Alien Party Crashers: Interview with Director Peter Stray
“Alien Party Crashers” is a new movie by Welsh filmmaker Peter Stray. Peter has been making movies on VHS cameras since he was a kid and has since transitioned to a fully-fledged professional filmmaker.
Peter’s most recent movie is titled “Alien Party Crashers” and it is a mix of horror and tongue-in-cheek comedy that was just released to VOD in North America.
Peter recently discussed this project and more vis an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (MM): So, Peter, how did you get into filmmaking sir?
Peter Stray (PS): Through being a total film geek. Also having access to VHS cameras and editing gear when I was younger. I trained as an actor that was always into filmmaking and being either side of the camera
MM: When and where did it all start for you?
PS: Acting was school plays and then later drama school. For filmmaking, see above,
MM: Have the projects gotten bigger and bigger over time?
PS: This is my biggest yet! I have made a few sure sounds on the web series, none of them involving UFOs sadly!
MM: And during those early years did you work another job, too?
PS: Yes, I had a few but strangely for an actor or a filmmaker, none of them were waiting tables.
MM: Has it always been about feature films? What about TV?
PS: I always enjoyed a good TV drama and grew up on “Doctor Who.” Now, thanks to streaming a lot of quality British TV is being discovered by international audiences. Nowadays there is less difference than ever between the size of TV screens and the quality of production, but feature film are still my first love
MM: Can you give the readers an idea of what “Alien Party Crashers” is?
PS: We’ve all seen aliens launch full scale assaults, right- Motherships over the White House. Monsters trashing San Francisco. But what if they wanted to do a test run? Where would they launch it? The sleepy Welsh village of Lower Cwmtwrch of course…especially on New Year’s Eve when everyone’s drunk!
MM: And, I can assume, you can fill us in on why the title was changed from “Canaries”?
PS: Our US distributor wanted “Alien” in the title, I suggested the “Party Crashers” so we can keep the fun tone in there.
MM: How much has Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy been an influence?
PS: Yes, a big influence. “Shaun of the Dead” is definitely something that was quoted by us and a lot of other people while we were putting the film together auto influences in a tiny range from The Lost Boys to Cabin in the Woods.
MM: And it was shot in Wales?
PS: Absolutely! I am very proud that almost every location in the film “plays itself”. We shot for real in Wales, Martha’s Vineyard, Washington DC, and Vietnam.
MM: When will you be headed here to the states to make something?
PS: To any producers out there, I have a green card so I can legally work here! I spend part of my time here and would love to work on an American feature as well as projects I am prepping to shoot in Wales. I also have a screenplay optioned by an NYC based company and write scripts for another in the US, so I very much live in both worlds.
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To learn more about Peter and the film, visit his official IMDB, Facebook, and Twitter.