Phil Stevens, director of Flowers

Phil Stevens is an underground filmmaker who has been making movies for years and he is currently working on his 8th film, Paradis.

Phil’s first most ambitious film, Flowers became his lifelong dream realized, with national and international distribution and a worldwide audience.

He was inspired by Ronnie Sortor who wrote and directed Sinistre, Ravage and Remains.

And while Phil loves the camera, it doesn’t stop there. He loves production design and goes to great lengths to bring his vision to life. Even turning his home into a studio if he has to.

Every level of the house and every room is like its own production department. And he tells us all about that. And if you want to know and see more, Phil documented it all on his youtube channel.

He goes to bed and wakes up, thinking about making movies. Even between making features, he makes shorts. He has to constantly create.

Phil talks about going from making movies with family and friends to doing a proper production, complete with all of its problems. And he hated it and found the experience bizarre. Nothing about it was fun. He also had investors for the first time, which brought pressure he never had before.

Flowers took so long to make (3 years), was so grueling, that he was burnt out emotionally and physically. By the time production was complete, he couldn’t even look at it anymore to start the edit. So, he got his long-time mentor and friend, Ronnie (who hates to film but loves to edit) to edit the movie. That production was almost the end of filmmaking for him.

In addition, a lung infection he and his wife acquired during production became the inspiration for what was meant to be number two of a trilogy called Lung. That film would also be the determining factor in whether or not he still wanted to create.

Phil talks about how important it is to find your people. Having the right team makes all of the difference. The same person edits all of his films, his friend and mentor, Ronnie Sortor and the same person, Mark Kueffner, composes and scores them.

We talk about his current project Paradis, (which is also a novella). It’s a mythos ten years in the making. And it began life as a comic series. Phil talks about his love of world building and stop motion animation. And how everything he creates ties to everything else.

This is a fascinating listen and just in time for the 31st! Enjoy and Happy Halloween everyone!

Look for Phil Steven’s films on yt and keep an eye out for new physical media and mediabook re-releases!

To find behind the scenes footage and films, follow Phil Steven’s social media on IG, FB and YT.

YT: m.youtube.com/@Pstevensperhaps?ra=m

IG: instagram.com/phillipstevensmoviemaker

IMDB: imdb.com/name/nm6953494/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

And find me:

Kimberly at macabreish.com and IGinstagram.com/macabre_ish?utm_source=qrhttps:/… and Tiktok @macabre_ish.
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