Interview With Actor/Filmmaker Louis Lombardi

The buzz surrounding Louis Lombardi's film Dough Boys has been has been nothing short of phenomenal. From word of mouth on the Internet to a series of awards garnered at film festivals this independent film has snowballed into a smash hit.

In an era of special-effects propelled blockbusters, Dough Boys has found an audience hungry for movies that stress the human element, especially movies which celebrate the family without the need to include comic book super hero's, explosions and CGI effects as a sure fire recipe for success. Louis recently took time from his hectic schedule to talk with me about his new film, his career and what makes The Bronx the place it is. JV: Let me ask you, what was the inspiration for Dough Boys? LL: I wrote the film twelve years ago. It was based on some true events growing up in The Bronx. Growing up up in the Bronx, that's basically the way most people live. Somebody's always hustling off gambling. You know, just that kind of hustle. Some guys I know growin' up got in trouble, lost their life savings and stuff. I just incorporated that into the neighborhood scenario. Not all of it's true. It's not a true story. But a lot of the events are based on real characters. JV: Did you try first to distribute your film theatrically before releasing it to DVD? LL: You know what? I'm a realist; you gotta be in reality here and to release a movie in any kind of way you need millions of dollars in publicity. You really do. Even for an independent movie because you can put a movie in a theatre but how much does an ad cost in the New York Times? How much does a thirty second commercial spot cost on any thing? So, in order for you to release a movie you need ten to twenty million dollars in publicity. That's just the business. So when I shot the movie I felt if we get into some independent theatres it would be great . As we went along, you realise to put a movie even in the independent theatres you're gonna need a couple of hundred thousand dollars. You need prints, you need advertising; you need to rent a theatre because the theatres don't share with you 'cause they're not really making a lot of money. So it's a big process to do it. I was actually happy enough if the public could see it on Net Flix or Amazon or whatever. If the masses can see the movie, I'm happy enough with that, you know what I'm saying? JV: Was Dough Boys shot on 35mm? LL: It was on High Def . And you know what? No one even knows it. People in the business see this movie and they're like" What is this? This looks insane." People love the way it looks. It was shot using the same camera Superman was shot on. Brian Singer used these Genesis cameras and that's what we used. JV: If I can ask, how much was the budget for your film? LL: Oh man, very little. Like one hundred and fifty thousand. And the movie absolutely looks like a five million dollar movie. The New York City Film Commissioner helped us out,the fire department, the police department and every single person that was in New York helped us out. So if you had to pay for all that stuff, the movie would've been in a way higher budget. It turned out to be a bigger project than it looks.You know, we're having a pretty big video release now.My Space did a twenty million imprint on every ones site in the last four days. Plus, I've been on every radio station.I 'm lucky to be doing that without a lot of money. JV: You're wearing a lot of hats on this film producing, directing, acting and editing. Do you find this preferable to simply being an actor because you have more control over the production? LL: Yep. And you know what? That's what I want to do. I want to write and direct and produce. It ain't about control, it's about being creative. I'm one of those creative people that loves to be a part of the whole process even as far as writing it to editing it. And that's from A to Z . When writing it, you're creating the world. Without the writer there's no movie. They get the least credit. The major movies, no one knows who writes them. The director comes in and gets all the credit, you know. And the actor; the actor shows his face and he gets the credit for what the writer did. But without that writer there's no world to direct or act. You know where a movie's made? Not on set 'cause they're doing ten/twenty takes. The movie's made in the editing room. We turned this movie from a drama to a comedy and back to a drama. When we first did it there was more humor in it and it didn't really work as well. So we started pulling the humor out of it and it worked like the Empire State Building; it just got bigger and bigger. As big as it could get, you know? And the people loved it that much more. It all had to do with the editing. When you're in the editing room that's the real power of movie making. I love it. I want to edit every movie I do. Hopefully I can. JV:Since the movie is your love letter to The Bronx, what is it in your opinion, that separates The Bronx from Manhattan for instance? LL: I'll tell you that right off the bat. The difference between Brooklyn and The Bronx, Queens to Manhattan is people are born and raised in those boroughs. In Manhattan, it's like people just come in from all around the world. It's almost like L.A . How many people are from L.A that live in L.A ? But if you go outside to like Glendale and real neighborhoods, people have lived there for thirty/forty years. But in L.A you really don't know your neighbor.You could be there ten years. And the same thing like Manhattan; people come in and out from around the world. In the neighborhoods,in The Bronx ,people are born and raised.Their house's get inherited to their kids. You know what I'm saying ? It's like, " Okey, my parents are eighty and left me the house" and they stay there til they're eighty. And you know your neighbors. You grew up with these people. You're hanging out with them. You're having dinner in their houses. To Be Continued.