Kipp Tribble Interview

Kipp Tribble has been in shows, such as "Crossing Jordan". He talks about his new movie "ReBroken".

What motivates you into making films such as ReBroken?

I just have to create. I'm a creator by nature. And what motivates me to make something like ReBroken is, it has got more to its core and it's a bit more meaningful than just your run-of-the-mill thriller or run-of-the-mill horror, low budget that we're just going out, putting out there trying to make some money. Of course you want it to generate a profit, but this one had a little bit more meaning behind it. Scott Hamm and I, story by him and we produced this film together and he plays Will. We both have kids, I have three daughters, he has a daughter and a son. And we've all gone through grief at some point in our lives or will go through grief.

This is something that each person deals with differently and it's easy to judge someone for dealing with it in their way if it doesn't jive with what you would do or what you think you would do. So that was something that we did want to touch on while making ReBroken. And certainly at this stage in my career, I am looking to do some meaningful projects like that. While they can still be fun, popcorn flicks and these mystery thrillers that gives you a puzzle to figure out as you go along the journey of watching the film, it's nice to give people something to think about and something meaningful at the same time.

Why did you get into acting?

I felt alive when I first did it. It did a couple things when I was real little, didn't really think anything of it. And then in high school, when I stepped on stage and just a fluke, I went to an audition with a friend of mine who wanted to do a play in high school sophomore year. And I got a role and it was the first time that I just felt that energy burning inside me and just really fired me. And I feel that every time I am acting, whether on stage or in film. And it hasn't left me and I know that it never will leave me. That tells you something. For a long time, I didn't really think it was going to be a viable career. A lot of people don't think it's going to be a viable career and especially where I'm from. And just kept listening to my heart and I knew it was something I had to do, or I was going to regret it.

Do you find some aspects of acting particularly challenging and which aspects if so?

Yeah. The aspects were challenging sometimes is if there's a character that's from a walk of life that you're not familiar with and you have to do that research, but you've never walked in that world so to speak. It can be challenging to really get a grasp and understand what that character will be going through. I do find that challenging. Also, just getting into an emotional mindset sometimes, used to be more difficult for me before I had kids. Now it's not difficult for me to get into. Ever since I had three daughters, I cry at everything now. Getting into those emotional mindsets is not a problem. The problem now is dreading getting into that mindset. You don't really want to get in that position anymore. So that I find difficult.

And I'd say the last thing is, especially in the film world, you run into a lot of personalities, I'll say. And this is for cast and crew and there are so many people involved. And it's learning how to keep your focus, do your job, but also understand how to juggle these 50 people around you that you also have to give them space to do their job and understand they have to come in at the last minute, do this and there's a hair out of place, or this is the wrong wardrobe. There's all those things going on. At the same time, you're trying to stay focused. That's a challenge. And that also, you come to learn to do that with experience, early on it was difficult to deal with. I won't say it's ever easy, but it gets easier to deal with.

I would say no. I've done a lot of horror and I think it's just because there's some of my horror movies that are really just thrillers that are packaged as horror. And that comes from when the distributor goes to release the film, they like to horror it up so to speak and think they're going to give a few more eyeballs that way. And it's true, more people. They probably do get some more eyeballs from that. Honestly, I haven't done a lot of comedies, mainly because independent comedies don't perform as well sometimes, so more difficult to get made. But I love doing a good comedy. That's probably my all time favorite to do. But aside from that, thrillers is my genre. I really love performing a thriller. You can bring drama, you can bring comedy to it, you can bring all sorts of different elements, anger, emotion. Thriller's, you can bring everything into that in one. And so I think it's a perfect genre.

What has been your favorite TV role to play?

Probably, I did a paramedic role years ago on Crossing Jordan and that was really fun because I got to learn all the jargon and it was a paramedic coming, we had to do this whole long tracking shot through all the hallways and into the hospital room and through the emergency room and learning all the jargon and training with the nurses and doctors and lifting the body from one stretcher to another. That was probably my favorite just because it was most fun just getting to learn all that and being in the physicality of it all. It was really memorable.

Regarding productions that you've written or produced, how do you ensure that your productions stand out?

I go to story at the beginning. You've got to have a really, really great story that appeals to some audience. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone and it's not going to appeal to everyone. But you've got to start with that story and then you got to make sure you have some characters that people care about, whether they care about to see that character succeed or care to see the villain fail. That's what I strive to do starting with the script and hoping that that bleeds over into the production and that will make it stand out. It may not be the most pretty looking film if you're working on lower budget. But a story will trump that any day. You can have the nicest looking film in the world, but if a story is terrible, nobody's going to care. So that's definitely something I strive for.

How do you determine if an idea that you get is worth writing about?

It's funny because you'll get ideas sometimes that'll sound great in your head and then you'll start writing them down and then the next day you realize it's crap. So to me, it's an idea or a story that won't go away. If there's something, even when you're trying to work on another project or a different story or different script, whatever that would be, and that idea won't go away. If that won't go away, to me, that tells me there's something worth writing about in there. And again, that's about following your heart. You can write what you think is going to be successful, you think it's going to be a huge money maker, what you think everyone's going to like, but at the end of the day, you don't know if that's what everyone's going to like and you don't know if it's going to make all that money, so why not listen to that voice inside your head and that idea that won't go away. That, and I also bounce the idea off my wife and if she gives me a thumbs up and I go for it.

What do you like about writing productions?

I've never written something in long form like a novel. I like writing for productions because you get to tell a story and you also get to shape the visuals a little bit. Now in screenwriting, you're not supposed to be strictly writing the visuals, that's left up to someone else. But you do get to craft those a bit. You get to tell what a certain character is doing on screen. You get to sometimes tell what someone looks like and you get to live in each one of the character's shoes while you're writing them in a scene. If you're writing the villain making a big speech, you yourself get to live in that moment while you're writing it for a bit. And same thing for the hero. If you're writing for the hero and they're having their come-to-Jesus moment so to speak, then that's what you get to do. You get to live in that. And to me, that's an exciting part about writing and also an extension of being a performer too. It's very rewarding.

Is it difficult for you to get funding for productions and how do you do that?

It is. It is. It just depends on the budget. There are some productions, the micro-budget productions is sometimes a little bit easier to get private financiers to invest in the films. Once they get to be bigger films, sometimes you have to get some bank loans, bridge loans, you have private investors and then you go and you can get distribution money, but then you have to have certain name actors attached to be able to get the distribution money. So the bigger the film is and the higher the budget is, definitely the more complicated it is.

So how you do it? Man, that's like a three-week conversation because there's so many different ways. It just really depends on the budget. To be honest, what's served me the best is to just no matter what, to keep creating and keep working and eventually, and you hear this all the time, I heard this when I was younger all the time, people telling you, "Just keep working, the work will come to you." And you didn't believe it until you get older and you have been working and the work does start coming to you and financiers start coming to you. So I've been very fortunate, some financiers coming to me with some seed money or an investment that they want to make in a film, and that's how I've made some of the smaller films that I've done.

Which of your productions are you most proud of?

The most proud of is, I'd say probably Coffin. I made that with a longtime partner of mine, Derek Wingo. We made that back in 2011 and it was the one that kickstarted a really good decade for me. It was the first one that really got... I mean, all of mine had gotten distribution deals, had done okay before then. This is the first one that got the biggest domestic distribution deal for me. And Redbox picked it up for a premier and then we did a sequel from that. And I think I'm most proud of that one because, we did that thing in nine days, we were flying, we were all over LA, we were run and gun. We had two name actors in it. It was a small but mighty team. And to this day, I'm still getting people come to me for work or financing based on that movie.

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