this is because of the soundtrack and various images used in the film we would need to get the rights to. However, due to convenient copy right laws and practices we are OK to distribute the film as a download.

The soundtrack contains:

Public Image Lmt. – Order Of Death
John Carpenter – Assault On Precinct 13 Theme (1984 Disco Remix)
Giorgio Moroder – Tony’s Theme
Giorgio Moroder – Knights In White Satin
Ministry – Thieves
Skinny Puppy – Smothered Hope (Demo)
Joe Walsh – In The City
Fad Gadget – Lady Shave
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Images In Vogue - Call It Love

And various instrumental tracks from Manhunter and The Warriors. I will complete this list and add links to buy the songs if you so desire in the near future.

Are there plans to make “Street Punks II: Narc Squad?”

There are no plans for a sequel, or indeed any other output from eXtreme Films. Street Punks took over six years to go from conception to release, and took a lot out of us. Short of a Saudi sheik giving us millions of pounds to make Narc Squad it won’t be happening. Never say never though, if Stallone can revive Rambo in his 60s perhaps we’ll all squeeze back into our costumes in 35 years time.

The plot of Narc Squad was planned out, very roughly, but no script was written. In it Axel and Kyle would return as secondary characters. The plot was centred around Donald Rumsfeld privatising the police force of Metro City and a hapless Police chief spending all of his budget on TV adverts and laserdisc players, so was only able to recruit 3 members to the newly formed Narc Squad. The squad consisted of: Dutch Matrix, a coke-fiend train-wreck wannabe action hero, Antonio Maldini, an eccentric Italian leather boots and belts salesman, and Red Dragon. They would be put up against their rivals, Vice Squad (think Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, but with more cocaine) to see who could be cure the Street Punk disease plaguing Metro City, and track down crime king pin Draco and henchman The Leatherman. The Narc Squad police chief was also far too concerned with hunting down Axel and Kyle, who murdered the chief’s brother – security guard Derek Turnbull.

The scope was pretty huge, compared to Street Punks, and there were other sub plots. It was also weirdly quite political about government deregulation, privatising the police force, and Oliver "Iran-Contra" North was a shadowy figure running for Mayor. My memory of the rest is quite hazy.

So I take it “The Leatherman Chronicles: Chronicles Of A Leatherman” isn’t happening either?

I’m afraid not. That was originally intended as a joke, that The Leatherman would get his own film or series, but the more we thought about it the more we convinced ourselves it would be a brilliant idea. It would have been a spoof documentary along the lines of Derek Turnbull, following The Leatherman about in his day to day life – where he would do things like return a library book weeks late, just so he would get a telling off from the librarian.

I would like to see The Leatherman get more screen time, or a character similar. Perhaps one day...

Were the drugs used in the film real? Were you all drunk and high when you made this film?

God no, it was a clean set. Our budget for the film was about £30, could you even get half a gramme of shitty gak for that? I don't even want to know. It was all props, and we weren't drunk/high on set. Although we were a little tipsy during the "concert scenes" (so sue us, it was Saturday night) and Red Dragon was partial to a nip of straight vodka to get his Dutch courage up ("method acting").

If the cocaine alone was real we'd be be crippled with debt and the film would be nothing more than a narcissistic hour long montage of us posing in sunglasses while New Wave music played over. As a result of not using real cocaine the film is only 60% us posing in sunglasses while New Wave music plays over.

Simon and Andrew - where are they now?

Both are still haunting Edinburgh. Simon does the rounds at films festivals reviewing left field cinema for the site Quiet Earth under the moniker Project Cyclops. Andrew is a games designer having designed various games for the iPhone and a Facebook title. Both have various projects on the go which will hopefully come to light in the future.

Can you tell me more about Red Dragon?

All you need to know is that Red Dragon express himself through the medium of dance. These are candit films of Red Dragon dancing in the mid 2000s in Edinburgh.