Sp4: Ok, let’s get the generic stuff out of the way first. Please give me two dictionary words that are anagrams of your paternal grandmother’s maiden name.
SqD: Came and mace.
Sp4: Emac is a beautiful name. Moving on, I want a sense for the real life squishy. I gathered from some of your Lounge posts that you are (or were?) studying Film & Television. How is that working out? Do you see yourself making movies in the long term?
SqD: Finished a five year course last year, which I loved. Jobs are pretty patchy though, and finding work is all about networking, which I'm not very good at. The vast majority of film gigs aren't advertised. I've been doing mostly sound recording jobs, which I enjoy, and it's probably the technical role I'm best at. I'd be happy to stick with sound recording or sound design as my main job.
I love writing and directing though, and I'll probably be self-funding stuff in the future. Getting full time work as a writer/director in is pretty unlikely, but you never know. Basically I'm going to always be making movies, whether I'm paid for it or not.
Sp4: It must be fun being involved in making movies. I remember last year you posted a film called “Shadow and the Lord of Nightmares” that you made for the final year of your Film & Television course. For coursework, it was really impressive. Tell me a little about the making of a film like that. What is the total time investment? Were the actors friends or did you hire professionals?
SqD: That film was a huge learning experience. It involved a few months of pre-production, which includes auditions, rehearsals, building props/sets/costumes, getting location permits and organizing the budget (luckily I had a producer to manage that), and a bit of fundraising, although most of the funds came from my own pocket.
Most of the actors were found through a casting website, except for the villain. We'd actually cast an ex-cop that was interested in starting an acting career, but he pulled out two weeks before we shot, so an actor friend of mine jumped in to replace him. I think he did well despite of the lack of rehearsal time.
The film was shot over four days, and there were no real complications to speak of. Post production had all sorts of problems unfortunately. There was a technical complication with the footage which slowed the editing process way down, then our editor broke her back, the colour grade went all weird, our sound designer permanently moved to France, etc. Bad times. But I managed to pull it together in the end.
I do think I was a little over-ambitious with it, and I'd probably rework the script if I did it again, but whatever. It was fun to make and fun to watch.
(Actually I stayed on for an honours year after that, so when my honours film has been through the festival circuit, I'll share that with you.)
Sp4: I'd love to see it! And speaking of your other work... what is the "The Late Night Mystery Fun Show"? Is that something we could see?
SqD: That is the honours film to which I refer.
It's a seedy, absurd, exuberant, existentially taut work of genius, probably. I'm told it's similar to The League Of Gentlemen, if you're familiar with that?
Sp4: I'm familiar with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I'm sure that's not what you mean. Regardless, I look forward to its overwhelming existential tautness.
It sounds like you love making movies, but I assume, since you're on BEA, that you love music as well. Do you see your love of music and movies as part of a single larger passion? Or is music more of an escape from everything?
SqD: I listen to music way more than I watch movies. For a film student, it's ridiculous how rarely I watch films. Not sure why. Perhaps if I was a musician I'd watch movies more?
My love of music has definitely made a big impact on the way I make films. Both mediums have a sense of rhythm, atmosphere, etc. Actually I recently realized that I'd been basing the scene transitions in Late Night Mystery Fun Show on the static bursts in Good Kid, M.A.A.d City. Also, Shadow and the Lord of Nightmares was very videogamey, and the soundtrack I did for that was based on a lot of my favourite adventure games as a child.
Actually one of my life goals is to make a great artwork in every possible medium. (Unachievable goals are the best kind of goal.)
Sp4: How many mediums have you checked off your list so far?
SqD: None really. I've got pretty high standards. One of my current obsessions is text adventure games though. (Or "interactive fiction" if you want to be snobby about it.)
Sp4: Now this question really is generic. How and when did music first seep into your life?
SqD: Videogame soundtracks. I was a weird kid. I played Curse of Monkey Island when I was around 12 years old, and it had this amazing reggae soundtrack, and I had one of those "whoa, I didn't realize music could be this good" moments.
It had such unusual instrumentation, such a warm sound, and a lot of it was mixed with ambient noises in a really aesthetically satisfying way. I think that might explain my love of atmospheric found-sound and ambient music. Anyway, I went on to download the soundtracks to every Lucasarts game, and they were all wonderful. Then of course I later moved on to more normal music. And by that I mean film soundtracks. I'd buy the soundtrack to every film I was looking forward to before they came out. Then when I was about 15 I was looking for ambient music and came across Porcupine Tree. No idea why they were listed as ambient. But yeah they ended up pretty much defining my teenage years. Then I was a stupid prog snob for a few years, then later realized I was an idiot.
Of course, I'd heard music before that. I was born to the Princess Bride soundtrack. As I was growing up, my mum would always be playing The Corrs and Enya, and my dad would always be playing Dire Straits and Midnight Oil. I still like all those bands, but I have no idea how much of that is due to nostalgia.
Sp4: I see you have a chart of video game soundtracks as well. Off the top of your head, what are the top 5 video games of all time?
SqD: Counterfeit Monkey, Half-Life 2, Grim Fandango, Red Dead Redemption, Portal.
Or maybe nothing like that list at all.
Sp4: Okay, let’s move on to your virtual life. How did you discover BEA? Did it result in metanoia?
SqD: I discovered it in exactly the same way everyone else did: I have no memory of the event whatsoever. I just woke up one morning and I was a member of this forum. It resulted in me hearing loads of great music, and the forum is a great vessel for my obsessive list-making and weird ideas. It's ridiculous how great this community is. I have so many fond BEA memories, which is weird. You don't generally expect to have fond memories of forum exchanges. I've made some great friends here too. The good music is just a bonus.
Sp4: In an old Lounge thread, you wrote the following about the origin of your username, “In secondary school, I had a Singaporean friend whose mother would make him curry puffs to take to school. One day he was carrying them in his pocket and sat down, squishing the curry puffs.” Is this true? If so, then why are you squishypuff and not your Singaporean friend? Did you imagine yourself as one of the puffs? The whole thing just seems ripe for psychoanalysis.
SqD: When I first joined hotmail I had to come up with an e-mail address that was totally unique, and at the time I considered it a great challenge. Not sure why I didn't just use my full name. But yeah I chose "squishypuff_dave", and it stuck.
Thinking about it now, the whole concept is flawed. I mean, shouldn't they be called currysquishes? Or squishycurries? The "puff" part of the word describes the texture, so clearly that's the part of the word that should have been replaced. My name is a mess, just like those curry puffs.
Sp4: CurrypuffDave sounds good too.. but I could be convinced to go either way in a pinch.
Anyway, when I navigate to your chart, I'm faced with a very eclectic list of albums. If you had to use one word or phrase to describe your taste in music, what would it be?
SqD: How about "transportive"?
Sp4: Indeed. In fact, I notice that your overall chart only includes one album from Australia. What are you feelings on the musical landscape in your home country?
SqD: There's a lot of incredibly boring rock music being made here. I could never get into ACDC, Cold Chisel, Wolfmother, etc. There really aren't many Australian artists that do much for me tbh. I don't mind Hunters and Collectors actually, or Midnight Oil as I said. Cut Copy are good. Since I Left You is my favourite Australian album by lightyears though.
Sp4: Before I let you go, I want to touch on your forum persona a bit. You’ve been responsible for some of the most creative threads on BEA, including “Whatever happened to Squishypuffdave”, “Purple, Jackwc and Necharsian's adventures in Besteverville”, and “untitled.” What is your favorite of your threads and what inspired it?
SqD: Besteverville is easily my favourite. Creating the entries is such a unique experience. A lot of the things that happen are a result of me losing control of the game and having the characters do bizarre things. For example, in one of the early entries, after Jackwc has a punchup with a woman (which I caused), I decided it should be followed by him watching porn. So I made him get naked and stand in front of the TV, and then he amazingly started crying about the fight, so it's this wonderful image of him naked, crying, thinking about the woman, with his genitals framed out by the TV screen. Basically the goal is to make the most messed up story possible using a cartoonish "family friendly" game. It's also good practice for shot composition and mise en scene.
The "what happened to squishypuffdave" thread has a bit of backstory too. Not sure whether it's better to leave that as a mystery or not. Basically it all started when I redid JMan's bat avatar with a giant bat penis and the situation snowballed out of control.
Sp4: Sounds like a mystery best left ravelled. Do you ever foresee an end to the adventures in Besteverville?
SqD: Yes, I have a few ideas on how to end it. The question is how many BEA member cameos I want to work in before it's done. It's strange how many Besteverville characters aren't active on the forums anymore. It has been going for a long time now.
Sp4: Last question. In the Lounge, you said that you would title your autobiography, "Crack Vodka, Grind Film”, and that it was an anagram. What for?
SqD: David McGorlick. My real life name.
Last edited by sp4cetiger on 05/07/2014 05:07; edited 2 times in total
Bump. I don't know if everyone saw this cause I posted it around the time the lounge was closed. Read it, Squishy had a lot of interesting stuff to say.
Damn this is I think my favorite interview so far actually, props to both Squishy being open and sp4 for just being a good interviewer! _________________
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