Morgan Mead makes it big
by Sam Watermeier
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Morgan Mead was burnt out on weddings. After finishing a busy season as a wedding videographer, he needed to put the cap on weddings in a fun, cathartic way. To him, there was no better way than to make a campy horror film about a man-eating bride.
When I spoke to him by phone, he was in the final phase of editing his new film, My Bloody Wedding. He sounded tired from the restless weekend of post-production, but also anxious - as if his desire to break out of low-budget filmmaking was making his body itch.
Mead, a Ball State alumnus, has been making films independently since 2005. He became a name to reckon with after the success of My Name Is Jerry (Ball State's first commercial film) last year. The quirky comedy about a corporate drone turned party animal won over audiences at the Heartland Film Festival and went on to win best film, soundtrack and supporting actress (Catherine Hicks) at the International Filmmaker Festival in Kent, England. This prompted Mead to churn out another film right away and fulfill his larger goals.
"I wanted to make something completely different as quickly as possible. Since I thought My Name Is Jerry might put me on the radar, I didn't want to be typecast and doing dramedies for the rest of my life," he said. With My Bloody Wedding, Mead's filmmaking style is clearly more ambitious. "Until now, I have done quick and dirty productions with friends that cost very little. With this film, as we were writing, things got more expensive and bigger." The film has everything - vampire women, robots, slapstick comedy set-pieces. This is the large scale and segment of the industry (the event film) in which Mead wants to work.
In an age where modesty is the name of the game for most filmmakers, where the race is to see who can make the most successful little indie film, Mead dares to dream big. He maintains the old-fashioned view of the film industry in which success means being embedded in the Hollywood studio system and making Spielberg-size spectacles. To that end, he is moving to L.A. in November to work on studio projects.
"Ten years from now, I hope to see myself making the summer blockbusters - action, comedy, sci-fi films," he said.
My Bloody Wedding will also be a big movie for him if you help pack the house for its premiere Saturday, Feb. 27 (7:30 p.m.) at the Indiana State Museum. After the screening, Mead will participate in a Q and A. Fittingly for Mead, the film will get the IMAX treatment. So it looks like his big screen aspirations are already becoming a reality.
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