Quick & Random: Ted V. Mikels

Wildside Cinema: You’ve had a long, varied filmmaking career. How did you get started making low budget films in the early sixties?

Ted V. Mikels: Actually, I started shooting movie film on a Keystone camera in 1949. I spent almost all of the nineteen-fifties making my first movies, like Dream Man, A Tall Tale, Yellow Roses, Fool’s Prosperity, Compelled and a number of others with 16mm Bolexes. Then in 1959, I wrote and started filming in 35mm, my first theatrical feature movie Strike Me Deadly. Only obsession with making movies got me started.

WC: How do you feel about the seemingly renewed interest in grindhouse films and cult classics in the movie industry today?

TVM: The term “grindhouse” is a relatively new terminology given the exploitation movies in the late fifties, sixties and seventies. I’m very happy that many of my movies that I created thirty to forty-five years ago are still around as if they never disappeared. That’s more than I can say about a great number of multi-million dollar movies that are forgotten just months after they are made. The fact that they were “grinding away” in projectors day and night is what actually created the terminology of “grindhouse”. The name has taken hold for now, but who knows how long this “description” will last?

WC: Do you feel the DVD format has given your films a fighting chance to be appreciated by a whole new audience of film fanatics?

TVM: Many so-called “film fanatics” have only been exposed to DVD, and DVD may yet dissolve away to even newer formats. The old days of 8mm, 16mm, VHS may not even be familiar to the newer younger audiences.  Every movie I have made since Strike Me Deadly is currently available on DVD world-wide. Movies that I have made for other people are also available, but from different distributors.

WC: Can you tell us the story behind the boar’s tooth you wear?

TVM: I used to hunt a lot, mostly with bow and arrow, as I was an excellent shot. I hunted everything from rabbits, quail, doves, ducks, geese, deer, bear, wild-cats, and of course all sorts of fish. Yes, even fish with bow and arrow on a fish-line. There were areas made available for bow-hunters, however, after big game, I used my rifles. I quit hunting years ago, and now, I couldn’t even imagine killing ANY ANIMAL, I do not believe in hunting any longer. I had collected horns, claws, feathers, you name it, and amongst my collected items was the boar’s tooth I wear on a chain around my neck to this day. I am never seen without it.

WC: In your opinion, has low budget filmmaking changed the movie industry? If so, how?

TVM: Low budget film-making has always been around, but the digital film-making process has totally taken over. Consequently, with all of today’s movie cameras with automatic exposure levels (auto iris), focus, big-time zoom lenses, auto recording level controls, hundreds of thousands of creative folks are making their own movies. Actually, this has caused a huge flooding of movies being made, some worthy, many not. Distributors have rooms full of movies waiting to be viewed for possible marketing and release. All of that has made a big change in the movie industry. Many of today’s movie-makers would not have the experience necessary to read foot-candle meters, and operate cameras that required separate audio recording (double system it was called) or operate and control focus changes in zoom or fixed-focal length lenses. Today’s cameras seem to do all but help the actors perform, and leave the editing process to computers. (I should talk, I’m doing the same thing myself now.) At least, I spent decades learning the detailed processes of lighting, shooting, audio recording, and the intimacies of adjusting f-stops, loading film magazines, editing film, etc. This modern age does allow some folks to exercise their creativeness in making a movie, something that would not have been possible for them in a past time.

WC: Recently a limited edition DVD box set of your films was released. Once they’re gone, do you plan to release them individually?

TVM: Each and every one of my movies in the Six Pack DVD Set released by Alpha Video is and has been available on DVD. There were only 1,000 of these signed box sets made, and there will not be more. There may be another different six of my movies coming out in a new six-pack signature set in the near future. Fortunately, all of the movies I still own are presently available on DVD world-wide, and I hope they will be out there for many more years to come.

WC: Why do you feel people are so quick to label you a “horror” or “exploitation” director?

TVM: People may label me as a “horror” or “Exploitation” director because they are not really familiar with my body of work, which dating back to 1959, includes every genre known to movies. Musical Drama, Action-Adventure, Martial Arts, Science Fiction, Comedy, Witchcraft, Campy Horror, Family Drama, Heavy Black Drama, Demons and Ghosts, you name it, I’ve done it. I am a movie maker, all genres, types, and styles. I love the challenge of new concepts.

WC: Looking back over your career, which of your films would you say is your favorite? Which do you have the fondest memories of?

TVM: I have the fondest of memories of each and every movie I’ve ever made. They all have required my total intensities, blood, sweat, tears, financial anguish, thousands of hours of time and dedication. They’re all my favorites.

WC: Are you ever surprised to find younger people a fan of your work?

TVM: Every year, hundreds of thousands of babies are born, and it really is pleasing to me when some-one born say twenty years ago finds and enjoys movies I have made forty years ago, LONG before they were born. When they tell me how much they love and enjoy them, it makes my life’s work seem fulfilled.

WC: If you could sum up filmmaking in two words, what two words would they be?

TVM: The two words would by “OBSESSION, OBSESSION”

WC: Many people weren’t aware that you’d done relatively recent sequels to The Corpse Grinders and The Astro Zombies. Why did you decide to revisit those films with new entries?

TVM: When a movie I have made like The Corpse Grinders out grosses every movie playing in opposing theaters, even when they were multi-million dollar movies and mine cost relatively pennies, and everyone in the world knows the title, also like my Astro Zombies, I would be foolish not to try to capitalize on the fact that these movies have never died, and many many people ask me to make sequels.

WC: Concerning your films that have yet to see the light of day on legit DVD, are you working on making that happen?

TVM: Every movie I have ever made has seen “the light of day” on legitimate DVD release, but it takes time for them to circulate the entire world. Only one I have made, Heart of a Boy has not as of yet enjoyed a DVD release. Hallmark considered releasing it in their family program. Conventional distributors have not taken it on because, as they say, it is a total family movie, and it has no sex, no violence, no bloodshed, no gore, no nudity, no foul language, so they don’t know how to sell it. Doesn’t that speak for the ills of our movie-loving public?

WC: Have you ever considered retiring from the movie business and just kicking back and relaxing?

TVM: Why would I ever retire from what I love doing more than anything on earth? Demon Haunt is still about six weeks away from total completion, with CGI on-going, however, I am now preparing for my next movie, another Astro Zombie sequel, I am calling Astro Zombie M3 Cloned.

WC: Do you ever feel like today’s political climate and state of the movie industry have sapped all the fun from movies?

TVM: I don’t think the political climate really affects people’s love for enjoying a movie that they can “get into”. Movies will be here forever for folks to enjoy and escape from their day to day problems.

WC: What can we expect to see from Ted V. Mikels in the future?

TVM: You can expect from Ted V. Mikels, movie after movie, until the day I move on to other dimensions to make my movies.

We’d like to thank Mr. Mikels for taking the time out to address his fans and supporters. He’s a gentleman and a true, living legend.