Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Aaron Jakubenko, Ben Burghart, Continuance Pictures, Jacob Burghart, Melanie Zanetti, ryan kwanten, SHOUT! Studios, The Burghart Brothers

Head Count Directors the Burgharts on Taking Bold Step into Features

Directors Jacob & Ben Burghart talk to Bleeding Cool about making their feature debut in the action thriller Head Count for Shout! Studios.

Jacob and Ben Burghart want to break out like several other creative duos in Hollywood, like The Coens, Wachowskis, and Duffers. After ten years of writing, editing, and directing their shorts since their debut in 2013's ++++: Plus Four, the two finally made their feature debut in the action thriller from Shout! Studios Continuance Pictures, and Method Media's Head Count. The film is about an escaped prisoner, Kat (Aaron Jakubenko), who finds his revolver pointed at his head by an unknown assailant. Each bullet is a puzzle piece revealing a wilder story. The Burghart Brothers spoke to Bleeding Cool about living their dream as filmmakers, their creative partner in writer Josh Doke, casting, and creative influences.

' Head Count': Kansas Brothers' Dreams Become Hollywood Reality

Bleeding Cool: What's the inspiration behind 'Head Count?'
Jacob Burghart: Originally, we did a short film for a 48-hour film festival a few years ago, and it had the same concept of a guy trying to remember what happened to each bullet from his revolver as it's getting clicked away against his head. We had been trying to get a bigger horror film off the ground. With Continuance Pictures' help, we decided that they encouraged us to write something smaller that we could pull off here in Kansas City with our resources. We thought 'Head Count' might be a good idea to revisit. We can almost make each bullet like its own short story. We can use the resources we have and the locations we have available. That's what helped us get the confidence to put it together. The whole esthetic, all the characters, the settings were from Kansas, and we wanted to make something with a timeless, pulpy feel set in a place where not many movies are set.

How did you guys get involved with [writer] Josh [Doke], and what part did he play in the creative process?
Ben Burghart: Josh Doke is our other writing partner; we met him in college. What's great about having three people is that it automatically creates an odd number and tiebreaker scenario. If two people love an idea and the other person doesn't, usually the two people win, as opposed to Jake and me, where we would always be at odds. What's also nice about that is you get fresher perspectives and ideas from more people. What we like to do is come up with set pieces to expand, make our little pieces of the film, and then connect them all together. That's an aspect we enjoy. Jacob and Josh are much better at writing dialog than me, so [laughs] I'm glad they're there to help.

Tell me how the casting came together and how you got everyone involved.
Jacob: As I mentioned earlier with Continuance Pictures, we've been partnering with a bit the last few years. They came on board this film and helped us get the script in front of some actors, including Ryan Kwanten, Melanie Zanetti, and Aaron Jakubenko. That's why this has an Australian tilt to the cast. We interviewed a few people, but Aaron and Melanie popped up and understood the characters on a molecular level. Once they were all here, they were pros and brought their spin. We could tell they internalized and thought about these characters, and we had done a lot of rehearsals over Zoom, and everything clicked into place when we got there. I can't say enough nice things about those three. All the regional actors we plopped in along the way also did an amazing job. I'm grateful to everybody.

You guys have come a long way with your decade of experience and the work you put in. Can you break down your journey and what you learned over the years? What was the biggest benefit you found that helped you when filming 'Head Count?'
Ben: We're from a small town in Kansas, and when we were younger, about eight and ten, we would make films. When we got to college, we were able to enter these 48-hour film festivals where you write, create, edit, and turn in a movie in two days. We did about a dozen of those or more over the years. That helped us hone our skills and taught us time management and to get something done. Not only that, but it helped us connect with other local filmmakers around the area because where we're from, there are no filmmakers; it's farmers. When you get into a more creative space, like a college town, you connect with many more people. Eventually, those short films got more ambitious, and then it got to the point where we said, "Okay, let's make a feature before we turn 30." We both went over 30 and said, "Okay, now let's make the feature" [laughs]. We were finally able to bring all the pieces together, throw in our own money, get investors and everyone on board, and finally make it happen.

What was the most challenging aspect during production? Was there a particular sequence that took a little more time than usual?
Jacob: We were ambitious in shooting this. We shot this over about 15 days. Sometimes, we did up to 40 setups a day, normal movies like 20 and 60 days. We were ambitious in pushing it. That was always a challenge, making sure we made our days. If we knew, we had the take moving on and a great crew cooking the whole time. The challenges come from things on a bigger scale. They require aspects like big business hiring lawyers, getting your taxes figured out, and starting an LLC. That's the non-sexy stuff that takes up a lot of your time when you're putting a movie together, and it was all somewhat new to me and then some. That whole learning process was valuable. That was new for us in some ways.

Ben: Scheduling too was a pull-out-your-hair because these actors have so much of a time frame, and then you have to Tetris everyone's schedule together, and it's easier said than done.

Jacob: Absolutely.

What were your influences growing up as a filmmaker?
Jacob: We grew up watching the films of The Coen Brothers and Sam Raimi and became big fans. Their early work with [Coen's] 'Blood Simple' (1984), [Raimi's] 'Evil Dead' (1981), and [Coens'] Raising Arizona (1987) was something we were drawn to. I'm a big fan of Shane Black and his movies and how he combines action, violence, and comedy. The 70s were probably the best decade of film, and Paul Newman movies like 'Hud' (1963) or 'Cool Hand Luke' (1967) were big inspirations for this movie and the character of Kat (Jakubenko) as well. We tried to swirl all the things we love into one movie. Ben and I pull inspiration from not just movies but also video games. There's a shot we were trying to make look like 'Resident Evil 4' at one point. That was the reference. There are all sorts of stuff involved.

Ben: When we were younger, we got the film camera in our hands, and we fell in love with that before we fell in love with movies. We're not great actors growing up. We learned that visual storytelling, without much dialogue, is the most powerful way to reach as many people as possible. Getting burned into our brains early helps us when doing something like this, where you're trying to get ideas across without someone talking for five minutes. It's how I visually tell this story. How do I visually get the audience engaged? That's valuable to us.

Are there any particular genres we were trying to get into next and your upcoming work?
Jacob: We love horror, and that's why we've been trying to get a big horror movie off the ground for a while. We have a few other horror scripts we're trying to do and a few other thrillers and crime scripts. Whatever we do, like 'Head Count,' will have some genre-bending. 'Head Count' has a horror-ish sequence at one point and drama and thriller aspects. Whatever we do, we'll still have that mishmash of all the things we love combined.

Ben: We're big fans of high-concept ideas, too, so we always try to incorporate that into our short films that, hopefully, it's more feature films.

Head Count, which also stars Chris Blysma, Addam Bramich, Polaris Banks, and Cinnamon Shultz, is in theaters and on demand.

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