Joseph Khan (Detention)

Joseph Kahn is a mad man. Not only has he put his dreams and passion on the big screen, but he has also put himself into financial debt doing so. Detention is the product of a director being held back from releasing his dream project for years on end. Shakefire had the chance to sit down with Joseph and discuss Detention, Columbine and how he's going to be living in a carboard box.

SHAKEFIRE: When you first started writing Detention, did you intend on making it so self aware as almost a brand of comedy? 
JOSEPH KAHN: I think, to be honest, the ultimate experience of the movie doesn't come through until you've had multiple viewings. I actually designed it for multiple viewings. Even critics who are watching this a second or third time are seeing a different movie than they originally thought. Alot of that self awareness plays a lot deeper when you watch it again. Like, the personal motivations of each character just changes your perception on the movie. On many levels, I made it like a music video. With music videos, you're not supposed to watch it once. Music videos are designed for multiple viewings. So I designed a movie that was meant to be watched more than once. 

SF: When it comes to mainstream media, the only movie that even seems comparable in style is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Being aware of the success Scott Pilgrim was, what kind of following are you anticipating from Detention?
JK: Gosh.  I just hope that people see the movie. Scott Pilgrim was a mainstream movie released with a giant marketing budget. My film was done with no budget. Like, it's for pennies. When you make a movie for pennies and the studio's not invested, there's not much of a push for it. So for them, it's more of a "throw it out and see if it sticks to anything" kind of thing. If it's successfull, then they'll support it. With Scott Pilgrim, they were forced at gun point to make their investment back. They're not so much invested in this, so there's not much of a marketing budget. I'm personally the marketing budget. Not only did I spend money on the movie, I'm the one paying for my flights, my hotel rooms, the screening rooms. It's all out of my personal budget. What do I want? I want people to see it. Just a matter of [people] seeing it is successful at this point.

SF: To have a packed screening last night must have been a relief in itself.
JK: Atlanta is the best audience. it was just so fantastic. It's actually exactly what I thought Austin would be, but for whatever reason it wasn't. It's tough for this movie to find its legs. When you open a movie, like this, cold, it's hard for people to know what it is. Like people who would never be in this wavelength, just freak out. It takes a special type of people to walk into a theater and just accept it. And Atlanta is just full of those people, man. It's just amazing. I love it here. 

SF: Having only breifly been in Austin, it just seems like a different atmosphere of people. Atlanta is a lot more laid back. 
JK: You know, you guys were laughing at some of the references in the film and I was like "Wait a minute, what the hell? People have seen these movies? They know what Freejack is?". Apparently alot of those movies were made in Georgia. 

SF: I caught a majority of them, 45 out of 50, I'd say. Now, you have a bit of a reputation, cinematically speaking. You've directed plenty of music videos, but also have been behind the camera for Torque. What's the word you would use to describe Torque?
JK: Bad. *laughs* It's a funny movie. I do really love my movie, Torque. It's not 100% what I wanted. I really do like it, I just think it was a highly misunderstood movie. People walk in a theater and are up in arms with the director because they feel lied to. Studios wanted Torque to be a "Fast & Furious" movie with motorcycles. I hate those movies, you know? So I decided I would do my self-injected humor and funny animation, colorful, super-fake version of it. Obviously, the audience just hated me for that. 

SF: On to Detention. How on board were the actors to bring your dream to life? It doesn't seem like an easy task to immediately understand the project on paper. 
JK: The thing is, so many of them weren't completely invested in another film. Josh (Hutcherson) and Dane (Cook) are the only ones who actually have full blown movie careers. So I think they brought as much passion as they could. But all the rest of the cast, it was like their first shot. For me, it was like my last run at the OK Corral. You know, it was all my cash so I'm either shot in the head or walking out wealthy. For them, it was like "This is my chance to prove I'm a good actor" or something. Everyone was kind of hovering over Shanley. She's done projects on television. And Spencer has been involved in other movies. Yet, here they are in starring roles. Aaron, the guy who plays Sander, this is like his first movie ever. So everyone was just fully committed. They're committed in a youthful way, which was what I really wanted. 

SF: Watching Detention, I feel like we're seeing the film ebodiment of Joseph Kahn. Is that accurate?
JK: This is definitely me as a filmmaker. Joseph Kahn unleashed. 

SF: You co-wrote this film and, to be honest, it's really damn well written. Are you two anticipating writing again?
JK: Yeah, we're currently writing something else. The thing is, I was a writer before I was a filmmaker. I was trying to write novels at 12 years old. And I love telling jokes. My writing partner was actually a film critic in Canada. So it's a weird culmination of different skills. Also, to get a job in music videos and commercials, you have to write treatments. They're really long documents. So for every music video I've done, I've done hundreds of treatments. There's projects I haven't even done and there's five or six more treatments you have to write on top of that. So I'm constantly writing every week. On a certain level, this was an opportunity, almost a formality, to find another job. If you love writing, just write whatever you want. The writing process of Detention was the most fun. Just me and [Mark] Palermo sitting there, writing in a coffee shop at three in the morning. He'd be on his laptop, I'd be on mine and we'd switch laptops and just start writing on each other's. We'd rewrite and rewrite each other. It was this really fun thing. Writing is the most fun part of the process. 

SF: And to not just have inventive writing, but good writing at that.
JK: You know, the actors didn't improv the lines. They had to go off what was on the script. Almost like a play, to respect the attention of it. We didn't spend three years just sweating every word to be thrown away. 

SF: With an improv comedian like Dane, was it hard to tell him to cut back on something he's so keen on?
JK: Dane is an incredible comedian. He is so underrated on so many levels. He's so popular that people act like there's not a reason he's popular. He's got such an incredible rhythm of talking, like we could give him a nothing line and he'd make it sound funny. There was a lot of improving, but his improv was just a variation of takes. Like the way he would say lines. Like, how do you say "Look at your eyeballs". He could find a million ways to make it funny. We would do 30 takes of saying a line over and over again and there'd be a million variations of that one line. It was pretty spectacular to watch. He was cracking me up the whole time. 

SF: Hypothetically, if Detention were to explode at the Box Office and you make millions of dollars off of it, what is the next move for Joseph Kahn?
JK: I have a script ready to go. 

SF: A sequel or something entirely new?
JK: Something different. I don't like repeating myself. I see people constantly doing sequels or reboots and it just makes me nauseous.

SF: I have a feeling when people see Detention and realize what kind of a filmmaker you really are, there will be a good demand for more product from you in the future. 
JK: Thank you! It took me eight years to get from Torque to here. Here's the other thing, I don't feel compelled to make 20 films in my lifetime. The beautiful thing about my job is I don't have to do a film just to do a film. Right now, I'm dead broke. *Points to breakfast on the counter* This is practically my last meal. When I get to Seattle, which will be opening night, my bank account will be zero. So seeing as it took me all my money to make this film, until I'm financially secure, who knows when my next movie is going to be. I'd love to make another movie, but if you guys don't go out and see this freaking movie, I won't be able to! 

SF: Based on the extreme success of Josh Hutcherson in The Hunger Games, do you think you'll be able to introduce a new style of filmmaking to the young adult generation? 
JK: Yeah, we've actually had young girls coming in from all areas just coming in for Josh. You know, it's funny. There's this meme going around for a lot of these girls. It goes "This movie looks so stupid. I'll see it for Josh". Another girl goes "This is the worst movie ever made, but I'll see it again for Josh". Like, they have to prove that the movie is terrible so they can show how much they love Josh. It may be because I'm a filmmaker and they don't want to offend me but a lot of these girls are saying "Oh my God, I love this film. It's the best movie ever" or something like that. So it seems to be working based on a face-to-face meeting. 

SF: But past that, it's hard to imagine where the dedication stops.
JK: Who knows. You end up living in a filmmaking bubble. I know who I wanted to make the movie for and it wasn't originally structured for the "Beiber" crowd. It's so completely out of the realm of what studios do, they don't even know what do with it. I really believe that there's an audience that exists for Detention. And you know who I think it is? A new type of audience. It's the people who have been living off the internet for the past 12 years. They have a new way of viewing media and processing things. After you make a movie, any movie, they put it through this testing process. In the testing process, it's very obvious what ends up happening: The lowest denominator screams the loudest. Then, they cater to that. Cause they want the largest audience possible to view that movie. So you have to cater to that group of people and make it for them. Since this is such a small movie, I wanted to create something that would eradicate the lowest common denominator and just go for an intelligent film viewing. Not that it's a serious film, but making it entertainment you have to work for. Hopefully, there's really a calling for this kind of film.

SF: At the screening last night, you mentioned the shooting at Columbine being a major inspiration for Detention. Can you explain?
JK: Columbine has always made me sad. In that it's a bad seed thing. I like the generation thate xists now. I think the kids today are really beautiful. I really do. I think they're the least sexist, the least racist. They're the most interesting generation because of the internet. If you put the internet in China, those kids will become a lot more American and be a lot more open minded. If you look at even music, it's all coming together in a fused state. It's really turning into a post-racial society. What I saw in Columbine was this weird inability in this two boys to see outside their own stories. Like really, they weren't bullies. They had girlfriends. I didn't have a girlfriend in high school. What could have made them shoot other people and have no empathy? So Detention is really putting everyone into their own genres. The growth of the movie is where everyone is seeing each other's stories. The goth girl has a backstory, even the jock has a backstory. I think the transition from being a kid to becoming an adult is being able to see outside your own story. You're a fully rational human being but I think that twist is being able to see outside yourself and to survive that hardcore experience called high school. 

Detention comes out April 13th, but is only playing in one theater in Georgia: AMC Southlake Pavillion 24 in Morrow, Ga. Make sure to go out and support not only a brilliant director, but a fantastic movie experience that can rarely be duplicated. Look for the review shortly.