For Daedalus Howell the idea to make a campy, low-budget, indie werewolf movie started as middle age began to creep into his life.
“You ever wake up and have hair growing out of your ears and suddenly it’s a very pliable metaphor for any kind of change?” asks the multihyphenate writer, filmmaker, performer and media professional (you may know him as the editor of The North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun). “I was on the eve of turning 50 and it was time to do another movie. I wanted to do something that was relevant to me.”
Luckily Howell’s wife, writer, artist/ designer and filmmaker Kary Hess, was on board — in fact Werewolf Serenade would be the couple’s second feature film. She just had one request for scriptwriter Howell: make it less Steppenwolf and more Teen Wolf.
While Howell writes the scripts, Hess is there to give advice she knows will be important later like “don’t kill that guy off yet, we’ll need him in the third act.” For the Petaluma couple, who first met when Hess did Howell’s makeup for a high school production (they would reconnect later in life, get married and start a family), nothing beats filming in their hometown.
“It’s a movie town and the omnipresence of Hollywood here (think American Graffiti and many more) really makes it apparent that this is a beautiful, picturesque place to shoot a movie,” Howell says, adding that Petaluma is very generous when it comes to allowing film production. “We were able to shoot anywhere we wanted and even use the police station with the police.”
Despite that, the couple’s MO was to run a lean and mean team and mostly try to not draw attention to themselves. The one exception was when Howell ran through the restaurant at the Hotel Petaluma in full werewolf makeup. “We got some pretty good reaction shots,” he says, laughing.
A big part of the film is the music and for that, the couple got lucky on a couple of fronts. Howell was explaining to his musician friend Sean Hayes that he was having difficulty licensing songs when Hayes made a generous offer. “He looked at me and said, ‘Just take mine,’ ” Howell explains. “He opened up his catalog and just said, ‘Cherry-pick what you want.’ ” The soundtrack was filled out by Marin’s own Rebecca Roudman on cello and composer Jason Eckl, who worked up the cello parts you hear in the film, and even Howell’s brother, Shannon Ferguson, who produced the original score. “I got a deal on that dude, because he’s my brother,” Howell says of Ferguson, who wrote the perfect theme for the movie (even if it took some input from Hess to convince her husband that it was a great fit).
When it came to making the film, it was a true family affair. “Our kids got involved and they’re both in the movie, and they were carrying equipment around or modeling makeup,” Howell says. “If you are going to have a family business, I think the movie business is a great one to be in. There’s so much to do and there’s always a contribution to be made.”
Hess couldn’t agree more: “One reason we like each other is because we have similar interests and we just want to work together. We love it, and it’s part of our relationship, it’s our thing.”
See Werewolf Serenade on October 3 at Cinelounge Tiburon. It is also coming soon to streaming.
