Jason Stutter: The comedy of murder...

Jason Stutter has a talent for going for the jugular, yet doing it in style. In Stutter’s movies, the camera plunges headfirst into haunted hospitals, dodgy smalltown dealings, and fight scenes with Pacific Island Ninjas whose parents were unexpectedly half-gobbled by fish.

In this ScreenTalk, Stutter talks about:

• Why he makes films
• His many projects featuring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement
• Falling in love with the dialogue in Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s novel Predicament
• The lessons that can be learnt from Morrieson’s career
• The bravery of comedians, and why he loves giving them acting roles in his movies
• The genesis of Tongan Ninja, Stutter’s no-budget, three years in the making feature debut
• The unusual way haunted hospital tale Diagnosis:Death was funded
• The importance of staying loyal to the original text

This video was first uploaded on 7 September 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview – Ian Pryor. Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse